Just joined - former skeptic here, had an experience that changed my mind

Been a Quirk Reports reader for about a year now, decided to finally make an account. I should introduce myself properly: I'm Sarah, 41, Scotland (Fife), and I've spent most of my adult life being incredibly skeptical about paranormal stuff. Thought most of it was nonsense.

About six weeks ago something happened that completely shifted my perspective. I was in the Scottish Highlands - Cairngorms area - with my hiking group. We were staying in a bothie (small hiking shelter) overnight. Very isolated spot, no phone signal, about eight people in the group.

Around 3am, something made a sound outside. Not a wind sound, not an animal sound. It was... deliberate. Like something was moving around the bothie intentionally. Several of us woke up. The sound went on for maybe ten minutes, circling the building. Everyone heard it, everyone was unsettled.

We didn't leave the bothie. We just waited it out. By morning there were no tracks, no evidence of anything. Our group leader (who's experienced in wilderness stuff) was genuinely baffled. She said in 20 years of bothie stays she'd never experienced anything like it.

I'm not claiming I know what it was. But it was real, it happened, multiple witnesses. And that's made me rethink a lot of things I've dismissed. So now I'm here, trying to figure out what I actually believe.

Welcome, Sarah! Scotland's got incredible paranormal activity, especially the Highlands. The Cairngorms specifically have reports going back centuries. The thing about wilderness areas is that there's genuine unknown fauna - big cats, unidentified creatures, that kind of thing. Not saying that's what you experienced, but it's worth considering.

The fact that your whole group experienced it and the professional guide was genuinely stumped is significant. Group experiences are harder to dismiss as individual misperception.

The "circling" behavior is interesting. That's predatory behavior or territorial behavior - not random. And the lack of tracks is genuinely strange. What was the ground like? Snow? Mud? Could tracks have been obscured?

Great first post! Converting a skeptic is actually really valuable because you've got the critical thinking background. We need that perspective. The Highlands are genuinely weird - I've got my own stories from up there. The thing about wilderness is that we genuinely don't know everything that's out there.

I'm from Fife too! Small world. Have you experienced anything else since that bothie incident? Sometimes these things cluster - once you've had one genuine experience, you become more attuned to oddness.