The Paranormal Database

Whispering Women

Location: Sennen Cove (Cornwall) - Cottage near lifeboat station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: A visitor to the site awoke to hear women whispering in the room. A dog with the visitor leapt on the bed, as if reacting to the voices. Two other people staying at the property did not hear the voices but disliked the feeling of the site. Everyone left early.

Egg-Sized Swarm

Location: Iford (Sussex) - Skies over the area
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 13 May 2025
Further Comments: A witness watched a swarm of unidentified creatures, the size of a small egg cut in half and white/cream in colour, fly overhead. The creatures made a sound like stones being thrown at a car.

Blue Spheres

Location: Bournemouth (Dorset) - Exact location not known
Type: Other
Date / Time: 26 January 2012
Further Comments: Steve Hornsby found a dozen jelly-like, small blue balls in his garden following a hailstorm during which the sky briefly turned dark yellow. While the balls were not formally identified, it was suggested that they could be marine invertebrate eggs, discharge from an airliner toilet, or a kind of plant feed gel.

An old postcard showing Bridlington's south beach.

Ship

Location: Bridlington (East Riding of Yorkshire) - South beach - sea
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early December 2014, morning
Further Comments: A couple walking their dog spotted an old sailing ship anchored off the coast. One of the witnesses, a ship enthusiast, thought it to be a modern replica. Periodically looking back at the vessel while walking away, as the witnesses stepped off the beach, they realised the ship had vanished. The enthusiast used ship tracking websites to try to identify the ship, but no such vessel was in the area, and later identified it as a nineteenth century Dutch fishing vessel called a Dogger.

A Man Vanishes

Location: W1J (Greater London) - Piccadilly Circus Underground Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 1970s (Numan), 1989 (other)
Further Comments: In his autobiography, Gary Numan says that he and a friend followed a man dressed in 1940s style clothing as they passed through the station, believing he was heading towards an exit. The man turned a corner with Numan and his friend close behind, but they turned into a dead end - there was no place the man could have gone. A similar event occurred to another person in 1989 while walking along a corridor behind a man and woman wearing clothing from around the 1940s, odd enough to be memorable. A bend in the corridor resulted in the witness briefly losing sight of the couple, and turning the corner, the witness realised the people had disappeared without any obvious trace.

Dealing with the Devil.

Old Nick in Waiting

Location: Burgh St Peter (Norfolk) - Church
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: 02 May reoccurring (skeleton appears)
Further Comments: The builder of this church is said to have sold his soul to finish the construction. The Devil is said to still wait for the soul due to him (on the nearby 'Devil's Stile'), while the old man's shade lurks protected within the church grounds. There is one report that says the builder now takes the form of a clothed skeletal figure and appears once per year.

Cyclist in Tweed

Location: Brechin (Angus) - Unnamed steep road ending with a tight turn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1900
Further Comments: A cyclist coming down the hill swerved into a wall to avoid another cyclist dressed in a grey tweed suit who headed straight towards him. The cyclist, left with a broken bike and slight injuries, shared his story with a local repairman, who declared the cyclist in tweed to be a well known local ghost that had caused serious accidents.

Melting Cyclist

Location: Holmes Chapel (Cheshire) - Main road near Jodrell Bank
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1982?
Further Comments: Headmaster John Williams spotted a cyclist on the road ahead during a dark and stormy night. The cyclist, a young blonde-haired man wearing jeans and a sweater, seemed to laugh before melting away. Williams observed that, despite the heavy rain, the cyclist looked dry.

Treasure

Location: Weem (Perth and Kinross) - Woodland and Weem Rock
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Circa 650
Further Comments: When Saint Cuthbert lived in a cave in the woods, the Devil lived in a neighbouring cave. Another story says a demon guards treasure hidden in Weem Rock (possibly in the same cave as the Devil's former home).

Dark Monk

Location: Corsley (Wiltshire) - Royal Oak public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1966
Further Comments: A landlady of the pub reported seeing a tall figure dressed in a dark monk's habit walk across the bedroom early one morning before vanishing through a wall. Members of staff glimpsed the figure in other parts of the building, while a former landlord reported watching a tall figure emerge through the panelling near the fireplace.

