Ghost Map

EN PL

Country

United Kingdom

cases
53
years
350–2026

Unexplained: 3 Disputed: 17 Legend: 24 Explained: 7 Hoax: 2

  1. 4th century

    1. c. 350 Cursed objects · Disputed The Cursed Ring of Silvianus The Vyne near Basingstoke, Hampshire A Roman gold ring and a lead tablet cursing a thief – a story that may have inspired Tolkien's One Ring.

  2. 12th century

    1. 1127 Headless riders and wild hunts · Legend The Wild Hunt over Peterborough Peterborough Abbey (now the cathedral), England The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded that after an unpopular abbot arrived, many people saw black huntsmen riding black horses and goats at night.

  3. 16th century

    1. 1536–present Ghosts of historical figures · Legend Anne Boleyn at the Tower of London Tower Green and the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London Henry VIII's second wife, beheaded at the Tower in 1536, is said to appear still near the place of execution and in the chapel where she was buried.
    2. 1537–present Haunted castles · Legend Glamis Castle – the Grey Lady, Earl Beardie and the Monster Glamis Castle, Angus, Scotland The Lyon family's Scottish seat is said to be one of Britain's most haunted castles, home to a lady burned at the stake and an earl who played cards with the Devil.
    3. 1541–present Ghosts of historical figures · Disputed Catherine Howard and the Haunted Gallery at Hampton Court The Haunted Gallery, Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, Surrey Henry VIII’s fifth wife is said to have broken free from her guards and run screaming down the gallery to beg the king for mercy. Her screams still echo there.
    4. 1561–present White ladies · Legend The Green Lady of Stirling Castle Stirling Castle, Scotland The ghost of a maid of Mary, Queen of Scots, who legend says saved the queen from a fire, is believed to warn of danger – especially fire.
    5. 1577 Spectral creatures and night demons · Disputed Black Shuck – the Black Dog of Bungay and Blythburgh St Mary's Church, Bungay, Suffolk During a storm on Sunday 4 August 1577 a black dog is said to have burst into two Suffolk churches, killed worshippers and left scorch marks on a door.
    6. 1590–1592 Witches and witch trials · Explained The North Berwick Witches Ruins of St Andrew's Auld Kirk, North Berwick, Scotland On Halloween night 1590 witches were said to meet the Devil in the church at North Berwick to sink King James VI's ship. The king questioned the accused himself.
    7. 1594 Witches and witch trials · Explained Gwen ferch Ellis, the first Welshwoman executed for witchcraft Denbigh town square (now Hall Square, by the library), Denbighshire, Wales A north Wales healer was undone by a paper charm written backwards, found in a gentleman’s parlour. In 1594 she was hanged in Denbigh’s square.
    8. c. 1597 Headless riders and wild hunts · Legend Herne the Hunter of Windsor Forest Home Park, Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England A ghostly antlered keeper who, according to an old tale, walks around an oak in the royal park at Windsor at midnight.

