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Apparitions

Headless riders and wild hunts

The headless horseman, a black coach drawn by headless horses or a wild hunt racing above the forest are motifs known from Ireland to the Urals. They are often tied to particular roads, bridges and ruins – and to people who died a violent death there. This group also includes spectral heralds of death such as the Irish dullahan, as well as modern accounts of drivers who saw figures vanish in their headlights on empty roads.

cases
8
years
1127–2026

Legend: 8

  1. 12th century

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

  2. 14th century

    1. 1375 Headless riders and wild hunts · Legend King Valdemar's Wild Hunt at Gurre Gurre Castle ruins near Helsingør, Zealand, Denmark Denmark's King Valdemar Atterdag, who preferred Gurre to heaven, is said to ride every night through the forests of Zealand at the head of a ghostly hunt.

  3. 16th century

    1. c. 1597 Headless riders and wild hunts · Legend Herne the Hunter of Windsor Forest Home Park, Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England, United Kingdom 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. 1640 Headless riders and wild hunts · Legend Ankou – the Breton Coachman of Death Ossuary of the parish close at La Roche-Maurice, Brittany, France A skeleton with a scythe or spear who drives a creaking cart along Breton roads at night collecting souls – on the La Roche-Maurice ossuary he warns: “I kill you all.”
    2. 1671 Headless riders and wild hunts · Legend Lady Howard's Coach of Bones Okehampton Castle, Devon, England, United Kingdom 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.

  5. 19th century

    1. 1820 Headless riders and wild hunts · Legend The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, New York, United States The ghost of a Hessian trooper whose head was shot off by a cannonball chases night travelers in a Hudson Valley hollow – a legend set down by Washington Irving.
    2. 1879–present Headless riders and wild hunts · Legend The Headless Ghost of Mary Gallagher, Griffintown Griffintown, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Murdered in 1879, she is said to return every seven years to the corner of William and Murray streets in Montreal to look for her head. In 2026 people waited again.
    3. 1892 Headless riders and wild hunts · Legend La Chasse-galerie – the Flying Canoe Lavaltrie, Quebec, Canada Lumberjacks in a winter camp strike a pact with the devil to fly home by canoe to their sweethearts on New Year's Eve. They must not name God or touch a cross.