The Paranormal Database

Banished

Location: Hobkirk - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Eighteenth century
Further Comments: This church was haunted by shades unknown, but they were exorcised by a local minister.

Chappie

Location: Houndwood - Mansion house (not known if still standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This house was haunted by something knocking at the door, which manifested only once, taking the form of a lady who ascended the staircase before vanishing.

Reapers

Location: Hownam - Standing stones
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: These stones are said to be people who tried to reap their crops on the Sabbath.

An old postcard of Traquair House.

Lady Louisa Stuart

Location: Innerleithen - Traquair House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Buried nearby, Lady Louisa has been observed drifting around the grounds of the building. They say that Bonny Prince Charlie sometimes returns to the castle.

Green Lady

Location: Jedburgh - Ferniehirst Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This jade coloured figure has been observed in the large house.

The Ex

Location: Jedburgh - Jedburgh Abbey
Type: Curse
Date / Time: October 1285
Further Comments: A piece of folklore says that Yolande of Dreux had a former boyfriend murdered so she could marry King Alexander III of Scotland. After the wedding, the boyfriend's phantom appeared and issued a curse that Yolande would be killed by misery (it is worth noting she did not die for another 45 years). A remarkably similar story is told of Jedburgh Castle.

Hooded Gatecrasher

Location: Jedburgh - Jedburgh Castle (original building no longer standing, replaced by Jedburgh Castle Jail))
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: October 1285
Further Comments: While in the middle of his wedding celebrations an unknown hooded figure appeared - as the dozens of guests and entertainers stopped and looked at him, it grew apparent his face was that of a skull. The figure then vanished, leaving many startled people behind. Some people maintain the building is still haunted, though little supports this. A very similar tale is told of Jedburgh Abbey.

An old postcard showing Roxburgh Castle.

James II

Location: Kelso - Roxburgh Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: James II was killed storming the castle, and it is reportedly his ghost on horseback that still charges around the area.

Dancing Fairies

Location: Kelso - Tweed
Type: Other
Date / Time: After dark, pre twentieth century
Further Comments: Fairies were said to have been observed dancing in the whirlpools in the river.

John Maitland

Location: Lauder - Thirlstane Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of Maitland and those victims he raped and tortured, remain earthbound within this castle.

Mound Building Sisters

Location: Linton - Hill on which the church stands
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A man who killed a priest had his life spared on the condition his two sisters build a mound on which a new church would stand. The completed the task, although one of the sisters promptly died upon his release (either from exhaustion or joy).

Linton Wyrm

Location: Linton - Linton Hill
Type: Dragon
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This dragon was dispatched by Somerville de Lariston; the brave knight covered his lance with burning pitch, piecing the dragon's armour and cooking it from the inside.

Mary Mackie

Location: Loch Coruisk - Close to the loch
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Mary Mackie was one of three sisters cursed to walk the area after killing her husband and a witch. A Welsh visitor by the name of Morgan encountered the woman who tried to lure him to his doom.

Laird on Horseback

Location: Maxton - Littledean Tower
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: Killed by a local witch, this former owner of the tower can be seen riding his mare, lost on the barren land. Another ghost story from the area says a woman returned from the grave to ensure that her hidden treasure was given fairly to the landowner and a kind serving girl.

Two Walking Women

Location: Maxton - Triangular field in the area (formally?) known as Bowbrig Syke
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown - pre-twentieth century
Further Comments: For around a hundred years two ghostly women would walk around this field arm in arm, from dusk until dawn before vanishing. When the road nearby was being repaired, two female skeletons were discovered, after which the ghosts never appeared again.

An old postcard showing Sir Walter Scott.

Sir Walter Scott

Location: Melrose - Abbotsford House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Scott, the Romantic author who died in 1832, sometimes gazes out of the dining room window onto his former lands beyond. In turn, Scott is said to have claimed that the house was haunted by George Bullock, his former assistant.

Arthur Bryant Haig

Location: Melrose - Bemersyde House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Post-1918
Further Comments: Former owner of the house, Arthur Bryant Haig, is still said to mount his (now phantom) chestnut horse and ride through his lands towards a nearby river.

Eildon Hills, Melrose.

Fairy Queen

Location: Melrose - Eildon Hills
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The fairy queen kidnapped the Scottish hero Thomas the Rhymer in this area, returning him from the fairy kingdom in the same place seven (or three) years later. Thomas is reported to still live under the hills, preparing for the day his country needs him once more. The latter part of the same tale is also said about King Arthur.

Elf Home

Location: Melrose - Elwin stream (aka Allan stream) which feeds into the Tweed
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: As with Beaumont Water near Cheviot Hills, this small body of water was once thought to be the home of the fairies, the circular pebbles within considered elf plates.

George And Abbotsford Hotel, Melrose.

Footsteps

Location: Melrose - George and Abbotsford Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century, and 2020
Further Comments: Guests staying on the top floor of the George and Abbotsford Hotel would hear footsteps above them, even though there is nothing there. In 2020, the hotel featured in the local press; poltergeist activity had resulted in lights being turned on and off by an unseen agency, and the chef having her hair violently pulled.

Melrose Abbey, final resting place of Michael Scot.

Evil Monk

Location: Melrose - Melrose Abbey
Type: Vampire
Date / Time: Circa twelfth century?
Further Comments: An evil monk returned from the dead as a vampire, leaving his grave at Melrose Abbey to feed at a local nunnery. When the other monks discovered this, the bravest stayed up one night with a large axe, and when the vampire climbed out of its tomb, it was beheaded (although the vampire's evil presence remains in the abbey). The building is also the final resting place of Michael Scot, a great wizard who discovered the secret of flying, and was locally named as building Hadrian's Wall single handed.

Gifts

Location: Minch Moor - Cheese Well
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Well still present
Further Comments: The well took its name from the cheese which travellers would leave for the resident fairies.

Patrolling Soldiers

Location: Newstead - General area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: These guards are reportedly Roman and are heard marching across the land after dark.

Faery Queen

Location: Old Cambus - Fracture in a rock face, was known as the Fairy Road, and surrounding area
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Faery Queen would be seen just before dawn broke, travelling in her coach and six.

Mermaid's Stone

Location: Old Cambus - Road leading to Church of St Helen
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The concave nature of a stone on the road leading to the church was attributed to the foot of a mermaid (an untraditional untailed one) escaping from her jailor.