It's shortly after 3am when we witness a psychic disturbance.

Sadly, it's not the ghost of the lady believed to have been pushed down a spiral staircase of the Winnock Hotel or the spirit of the man trapped in room 39, but an altercation between a husband and wife medium team and a group of ghost hunters. The cause of the unrest is a division of opinion as to whether it's appropriate to hold a seance in the hotel's conservatory. The psychics, who have already announced to the room that one of the guests should dump her useless boyfriend, are all for it, the ghosthunters, who have a more tempered sense of adventure are less enthusiastic.

It doesn't quite come to blows, but it's a fitting end to the first night of a Scottish murder mystery weekend best described as surreal. Admittedly alarm bells should have started ringing as soon as we arrived. Twelfth Night had been some weeks earlier, but it appeared this was one festive tradition the hotel, still decked out with full Christmas decorations, didn't observe. It transpired that until the end of March the hotel offers turkey dinner packages and while there's cranberry sauce still to be eaten, the tinsel remains. It's a strange kind of madness which causes someone to pay good money to eat a Christmas dinner in spring, but at the Winnock Hotel things are done differently, not least its recently launched Spooky Scotland weekends.

The package involves a Friday night of mediumship, tarot card reading and ghost hunting, followed by a murder mystery dinner on the Saturday, and it begins in a distinctly unspooky conservatory. The psychic who will later try to organise the impromptu seance displays her abilities by contacting the grandmother of one of the tarot card readers, whose message from beyond the grave is to tell her not to cut her hair.

Sadly, none of my dead relatives bothers to make their presence felt, but hoping for some spiritual guidance I wait for a tarot card reading.

It seems that whatever has been troubling me will soon be resolved, and that hard work starts to reap dividends, although the tarot reader is quick to point out that if this doesn't mean anything to me it may be about a family member. It's what's called covering all bases.

The main event of the evening is the arrival of a team from Ghost Hunters Scotland who are hopeful of capturing evidence of paranormal activity and come armed with a dizzying array of electrical equipment.

Nearly six hours later their work is done, but while our sensitive guide, a sweet chap called David, has spotted some mysterious lights, felt a presence in the stairwell and had a chat with the occupant of room 39 whose grizzly, but not quite lucid, responses have been recorded for posterity, the real action has been going on elsewhere.

Apparently, a member of another team was momentarily possessed and one of the psychics was politely asked to leave a group after questioning the need for technical equipment if you're really blessed with bona fide psychic ability.

By the time we gather for the debriefing, tensions have been simmering and it doesn't take much for them to boil over. Breaking point is when one of the ghost hunters suggests seances can attract evil spirits – nonsense say the psychics, who claim they can prevent spiritual gatecrashers and clearly regard the group as amateur meddlers. It perhaps wasn't the best time to ask what they thought of Derren Brown, a man who can tip tables without professing to any clairvoyant powers, but the answer boiled down to not very much at all.

At breakfast the next morning, the psychics looked a little sheepish, the ghosthunters were nowhere to be seen, but, with the day to ourselves, we took up the offer of a tour round the countryside with a couple who are regular visitors to the area.

Scotland may lack many things – regularly a football team in the World Cup – but it does scenery like nowhere else. Even here, on the fringes of the Highlands it's impressive stuff, and Loch Lomond, in the country's first designated National Park, may be just a 30-minute drive from Glasgow, but it feels like a world away.

All too quickly darkness fell and we had to head back to the hotel and the murder mystery evening. It was all good fun, but anyone with an aversion to innuendo, would do well to avoid, as the script appeared to have been written by someone with a fondness for Carry On.

As a detective tried to shed light on the murder of a young waitress, the guests were invited to question the three suspects.

It was supposed to be lighthearted stuff, but when one man repeatedly accused one of the actors of "lying throughout the trial" it was clear some people take it far more seriously.

We had the night to consider on the evidence, with the guilty party unveiled at a whodunit breakfast, but, in a last ditch attempt to discover proof of the hotel's ghostly past, we headed back to room 39. It was locked, but just as we were about to take our sceptical souls to bed, the handle moved and the door slowly opened. It was a paying guest, who clearly hadn't been told she was sharing her bed with a grumpy old man, and wasn't best pleased by our late night visit.

By the time we checked out I was still waiting for paranormal enlightenment, but as an experience of mysterious goings-on it was unforgettable.

Why booking a break isn't at all scary
Spooky Weekends at the Winnock Hotel in Drymen cost £169 per person.
n The ghost hunting evening can be booked separately for £69 per person and to book call 01360 660245.

We travelled by train with National Express East Coast, which runs frequent services from Yorkshire to Scotland: Advance purchase return fares from York to Balloch, booked online, start from £32 Standard Class or £73 First Class.

Book at www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com, call 08457 225 225 or visit any staffed rail station.