The Paranormal Database

Footsteps

Location: Edinburgh - Property along Waterloo Place
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1997
Further Comments: A workman in an empty building heard footsteps running on the floor above. He investigated and found no one. Returning to work, he heard the footsteps again a short time later. Other workers reported disappearing keys and knocking on a toilet door.

Most Haunted House in Edinburgh?

Location: Edinburgh - Quaker Meeting House, Victoria Terrace
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Around 1780
Further Comments: Formally owned by Major Thomas Weir who confessed to witchcraft prior to being executed, this house was considered extremely haunted (one occupier fled after only one night, having encountered a phantom calf) and was thought to have been demolished. However, in 2014 it was discovered that it had been modified and incorporated into a new building.

Fred

Location: Edinburgh - RAF Turnhouse (no longer operational)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1974, 1982-1997
Further Comments: During the 1980s and 1990s, workers at the MOD transport section would say 'hello' to Fred, the resident ghost. It was said that if Fred were not acknowledged, the phantom would open lockers and move things around. It was thought that Fred was a worker at the site during the Second World War; he died after walking into a propeller. The ghost of a young man in a grey RAF uniform was encountered in 1974, as it walked over to a witness and touched their forehead before vanishing.

Edinburgh's roads close to St Giles.

Lost Piper

Location: Edinburgh - Roads close to St Giles' Cathedral
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A piper sent to investigate tunnels running under the Cathedral became lost, his piping occasionally heard under the ground.

Centaur

Location: Edinburgh - Royal Botanic Garden
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: Robert Ogilvie Crombie claimed to have encountered several mystical creatures here, including a centaur, a faun named Kurmos, and Pan.

Woman in White

Location: Edinburgh - Royal Circus Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 1970s
Further Comments: At least three night porters reported seeing this tall, beautiful woman in white with long black hair move quickly down the corridors. Workers demanded to work in pairs until the ghost had been exorcised.

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh.

Woman in Blue

Location: Edinburgh - Royal Lyceum Theatre, Grindlay Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Observed in the upper gallery, the woman in blue's history is unknown. She may be the same entity seen perched high up on a lighting rig. Phantom laughter is also said to occasionally echo around the site.

Missing Tools

Location: Edinburgh - Rutland Place church (as of March 2010, being converted into public house)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: March 2010
Further Comments: The local newspaper reported that workmen have refused to work on the site at night because of strange moving shadows, footsteps in empty parts of the building, and disappearing tools.

Footsteps

Location: Edinburgh - Seventeenth century house near Dean Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s?
Further Comments: This house had an entity that opened the front door and could be heard ascending the staircase.

Little Girl

Location: Edinburgh - Sheep's Heid Inn, Duddingston
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2006
Further Comments: After building work restored the inn to its former glory, a visiting medium reported the ghost of a young girl close to the skittle alley. A former landlord known as 'The Major' is reputed to haunt the bar area.

Headless Woman with Child

Location: Edinburgh - Site of the Gillespie Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: Before the construction of the hospital, the land was given to a mansion that was haunted by a headless lady carrying a small child. When this building was demolished, their bodies were found concealed beneath.

St Mary's Street, Edinburgh.

Bloodied Woman

Location: Edinburgh - St Mary's Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Murdered in 1916, this woman is thought to still stand around the site of her death, looking dazed and confused.

Stevenson at college (English Illustrated Magazine).

Robert Louis Stevenson

Location: Edinburgh - Stevenson House (was a museum, now a private residence)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A phantom which has made the occasional appearance at this locale is named as former owner Robert Louis Stevenson.

The Edinburgh Filmhouse.

Woman

Location: Edinburgh - The Edinburgh Filmhouse (cinema)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Filmhouse was reported to be haunted by a phantom woman, though little is known about her and she has not been seen for many years.

Alice

Location: Edinburgh - The Howard Hotel, 34 Great King Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Alice is named as a very kind spirit, and any visitation has left people feeling calm.

Lady Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh

Location: Edinburgh - Woodhouse Lee (or Woodhouslee) ruins and meadow, on the outskirts of the city
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Snowy nights (others say 25 December, after dusk)
Further Comments: After her husband's castle was taken by force, Lady Hamilton was banished into the frigid winter night without clothing - needless to say, she froze to death soon after. Her naked shade has been reported in the area, though it never leaves any prints in the fresh snow. Some say she holds the body of her child who also died of exposure.

Long Haired Man

Location: Edinburgh - Yew tree at the Manse, Colinton
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This pallid spirit can sometimes be seen hiding behind the large tree.

Humming

Location: Edinburgh - York Place
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late
Further Comments: While working in one of the offices here, a witness could hear a young child humming a tune in the basement. The witness investigated but could find no one there.

Breaking Glass

Location: Edinburgh - Cramond Inn, Cramond Glebe Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: Like so many other public houses, The Cramond suffers from a poltergeist which is blamed when glasses break for no reason and small items move around.

Lady Mary Douglas

Location: Edinburgh - Dalmahoy House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Lady Mary, manifesting in the form of a white lady, is said to wander along the corridors, looking into the original rooms. Her presence is reported to be calming.

Johnny One Arm

Location: Edinburgh - Dalry area, in particular West End Place
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1979
Further Comments: John Chiesly's ghost haunted the area for 300 years, running around with a bloody stump where his arm should have been, screaming and cackling. When a one armed skeleton was found hidden under the floorboards of a local house and removed for burial in 1965, the entity was thought to have vanished forever; however more sightings were reported between 1976 and 1979, and poltergeist-like occurrences in the mid-1980s.

Deacon Brodie's Tavern, Edinburgh.

Brodie

Location: Edinburgh - Deacon Brodie's Tavern and Brodie's Close
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Deacon William Brodie, respected upstanding citizen by day, sly robber at night, was caught and hanged for his crimes in 1788. The novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was based (loosely) on his life. Brodie's ghost is now said to leave the tavern and quickly cross the road to the close which has also taken his name.

Edinburgh Castle, Scotland.

Viscount Dundee

Location: Edinburgh - Edinburgh Castle
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: Viscount Dundee was seen by Lord Balcarres while the lord was held in the castle. He later discovered that the Viscount had died at Killiecrankie around the time of the sighting. Note that Colinburgh Castle also claims this event for itself. A phantom drummer has been reported at the castle, said to forewarn of bad news. This ghost was blamed when the arms of a tunic on display apparently moved as if beating an invisible drum. Early in the twenty-first century, a group of workmen claimed to have photographed a glowing ball of light, though the image looks more like the reflection of the flash in glass.

Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Scotland.

The Magician

Location: Edinburgh - Edinburgh Festival Theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This tall, dark stranger who lurks in the shadows is thought to be part of a magic act which perished in a fire on the site.

Suicide

Location: Edinburgh - Former council offices, St. Giles Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The offices were once thought haunted by a man who hanged himself on the site.