Examining folkloric, paranormal & cryptozoological locations in the UK and beyond
Location: Whitby (North Yorkshire) - Prospect Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This male entity has the removed item securely grasped under his arm.
Source:
Historical Record
First added: 2003-02-08
Last updated: 2003-02-08
ID: #3781
Location: Whitby (North Yorkshire) - Ragwells (exact locations not known)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Likely pre-nineteenth century
Further Comments: Shirts or other articles of clothing belonging to seriously ill people would be cast into the waters of wells in this area. If the clothing floated, the person would recover. If the item sank, death would soon follow.
Source:
Historical Record
First added: 2019-07-03
Last updated: 2019-07-03
ID: #13270
An old postcard of Whitby in Yorkshire.
Location: Whitby (North Yorkshire) - Several areas, including abbey, St Peter's Court woods, and surrounding villages
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 2001 onwards
Further Comments: A black panther-like cat has been observed a dozen times over a seven year period, on one occasion the cat was accompanied by a cub.
Source:
Published Media
First added: 2008-04-27
Last updated: 2008-04-27
ID: #8435
Location: Whitby (North Yorkshire) - Unidentified road towards a campsite
Type: Other
Date / Time: 05 August 2013
Further Comments: Driving back to a campsite, the passenger of a vehicle spotted a pair of extremely long white male legs, to just above the thigh, quickly bound across the road. The stride was too long and too fast to be human. Despite the passenger crying out 'what's that?', the driver did not see anything.
Source:
User Submission
First added: 2013-09-22
Last updated: 2013-09-22
ID: #11418
An old postcard of Whitby Abbey in Yorkshire.
Location: Whitby (North Yorkshire) - Whitby Abbey
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Snakes unknown, St Hilda's ghost during summer months 10:00h - 12:00h
Further Comments: The abbey was besieged by snakes, until St Hilda turned up and drove them all off the edge of the cliff, where they turned to stone on the beach below. Her ghost is also reported to still gaze from the windows of the abbey. A few people have heard a choir singing in the empty building and one local legend says a team of headless horses pulling a hearse was once spotted by a man and boy walking in the area. Finally, treasure hidden in the abbey's grounds is protected by a headless figure in white.
Source:
Historical Record, Published Media
First added: 2002-10-13
Last updated: 2002-10-13
ID: #2618
Location: Wigglesworth (North Yorkshire) - Plough Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1945 onwards
Further Comments: Gladys Saxton and her maid Margaret Harrison were killed in a fire at the building in 1945. Since that date, a woman wearing a long black dress has been seen by guests at the building. There is also a report of a phantom highwayman being spotted standing in a doorway.
Source:
Published Media
First added: 2006-04-17
Last updated: 2006-04-17
ID: #6853
Location: Wigglesworth (North Yorkshire) - Road leading to Tosside
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early winter mornings (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A couple of car accidents that occurred along this road were blamed on a flitting female form which ran out in front of the vehicle before disappearing. Locals say it is a girl who drowned nearby.
Source:
Historical Record, Published Media
First added: 2002-10-18
Last updated: 2002-10-18
ID: #2731
Location: Wintringham (North Yorkshire) - Crossroads near Place Newton
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Likely nineteenth century
Further Comments: A murderer who killed a Place Newton caretaker was caught and caged at a crossroads, where he was left to starve to death. A member of the victim's family would visit each day and leave a loaf of bread just out of reach. The site would be avoided at night.
Source:
Historical Record
First added: 2024-08-04
Last updated: 2024-08-04
ID: #15564
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - 18-20 Stonegate (currently Jack Wills)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local report says that a teenage girl using the changing room looked in the mirror and spotted another young girl. Believing that the girl had accidentally walked into the changing room, the teenager turned and asked the girl to leave. The girl turned and walked through the wall. Staff later found out that a doorway once existed in the wall where the girl disappeared.
Source:
User Submission
First added: 2012-07-20
Last updated: 2012-07-20
ID: #11009
A building along Stonegate, York.
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - 41 Stonegate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A six-year-old Victorian girl who fell to her death on the staircase was said to have haunted this building during the twentieth century. The girl could be heard ascending the staircase and was reputedly seen sitting upon a shop counter when a tearoom operated on the site. One story says the ghost is a doctor's daughter and dates to when the building was a private residence. During one of the doctor's dinner parties, the curious girl emerged from her top floor bedroom and tried to peer over the banister to see who was in attendance. She lost her balance.
Source:
Published Media
First added: 2005-09-03
Last updated: 2021-07-03
ID: #6513
Number 5 College Street, York.
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - 5 College Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: During one of the outbreaks of plague in the city, a married couple contracted the disease and died. Their only child, a young daughter, remained uninfected. She shouted to passersby for help, but no one would believe that she was clear of the disease; the doorway was bricked up to prevent the plague from spreading, with the young girl and her dead parents still inside. The girl's crying could be heard for days, until the house grew quiet - the girl had eventually starved to death. Now she can be seen looking from the window, and the cries of a young girl heard emerging from the building, even though it is empty.
Source:
Published Media
First added: 2002-07-12
Last updated: 2002-07-12
ID: #1717
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - A64 Malton Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Misty evenings
Further Comments: This tragic figure, possibly murdered by her highwayman boyfriend, now appears on misty or foggy evenings.