Cley Hill.

Fire

Location: Warminster (Wiltshire) - Cley Hill
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: Varies: 31 October & 02 November (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Several witnesses have reported seeing large burning fires on the hills, with figures dancing around them, talking and singing loudly in an unrecognised language. When investigated, there is never any evidence of the fire or figures. A legend says the hill was created by the Devil, who threw down a pile of dirt on the spot after being led to believe that it would take him several years to reach Devizes.

The Thing

Location: Warminster (Wiltshire) - Skies above town
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 1960s onwards
Further Comments: The press called the UFO wave here the 'Warminster Thing'. In 1996, to celebrate the countless UFO sightings over the town, the Marquis of Bath and the local tourist board officially called the town the UFO Capital of Britain.

Clerical Cyclist

Location: Smithboro (County Monaghan) - Unnamed road leading to village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: December 1945
Further Comments: While patrolling the roads at night, Civic Guard James Green spotted a bicycle travelling towards him with no light. The bicycle, ridden by a figure dressed in clerical gear, ignored Green's request to stop and passed through a closed gate and into a field. Green tried to give chase and opened the gate, only to find the field empty. Other people in the area had also seen the vanishing cyclist.

Mortimer

Location: Kingsland (Herefordshire) - Mortimer's Cross Inn (currently operating as Grange at Mortimers Cross)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1960
Further Comments: Nicknamed Mortimer, this entity's activities started after water pipes were laid along the road outside the inn. Footsteps would be heard and footprints seen forming on a plush carpet. A motorist had to brake hard when a figure darted at impossible speed from the pub's garden across the road. One theory said that Mortimer was the ghost of a suicide buried with a stake through his heart at the crossroads.

Soon to Die

Location: Alfreton (Derbyshire) - Parish Church
Type: Manifestation of the Living
Date / Time: 24 April (St Mark's Eve) (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A common folklore tradition says that if anyone stands in the porch of the church on St Mark's Eve, they will see all villagers who will die over the next twelve months enter the building.

Highlanders

Location: Ashbourne (Derbyshire) - 'A few miles out of town' on the Derby to Manchester Road, known as Bloody Lane?
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 1930s
Further Comments: A motorist spotted a group of ghostly kilted men rush across the road and leap over a stone wall. Stopping at a nearby inn, the motorist shared his experience with the landlord and was told the area was known as Bloody Lane, the site where Highlanders died while retreating during the Jacobite Rising.

Suicidal Satan

Location: Earl Sterndale (Derbyshire) - Parkhouse Hill
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Devil attempted to hang himself from the highest rock of the hill but failed. He now returns every night to haunt the area.

The Grey Ladies

Location: Harthill Moor (Derbyshire) - Stone circle
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: It was reported that these boulders transformed into women at night, who danced until the cock crowed (or the clock struck midnight).

Hulac Warren

Location: Monsal Dale (Derbyshire) - The Warren Stone
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Stone still present
Further Comments: Monsal Dale was once known as Demon's Dale, and a race of sadistic giants lived there. A shepherdess killed herself rather than be kidnapped by the giant's leader Hulac; the gods were so outraged by his actions that the giant was instantly turned into the Warren Stone. Another story says witches would dance to strange music on the site at night.

An old postcard of Wingfield Manor.

Mary's Lights

Location: Wingfield (Derbyshire) - Wingfield Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The spirit of Mary Queen of Scots is reported to have taken a liking to the ballroom (or another story says she looks out from a window in the highest tower), while it is debatable whether spheres of light seen floating around the site after dark relate to Mary's ghost or a phantom Cromwellian soldier looking for a lost ring.

Naked Duck

Location: Buxton (Derbyshire) - Eldon Hole
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A piece of folklore says a duck (or goose) flew into the hole and later emerged from Peak Cavern in Castleton completely stripped of feathers. Another story concerning Eldon Hole claims the Earl of Leicester lowered a man down on a rope to discover its depth - when the man was pulled back up, he had gone mad.

