One of the men has been here twice before. The first time, in 1973, he encountered a table set for Christmas dinner but with no one there to eat, let alone cook it. This unsettling scenario soon unfolded into a proper horror story, complete with phantom footsteps, books leaping off the shelves and flying ice axes. On his second visit there was an ominous message on the wall that read, “Don’t sleep in this house”.

Uncanny will be available on Friday on BBC Sounds (and will be repeated on Christmas Day on Radio 4) with a follow-up to the 2021 story that gripped its legion of loyal listeners: the tale of climber Phil MacNeill, whose life was changed for ever after that first night in the bothy over 50 years ago. This time he’s brought Uncanny series host Danny Robins with him.

There are no spoilers here, but Robins does give a hint of unpredictable goings-on. “Some new witnesses have come forward – other climbers who have had some very similar and also intriguingly different experiences,” he says. “The building is just a shell now, there’s not even a roof. It was a strange night… but we’ve learnt a lot about the people who were living in that house, going back a few generations. It’s one of those stories that keeps on giving, keeps on growing, unfolding itself.”

Contrary to popular opinion, the Victorians and Edwardians didn’t invent the festive ghost story, despite the creative output of Charles Dickens and MR James. They’ve been part of our culture since the oral tradition began. What is it about this time of year that encourages a blood-chilling tale?

“I think that ghost stories offer great comfort,” says Robins. “It’s the darkest point of the year, you are looking for light. I think they offer this amazing hope that there could be life after death. And it’s a very positive message, that sense of what we need at Christmas, with the idea of regeneration and rebirth.

I’m banned from telling ghost stories in my own house!

“It’s that time of the year when we have room for stories, isn’t it? It’s a time when we’re together. We’ve always enjoyed sharing stories, it’s how we communicate. And I think we just love mysteries. It’s why we watch an Agatha Christie at Christmas-time. And a ghost story is the ultimate mystery, the one we will never solve, the whodunnit where you never get the ‘dunnit’ bit. I hope that Uncanny is now a little part of that kind of Christmas canon.”

So, does he entertain his own family over the festive period with spooky tales? “I’m banned from telling any ghost stories in my house! My wife and my children are terrified of ghosts and hate what I do and absolutely won’t let me. I showed my wife a script I’d written the other day, and she reluctantly read it, and then she woke in the middle of the night with nightmares, screaming. And then the next night when I came home, she had all the lights on in the house.”

For Robins, however, his love of the supernatural dates back to his childhood. “I just connected with ghost stories as a kid. I remember reading those books from the Usborne World of the Unknown series and the pictures really stuck in my head – a monk-like figure standing on the stairs at Raynham Hall [in Norfolk] or the woman who alleged her leg had spontaneously combusted. I’ve said it before but, growing up, some people find God, but I found ghosts.”

Regulars will know that each episode of Uncanny asks listeners whether they sit on Team Believer or Team Sceptic. Where does Robins reside, especially after this recent experience at Luibeilt Lodge? Has he ever seen a ghost?

“No. I feel a strange mix of disappointment and relief about that. The more people tell me their stories, the more I think I lack the courage to cope with what seeing a ghost would entail. If there’s one common point about all their tales, it’s that they’ve been in a state of transition: an adolescent, a university student, grieving, coming out of a relationship, just moved house.

“And I think a sceptic would say, well, maybe that’s just because you’re more anxious, that you’re unsettled, you’re imagining things. But I think a believer could look at that and say maybe these are the moments when we are more open to things, when we’ve removed ourselves from all the kind of white noise and static.”

It should be made clear that while these true-life tales are certainly entertaining, Uncanny never mocks those sharing often deeply personal stories, nor does it rely upon the night-vision goggles, mediums or electromagnetic field meters commonly used in other paranormal shows. Robins wouldn’t have a programme without his contributors and shows them genuine respect. He’s also conscious that the spirits people say they see are never those of their deceased loved ones. He treads carefully, while making equal space for those who prefer scientific to magical thinking.

“Those two groups come together and enjoy these stories in their own way. I think Christmas is a time of bringing people together. You know, that classic thing of the two armies playing football in no man’s land in the First World War? And in this horribly divided world we live in, you’d like to think that you can bring a little bit of togetherness and unity at Christmas. It does seem to me as if ghost stories do that. Whether you’re a believer or a sceptic, it’s just a bloody good mystery, basically, isn’t it? Whether it’s come from the mind or the afterlife, it’s equally fascinating.”

Fascinating, indeed, but please don’t spend your festive period in an abandoned bothy…