  4. 17th century

    1. 1612 Witches and witch trials · Explained The Pendle Witches Lancaster Castle, Lancashire Nine-year-old Jennet Device testified against her own mother, brother and sister. In 1612 ten people from around Pendle Hill went to the gallows.
    2. 1616 Tomb and family curses · Disputed The Curse on Shakespeare's Grave Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, England Shakespeare's gravestone curses anyone who moves his bones. A radar survey in 2016 suggested someone may not have listened.
    3. c. 1625–present Hotels and inns · Legend Lady Isabella of Ballygally Castle’s tower Ballygally Castle, Coast Road, Ballygally, County Antrim, Northern Ireland Her husband locked her in the tower for bearing a daughter instead of an heir. Lady Isabella fell from the window onto the rocks – and now knocks on hotel guests’ doors.
    4. 1642 Phantom armies and battles · Legend The Phantom Battle of Edgehill Edgehill battlefield near Kineton, Warwickshire, England Two months after the first battle of the English Civil War, shepherds saw it replayed in the sky – and King Charles I sent officers to investigate.
    5. 1645–1647 Witches and witch trials · Explained Matthew Hopkins, the “Witchfinder General” Manningtree, Essex During the Civil War young Matthew Hopkins of Manningtree unleashed the largest witch-hunt in English history. In two years some hundred people went to the gallows.
    6. c. 1650–present Hotels and inns · Legend The Skirrid Inn – the Hangman's Tavern Skirrid Mountain Inn, Llanvihangel Crucorney, Monmouthshire, Wales At an inn claiming to be the oldest in Wales, 180 convicts were supposedly hanged from a beam above the stairs – and guests say they feel a noose round their necks.
    7. 1661–1663 Poltergeists · Disputed The Drummer of Tedworth John Mompesson’s house in Tedworth (now Tidworth), Wiltshire After magistrate Mompesson confiscated a vagrant’s drum, his house echoed for two years with nightly drumming, knocking and scratching.
    8. 1670 Witches and witch trials · Legend Major Weir, the West Bow saint who confessed to sorcery West Bow, Old Town, Edinburgh, Scotland In 1670 a respected Puritan officer confessed to terrible sins of his own accord and was burned along with his staff. His West Bow house stood empty for a century.
    9. 1671 Headless riders and wild hunts · Legend Lady Howard's Coach of Bones Okehampton Castle, Devon, England Every night a coach made from the bones of Lady Howard's four husbands, driven by a headless coachman, is said to travel from Tavistock to Okehampton Castle.
    10. 1685–present Forests, islands and abandoned places · Legend Mary King's Close – the Street beneath Edinburgh Mary King's Close beneath the City Chambers, Royal Mile, Edinburgh, Scotland A 17th-century alley sealed beneath Edinburgh's City Chambers has long been famous for ghosts – from floating heads to little Annie, who gets dolls from visitors.
    11. c. 1700–present Haunted castles · Legend Berry Pomeroy and its White and Blue Ladies Berry Pomeroy Castle near Totnes, Devon The ruins of the Pomeroy and Seymour castle are said to be haunted by Margaret, starved in a dungeon, and the Blue Lady, whose appearance foretells death.

  5. 18th century

    1. 1702 Cursed objects · Legend Busby's Stoop Chair – the Dead Man's Chair of Thirsk Thirsk Museum, Kirkgate, Thirsk, North Yorkshire Before his execution the murderer Thomas Busby supposedly cursed his favourite chair. Today it hangs high on a wall in Thirsk Museum so nobody can sit in it.
    2. 1711 Witches and witch trials · Explained The Islandmagee witches: Ireland’s last mass witch trial Islandmagee and the court at Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Northern Ireland First a demonic “boy” haunted the Haltridge house; then 18-year-old Mary Dunbar began vomiting pins. Eight women were convicted of witchcraft.
    3. 1716–1717 Poltergeists · Disputed “Old Jeffrey” of Epworth Rectory The Old Rectory, Epworth, Lincolnshire For two winter months knocks, footsteps and groans plagued the family of Rev. Samuel Wesley, father of Methodism’s founder – the children named the ghost “Old Jeffrey”.
    4. 1735–1745 Phantom armies and battles · Unexplained The Spectral Army of Souther Fell Souther Fell ridge near Mungrisdale, Lake District, England On Midsummer Eve, people in a Cumbrian valley watched an army marching for hours along a fell ridge – in 1745 as many as 26 witnesses.
    5. 1750–present Hotels and inns · Legend Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor Jamaica Inn, Bolventor, Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, England A former smugglers' haunt on the Cornish moors, made famous by Daphne du Maurier's novel, has its own ghost – a stranger who never finished his drink.
    6. 1762 Poltergeists · Hoax The Cock Lane Ghost Cock Lane near Smithfield Market, London A knocking “ghost of Fanny” accused a widower of poisoning his lover – crowds besieged the house until a committee including Samuel Johnson exposed the fraud.
    7. 1785 Forests, islands and abandoned places · Legend Burns’s “Halloween” and the fairies dancing on Cassillis Downans Cassillis Downans, by Cassillis House near Maybole, South Ayrshire, Scotland “Upon that night, when fairies light on Cassilis Downans dance…” – in 1785 Robert Burns described Scotland’s Halloween charms and games.

