The Paranormal Database

Gibbering

Location: Dingwall - Braham Estate
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Strange sounds have been reported coming from this estate, a mixture of laughing, moaning and inane chattering.

Two Little Girls

Location: Dingwall - Tulloch Castle Hotel, Room 8
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January 2004
Further Comments: A guest staying the night in this room reported feeling the two adolescent girls sitting on his chest as he lay in bed, as if trying to suffocate him. Previous guests in the room have reported a figure sitting at the end of their bed, door handles rattling, and other strange disturbances. The castle is also known for its Green Lady, who died after falling down a spiral staircase after witnessing her father's adultery.

Aldourie Castle, Scotland.

Grey Lady

Location: Dores - Aldourie Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Little is known about this off-white spook that reportedly drifts around the strong house.

Bridge Builders

Location: Dornoch - Dornoch Firth
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Water spirits would cross this body of water in seashells but found the method very tiresome. A team of kelpies started building a bridge made of gold and had almost finished their endeavour when a passing man blessed them for their work. The kelpies vanished and the bridge collapsed, turning into a sandbank.

Banshee in Green

Location: Dornoch - Loch Nigdal (granite rock)
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The banshee which reputedly lives here is clad in green silks. A farmer's wife who spotted the entity said it sat quietly on a rock, had long blonde hair and was quite beautiful, although it had no nose.

Screaming White Lady

Location: Dornoch - Skibo Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This sad spirit is said to have been murdered in the 1600's by a servant. The white lady now drifts through the castle corridors, wailing and screaming.

Janet Horne

Location: Dornoch - The Witch Stone, located near the golf course
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One of the last witches to be executed in Scotland, the ghost of the old lady is still seen near the spot where she was burnt to death.

Treasure Guardians

Location: Duncansby Head - Cave system off coast
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A team of mermaids and mermen are reported to guard a hidden cave full of treasure.

Captured Fisherman

Location: Dunnet Bay - Underwater sea cave
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A good looking fisherman once caught the eye of a mermaid who fell in love with him - she kidnapped the fellow and held him in a secret cave under the sea, where he remains to this day...

Illustration from An Essay Towards a Natural History of Serpents.

Long Serpent

Location: Dunrobin - Off coast
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1873
Further Comments: Observed several times around this period, this creature would remain visible for long periods of time.

Duntulm Castle, Isle of Skye, Scotland.

Screaming

Location: Duntulm, Isle of Skye - Duntulm Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A total of six entities are reported to haunt these ruins; the screams of a starving prisoner (walled up in the tower), a weeping nun, three drunkards, and the cries of a nursemaid holding a dead child (that she accidentally dropped from the battlements).

Body on the Back

Location: Durness - Bay in the area
Type: Other
Date / Time: Mid nineteenth century
Further Comments: Two men, one of whom was considered to have 'second sight', were walking across the bay when the man with the gift complained of feeling like a dead body was being carried across his back. A few days later a body washed up in the bay, which was ultimately picked up and carried to church by the man with the gift.

Music

Location: Durness - Fraisgell's Cave - Loch Eribol
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Created by fairies, this music emerges from the cave and floats across the waters of Loch Eribol.

Old Man

Location: Durness - Rectory
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The preacher who lived here was too scared to answer the phantom knocking at the door, as he knew whatever was there would bring bad luck. He tricked another local holy man into coming to the rectory and answering the door for him; the unlucky visitor later died of shock.

Donald

Location: Durness - Smoo Caves
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After selling his soul to the Devil, Donald gained access to powerful magics and cast no shadow in the midday sun. He turned on his dark master in the caverns here, the Devil losing the fight and creating the large holes in the roof of the cave as he fled the wizard.

Sailor

Location: Durness - Unknown house and beach
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A man who would collect furniture washed up on the beach from shipwrecks would be awoken by a ghostly sailor who threw items around the house. One night the man spoke to the ghost, which pointed towards the door. The man followed the ghost out the door and down to the beach. When the sea became visible, the ghost vanished and never returned.

Tall Man.

Location: Elphin - Altanacealgach Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: August 1977
Further Comments: One worker at the hotel spotted the same ghost, a tall man in old fashioned clothing, three nights in succession. The entity would vanish as it walked through a knitting machine.

Fairy Abduction

Location: Evanton - Balconie House
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The lady of the house was taken away by a strange man dressed in green, who appeared from nowhere. A few years later a witness reported seeing her chained at the bottom of a local cavern, though no one was able to climb down and release her. The house also may be haunted - one story told was of a group of fishermen who fled the house one night after encountering a ghost.

Reputed

Location: Evanton - Larch Bridge, between Evanton and Dingwall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The bridge was locally known as the haunted bridge, with locals said to avoid the area after dark, although the nature of the haunting is not known.

Not Known

Location: Evanton - Novar House garden
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Evanton Oral History Project recorded that two members of the family had seen a ghost in the garden during daylight hours.

Polish Gentleman

Location: Fearn - Area between Fearn and Nigg, exact location not known
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After he died, the noble from Poland left a great deal of money to friends and relatives, but the hidden funds could not be found. Though his shade was seen shortly after death, no one has had the courage to face the ghost and ask where his treasure is concealed.

Angry Wife

Location: Fearn - Cottage close to the churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Within a few hours of burying his wife, a farmer was proposing to a woman who lived close to the churchyard. The farmer's flirtations were cut short when he spotted his dead wife watching him through a window. He sickened and died a few weeks later.

Crawling Woman

Location: Fort Augustus - Ardachie Lodge (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s
Further Comments: This ghost could be heard knocking on the walls at night, and when it materialised, took the form of a grey haired lady crawling around the room on all fours. The family which had moved in left after twelve days, and the building demolished ten years later.

Groaning

Location: Fort Augustus - Cottage near Drynachan Wood
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sounds of a former owner groaning in pain could be heard in a building close to the woods.

Abernethy

Location: Fort George - The Fort George buildings
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The entity nicknamed 'Abernethy' by the soldiers haunts the camp jail and is reported to be quite malevolent. In the medical centre, where a soldier once hanged himself, the sounds of a creaking rope have been heard, while in the guardroom a soldier reported seeing a phantom dressed in a late nineteenth century army uniform leaning over him.