Source:
Historical Record, Published Media
First added: 2002-07-12
Last updated: 2002-07-12
ID: #1720
All Saint's Church, York.
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - All Saint's Church, Pavement
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This pale young lass with long curly hair was seen a few times, always observing funerals from the church door. She vanished suddenly if anyone approached. Another description of the entry says she is dressed in black with a swollen red face.
Source:
Historical Record, Published Media
First added: 2002-11-02
Last updated: 2002-11-02
ID: #3013
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - Area of Bishopthorpe
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Eighteenth century
Further Comments: A wealthy woman was murdered for her money, and her body hidden a short distance from her house in Bishopthorpe. It was several days before the corpse was discovered, and it is said that the state of decay was so bad that her head had become separate from her torso. Her headless ghost haunted the area where her body lay for years after the event.
Source:
Published Media, User Submission
First added: 2005-09-13
Last updated: 2005-09-13
ID: #6544
Bedern Arch, York.
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - Bedern Arch
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The story goes that several orphans died in the nearby Industrial Ragged School during the mid-nineteenth century, due to the negligence of the alcoholic schoolmaster; now, on cold nights, people have reported walking by the arch only to feel a small child take them by the hand... Childish giggling and terrible screaming has also been reported.
Source:
Published Media
First added: 2002-08-07
Last updated: 2002-08-07
ID: #2048
Black Swan Inn, York.
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - Black Swan Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Seen descending a staircase in the building, only the lower part of this male body appears. Two other spirits can be found in the bar area; that of a workman wearing a bowler hat (dressed in Victorian clothing) and a lady in a white dress who watches the fireplace.
Source:
Published Media
First added: 2002-07-12
Last updated: 2002-07-12
ID: #1708
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - Castlegate House (or Lodge)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This shadowy feminine figure has been seen on the staircase of the building.
Source:
Historical Record
First added: 2003-02-12
Last updated: 2003-02-12
ID: #3788
Church of the Holy Trinity, York.
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - Church of the Holy Trinity, Micklegate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 19 century at morning service, 'common' on Trinity Sunday (reoccurring)
Further Comments: These three figures are reported to be a mother, her child, and a nanny - the story is that mother and child were buried many miles apart, and now the nanny reunites the child with mother. Another story says that the women have no connection; the mother and child were united in death after the infant died of plague, and she slowly pined away, while the second woman is an abbess murdered trying to prevent Henry VIII's men from storming her church.
Source:
Historical Record, Published Media
First added: 2002-07-12
Last updated: 2026-07-20
ID: #1705
The Davygate area of York.
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - Church Street & Davygate area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1958
Further Comments: Two women walking in the area claimed to have seen a large battle taking place around them, between Roman troops and barbarians. As a van drove by, the scene vanished.
Source:
Published Media
First added: 2002-10-20
Last updated: 2002-10-20
ID: #2771
Clifford Tower, York.
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - Clifford Tower
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Blood unknown, paper in March 1686 or 1687
Further Comments: Many Jews committed suicide in the tower rather than surrender to the rioting anti-Semitic mobs tearing up the town. The ground of the tower is said to be stained red, even after being dug up and replaced. Sir John Reresby wrote that one of his men on watch at the tower observed a piece of paper blowing in the wind that changed into a monkey before transforming into a turkey-cock. The entity wandered around for a bit before vanishing.
Source:
Published Media, User Submission
First added: 2002-11-02
Last updated: 2022-06-19
ID: #3012
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - Clifton Lodge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This building is said to be haunted by the ghost of a servant who killed her child who had been born outside of wedlock.
Source:
Published Media
First added: 2005-09-13
Last updated: 2005-09-13
ID: #6550
Cock and Bottle Inn, York.
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - Cock and Bottle Inn, Skeldergate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Thought to be the Royalist and alchemist George Villiers, Second Duke of Buckingham, this ghostly figure, with black wavy hair and a large nose, has been spotted in the public house. The building was built on the top of a site once owned by Villiers, which would explain his reluctance to leave.
Source:
Published Media
First added: 2002-10-16
Last updated: 2002-10-16
ID: #2634
Holy Trinity Church, York.
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Local folklore says that a decapitated Thomas Percy, the Seventh Earl of Northumberland, fumbles around the churchyard searching for his severed head. Thomas and head separated after upsetting Elizabeth I; the earl attempted and failed to raise an army against his queen and was executed for this error of judgement. More recently, a ghostly figure in a long gown (possibly a nun) has been observed on the site.
Source:
Published Media, User Submission
First added: 2002-07-12
Last updated: 2002-07-12
ID: #1714
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - Imphal Barracks, Fulford
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1969
Further Comments: One soldier in training was taken to sickbay after seeing one of the ghosts which haunted this barracks. The spirits wore black buttoned tunics and cylindrical headwear.
Source:
Published Media
First added: 2005-03-19
Last updated: 2005-03-19
ID: #5949
Location: York (North Yorkshire) - Judge's Court, off Coney Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This unknown figure is heard jangling prior to appearing - his broken spur betraying his position.
Source:
Published Media
First added: 2002-07-12
Last updated: 2002-07-12
ID: #1721