Lanarkshire Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana
White Hare
Location: Airdrie - Area which was once known as Lover's Leap, on the road towards Faskine
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Eighteenth century?
Further Comments: The manifestation of a white hare would warn the Kerr family of impending doom. The site known as Lover's Leap marked the spot where a Kerr woman was found dead (along with her lover) shortly after this magic white hare was spotted.
Large Prints
Location: Airdrie - Easter Dunsyston Farm
Type: ABC
Date / Time: September 2008
Further Comments: The family at the farm reported finding two cat-like paw prints in fresh mud, fifteen centimetres in length.
Mowing Devil
Location: Airdrie - Unidentified farmer's field, North Burn
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A witch by the name of Maggie Ramsey was said to have summoned the devil to assist her in a mowing contest, although he remained invisible to anyone without second sight.
Mowing Devil
Location: Airdrie - Unidentified farmer's field, North Burn
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A witch by the name of Maggie Ramsey was said to have summoned the devil to assist her in a mowing contest, although he remained invisible to anyone without second sight.
David?
Location: Blantyre - The David Livingstone Centre
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: July 1982
Further Comments: With small items vanishing without trace, only to reappear several months later, it is no wonder that staff here believed the building to have a resident spirit. Some nicknamed the entity Old Davy, though it is unclear whether the ghost was that of David Livingstone who once worked here. In July 1982 three witnesses watched an apparition walk past them and vanish.
Monks
Location: Braidwood - Wooded area between Braidwood and Crossford, near St Oswald's Chapel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A monastery once stood near these woods, and even though it has long since vanished, the bells can be occasionally heard ringing out and a ghostly monk walks between the trees.
Miners
Location: Chapelhall - Area around former coal mine
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local story says that if you stand in the same place where miners loitered, you could see their ghosts.
Bishop Cameron
Location: Chryston - Bedlay Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: Just as likely to be heard stomping around as he is to be seen, the Bishop's ghost is said to date back almost seven hundred years, from when he was discovered floating face down in a large pond that was on the site.
Victorian Couple
Location: Coulter - Near Windgate House, also known as The Vaults
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1920s
Further Comments: A farmer taking his sheep home late one night stumbled across a man and woman wearing Victorian clothing just outside Windgate House. The farmer bid them a 'Good evening', upon which the figures vanished. The following morning, the man discovered his hair had turned completely white.
Singing Child
Location: Crawford - Old Post Horn Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Child unknown, man seen 1980s
Further Comments: This young infant was run over by a coach and four outside the inn but is still heard today. The owner of the hotel during the 1980s watched a man wearing a brown cloak pass the window during a snowstorm - he went outside to investigate, but the man had vanished, and the snow was undisturbed.
Roman Soldiers
Location: Crawford - Watling Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Cut off at the knees, ten ghostly Roman soldiers are said to walk along the street.
Possibly Mary
Location: Crossford - Craignethan Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mary unknown, other activity circa 1990
Further Comments: The headless woman reported in the castle grounds could be Mary Queen of Scots, though her relationship with the building appears to be minimal. Workmen on the site claimed to have seen a figure in the ruins and heard voices.
Gardener
Location: Crossford - Valley International Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2004
Further Comments: Workers at the park have seen wheelbarrows moving on their own accord, and strange misty figures walking around the grounds. One man watched a plate stop and start spinning in the kitchen, with no one else present.
Wailing Woman
Location: East Kilbride - Hospital grounds along Eaglesham Road
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 04 March 2005, around 00:30h
Further Comments: A pair of friends walking along the road had a strange, uncontrollable compulsion to lift the cover of a storm drain. The sound of a woman's sobbing could be heard from the hole, which quickly became a wail. When they spotted a glowing mist coming towards them from the drain, the friends regained control of their bodies and fled from the area.
Jenny
Location: East Kilbride - Jenny Cameron's grave
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: A well respected rebel from the Jacobite movement, a ball of light was often seen floating around her grave at dusk during the mid-twentieth century.
Murdered Woman
Location: East Kilbride - Mains Castle, Lymekilns
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Throttled by her husband during a domestic row (he was convinced she was having an affair), the lady has insisted on returning several times after her murder.
Hall Keeper
Location: East Kilbride - Village Theatre (was the Public Hall)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of one of the men once charged with maintaining the building still carries on with his work many years after shuffling off his mortal coil.
Woman in White
Location: Eddlewood - Disused (private) land between Eddlewood and Quarter
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: A witness who played here as a child reported that a woman in a white or grey dress would walk down a path and vanish as she crossed a bridge. Wailing and sobbing would be heard in the area after dusk.
He Who Listens
Location: Fenwick - Kiwi Lodge Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid-to-late-twentieth century
Further Comments: Helen Blanchfield watched a man watching her as she played on the piano. She tried to talk to him, but he vanished.
Partick Poltergeist
Location: Glasgow - 23 Mansfield Street (since demolished)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1959-1961
Further Comments: The family living in this home experienced two years of inexplicable noises and constant coldness. They finally fled the site after watching a piece of coal levitate and drop back into a bucket, and a ghostly tall man standing over the children's bed.
Little Girl
Location: Glasgow - Arches, below Glasgow's Central Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January 2009
Further Comments: Reported in a national newspaper, the Alien Wars show is home to a phantom little girl dressed in old style clothing. While actors from the show are said to be afraid of the ghost, the phantom herself is reputedly frightened off by the show's special effects.
Reston Mather
Location: Glasgow - Auchinlea Park - Provan Hall and Blochairn House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Reston Mather, one of the last owners of the property, is thought still to haunt Blochairn House. Provan Hall is home to a phantom woman and a young boy, who are said to have been killed in the upper part of the building.
Woman with a Lantern
Location: Glasgow - Barlinnie Prison
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The area outside the surgery wing and the bricked up entrance to the old execution block are home to a phantom woman dressed in Victorian clothing, holding a lantern.
Bathtime Murder
Location: Glasgow - Blythswood Square, private house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A family living here reported being witness to a ghostly murder - a beautiful woman drowning a man in the bath. The family moved out soon after.
Sounds of Children
Location: Glasgow - Cathedral House Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sounds of children have been reported coming from the top floor of this hotel. Other people have claimed to feel something invisible brush against them.
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