The Paranormal Database

Image from 'Spectropia or, Surprising spectral illusions' by J H Brown.

Mother with Child

Location: Crathes - Crathes Castle
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Prior to death in the family
Further Comments: This green woman would appear and move across a room to pick up a phantom child located in the fireplace before vanishing.

WW2 Soldiers

Location: Cruden Bay - Slains Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Soldiers dressed in Second World War uniform have been seen around the castle area, and the site is also said to be haunted by a horse and carriage. As a side note, Bram Stoker is said to have been partly inspired to write Dracula after seeing the castle while staying at Cruden Bay.

Soldier on Lookout Duty

Location: Dunnottar - Dunnottar Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This uniformed soldier has been seen watching over the sea, as if waiting for an invasion. Other people have reported crying and screams of agony coming from the ruins at night.

Old black and white photograph of Balmoral Castle.

John Brown

Location: Easter Balmoral - Balmoral Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The close friend of Queen Victoria, Mr Brown has been reported on site post-mortem.

Phantom drumming could be heard.

Drumming

Location: Echt - Hill where the Barmekin of Echt stands
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Winter 1637-1638
Further Comments: Drumming was heard on this hill, the beating so clear that witnesses were able to identify the country to which the marching tune belonged.

Vampire

Location: Fealaar - Hut hidden away in a wooded area
Type: Vampire
Date / Time: 1920s
Further Comments: Two hunters were said to have been attacked by a vampire while spending the night in the bothy. This story is very similar to the vampire tale that happened at Blair Atholl, Lowlands, and is likely to be derived from it.

Ouija

Location: Fraserburgh - 12 High Street
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1973
Further Comments: A man staying at his parents' flat was awoken to see an elderly woman materialise by his bed. The entity appeared to be trying to communicate with him, though the ghost disappeared after he shouted at it. The following day he was told that the people in the flat upstairs were playing with a Ouija board and had contacted an old lady who had once lived in the house.

Isobel

Location: Fraserburgh - Kinnaird Head Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Prior to a storm
Further Comments: Isobel killed herself after she discovered her father had drowned her secret lover in a cave along the coastline, having chained him to a rock while a storm raised the water level over its norm. A sighting of her shade now denotes incoming bad weather.

Monster Attack

Location: Fraserburgh - Off coast
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1903
Further Comments: The fishing boat Glengrant reported coming under attack by a sixty metre long beast, with a horse's head, though the teeth were long and pointed. The monster only stopped ramming the boat after being shot by a crewman.

Trumpet Blower

Location: Fyvie - Fyvie Castle
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Prior to a death in the family
Further Comments: One of several ghosts here, the ghost of Andrew Lammie blows a single long note on his instrument as a death approaches the family. Another spirit, a green lady, performs the same warning facility, though she is seen and not heard as she drifts down the corridors to the 'Murder Room'.

Floating Lights

Location: Gamrie - Old churchyard
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Though the churchyard has not seen any burials since 1935, stories are still told of how lights would dance around the headstones on the eve of a funeral.

Falin

Location: Glen Aven - Mountains
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This demonic creature, whose head is twice the size of its body, is so evil that anything which crosses an area where it has walked is doomed to die soon after.

Lady Frendraught

Location: Huntly - Frendraught House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This woman is thought to have started a fire that killed several people on the site in the early seventeenth century - her ghost wearing a golden dress occasionally appears, but not to those who share her family name. The screams and footsteps of those people she (allegedly) murdered have also been heard, and a pale horror stricken face peers from a window.

Servants

Location: Inverbervie - Hallgreen Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Two teenage serving girls still frequent the building, though it has been a good many years since their deaths. A strange man in a long cloak is also reported to haunt the castle.

Hooded Figure

Location: Inverurie - Pathway running parallel with the school playing fields
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: March 1993
Further Comments: Two people walking down this lane on a misty night watched a hooded figure drift through a seven foot high metal wire fence.

Screaming

Location: Inverurie - Pittodrie House hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 October (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The cries for help heard only on Halloween emerge from the staircase. They may belong to a maid once caught in a fire which engulfed the building - she fell to her death trying to escape. A ghostly carriage pulled by a single horse haunts the driveway, while another spook has been reported in the library.

Young Girl

Location: Inverurie - Thainstone House Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A green female form has been observed in the house since the young daughter of a former owner died in a riding accident.

Pink Bride

Location: Kemnay - Burnett Arms Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Wearing a pink wedding dress, the ghost of a former owner named Maggie who died in 1934 is thought to haunt this hotel. A local legend said that two coffins were buried under the hotel, one containing Maggie's body and the other filled with her money, though an excavation under the building in 2008 found nothing.

Victorian Lady

Location: Kennethmont - Leith Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The ghostly Victorian was just one of several spirits thought to haunt this building; the sound of a small dog was often heard as it ran across the floor, and a man with his head dressed in blood soaked bandages (later named as John Leith, shot by an associate during a duel) was seen by one owner.

Green Lady

Location: Kirton of Durris - Durriss House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This woman was killed when the original building was burnt to the ground, though her shade took a liking to the reconstruction work and returned to stay.

Old woodcut of a wizard riding an oversized cat.

Frozen Waters

Location: Loch of Skene - Waters of the loch
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local wizard, Alexander Skene, once froze the waters of the loch so he could take a short cut home.

Alex Skene

Location: Loch Skene - General area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local villain, Alex was drowned by Old Nick as he tried to cross the waters of the loch in his horse-drawn carriage. The same coach still travels the surrounding countryside, driven by its dead master. The same area is also 'haunted' by a large hairy monster, apparently once photographed from a distance.

Divot Tosser

Location: Lower Deeside - Baldarroch Farm
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Circa mid-eighteenth century
Further Comments: Local cunning man Adam Donald visited this farm after the devil moved in, throwing divots at the family and causing kitchen utensils to dance (what would now be seen as poltergeist activity). Donald's use of the arcane arts ensued peace returned to the household.

Gordon in the Bedroom

Location: Lumphanan - Craigievar Castle, Blue Room
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: This unnamed member of the Gordon family is believed to have fallen to his death from a bedroom window, and now haunts that room. A much more selective shade is a fiddler who drowned on the site - he only appears to people named Forbes.

Beast of Buchan

Location: Mintlaw - Woods near The Beaches
Type: ABC
Date / Time: Late 2006
Further Comments: Local man James Maskame watched a large black cat-like creature leave the woods before running across nearby farmland. This is just one of several in the area, where local media have dubbed the cat 'The Beast of Buchan'.