The Paranormal Database

Examining folkloric, paranormal & cryptozoological locations in the UK and beyond

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The Paranormal Database is regularly updated. New and revised records may be stories from yesterday, last week or could date back hundreds of years...

Long Necked Creature

Location: Tenby (Clackmannanshire) - Bottom of a cliff / off coast
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: June 1876
Further Comments: A witness spotted a creature with a three-foot (ninety centimetre) long neck at the base of a cliff. The creature swam off at tremendous speed. The witness was familiar with the usual objects mistaken for sea serpents.

Hybrid

Location: Rhyl (Clwyd) - Llewerllyd Farm
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1893
Further Comments: A half lamb half deer (leer?) was born to a sheep. The young ewe had the head and hind legs of a deer. The creature was healthy and ran with the rest of the flock. The farmer refused to sell the animal.

Wolf?

Location: Vale of Lorton (Cumbria) - Low Fell range
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: March 1936
Further Comments: Two witnesses encountered a 'strange animal' on multiple occasions. It was described as larger than foxhound, with a big head, long jaw, and a very long tail that was bushy at the tip. and long black legs. One witness said it resembled wolves he had seen at the zoo.

Blue Spinner

Location: Hartlepool (Durham) - Brierton Lane
Type: UFO
Date / Time: October 1959
Further Comments: A witness watched a bright blue object 'like a spinning top' cross the sky and quickly fade into space.

Fairy Circle

Location: Cwm (Carmarthenshire) (Dyfed) - Unknown meadow in the area
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown, likely pre-nineteenth century
Further Comments: A child was warned to stay away from three rings in a meadow with grass that looked like 'weaved around the edges', as fairies had created them. Anyone foolish enough to enter the rings could never escape.

Chimera

Location: Porthcawl (Mid Glamorgan) - Beach
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 10 January 1892, morning
Further Comments: Three men walking along the beach encountered a wailing animal about the size of a large cat. The creature's hind parts were like those of a rabbit and front resembled a cat. The head was 'short and thick' and looked like that of a tiger, while the tail was short. The men caught the creature, although its ultimate fate is unclear.

Wartime Jeep

Location: Harton (North Yorkshire) - Petrol station along the A64
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Summer 2011
Further Comments: While on the night shift, an employee observed what appeared to be a Second World War-era jeep silently arrive, containing several men in old army uniform sitting on the back. The employee glanced down at his desk for a few seconds and looking back up realised the jeep had vanished without making a sound.

Black Figure

Location: Tadcaster (North Yorkshire) - A64 eastbound towards Tadcaster from A1
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2008
Further Comments: A driver's headlights illuminated a figure in the middle of the left lane, causing the driver to brake and swerve to avoid a collision. The figure seemed stooped and faced to the left, but was strangely pitch black with no clothing or facial features - just a silhouetted shape of a figure even when the headlights hit it. The passenger in the car reported the near miss to the police, believing it to have been an actual person, although later both witnesses later realised it was not.

Bright Flashes

Location: Stafford (Staffordshire) - October 1975
Type: UFO
Date / Time: October 1975
Further Comments: A witness spotted two objects the shape of spinning tops which flashed brightly as they followed each other across the sky.

Black Cheetah

Location: Eastbourne (Sussex) - Sevenoaks Road
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 09 April 1990, around 00:00h
Further Comments: A taxi driver spotted a black cat, shaped like a cheetah and larger than a big dog, run across the road.

Vanishing Car

Location: A171 (North Yorkshire) - Road across the moors
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 23 August 1979(?), 22:00h-23:00h
Further Comments: Driving across the moor as it smouldered from wildfire, occupants of a car found themselves closely followed by a vehicle which appeared literally out of nowhere and sat on their rear bumper; whatever movements the driver made, the vehicle behind them copied. The strange car followed for ten minutes, only vanishing as the witnesses passed over a bridge.

Mischievous Man

Location: Didcot (Oxfordshire) - Network Rail building
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2020s
Further Comments: Locally thought to be haunted by the ghosts of those killed in accidents when the site was freight yard, one ghost is identified as a curly-haired male presence which is considered friendly but mischievous. He is blamed when office equipment goes wrong.

Banging

Location: Pakenham (Suffolk) - St Mary's Church
Type: Other
Date / Time: 12 September 2025
Further Comments: After walking around the churchyard recording with an old Dictaphone, a witness reported hearing voices and banging when playing back the tape.

Cyclist

Location: Stoneleigh (West Midlands) - Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1928
Further Comments: Two people in a car watched a cyclist in late nineteenth century clothing crash into the bridge. When the witnesses stopped to help, they discovered the cyclist had vanished. A record exists of a man dying in cycling accident in 1885 at the same location.

