Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Monthly Archive: October 2008

Apparitions / Hauntings / Road Ghosts

Blackwall Tunnel

A phantom hitchhiker reputedly haunts the Blackwall Tunnel which runs under the River Thames between Greenwich and Tower Hamlets in London. The usual account of a motorcyclist picking up the hitchhiker in 1972 seems to have changed slightly over time. In some versions the hitchhiker is male, others female.

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English Fairies / Fairies / Folklore / Scottish Fairies

Brownies

A widespread name for a fairy or supernatural creature, they were small in appearance and wore brown coloured clothing.

Like many mischievous spirits they were thought to be attached to houses or families and could be helpful in menial household tasks. If offended they became malignant and mischievous, creating poltergeist activity and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

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English Fairies / Fairies / Folklore

Boggart

The Boggart is most commonly found in the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire, its name appears in places such as Boggart’s Clough and Boggart’s Hole in Lancashire. Boggarts were mischievous spirits responsible for mishaps and poltergeist activity within the home and in the countryside.

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Fairies / Folklore / Scottish Fairies

Kelpie

The Kelpie is the supernatural shape-shifting water horse that haunts the rivers and streams of Scotland. It is probably one of the best known of Scottish water spirits and is often mistakenly thought to haunt lochs, which are the reserve of the Each Uisge.

Ancient Sites / Stone Circles

Ballynoe Stone Circle

Ballynoe is a large stone circle dating from the Late Neolithic Period situated with superb views of the Mountains of Mourne to the South. Its position and size make it one of the most impressive stone circles in Ireland.

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Articles / Hauntings

Haunting Theories

There are many theories out there concerning exactly what ghosts are. In my opinion no theory currently explains all aspects witnessed concerning apparitions and hauntings in general.

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Ghost Stories / Tall Tales

The White Lady of Byegill

Chapter One:  Work was progressing well on the new stretch of road from Gelt Bridge to Byegill Farm. It had taken some eight years and much lobbying by local representatives to obtain sufficient funding.

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Ghost Stories / Tall Tales

The Packman and the Well

George Eakin had decided to clear away the ‘Cherry Tree Well’. It was a hazard to people and animals and, so far as George was concerned, a nuisance in the centre of a large and productive field some thousand yards from the home farm.

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Folklore

Under Ben Bulben by William Butler Yeats

Swear by what the Sages spoke
Round the Mareotic Lake
That the Witch of Atlas knew,
Spoke and set the cocks a-crow.

Swear by those horsemen, by those women
Complexion and form prove superhuman,
That pale, long-visaged company
That air an immortality
Completeness of their passions won;
Now they ride the wintry dawn

Ancient Sites / Burial Mounds / Celtic Pantheons / Fairies / Featured Sites / Folklore / Irish Fairies / Pantheons

Newgrange

If we were making a list of the top 100 ancient sites in Britain and Ireland (as is the current vogue) Newgrange would undoubtedly be in the hallowed top 10. Its great age, size, astronomical features and location in the beautiful Boyne Valley, mark it as one of the most important ‘mystery’ sites in Europe.