As Halloween approaches the whisper of hauntings in Shelburne is enough to raise the little hairs on the back of your neck.

One such haunting was broadcasted nationally at the Loyalist Inn, where the popular television show Rescue Mediums swept in to ‘rescue’ the found spirits haunting the old Inn.

It did not take long to hear rumors and stories of things that go bump in the night at other local haunts.

For Pat Dewar, owner and operator of the Cooper’s Inn on Dock Street, strange things began to happen the first summer she moved in.

“When I was in the kitchen I started washing the dishes and had my hands in the dishwater when I felt like somebody was standing behind me and tickling my neck,” said Dewar.

When she looked behind her there was no one there. The strange tickling sensation continued every once in a while and Dewar said once it was so strong a sensation that she gasped out in surprise, dropping the wine glass she was holding.

By this point, she knew there was something paranormal occurring in the 225 year old Inn.

Her suspicions were given more leverage when she heard the tales spoken by her winter tenant, Milford Buchanan, who would tend to the Cooper’s Inn while the Dewar’s were away.

The first night he was there a racket of thumps and bangs awoke him from his sleep.

The noises continued at night but on further inspection, no cause for the disturbance was discovered.

One day on his regular check of the rooms, Buchanan stopped in one of the bedrooms overlooking Dock Street to find the apparition of a woman staring out of the window.

She turned to look at him, her back straight in her high-collared dress. She had a towel wrapped over one arm.

The next day Buchanan was conversing with a neighbour across the road and explained to him what he saw. He was asked to describe her and when he did, the neighbour nodded and said, “Yup, that’s her.”

The neighbour had seen her staring out of a window two years previous and could not explain who she was.

“We call her Mrs. Crowell,” said Dewar admitting that she could not be sure she was the wife of the second owner of the Cooper’s from 1805 to 1859.

Guests of the Inn have told the Dewar’s of loud noises in the night banging up and down the stairs. Noises that no one else heard despite the full occupation of the Inn.

Despite these occurrences, Dewar is not upset to be sharing her in with a ghost or spirit but is happy to have the interest that lends to the history of the Inn.

“There’s no way we would want to be rescued,” said Dewar, “we are quite happy.”