Firey Figure

Location: Montrose (Angus) - Unnamed hill in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Sometime before 1811
Further Comments: Several young men ascended the hill to investigate the figure which would been seen vanishing in a fiery blaze every night. The figure appeared at midnight; a man with long shaggy hair and beard, carrying a bloodied rapier. When asked what he wanted, the hairy phantom pointed towards another ghostly figure which had appeared, this entity wearing chain mail and a black mask. Both ghosts vanished.

Clan Colquhoun

Location: Glen Fruin (Argyll and Bute) - Minister's Flagstone (stood by the Stream of Young Ghosts) and surrounding area
Type: Legend
Date / Time: February 1603 onwards
Further Comments: The Battle of Glen Fruin was fought between Clan MacGregor and Clan Colquhoun, and their respective allies. The MacGregors won, and legend has it that one overenthusiastic soldier murdered the Colquhoun prisoners at the flagstone. The bloodstains on the stone could never be removed, and the nearby stream became haunted; no MacGregor could cross it after dark without encountering Colquhoun ghosts. Grass is said to never grow where the Colquhouns are buried (although their mass grave remains undiscovered).

House Shaker

Location: Thorney (Cambridgeshire) - Unidentified farmhouse
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1896
Further Comments: A married couple were disturbed by knocks and bangs which would escalate into crashes which shook the house. Many people visited the house, but none could find the source of the sounds. The farming couple eventually moved out. It is not clear whether this is the same Thorney farmhouse haunted by the lady in red.

Horned Figure

Location: SE1 (Greater London) - Road between Newington and Walworth
Type: Other
Date / Time: 27-28 March 1818
Further Comments: Shouts for help summoned a watchman who discovered a terrified man near the turnpike, who claimed he had seen a horned woman rise out of the earth. Later the same evening, another traveller claimed to have seen a figure vanish without trace when approached. The following night, watchmen caught a naked laughing woman along the road; a surgeon pronounced her insane and dispatched the woman to a workhouse. If the woman were to blame for the previous night's activities, her magical manifestation methods were never explained.

The Maid Did It

Location: SW9 (Greater London) - Stockwell - unknown house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1772
Further Comments: A 'poltergeist' that drove an old lady from her house by throwing crockery and eggs about was later discovered to be the maid, who confessed she had used long hair tied to cup handles to create the havoc.

White Figures

Location: Glasgow (Lanarkshire) - Milton Street School (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early September 1878
Further Comments: Shortly after construction of the school, people started to report seeing white figures flittering around, attributing the ghosts to a nearby mill disaster which took several lives. The rumour attracted a crowd, reportedly between three and four thousand people, which police dispersed. Detectives declared the ghosts were an illusion caused by lamplight from neighbouring houses reflecting off glossy maps which, in turn, were caught in a draft from an open window.

Whisperer

Location: Derry / Londonderry (County Derry / County Londonderry) - Lone Moor Road
Type: Other
Date / Time: October 1927
Further Comments: Gangs of men with sticks and police started to hide along this street after reports that a ghostly naked man would silently appear alongside lone women and whisper something in their ear, before mysteriously vanishing.


An old picture of a ghostly child standing by a bed.

Radiant Boy

Location: Corby (Cumbria) - Corby Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring), 1800s onwards
Further Comments: Appearing early in the morning, and/or Christmas night (although not every year) this ghostly child has golden hair and glows like an angel. Some believe that those who see him are blessed with wealth and power but also cursed with a violent death. Drumming is also said to be occasionally heard; it is speculated that the radiant boy creates the sounds.

Kisser

Location: Renishaw (Derbyshire) - Renishaw House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1885, and September 1909
Further Comments: In 1885, this spook woke a female guest to the house by kissing her in bed three times - the lady jumped up and turned on the light, only to find her locked bed chamber empty. Another guest a few years later watched a woman dressed in blue and white dart down a corridor, her arms outstretched, promptly vanishing as she reached the staircase. Later the same night, another guest spotted a lady with dark hair and dress who cast no shadow, glide into the shadows, and melt away close to a bricked-up doorway. An empty coffin was later found concealed under the staircase.

Hard Knocks

Location: Stanley (Durham) - Cottage (one of Old Moore's Cottages)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: September 1922
Further Comments: Two married couples sharing the cottage were awoken by knocking which travelled around their home, growing in intensity until it sounded like sledgehammer blows. When the sound repeated night after night, neighbours and police surrounded the house to help find the source but failed. A visiting medium contacted a 'big man', although it is not clear if this brought an end to the knocking.

