The Paranormal Database

Steep Hill, Lincoln.

Open the Gates!

Location: Lincoln (Lincolnshire) - Flat area at top of Steep Hill, outside castle gate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1992 (horseman), and sometime between 2009 and 2012 (breath)
Further Comments: A night worker returning home early in the morning was unnerved as a man riding a black horse charged by him. As the rider approached the locked castle gates, he screamed 'Open the gates! Open the gates!' before vanishing near the still closed entrance. Another witness reported feeling breathing on the back of the neck, hearing strange footsteps and seeing shadows.

General Dalyell

Location: Linlithgow (Lothian) - House of the Binns
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A one-time owner of the building, General Dalyell has been seen on horseback on the estate. The seventeenth century commander may return to gloat over his constant poker victories, in which he even beat the Devil himself! A phantom monk has also been reported on site.

Headless Horseman

Location: Litchfield (Hampshire) - Angledown Barrow (aka Angle Down Barrow)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Holding his head under one arm, this horseman was said to have manifested when a small group of men attempted to dig up the barrow while looking for treasure (reputed to be a golden image).

Lady Lightfoot

Location: Little Shelsey (Hereford & Worcester) - Courthouse
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This ghostly woman drove her coach and horses around inside the courthouse, screaming in protest of her murder while in prison.

Solid Gold

Location: Littlebredy (aka Little Bredy) (Dorset) - The Grey Mare & Her Colts (long barrow)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Stone still present
Further Comments: Hidden under the Grey Mare is reputedly a coffin made from solid gold. There is also a local legend that connects the barrow to a phantom horse that runs around the area.

White Hound of Feens

Location: Littlewick Green (Berkshire) - Wooded area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1985 / 1986
Further Comments: A legend says this hound, which can be heard howling in the night, is sometimes accompanied by a young lady in grey on horseback. She, in turn, has been known to ride with a wild hunt called the Dorcas Noble, while trying to win the heart of a former boyfriend. A large white hound was seen in the area during the 1980s - the size of an Irish Wolfhound, during one encounter the creature vanished as if running behind a black sheet.

Horseless Horse Rider

Location: Llanerchymedd (Llannerch-y-medd) (Gwynedd) - Road between Llangefni and Benllech, near the California Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Thrown off her mount and killed, this shade now stands around the place where she broke her neck.

White Horse

Location: Llangynwyd (Mid Glamorgan) - Roads in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Even the most fearless residents on the village felt terror when they encountered this phantom, snow-white mare along the roads at night.

Fantastic Horse

Location: Loch Borralan (Highland) - Waters of the loch
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This loch monster will disguise itself as a radiant white horse, enabling it to walk up to victims before pulling them into the loch's murky waters.

Kelpie

Location: Loch Coruisk (Highland) - Waters of the loch
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This lake monster would take the form of a beautiful horse which would try to drown anyone who tried to mount it.

White Horse

Location: Loch Dornoch (Highland) - Straight piece of road lined with trees on both sides
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2001
Further Comments: Witness Mr Morrison stopped his car suddenly when he encountered a white horse ridden by a Victorian man in the middle of the road. Both entities vanished quickly into the distance.

Water Horse

Location: Loch Shin (Highland) - Waters of the loch
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This creature was friendlier than many of the other Scottish water horses and assisted in the construction of a local church. It may have been yellow in colour.

Alex Skene

Location: Loch Skene (Aberdeenshire) - General area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local villain, Alex was drowned by Old Nick as he tried to cross the waters of the loch in his horse-drawn carriage. The same coach still travels the surrounding countryside, driven by its dead master. The same area is also 'haunted' by a large hairy monster, apparently once photographed from a distance.

Headless Horseman

Location: Lochbuie (Argyll and Bute) - Lochbuie House
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Prior to tragedy in the Ewen family
Further Comments: This decapitated ghostly figure was once Ewen of the Little Head. Ewen was killed in battle with a rogue laird and now appears in the area around the house to warn the Ewen family of impending doom. Another animal, a large black dog, is reported to patrol the grounds.

The Bean-nighe, or Scottish washer-woman, standing waist deep in water. Image by Wayne Lowden.

Bean-nighe

Location: Lochbuie, Isle of Mull (Argyll and Bute) - River by Moy Castle
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: 1500s
Further Comments: The Bean-nighe is a Scottish spirit, an ill bringer who would be seen washing the clothes of those soon to die. This creature has long breasts, slung over her shoulders, and if she were grabbed from behind, the Bean-nighe would say whom the clothes belonged; if yours, she could change fate. The owner of the castle, upon seeing the creature, tried to grab her but failed - he died in battle the following day. As if this entity were not enough to contend with, the area is haunted by a headless horseman.

White Horse

Location: Lochgelly (Fife) - Old house (may no longer stand) on the banks of Loch Gelly, Powguild
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A white horse once haunted the area around the house. Another animal ghost was reputedly a mole - a former resident declared that she would haunt the garden she loved in the form of the furry mammal, and so she did.

Headless Horseman

Location: Loddington (Leicestershire) - Road on a steep hill in the area
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The horseman, holding his head under one arm, gallops at breakneck speed down the hill, with anyone who witnesses him doomed to suffer a family bereavement.

Coach

Location: Long Bredy (Dorset) - Kingston Russell House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The driveway of the house is said to be haunted by a coach containing a headless footman and four headless passengers, driven by a headless coachman, pulled by a team of four headless horses.

Headless Horses

Location: Long Compton (Warwickshire) - Long Compton Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather dependent: After a storm
Further Comments: A coach pulled by six headless horses is said to travel up the hill. There are also vague reports of a shuck-like dog that runs in the same area. Another ghost, that of a scary old woman with matted black hair, was also reported here in 1973.

Horse & Cart

Location: Longham (Dorset) - Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 29 July 2012. 04:30h
Further Comments: While overtaking a slow moving lorry, a driver spotted a grey horse and cart to the side of the bridge ahead of him. When the driver reached the bridge, the horse had vanished.

Horses

Location: Lostwithiel (Cornwall) - Braddock Down
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 19 January (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The site of a Cromwellian defeat, the anniversary of which is marked by phantom hoof falls.

Coach & Horses

Location: Louth (Lincolnshire) - Cadeby Hall and Barton Street
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Prior to death in family
Further Comments: The evening prior to a death in the owner's family a team of four horses would pull a coach up the driveway before fading from view. The nearby Barton Street is also haunted by a phantom horse that throws its rider into a ditch.

Galloping Horse

Location: Lower Bebington (Lancashire) - Orchard Cottage (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Demolished in 1934, the surrounding land of the cottage is haunted by a horse which could be heard quite distinctly, though never seen.

Tommy

Location: Lowestoft (Suffolk) - Grange Farm, Henstead
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Misty evenings
Further Comments: Seen on marsh fields with another horse at night, Tommy died several years previous, though still enjoys grazing alongside his former friends.

Headless Man

Location: Lulsley (Hereford & Worcester) - Sandy Lane (between Osebury Rock and the river)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One folk story says this road is home to several entities that appear to travellers, including a headless man, a white horse, a black dog, and a sad woman with flowing hair who wears a white robe.