Glengallan Homestead these days thrives with visitors, however its long and storied past, including many decades when it was abandoned, has led to some believing it may be haunted.

To enter Glengallan is a time-warp experience of the solitary sandstone mansion residing, as it has since 1867, over the fertile Glengallan Valley to Cunningham’s Gap in the Great Divide.

“People come back to the Heritage Centre after going through the house and tell us stories of how they felt a chill or how they saw someone at a window,” Donna Fraser, Chair, Glengallan Homestead Trust explained.

“Restored from ruin in 2001, the iconic Glengallan Homestead emerges from the ruins of of the 1867 mansion as a unique heritage experience,” she said.

“The building is a traditional Victorian style built of sandstone to last the testament of time, with the addition of the Queensland wrap around verandas.”

Glengallan Homestead General Manager, Jonno Colfs recalled his first time being in the homestead alone.

“I definitely felt something, a little bit spooked, a little bit eerie,” Mr Colfs said.

“I scooted out in quite a hurry. I try not to look at the windows as I walk across the lawn to the house as the last thing I want to see is movement in a window.

“It’s probably 100 per cent my imagination and reading too many Stephen King novels.”

There is also the curious tale of Glengallan’s Myrtle – the moggy mummy.

When builders were repairing the floor joists in front of the drawing room fireplace in the winter of 2002, they uncovered a mummified cat.

According to Ms Fraser, this cat was likely entombed in 1867 by builders following an age-old East Anglian custom that decreed burying a live cat would “protect a building under construction from all harm by witches, warlocks and fire.”

“Lying in an airless, sealed subterranean chamber, with porosity of sandstone foundations drawing all moisture from the carcass, mummification would occur quickly and naturally, thus preventing putrefaction and decay,” Ms Fraser said.

Myrtle the moggy was re-interred in November 2002.

In addition to the usual tours available at Glengallan Homestead, there are ghosts of Glengallan Homestead tours for small groups.

Similarly, people have felt strange forces at Abbey Boutique Hotel in Warwick, which was originally a convent.

Murder Mysteries are hosted there for courageous guests.

Valerie Prentice, owner of the Criterion Hotel, also in Warwick, said the presence of Kate Allman, whose presence at the hotel dates back 100 years, can still be felt.

“You know when Mrs Allman is happy, and when she is not happy with you,” Ms Prentice said.

“Her presence can mainly be experienced in the kitchen and the Allman Room.

“People would walk past and see a strong stout woman in Victorian dress walking to the (original historic) mirror.

“I imagine she is quite a formidable woman.”

This article appeared in the Allora Advertiser, 12 April 2023.