Clog Dancer

Location: E1 (Greater London) - Unknown house, Brook Street (now Cable Street)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Pre twentieth century
Further Comments: A house remained empty for a considerable period, haunted by an unseen entity which would be heard dancing the Sailor's Hornpipe in clogs. Eventually a man named Beesley moved in - whether he encountered the entity is not known, but as a bonus, Beesley lived there rent free.

Figure with Tail

Location: Outer London: Richmond (Greater London) - General area, including near the theatre and close to the river side
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 1801
Further Comments: A two-guinea reward was offered to anyone who could catch the ghost which started haunting the area. One description said the entity to be a completely black human-like figure with a tail, another claimed that it appeared white with a black head and hands. A girl who encountered the entity near the theatre became bedridden, while two women had to carry a man to the town after a sighting near the river made him feel faint.

Thimble Thrower

Location: Grimsby (Lincolnshire) - Sail loft along Fish Dock Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: March 1882
Further Comments: Workers were threatened with dismissal after thimbles were thrown about and a rubber object struck a man across the face leaving a bruise. Something unseen hit another worker in the face, knocking him off his feet. The activities soon ceased, although it is not clear whether visiting spiritualists calmed the entity, or the fear of redundancy played a role.

Mugged Monk

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Westminster Abbey, in the cloisters
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Between 5-6pm (reoccurring) (monk), 1925 (old man)
Further Comments: Stabbed to death during a robbery, this tall, thin monk has been known to make a brief reappearance. A First World War soldier sometimes makes a comeback and is seen standing by the tomb of the Unknown Warrior; his mouth moves as if he is trying to talk, but no sound emerges. In 1925, Major Young reported trying to hand a prayer book to an older man wearing a pepper-and-salt coat in the Poets' Corner. When the book fell through the fingers of the man, the Major realised it to be a ghost. The entity was supposed to be visible to anyone who sat in a particular seat (fifth from the aisle).

Young Man

Location: Bangor (Gwynedd) - Bulkeley Arms public house (no longer open)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1907
Further Comments: A boy selling newspapers spotted a lone young man sitting in the bar. When offered a newspaper, the young man stood and disappeared through a closed door. The newspaper seller later said that the ghost had resembled the publican's deceased son.

Window

Location: Preston (Lancashire) - Druggists, Friargate
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: December 1877
Further Comments: A large crowd that blocked nearby roads gathered outside the flat of druggist and spiritualist Mr Foster, convinced that a ghost had been seen at a window. After two hours, hundreds of claimed sightings, and a large police presence, the crowd dispersed.

Lady Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh

Location: Edinburgh (Lothian) - 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.

Couple

Location: Penicuik (Lothian) - 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.


An old postcard of Hampton Court Palace.

Henry's Wives

Location: Hampton Court (Surrey) - Hampton Court Palace
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Varies: 12 October (reoccurring), 4 November (reoccurring), and other (see text)
Further Comments: Jane Seymour returns every 12 October (the date she gave birth to her son), while Anne Boleyn, dressed in blue, is said to walk the passageways of the palace. A silently screaming Catherine Howard has been watched moving towards the chapel (on 4 November), where she begged Henry VIII to save her life. Howard's disembodied hand was spotted and sketched by an artist working in Guard Watching Chamber in 1900. A photograph taken in December 2003 showing a 'ghostly' hooded figure opening a fire escape has been dismissed as a hoax. In 1989 a figure spotted wearing a Victorian nightshirt vanished in front of a witness. Finally, an Edwardian story says the clock stops unaided whenever someone dies in the palace.

Naked Man

Location: Sheffield (Yorkshire) - Area around Burngreave Cemetery
Type: Other
Date / Time: 28 October 1933
Further Comments: Two witnesses spotted a naked man run past them in the rain, heading in the direction of the cemetery. The police were summoned but were unable to find either the man or any footprints in the mud of the cemetery, leading to a rumour that the figure may have been a ghost.

Gone?

Location: Fraserburgh (Aberdeenshire) - Library
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A 1988 newspaper article alludes to the library ghost not being heard for some time, suggesting it had left the building.

Naked Figure

Location: Muir Of Fowlis (Aberdeenshire) - Old Manse, Lynturk
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 1988
Further Comments: Described as non-sinister by three witnesses in the local press, this house was reported to be haunted by a naked figure seen moving from the bathroom to a bedroom.

John Baldwin Buckstone

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - (Haymarket) Theatre Royal
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2009
Further Comments: A welcome ghost, Buckstone only manifests when a performance is destined to make it big. Patrick Stewart reportedly spotted Buckstone during a performance of Waiting for Godot, as did Margaret Rutherford, many years previous. Another former manager of the theatre, David Morris, is reported to return once a decade to the theatre just to cause trouble for a single night, before retiring for another ten years.