  6. 19th century

    1. 1816–present Haunted houses and manors · Legend Olivia of Springhill, the ghost who regrets Springhill House, Moneymore, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland After George Lenox-Conyngham took his own life in 1816, his second wife Olivia is said to appear at the bedroom door, as if trying to undo what happened.
    2. 1837–1904 Spectral creatures and night demons · Disputed Spring-heeled Jack Old Ford (Bow), East London Victorian England was terrorised by a cloaked attacker who leapt over walls, with claws and eyes like balls of fire, and who reportedly breathed blue flame.
    3. 1850 Cursed objects · Legend The Koh-i-Noor – a Diamond Unlucky for Men Jewel House, Tower of London Legend says the Koh-i-Noor brings misfortune to any man who owns it. Since 1850 it has therefore been worn only by women of the royal family.
    4. c. 1874 Vampires and strigoi · Legend The Vampire of Croglin Grange Croglin, Cumbria A creature with flaming eyes picked out a window pane and bit a sleeping tenant on the throat – one of England's most famous vampire tales.
    5. 1889 Cursed objects · Legend The Unlucky Mummy of the British Museum British Museum, Room 62, London A painted coffin lid of an Egyptian woman was said to bring death and disaster – even, rumour had it, the sinking of the Titanic. The museum has denied it all.

  7. 1920–1929

    1. c. 1920–present Haunted castles · Legend The Blue Boy of Chillingham Castle Chillingham Castle, Northumberland, England A boy wrapped in blue light was said to appear in the Pink Room of this border castle – until, the story goes, a child's bones were found inside a wall.
    2. 1921 Roadside and bridge ghosts · Disputed The Hairy Hands of Dartmoor B3212 road between Postbridge and Two Bridges, Dartmoor, Devon On a road across Dartmoor, invisible hairy hands were said to seize steering wheels and handlebars and force vehicles off the road.
    3. 1929–1939 Haunted houses and manors · Disputed Borley Rectory – “the Most Haunted House in England” Former Borley Rectory, Essex, England A Victorian rectory with a phantom nun and servant bells ringing on their own became England's most famous – and most disputed – haunted house.

  8. 1930–1939

    1. 1936 White ladies · Disputed The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall Raynham Hall, Norfolk, England Two “Country Life” photographers captured a misty female figure on the staircase of Raynham Hall – one of the most famous ghost photographs ever taken.
    2. 1938 Poltergeists · Disputed The Thornton Heath Poltergeist (Alma Fielding) A house on Beverstone Road, Thornton Heath, London Flying plates, objects appearing from nowhere and mysterious scratches – a south London housewife’s haunting ended in charges of fraud and a lawsuit.

  9. 1940–1949

    1. 1944 Séances and mediums · Hoax Helen Duncan – England’s Last “Witch” Master Temple Psychic Centre, Copnor Road, Portsmouth A Portsmouth medium was arrested mid-séance and convicted under the Witchcraft Act of 1735 – earlier she had “known” about the sinking of a battleship.

  10. 1950–1959

    1. 1953 Phantom armies and battles · Unexplained The Roman Soldiers in the Treasurer's House Cellar Treasurer's House, York, England An 18-year-old plumber saw a troop of Roman soldiers in the cellar of a York house – visible only from the knees up.