Jack

Location: Outer London: Hillingdon (Greater London) - Black Jack's Lock, Grand Union Canal
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Acting for a local landowner, Jack would harass boatmen who docked in the area. The boatmen tired of Jack's behaviour and they killed him, only for Jack to return from the grave and continue to upset those who docked on the waterway.

Jack White

Location: Bratton Seymour (Somerset) - Jack White's Gibbet (junction along the A371, Bratton Seymour and Holton)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of murderer and highwayman Jack White, left in a gibbet to starve to death, is said to wander the site of his crimes and punishment.

Booted Man

Location: Shepton Mallet (Somerset) - Beech House (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local historian witnessed the door to the kitchen open unaided, followed by the sound of heavy boots moving down a corridor.

Lady in Grey

Location: Shepton Mallet (Somerset) - Church near ICI Polymers
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: While working at the ICI site, staff reportedly spotted a ghostly lady in grey at the nearby church.

Elevating Child

Location: Shepton Mallet (Somerset) - Hillmead estate
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: A newspaper declared the estate the 'most haunted area in Mendip' after a couple of families who moved into newly built housing reported poltergeist activity. Items would be thrown around, and one witness reported seeing her daughter slowly rise and fall three feet (ninety centimetres) over a bed.

Lady with Pistol

Location: Shepton Mallet (Somerset) - Old Bowlish House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1940s
Further Comments: Used by naval officers during the war, this building developed the reputation as being haunted after one officer watched a phantom lady in a dress appear in a bedroom doorway before shooting herself with a pistol.

Nun

Location: Shepton Mallet (Somerset) - Sales House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Nuns are supposed to haunt this site. A former owner watched her niece engaging in conversation with, what she presumed to be, a tall nun.

Headmaster

Location: Wells (Somerset) - Little Theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Operating from the site of a former school, the theatre was reputedly haunted by a former headmaster.

Jack

Location: Yarlington (Somerset) - Crossroads
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Highwayman Jack White, gibbeted at Castle Cary, haunts this crossroads as well as the site of his death.

Rats

Location: Doncaster (South Yorkshire) - Crossroads on the A1 (?) outside of town
Type: Other
Date / Time: February, pre 1930s
Further Comments: A driver stopped his lorry after spotting thousands of rats crossing the road ahead of him. It took several minutes for the swarm of rodents to pass before the man could continue his journey.

White Lady

Location: West Harptree (Somerset) - Gournay Court
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Lady unknown, man during First World War
Further Comments: This pallid female would travel the building, ending her journey on the balcony where she would disappear. During the First World War, when the site acted as a convalescence hospital, a phantom man wearing a velvet suit and stockings would appear in the ballroom.

Walking Woman

Location: Gainsborough (Lincolnshire) - Road to Retford, about two miles after the bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1930s
Further Comments: One motorist claimed to have driven straight through a slow-moving phantom woman who took to haunting this stretch of road.

Two Drivers

Location: Newark (Nottinghamshire) - Great North Road (A1) close to town
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1935
Further Comments: Lorry drivers passing the spot at night would report seeing two dimly lit figures hovering near a bend in the road where, a few months previous, two men had died when their vehicles collided. The apparitions ceased appearing when the road was widened and nearby hedgerow cleared.

Thrower

Location: Retford (Nottinghamshire) - 10 Green Bottles cafe
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2019
Further Comments: A local ghost hunting team investigated this cafe after reports of an invisible entity which would throw items around. The group said they found the ladies toilet and the basement to be particularly haunted.

Old Parker

Location: Stamford (Lincolnshire) - Great North Road (A1), near crossroads (which may no longer exist) between town and Peterborough
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of Old Parker, a seven-foot-tall farmer who took his own life three hundred years ago, takes the form of a dancing skeleton which stands in the road.

Man in Black

Location: St Boswells (Borders) - Benrig Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 07 May 1892, July 1892, last seen August 1900
Further Comments: While out on a solo Sunday morning walk in May, Matilda Scott watched as a man dressed in black on the road ahead vanished into thin air. When Matilda reached the spot where the man had vanished, she met her sister, who asked where the man walking with Matilda had gone. Two months later, Matilda, with another sister, spotted the figure again and described him as wearing a long black coat, a white cravat, gaiters, and a hat in a fashion Matilda did not recognise. The ghost vanished, but would manifest in the area for the following eight years, seen by Matilda and several other people.

