The Paranormal Database

Mary of Guise

Location: Linlithgow - Linlithgow Palace
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1999
Further Comments: Accompanied by a slight smell of perfume, this phantom lady in a white dress has on occasion been mistaken for a real person. Mary Queen of Scots is also reported to frequent the chapel, and Margaret Tudor haunts Queen Margaret's Bower.

Water Sprite

Location: Linlithgow - River running through area
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This malicious little entity is reported to lure the unwary into the water to drown.

Old Man in Blue

Location: Linlithgow - St Michael's church
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 1513
Further Comments: This apparition, wearing blue and holding a staff, appeared before King James IV and warned him he would lose the Battle of Flodden.

Anti-Ship Mine

Location: Livingston - Dechmont Woods (a monument now marks the area)
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 9 November 1979, 10.30h
Further Comments: A forestry worker was attacked by 2 robotic creatures that resembled mines, with six protruding legs. They gave off a smell that knocked him out. Later, when the site was examined by police, they found evidence of a fight, and marks from the robot's 'legs'.

Banging

Location: Livingston - Private residence, Howden
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: January 1969
Further Comments: A family moved from their property after experiencing unexplained bangs, thumps, and strange marks appearing on windows and floors.

Cube With Arms

Location: Livingston - Skies over the town
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 05 October 2021, 22:50h
Further Comments: A UAP was spotted by multiple witnesses. The object was difficult to make out, due to the piercing light it emitted, but was thought to be similar to a cube with 'arm light' appendages. A witness estimated the object to be between four and six times the size of an aircraft. The UAP was initially stationary but moved north over the Edinburgh flight path.

Monk

Location: Luffness - Carmelite Chapel ruins
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: May Jean Campbell Grieve, wife of Nigel Tranter, is said to have encountered this solid-looking phantom monk on a path next to the ruins.

Austin Allegro

Location: M90 west - Just after Forth Road Bridge slip road
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Summer, early evening, 2002
Further Comments: A driver overtook an Austin Allegro. As he passed, he noticed the front of the car was damaged, and that an old man in a grey flat cap with an elderly lady were seated within. However, when the driver pulled into the lane in front of them, the car had vanished - there was nowhere for them to turn off and they had not overtaken him.

Monks Cooking

Location: Musselburgh - Old Craighall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Several shades of religious people have been seen here, including monks, a bishop and a woman in white. The smell of fresh meat being cooked sometimes wafts through the house, even when no one is cooking.

Green Lady

Location: Musselburgh - Pinkie House
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Before a tragedy in the Drummond family
Further Comments: This figure, the wife of the first Earl of Dunfermline, only appears to warn the living of encroaching calamities.

Bloody Man

Location: Musselburgh - Unknown private residence
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: Several ghosts have appeared in this house, including a man who leaves a blood trail as he moves, a young Victorian girl, and a figure that resembles a devil.

Margaret Heron of Gilmerton

Location: Newbattle - Abbey and surrounding area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Taking the form of a grey lady, this phantom is said to be Margaret Heron of Gilmerton, murdered along with her secret monk lover by her outraged father.

Aggie McGee

Location: Newtongrange - Scottish Mining Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of a coal sorter has been named as Aggie McGee, while other ghost stories include a headless miner and screams of those who died in the pits.

A witch and a devil in a circle. Woodcut, 1720.

Meeting Place

Location: North Berwick - Old Kirk
Type: Other
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: The porch of the Old Kirk is one of the locations where the Devil is said to have met with a group of witches, who later tried to kill King James IV.

White Woman

Location: North Berwick - Private residence, Glenorchy Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1974
Further Comments: The staircase of this property is reputedly haunted by a benign white feminine spirit. The house may have been built over the graveyard of a nunnery.

Figure in Ruff

Location: North Berwick - Tantallon Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: May 2008 (Wiseman image taken), circa 1978 (earlier image)
Further Comments: A photograph released in March 2009 by Richard Wiseman purports to show a ghostly man wearing a ruff. Another photograph was released a few days later, taken thirty years previous, showing another ghostly figure.

White Lady

Location: North Berwick - The Lodge (aka North Berwick House)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom white lady reputedly walks this area, as does a hooded figure said to be a former pageboy murdered in London. Another story, possibly a variation of the latter, says a headless figure haunts the site and is identified as Matthew Henderson. He was a footboy who murdered his mistress in London after she beat him for standing on her foot. Henderson was executed at Tyburn, but his ghost returned to his former home.

Nun

Location: North Berwick - Trainer's Brae
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The site of a convent, this area is reputed to be home to a ghostly nun.

Tobacco

Location: North Berwick - East Fortune Airfield (museum)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: The smell of tobacco is said to fill the air in the top hangar, even though no smokers are present. Mild poltergeist activity is reported, and occasionally a phantom man is seen wearing dark coveralls.

Isabel Heriot

Location: Ormiston - Manse
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A servant at the local manse, the family dismissed Isebel for being insolent. With nowhere else to go, Isabel loitered near the gates to the house until winter came and she died of exposure. Soon after her death, stones and other objects were thrown around the site where she had worked, and loud noises awoke the family at night. Isabel's ghost appeared in the garden. After several months, the activity ceased.

Chamber Maid

Location: Pathhead - Stair Arms Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This location has the reputation of being haunted by a chamber maid.

Yellow Lights

Location: Paxton - Skies above village
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 12 March 2007
Further Comments: A driver stopped his car to watch five large yellow lights hanging in the sky above the village. The balls disappeared after thirty seconds.

Messy Bed

Location: Pencaitland - Penkaet (or Pencaet, or Pencait) Castle, also known as Fountainhall House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1950s
Further Comments: The ghost of Charles I is blamed for disrupting the bedding in the room that contains his death mask. John Cockburn, who committed murder here, can be heard dragging the body along various parts of the building. Finally, the castle is also haunted by a beggar, falsely accused of using witchcraft against another former owner.

Young Horseman

Location: Penicuik - General area
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Often heard and sometimes even seen, the horseman is thought to have been a young lad who stole a horse from his master to speed up the journey to meet his secret lover. In his haste, he galloped past the scene of an accident involving a cart - he could have saved the life of the driver who was trapped underneath, but lust took priority and the rider left the site without offering assistance. The victim of the accident later died but managed to curse the lad who rode on by; hence, the boy's ghost now roams.

Couple

Location: Penicuik - Gladhouse reservoir
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Possibly circa 1926
Further Comments: A local legend says that this area is haunted by a loving couple who were murdered in the dim and distant past. Another version of the tale says the ghosts are a farmer and his murder victim, a young maid in his employ.