  11. 1960–1969

    1. 1960 Poltergeists · Unexplained The Sauchie Poltergeist Sauchie near Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland Knocking, a rocking linen chest and rippling bedclothes around an 11-year-old Irish girl – witnessed by a minister, doctors and a teacher.
    2. 1965–present Roadside and bridge ghosts · Legend The Phantom Hitchhiker of Blue Bell Hill A229 road on Blue Bell Hill between Maidstone and Chatham, Kent On a hill in Kent, drivers see a young woman who runs in front of their car or asks for a lift – and then dissolves into thin air.
    3. 1966–1969 Poltergeists · Disputed The Black Monk of Pontefract 30 East Drive, Pontefract, West Yorkshire Puddles on dry floors, foam from the taps and flying crockery in a Yorkshire council house – the family called the ghost “Fred”, legend gave him a monk’s habit.

  12. 1970–1979

    1. 1970 Vampires and strigoi · Explained The Highgate Vampire Highgate Cemetery, London After a TV report about a “king vampire,” a crowd of hunters with stakes and crosses scaled the walls of locked Highgate Cemetery on Friday 13 March 1970.
    2. 1971–1972 Werewolves · Disputed The Hexham Heads and the Wolf-Like Figure Rede Avenue, Hexham, Northumberland After two small stone heads were dug up in a garden, a scholar of Celtic culture said a half-man, half-wolf figure walked through her house.
    3. 1976 Spectral creatures and night demons · Disputed Owlman – the Owl-Man of Mawnan Church of St Mawnan and St Stephen, Mawnan, Cornwall Two girls on holiday in Cornwall reportedly saw a winged “bird-man” hovering over a church tower – and the legend of Owlman was born.
    4. 1977–1979 Poltergeists · Disputed The Enfield Poltergeist 284 Green Street, Brimsdown, Enfield, London Moving furniture, flying toys and a gruff male voice coming from an 11-year-old girl – Britain’s most famous poltergeist still divides researchers.

  13. 1980–1989

    1. 1985 Cursed objects · Explained The Crying Boy – the Painting That Would Not Burn Rotherham, South Yorkshire In 1985 a British tabloid claimed that prints of a crying boy caused house fires and were the only things to survive them. Readers burned them in droves.
    2. 1989–present Forests, islands and abandoned places · Legend Pluckley, “the most haunted village in England” Pluckley near Ashford, Kent A Red Lady in the churchyard, a highwayman pinned to a tree by a sword, a screaming brickmaker – this Kent village of twelve ghosts made the Guinness Book of Records.

  14. 1990–1999

    1. c. 1991 Haunted houses and manors · Legend Llancaiach Fawr, Colonel Prichard’s manor Llancaiach Fawr, Gelligaer Road near Nelson, Caerphilly County Borough, Wales The Tudor manor where Charles I visited Colonel Prichard in 1645 was said to be haunted by the colonel himself, a dead maid, a little boy and a “man in black.”
    2. 1996–present Prisons, hospitals and asylums · Legend Crumlin Road Gaol, the prison its ghosts never left Crumlin Road Gaol, 53–55 Crumlin Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland Over 150 years, 17 men were hanged in the Belfast jail. Since it closed in 1996, staff and visitors have told of footsteps and shadows on the landings.
    3. c. 1998–present Cemeteries, crypts and ossuaries · Disputed The Mackenzie Poltergeist of Greyfriars Kirkyard Greyfriars Kirkyard, Old Town, Edinburgh, Scotland Since someone broke into “Bloody” Mackenzie's tomb in the late 1990s, people on night tours of this Edinburgh graveyard have reported scratches and fainting.

  15. 2000–2009

    1. 2001–present Forests, islands and abandoned places · Disputed The South Bridge Vaults of Edinburgh and the ghost experiment South Bridge Vaults (Blair Street Vaults), Old Town, Edinburgh, Scotland The dark chambers beneath Edinburgh’s South Bridge are billed as the city’s most haunted place. In 2001 psychologists tested what visitors really feel there.