Boy in Cap

Location: Aylesbury (Buckinghamshire) - Grapes public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1991 - 2001
Further Comments: A member of staff said she had encountered three ghosts during her time at the bar, the first being a ten-year-old boy who wore a cap, appearing to descend a staircase which did not exist. A monk and a soldier wearing a red jacket were also reported.

Jasper Jackson

Location: Aylesbury (Buckinghamshire) - St Mary's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Said to occur at 20:00h, last seen 1978
Further Comments: Schoolchildren would visit the churchyard in the evening to try to see the ghost of Jasper Jackson who, according to tradition rather than history, killed himself in the crypt. One child claimed to have seen a shadowy figure walk through a wall into the church.

An old postcard of Okehampton Castle.

Lady Howard

Location: Okehampton (Devon) - Between Okehampton Castle and Tavistock
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Midnight (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This large black dog is reportedly the ghost of Lady Howard, who walks from here to Tavistock. Some say the hound is a separate entity, and Lady Howard really travels by a coach made from the bones of her dead husbands. One piece of folklore says the black dog accompanies Howard, and the creature picks a piece of grass from the churchyard - when there is no grass left in Okehampton, Lady Howard can rest.

Collie

Location: Craighall Rattray (Perth and Kinross) - Woodland
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s?
Further Comments: Woodland in the area is home to a phantom Collie dog.

Terrifier

Location: Perth? (Perth and Kinross) - Bellfield House (no longer standing?)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: First World War period
Further Comments: Used as a temporary barracks, the house contained something which emerged during the hours of darkness and terrified the soldiers. One story said the men would rather face the enemy than spend another night in the house.

Snoring

Location: Mousehole (Cornwall) - Caves
Type: Other
Date / Time: Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: Fishermen could hear loud snoring emerging from the cave at night, with no one brave enough to investigate. One (unlikely) explanation named owls as the culprits.

Screams

Location: Penpol (Cornwall) - Ford along the Gannel River
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A notoriously selfish man travelled to find a priest who could comfort a dying woman. The man drowned in the river, but his final act of kindness prevented his damnation, and he is allowed to return to earth to prevent others from drowning in the Gannel. His ghost would float above the river at high tide, screaming warnings to scare people into taking a different route.

Sailor?

Location: Penzance (Cornwall) - Unidentified house (former inn)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1813
Further Comments: Rumours of a haunting resulted in this property remaining empty for a considerable time. When workmen removed some floorboards, they discovered human remains - a local story told of a wealthy sailor who had mysteriously vanished while staying at the inn, and while it was speculated the bones belonged to him, it was never proven.

Strange Noises

Location: Redruth (Cornwall) - Unidentified house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Early nineteenth century
Further Comments: Strange sounds would drive residents away from this property. Attempting to discover the source of the noises, one occupier dug up the kitchen floor and discovered ash, bone and teeth. The sounds ceased.

Rapping

Location: Townshend (Cornwall) - Unidentified house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Early 1930s
Further Comments: A 1934 newspaper referenced a property in the village that had become haunted by loud raps.

Robert

Location: Easington (Durham) - Half Moon public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: November - December, and April (reoccurring), last during the 1970s?
Further Comments: The landlady of this pub said Robert would be heard walking around for three months of the year. One story claimed Robert to have been a nineteenth century road sweeper who fell in love with a barmaid; Robert took his own life in the cellar when she married another man. Keys would also disappear and doors open unaided.

Grace

Location: Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey (Kent) - Pond
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 23 October (reoccurring)
Further Comments: At midnight, on the anniversary of her drowning, Grace is said to emerge from the pond, waving her hands in the air before once again disappearing under the water. One story says Grace took her own life, while another states her husband murdered her.

Fisherman

Location: Laysdown-on-Sea (Kent) - Off coast
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Once yearly, but date not known
Further Comments: A fisherman caught smuggling killed his guard and drowned himself in the sea, rather than be executed. On the anniversary of his death, the fisherman could be seen off the coast, bobbing in the water and covered in netting.