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Boldon Lane, South Shields
The following article by Mike Hallowell entitled Strange goings-on in ‘Spooky Valley’ was published in the Shields Gazette on 21 February 2013. Read More »
Burscough Priory
Robert Fitz-Henry, Lord of Lathom (Born 1135) founded the Augustinian Burscough Priory around 1190. It was dissolved during the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII circa 1536 and today very little remains of the building. Read More »
Sykes Lumb Farm
There is nothing now standing of Sykes Lumb Farm though it probably stood near to the present day Sykes Holt. The farm dated back to the the War of the Roses (1455 – 1485) and gained a reputation for being haunted by a boggart that guarded over a hidden treasure. The story has been published several times. Read More »
The Ashton Gyst-Ale
The gyst-ale, or guising feast, was an annual festival of the town of Ashton-under-Lyne. It appears from the rental of Sir John de Assheton, compiled a.d. 1422, that a sum of twenty shillings was paid to him as lord of the manor for the privilege of holding this feast by its then conductors. Read More »
Stretford Great Stone
By the entrance of Gorse Hill Park from Chester Road is a large boulder known as the Great Stone. This stone gave its name to Great Stone Road (beside which it stood until 1925) and the old Great Stone Farm. There are many stories, legends and theories concerning the origins of the stone. Read More »
The Fairy And The Bible-Reader
ON a still Sabbath evening in summer, an old man was seated, reading his Bible in the open air, at a quiet spot upon the Ross-shire coast. A beautiful little lady, clad in green, drew near, and addressing him in a silvery voice, sought to know if for such as she Holy Scripture held out any hope of salvation. Read More »
Redemption From Fairy Land
NEAR the town of Aberdeen, in Scotland, lived James Campbell, who had one daughter, named Mary, who, was married to John Nelson, a young man of that neighbourhood. Read More »
Thom And Willie
THOM and Willie, two young fisher-mates of Lunna, in Shetland, were rivals for the hand of the fair Osla, daughter of Jarm. Now it so happened that, one October afternoon, they took their hand-lines and went out fishing together in their boat. Read More »
The Golden Fleece, York
The Golden Fleece is a Grade II listed building which claims to be York's most haunted pub. According to their website 'Possibly the most famous ghost is Geoff Monroe, a Canadian airman who was staying at the pub in room four when he died in 1945, by throwing himself or falling out of one of the windows. Read More »
The Two Young Ploughmen
"You have been often at the Gatehouse," said Johnny Nicholson; "well, you'll mind a flat piece of land near Enrick farm; well, that was once a large loch; a long way down from there is still the ruin of a mill, which at that time was fed from this loch. Read More »
The Gloaming Bucht
"SPEAKIN' o' fairies," quoth Robbie Oliver (an old shepherd, who lived at Southdean in Jedwater, and died about 1830), "I can tell ye about the vera last fairy that was seen hereaway. When my faither, Peter Oliver, was a young man, he lived at Hyndlee, an' herdit the Brocklaw. Read More »
The Poor Man Of Peatlaw
THE following is an account of a fairy frolic said to have happened late in the last century:--The victim of elfin sport was a poor man, who, being employed in pulling heather upon Peatlaw, a hill in Selkirkshire, had tired of his labour, and laid him down to sleep upon a fairy ring. Read More »
Santraigh
THERE was a herd's wife in the island of Sanntraigh, and she had a kettle. A woman of peace would come every day to seek the kettle. She would not say a word when she came, but she would catch hold of the kettle. When she would catch the kettle, the woman of the house would say--
"A smith is able to make
Cold iron hot with coal.
The due of a kettle is bones, Read More »
Santraigh
THERE was a herd's wife in the island of Sanntraigh, and she had a kettle. A woman of peace would come every day to seek the kettle. She would not say a word when she came, but she would catch hold of the kettle. When she would catch the kettle, the woman of the house would say--
"A smith is able to make
Cold iron hot with coal. Read More »
Haunted Ships
In the early 1800s Allan Cunningham described his experiences on the Solway Firth and stories around what he referred to as Blawhooly Bay. His piece below entitled 'Haunted Ships' has been reproduced many times throughout the 19th and early 20th century.
Read More »
The Fisherman And The Merman
OF mermen and merwomen many strange stories are told in the Shetland Isles. Beneath the depths of the ocean, according to these stories, an atmosphere exists adapted to the respiratory organs of certain beings, resembling in form the human race, possessed of surpassing beauty, of limited supernatural powers, and liable to the incident of death. Read More »
The Mermaid Wife
A STORY is told of an inhabitant of Unst, who, in walking on the sandy margin of a voe, saw a number of mermen and mermaids dancing by moonlight, and several seal-skins strewed beside them on the ground. At his approach they immediately fled to secure their garbs, and, taking upon themselves the form of seals, plunged immediately into the sea. Read More »
The Bogle
THIS is a freakish spirit, who delights rather to perplex and frighten mankind than either to serve or seriously to hurt them. Shellycoat, a spirit who resides in the waters, and has given his name to many a rock and stone the Scottish coast, belongs to the class of bogles. Read More »
The Isle Of Pabaidh
THERE came a woman of peace (a fairy) the way of the house of a man in the island of Pabaidh, and she had the hunger of motherhood on her. He gave her food, and that went well with her. She stayed that night. Read More »
The Witch Of Laggan
A hero celebrated for his hatred of witchcraft, was warming himself in his hunting hut, in the forest of Gaick, in Badenoch. His faithful hounds, fatigued with the morning chase, lay stretched on the turf by his side,--his gun, that would not miss, reclined in the neuk of the bothy,--the skian dhu of the sharp edge hung by his side, and these alone constituted his company. Read More »
Cheetham Close Stone Circles
The remains of the early Bronze Age Cheetham Close stone circle lies between Chapeltown and Egerton. It measured 18.5 metres and according to a survey by Dryden in 1850, consisted of 6 stones. By 1871 the site was broken up by a tenant of Turton Tower angered by the visitors it was attracting.
The Witches Of Delnabo
IN the time of my grandmother, the farm of Delnabo was proportionally divided between three tenants. Read More »
Old Madam Of Egerton Hall
There was an Egerton Hall which dated from 1826 and was built by Edmund Ashworth. This building was demolished in 1956. However, in ‘Lancashire Legends’ (1873), John Harland and T T Wilkinson refer to a haunted, older Egerton Hall, which was all but demolished by their time of writing and dating from possibly the 17th century. Read More »
Marks & Spencer, York
An article by Joanna Moorhead in The Guardian on 26 October 2011 tells us that 'Over at Coppergate Shopping Centre, site of a Viking fort, it seems an archaeological dig has disturbed spirits that had been lying dormant for centuries. Read More »
Ramhurst Manor House
Ramhurst Manor House is a Grade II listed private residence on Powder Mill Lane dating from the 16th century or earlier. In the middle of the 19th century some strange experiences in the house resulted in it gaining a reputation for being haunted by members of the Children family who had resided there during the 18th century. Read More »
