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Cumbria Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana


An old postcard of Naworth Castle.

White Lady

Location: Naworth - Naworth Castle
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Falling in love and becoming pregnant by the lord of the castle, a local girl committed suicide after being shunned by him after their love affair. Though her mother then cursed the evil lord (resulting in his death, and that of the estate's future heir), the young lass still returns to the site.

Crying

Location: Naworth - Railway crossing
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: A signalman was left terrified after hearing two children crying out in anguish. Another worker on the site encountered a man who asked for a light. The worker reached for his lighter, but the man vanished without trace. An accident at the crossing in August 1926 took eight lives, including two children.

Ealinghearth Dobby

Location: Newby Bridge - Fearing Brow (lane)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This white entity would unnerve people with its strange sounds and hitched rides upon passing carts.

Blaming the Boggle

Location: Orton - General area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After a boggle caused trouble and misery to the villagers, they requested the help of a preacher in exorcising the entity. Halfway through the procedure, the religious man received such a hard slap from the boggle, that he gave up and left. What became of the boggle is unknown.

Several Arm

Location: Overwater - Overwater Tarn
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Winter (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The severed arm of a Jamaican woman (see Ireby - Overwater Hotel, for more information) is said to prevent ice forming on the tarn. As the temperature drops, the arm punches upwards and breaks apart any frozen water.

Strange Presence

Location: Penrith - Beacon Edge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-twentieth century?
Further Comments: A local myth states that prior to being urbanised, a heavy, strange presence perforated the area. One author stated that it was once believed that unmarried mothers would leave their babies here.

House with Reputation

Location: Penrith - Building on corner of King Street and Crown Square
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1850s?
Further Comments: Belonging to the Harding family, a newspaper referred to the building as haunted, although lacked details of by whom.

Nun

Location: Penrith - Corner of Salkeld Road and Scotland Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 26 December 1930, 23:45h
Further Comments: A man walking his daughter home walked past a little figure dressed like a nun that unnerved both witnesses. A local tale claimed the area to be haunted by a monk or a man dressed in black, and one encounter that had happened around the 1890s resulted in a local family moving away.

Nicholson

Location: Penrith - Gibbet Hill (aka Beacon Hill), six kilometres outside of Penrith (gibbet marked by a stone)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Winter nights (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Hanged for the murder of his godfather, Nicholson's body was left dangling throughout the winter of 1766/1767 as a deterrent to others... Some say it still makes an appearance during harsh winters, his skeletal remains hanging from a gibbet.

Disappearing Guest

Location: Penrith - Greystoke Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A guest at the castle vanished without trace, leaving all his clothing and belongings. The ghost of the man has been reported several times, reappearing in the room where he was last seen. Rapping on the wall in the same room has also been reported, thought to belong to a monk who was bricked up alive in the basement.

Snooker Player

Location: Penrith - Melmerby Hall
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2000s, 2022
Further Comments: This entity is said to move the balls around on the snooker table after everyone has retired for the night. The manager for the site claimed that there were eight ghosts at the hall, but none were malignant. In 2022, a visitor experienced doors opening themselves and a shower which turned itself on.

Fast Moving Victorian

Location: Penrith - Road near Flusco
Type: Other
Date / Time: May 2013
Further Comments: A driver was forced to stop in the road when a man dressed in Victorian clothing refused to move aside. When another car approached from the opposite direction, the man ran off into a wooded area 'faster than Usain Bolt'.

Monk

Location: Penrith - Site of old monastery, Scotland Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 2014
Further Comments: The site where a monastery once stood was said to remain the home of a phantom monk.

Giant's Grave

Location: Penrith - St Andrew's Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: Large stones mark the place where a giant is buried - he is thought to be Sir Ewen (or Sir Ewain), a great boar hunter.

Monk

Location: Penrith - White Ox Farm (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 1930s
Further Comments: A nunnery once stood on this land, with a house attached to the farm having a reputation as being haunted and remaining empty.

White Blob

Location: Penrith - Wolfe Pub
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 01 September 2010
Further Comments: A CCTV camera recorded a white shape hover over a table before moving off towards the ceiling where it vanishes from view. As with many of these CCTV captured images, the object resembles a small creature close to the camera, possibly a spider.

Toplis

Location: Plumpton - A6 close to the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A known accident black spot, some blame the ghost of a murderer named Toplis - he was shot and killed by police as he tried to escape justice.

Eveling

Location: Ravenglass - Roman ruins
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Eveling, King of the Fairies, along with his daughter Modron lived in the Roman ruins found here.

Three

Location: Ravenstonedale - Kings Head public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 2000s
Further Comments: The pub was said to be haunted by three 'friendly' ghosts, although it is not known whether the entities have been encountered since the building closed and reopened a couple of years later.

Nanny Trotter

Location: Ravenstonedale - Pinska Gill (a narrow stream or ravine that may no longer exist)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: Nanny Trotter murdered her illegitimate child in this secluded gill; people reported seeing a figure in a grey cloak wandering around the area.

Lord Wharton

Location: Ravenstonedale - Road to village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Lord Wharton was involved in the establishment of the Ravenstonedale Dissenters group - whether this is the reason he haunts the road is unknown.

Former Owner

Location: Ravenstonedale - Ruins of an old coach inn (likely to be currently on private land)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Farmers working the land are said to have seen the former owner of this inn wearing a tricorn hat, gazing from a ruined window and waiting for coaches that never arrive.

Glowing Light

Location: Ravenstonedale - Trees near Rigg End
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: An old man once went from his home at Rigg End for a pitcher of milk. On his return, at Dubb's Gate, he was accosted by a boggle who knocked him down, split his clogs and broke his pitcher. A neighbour sent for Doctor Farrar, who went to Rigg End and laid the evil spirit under a large stone. It remained there for many years until a later resident removed the stone for building purposes, and the boggle was released into the trees surrounding the land. In 1877 it was written that a curious light shone from the trees, reported to be coming from the boggle.

Woman in White

Location: Reagill - Country lanes in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: It is not clear if the woman in white, a large black hound and a black hog which once haunted this area were all the same entity. The phantom (or phantoms) would all suddenly grow once seen, before pursuing any witness.

Woman

Location: Reagill - Former School House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1959
Further Comments: After moving in, Mr and Mrs Anderson both spotted a female figure wearing a stiff necked top with her hair pulled up in their bedroom. The figure walked around the bed before vanishing at its foot.

Records 176 - 194 of 194

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