what happened in the second property?
Two bedrooms made us all, adults and DCs, independently and without discussing it, feel so uncomfortable that nobody wanted to be in them at all, to the extent that we didn't use them for the whole of the holiday. It was an overwhelming and deeply unpleasant feeling of being watched, not being alone and being unwelcome. Because of needing the bed space, one of the family had to use another bedroom that felt 'off' some of the time but not to the same extent. He described it as having a sudden change in the atmosphere and feeling uncomfortable.
After we had all gone up to bed at night, and having secured all the windows and doors, it sounded like someone was breaking in downstairs. Doors were also heard slamming on other occasions. It wasn't sleep paralysis or nightmares because nobody had even begun to go to sleep at that point. We were all just starting to settle down for the night with a book or listening quietly to music. Everyone heard it individually and got up. It took some bravery to go downstairs to investigate but there was nothing untoward to be seen when we did. The house was detached and quite isolated so the noises were not coming from neighbouring properties.
The most baffling thing was seeing a woman walking across the inner hallway as I came down the stairs one day.
The worst thing though was definitely the feeling of those two bedrooms. I won't give it the word it was described as at the time, but I have to admit even as a fully grown adult and parent it was actually scary.
We are not 'woo people'. We're fairly sensible, educated, no psychological, alcohol or drug issues.
Later, when we found out the history of the house - which I won't go into here as it is identifying - it made a lot of sense. It unsettled us all for quite a while afterwards and we definitely wouldn't go back or recommend the house to anyone.