The Paranormal Database

Healing Pool

Location: Glen Dochart - Pool in the area (not unknown if it still exists)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: A pool in the area was said to cure anyone who had developed madness. The magical waters lost their power after a farmer led a mad bull to the pool and allowed it to bathe.

Mariota

Location: Glengoulandie - Garth Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The laird's wife died under strange circumstances in the early sixteenth century, sightings of her ghost convincing many she was murdered by her husband.

Weaver

Location: Guildtown - St Martins Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After the sale of this church, local media reported that the site had the reputation as being haunted by a minister's wife who was also a weaver.

Footfalls

Location: Kenmore - Taymouth Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sound of phantom footsteps can be heard around the castle. A piece of folklore from the nineteenth century says that the pipers from Taymouth Castle had their instruments provided from the fairies.

White Lady

Location: Kilspindie - Lady's Brig, area of land close to Balmyre Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The history of this phantom female is unknown, but speculated to have been murdered, or was a murderer, or could have been a nun. Or all three. Or none.

Mary Queen of Scots.

Mary Queen of Scots

Location: Kinross - Loch Leven Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Queen of Scots reportedly haunts the building where she signed her abdication.

Bible Burner

Location: Kinross - Minister's House
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: June 1718
Further Comments: The minister of the building managed to recover his Bible without too much harm being bestowed upon it, after an invisible presence threw the book in the fireplace. The spirit would tear clothing and hide pins and needles in cooked foods.

Tinker

Location: Kirkmichael - Ashintully Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: During life, the tinker was found and hanged for trespassing - his ghost is now seen around the trees near where he died. Two more spirits, carrying the cute names of Crooked Davie & Green Jane, are rumoured to haunt the castle grounds. The sound of screaming has also been reported here, while the sound of a phantom galloping horse could be heard after dark along lanes in the area.

Druid

Location: Kirkmichael - The Old Manse
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Complete with long white beard and golden sickle, this figure haunts the area where his temple stood before the manse was constructed. Do not mistake this ghost as being overly quaint, as the screams of human blood sacrifices can be heard from the same area after dark.

An old photograph of Loch Tay from Lawers.

Lady of Lawers

Location: Lawers - General area of the ruined village, on banks of Loch Tay
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2006
Further Comments: This long deserted village is home to the phantom white lady of Lawers. Workers at a nearby hotel report the feeling of being watched in the area.

Each Uisge

Location: Loch Earn - Waters of the Loch
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This water horse would entice people to sit upon its back before drowning the unsuspecting victim. One story says that the creature lived in Loch Tay but was driven out so moved here.

Porridge Eaters

Location: Loch Ericht - Bothy at the southern end of the loch
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A shepherd who used the bothy made tiny bowls and spoons for the fairies who also lived here, having found his own porridge bowl pecked at. The fairies moved away after they brought a guest that the shepherd did not feed.

Husband

Location: Loch Errochty - Mound known as Cam na Sleabkack (aka Slevach Cairn) (may no longer exist)
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A widow was told that her late husband was working as a 'baggage horse' for the fairies within this cairn.

Bridge

Location: Loch Rannoch - Camghouran
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Fairies were in the process of building a bridge across the loch when a traveller wished them 'God speed'. The fairies stopped working and left their bridge unfinished.

A photograph of Loch Tay, taken around 1960.

Water Cows

Location: Loch Tay - General area
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Fairy cattle would constantly graze both on the land surrounding the loch, and in the still waters. Another legend suggests it was home to 'fish without fins', interpreted by some as serpentine monsters. An Each Uisge once lived here but was driven out and moved to Loch Earn instead.

Buarach-Bhaoi

Location: Loch Tummel - General area
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This eel-like creature would wait for horses to trot through the water before looping itself around their legs, drowning the horse before drinking its blood.

Bad Architect

Location: Lochearnhead - Edinample Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Black Duncan Campbell threw an architect to his death from the roof of the castle after he failed to design and build a parapet. The phantom man is now reputed to haunt the roof.

Dogs

Location: Logierait - Ballechin House (demolished 1963)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth Century
Further Comments: The house was haunted by the sounds of arguing, rapping, and an invisible force that felt like a dog pushing against people's legs. This 'dog' was quite common, many people felt it, and other pet dogs brought into the house appeared happy to play with an invisible friend. A phantom nun was also said to walk the garden.

White Lady

Location: Longforgan - HMP Castle Huntly, open prison
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Her white robes flowing as she walks, the white lady is said to leapt from the battlements to escape punishment after being caught with a manservant. A young boy that also haunts the site is thought to be Richard Paterson who drowned in the Tay in 1939.

Line engraving of a mermaid by B Cole, 1759.

Angry Mermaid

Location: Lornty - Waters between town and Loch Benachally
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: These waters were once the swimming area of a mermaid renowned for her bad temperament.

Top of a Woman

Location: Meggernie - Meggernie Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1862, and late 1920s
Further Comments: The 1862 witness, along with others previous, said he woke up during the night to feel a burning kiss on his cheek - standing over him was a woman, who quickly moved away towards an adjoining room. As she drifted though the doorway, the witness noticed she had no legs. The figure has also been seen inversed - just a pair of legs with no torso. One explanation offered is that the figure was murdered, and the body cut in two... A visiting doctor who stayed the night in the 1920s also reported seeing a floating head and shoulders.

Guinevere's Tombstone

Location: Meigle - Museum
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: Killed at nearby Alyth, Guinevere (wife of King Arthur) was buried in this small town - what could be her tombstone is on display in the museum.

Ball of Light

Location: Milnathort - Callert House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s?
Further Comments: Many people over the years witnessed a football sized ball of fire drift out of the house only to drift across nearby Loch Leven and vanish under the water.

Dark Hounds

Location: Mount Schiehallion - General area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: These relatives of the shuck stalk the shady zones of the mountainside, while water horses patrol nearby lochs. Other pieces of folklore have Schiehallion the home of fairies and strange unearthly creatures.

Heavy Dog

Location: Muthill - Private residence
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1971-2003
Further Comments: Three members of the family which lived here experienced the sensation of a heavy dog laying on them in bed. The property was also home to a lady in an old fashioned floor length dress, and a man in a suit and waistcoat who told a builder to 'get on with it' - the builder refused to re-enter the house and quit.