The farmer, an abuser and part-time stone
Location: Llangattock (Powys) - Stone known as The Lonely Shepherd (aka Peaky Stone)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 23 June (or Midsummer Eve) (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The stone is said to have once been an abusive farmer who drove his wife to commit suicide in the nearby river. A witch who witnessed the abuse turned the farmer into a stone, permitting him to move one day a year, when he wanders the area calling out his wife's name.
Location: Dyffryn (South Glamorgan) - St Lythan's Cromlech
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 23 June (or Midsummer Eve) (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The capstone on this cromlech is said to rotate three times on Midsummer Eve. In addition, anyone who makes a wish here on 31 October will have it granted.
A skeleton gets his groove on.
Location: Worthing (Sussex) - Broadwater Green, old oak tree
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 23 June (or Midsummer Eve) (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A local tale says that these animated bones appear on midsummer night's eve to dance and jig until the sun rises on the following day.
An old illustration of witches dancing with demons.
Location: Zennor (Cornwall) - General area of Trewa (aka Trewey)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 23 June (or Midsummer Eve) (reoccurring), although activity ceased 1800s
Further Comments: Robert Hunt wrote that once a year the entire local witch population would meet in Trewa and travel around the surrounding area to light fires on all monoliths and standing stones in the area. One stone was known as the Witches Stone and anyone who touched it nine times at midnight was warded against ill-luck. The stone was removed at some point in the nineteenth century.
Location: Bettiscombe (Dorset) - Sliding Hill
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 23 June (or Midsummer Eve) and following day (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The hill is said to be named after a magical stone that grants wishes. Once a year, on Midsummer Eve, the stone propels down the hill, before returning the following day.
West Kennet Long Barrow, Wiltshire.
Location: West Kennet (Wiltshire) - Long Barrow
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 23 June (or Midsummer Eve), sunrise (reoccurring). Encounters in 1995 and 1996
Further Comments: Appearing to mark the start of the longest day of the year, this pale hound has been observed at sunrise. Some reports say the dog is accompanied by a ghostly druid. In 1995 a witness heard an almost unbearable high-pitched sound before observing a Neolithic man emerge from the barrow and walk away. The witness was terrified and fled. An experience in 1996 resulted in a witness feeling as if they had hit an invisible wall and something was trying to push them out, and they later read of someone four years earlier who had been grabbed by invisible hands.
Location: Souter Fell (Cumbria) - Side of Mountain visible from Wilton Hall
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 23 June 1744 (reoccurring?)
Further Comments: Over two dozen witnesses saw a mass of troops ascending the mountain on horseback, though there were no real soldiers in the area. The ghostly army had been seen twice before, always on the same date.
Location: Bickleigh (Devon) - Bridge over the River Exe
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 June (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This shade returns once a year to the place where he murdered a man, throwing the body over the bridge into the waters below.
The road between Blythburgh and Westleton, Suffolk.
Location: Blythburgh (Suffolk) - B1125 Blythburgh to Westleton road, crossroads known locally as Five Finger Post
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 June (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Possibly murdered in 1750, the ghost of Anne Blakemore has developed a habit of running in front of cars, convincing the drivers that they have run over a living person. She is commonly seen around 24 June, the date of her death.
Location: Oulton (Norfolk) - Oulton Broad
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 or 25 June, around 00.30h (Reoccurring)
Further Comments: The ghostly barge Mayfly relives its final voyage. With the captain of the boat on deck, chasing and murdering a young woman, the boat has been seen with its sails bellowing on calm nights. The captain of the boat was escorting a large sum of money and a woman down the river when he decided to steal the cargo and murder the witness. The woman and Captain killed each other in the fight, and now the boat haunts the waters.
An old postcard showing Windsor Castle.
Location: Windsor (Berkshire) - Windsor Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 26 June (Charles) (reoccurring), other entities various
Further Comments: Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, Charles I & George III have all reportedly been seen here after their natural lives ended. Elizabeth frequents the library, Charles the Canon's House (traditionally walking on the night of 26 June), while George haunts the rooms in which he was bound after being declared mad. Henry VIII can only be heard, moving slowly down the corridors, dragging his bad leg. The great park attached to the castle is home to Herne the Hunter, who together with his devil dogs, stalk the woodlands. In 1906 a guard was investigated after he fired five rounds at a white figure - he claimed the bullets passed straight through the figure. Finally (for the time being), the park is also haunted by the ghost of a Grenadier Guard who killed himself while on duty.
Location: Galashiels (Borders) - Buckholm Tower
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: June (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Heard chasing the soul of the evil Laird of Buckholm on the anniversary of his death, these hounds are reported to normally walk the dungeon located within the tower.
Location: Llanfaglan (Gwynedd) - Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: June (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The shades of everyone whose bodies have been found along the coast near the village walk towards the church on a certain day in June, vanishing as they reach their graves.
A phantom child at Tidmarsh.
Location: Tidmarsh (Berkshire) - Stream near Tidmarsh Rectory
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: June (reoccurring), clear nights of the full moon - last seen 1880s?
Further Comments: The stream that ran close to this property was said to be haunted by a young boy who once drowned in its waters.
The railway bridge of three arches over the River Avon.
Location: Christchurch (Dorset) - Three Arches Bend (railway bridge of three arches over the River Avon)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: June evenings (reoccurring)
Further Comments: After being acquitted of murdering her husband, Alma Rattenbury walked to this area, wrote a suicide note, and stabbed herself to death. Her tragic figure is still reported to sit in the long grass by the water's edge.
Location: Rotherfield (Sussex) - The King's Arms
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late June (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The spirit of a young girl is reported to frequent this building - she has been felt tugging clothing, and mysterious bare feet were once seen running along a corridor.
Location: Plaxtol (Kent) - Old Soar manor house, two miles from Plaxtol
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Priest seen 1972, other activity said to peak in June (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Jenny committed suicide (or died by misadventure) in the chapel area after finding out she was pregnant - people now report lights that flicker around the chapel after dark. A phantom priest was reported by two people in the chapel in 1972, accompanied by a fall in temperature. Other people have reported soft footsteps in different parts of the building.
Location: Purse Caundle (Dorset) - Purse Caundle Manor
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Varies: 20 June or 23 June and 31 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Twice a year, this pack of devil dogs is let loose in the neighbourhood. Sounds of ghostly plainchant have been heard coming from the manor house.
Location: Brundall (Norfolk) - River
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Varies: 24 June & 18 September (Reoccurring)
Further Comments: Sailing up the river, the Bishop's barge contains 28 rowers and is covered with fine cloth and silk. The Bishop is said to bless any ill people that he sails by.