A ghost shouted "yer a bawbag" at a spirit hunting team during a recent paranormal trip, investigators claim.
Experts from The Scottish Ghost Company (TSGC) were at a Parish Church in South Lanarkshire when they contacted the spirit using a special equipment.
Yvonne Hydes, investigator, lead medium David McCabe, another investigator and photographer, Ronnie Murphy were at the abandoned church in Elvanfoot.
The Daily Record reports it is known locally as the Hoarder's Church and a voice was heard through a piece of equipment known as a spirit box.
Yvonne said: "When we switched to our EVP/Spirit box session, we started to hear a lot of swear words.
"The one that shocked me but made me laugh was 'yer a bawbag', which came through very clearly.
"We still don’t know who this was aimed at, but as it's a very Scottish term for the male anatomy, I’m assuming it was for Ronnie or David.
"We're still not sure who the spirit was that shouted it but this Scottish term of endearment has been used for decades.
"We do get called a lot of swear words through the spirit box but this is a first for us. We found this particular one hilarious."
Yvonne explained that one of their crew had been at a wedding in Biggar when they passed the church in Elvanfoot, intrigued they put it forward as a location to visit.
She said: "When we aren’t doing public events at the weekend, we tend to go out and do small investigations wherever we can.
"We tend to visit cemeteries, abandoned buildings and haunted buildings, so this sounded like a good opportunity for us to go out and have a look for ourselves and investigate it."
Using a mixture of modern and traditional ghost hunting techniques to seek out the supernatural, Yvonne said they are always respectful of both the surroundings and the spirits themselves.
"Usually, they attempt to communicate with any spirits to hear their life stories and to try to understand why they are still here."
Medium David said he found the church to be an unusual place, as from the outside it's a beautiful, well maintained active and functioning cemetery but inside it had become a complete mess.
He said: "It was almost like it had a split personality, one-half church, the other half a very sad home. We communicated with a few spirits in there by various methods.
"In particular, I was sensing the spirit of a male standing to my right but he was giving me no information at all. I asked the spirit box 'who is standing to my right ?'
"To which it replied 'DEATH', I asked if it was the angel of death to which he replied a clear 'NO!'
"This was shortly followed by 'yer a bawbag !' I’ve been called many things over the years but it's the first time I’ve been called that! I love our phrases in Scotland and find them very funny but I too was shocked."
The trio were shocked by the state of the inside of the church, adding that they were unable to find out who had lived there previously or why they had left.
Yvonne said: "What was once a beautiful place of worship and thereafter someone's home - was completely trashed. Was so sad.
"Beautiful stained glass windows are broken and smashed. Some of the fantastic frameworks has been completely ripped out and vandalised.
"Whoever lived there had a vast collection of Dolls, (the majority had their heads ripped off!) beds, ornaments, classical records, wee trinkets and lots of toys. Including teddies, bikes and an old silver cross pram.
"There are newspapers dating back to the early 80s and photo albums containing memories of someone's life."
Photographer Ronnie found the state of the church to be the most upsetting aspect of their trip.
He added: "It was sad to see what had once been a place of worship then a family home become a place where its history was ripped and tipped onto the floor.
"I'm sure the spirits were obviously from better times in what was a beautiful building.
"They would no doubt be angry at what had become of the place they knew of, so differently. There seemed nothing sacred about this church any longer. You could literally feel the cold in the air."
The trio hope that someone will be able to rescue this wonderful building and restore it to its former glory.
Yvonne added: "It really saddened us to see that the church is in such a sad state of disrepair.
"We really wish that it could be restored or at least maintained. It can’t be very nice at all for these people who are visiting loved ones in the cemetery.
"I'm sure the spirits of Elvanfoot parish church would agree."
This is the busiest time of the year for the group with the TSGC hosting several sold-out events over the coming months.
They are heading to Tamfest, Ayrshire's Premier Family Hallowe'en Festival, where they will investigate the Ayr Jail Cells and the infamously haunted Tam O'Shanter Inn.
They regularly investigate areas around the country using techniques like trigger items, where an object is placed for the spirit to interact.
The team also use modern ghost hunting gadgets including parabolic mikes, SLS cameras (Structured Light Sensor) and electromagnetic field readers, with people able to join in on their paranormal hunts.
New ghosthunting dates for next year will be posted on their website and Facebook in the coming months.