William Terriss

Location: WC2 (Greater London) - Adelphi Theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Although William Terriss was murdered in 1897, several thespians have since heard or seen William walking about the building or playing around with lights and props. Other people name the ghost as that of Edmund Kean, another famous actor of yester-year. The vaults under the theatre are also said to be haunted by a naked female form, likely the ghost of a girl found strangled and concealed under a pile of rubbish.

Woman

Location: Manchester (Greater Manchester) - Harpurhey Cemetery
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1920s
Further Comments: Hundreds of people apparently came to the site to see the phantom woman who appeared here, said to have been a murder or suicide victim. One person who visited the cemetery (but did not see the ghost) speculated the ghost was really a statue and a passing cloud, combined with moonlight, created a spooky illusion.

Sarah Thorne

Location: Margate (Kent) - Theatre Royal
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1955 and 1972
Further Comments: Sarah was responsible for creating the best company ever seen here - her proud spirit once walked down the aisles and onto the stage. Another ghost, that of an actor who committed suicide, is held responsible for creating strange lights that float around. It is unclear which entity created the disembodied voice that spoke to an actor in an otherwise empty dressing room. In 1972 a workman was reported to have been 'petrified' after spotting a ghost, although who or what he encountered is not known.

Tapping Typewriter

Location: Coalville (Leicestershire) - Library
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s
Further Comments: Eileen Latimer appeared on a 1955 television programme to discuss her experiences working after hours in this library, which included hearing a tapping typewriter and finding books falling off shelves without reason.


Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich.

Black Robed Priest Celebrating Mass

Location: Norwich (Norfolk) - Maddermarket Theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1920s
Further Comments: Once a church, the theatre is now known for the infrequent sightings of a spectral priest, though little has been seen or heard from the spirit since the 1920s. Another version of the story says the site is haunted by a procession of monks.

Sarkless Kitty

Location: Lowna (North Yorkshire) - River Dove
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1787 - 1807 or 1809
Further Comments: Kitty's naked body was found at the ford after either taking her own life or being murdered by a local farmer who abandoned her while pregnant. Kitty returned, her naked ghost luring men into the river, her first victim the farmer who treated her badly. Over the next thirty years, sixteen (or eighteen) men were also found drowned, until the Vicar of Lastingham (or his curate) laid the ghost. Another slight variation of the story says the men who had seen Sarkless Kitty did not necessarily drown but would inevitably die within a few weeks.

White Lady

Location: Belsay (Northumberland) - Unknown road in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre twentieth century
Further Comments: A phantom white lady would panic horses by dropping from the trees and landing on the saddles of passing riders.

Priest

Location: Baddesley Clinton (Warwickshire) - Manor house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A former owner of the house found his wife being attacked by a priest. The priest did not survive the encounter and took to haunting the chapel, although the room of the attack, the library, reportedly had a presence that caused some visitors to feel breathless. Another phantom, Major Thomas Ferrers, would walk the corridors attempting to open doors.

Walled Up

Location: Keighley (West Yorkshire) - East Riddlesden Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Apparitions unknown, chair in June 2019
Further Comments: When they were discovered in each other' arms, the wife of the Hall's owner and her secret lover were forcefully separated - she was locked in her bedroom, and he bricked up behind a wall. They both starved to death. The wife now manifests as the Grey Lady and ascends the staircase, and the lover peers out of a window at passers-by. A white lady also haunts the site, as does a Highlander, and a coachman who walks on the surface of the lake looking for his sunken coach. In 2019, a witness in an empty room watched a child's chair being pulled away from a table and then slide back in, as if someone unseen had sat down.

Sir Herbert Marshall

Location: Leicester (Leicestershire) - Central Library
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Former Lord Mayor of Leicester, Sir Herbert, was said be heard playing a piano in the library after his death, the site where he owned a piano shop in the nineteenth century. Books would occasionally fly from shelves, with the ghost of Marshall blamed.

Murderer

Location: Market Deeping (Lincolnshire) - Library
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1973, 1986
Further Comments: The man who haunts this building murdered a woman on the site and buried her body under a nearby stables, now site of the fire station. In 1986, a cleaner claimed to have seen the ghost three times, while a decade earlier, staff heard somebody leave the building, although they were alone at the time.

Earl of Seafield

Location: Cullen (Moray) - Cullen House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid-twentieth century
Further Comments: After accidentally killing a close friend, the Earl was so upset that he took his own life - but even this radical measure failed to end his distress, and so he remains earthbound. One member of staff reported seeing the Earl in the library.

Sir Reginald Fitz-Urse

Location: Haydon (Northumberland) - Chipchase Castle (private residence, opens to the public in June)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Sir Reginald starved to death within the prison - his ghost is said to remain earthbound. It is not clear whether this is the same knight who murdered Thomas Becket, as stories say he escaped to Ireland.

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