The Paranormal Database

Fast Builder

Location: Mevagissey - Dodman Fort
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: While in reality an Iron Age promontory fort, folklore has the building as being constructed overnight by a giant.

Dark Mood

Location: Mevagissey - Lost Gardens of Heligan (botanical garden)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: This location was said to home to a 'dark mood' which enveloped gardeners working in certain areas, such as the rockery, bothy, melon garden and fruit store. An exorcism is said to have been performed.

Red Stagecoach

Location: Mevagissey - Road between Mevagissey and Truro
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A driver along this road closed his eyes and prepared for a crash when this eighteenth century coach driven by four horses appeared in front of him - but the accident never happened, as the coach vanished into thin air. The witness later said he had also seen the driver and a guard on the coach.

Petrified Hurlers

Location: Minions - Hurlers stone circle
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: For playing the ancient sport of hurling on a Sunday, these men were transformed into stone as a warning to others. As hurling had a habit of radically reducing life expectancy, it is rarely played today.

Victorian Girl

Location: Mitchell - Main road through village
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1965
Further Comments: A car driver passing through the village watched in horror as a young girl dressed in Victorian clothing ran in front of a lorry. The lorry did not stop and appeared to hit the girl, but there was no one there and none of the other pedestrians in the area appeared to have noticed the incident. A few miles down the road the car driver narrowly avoided a serious accident, and once again briefly saw the phantom Victorian girl smiling, as if happy that the accident had been prevented.

Seaman

Location: Morwenstow - Bush Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One of the oldest pubs in England, the ghost of a sailor who haunts the building may be one of the unknown men washed up on the nearby beach.

An old photograph of people standing outside Morwenstow church.

Robert Hawker

Location: Morwenstow - Church and general area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 27 July 2024, late afternoon / early evening
Further Comments: Folklore says that Parson Hawker, proudly proclaimed a legend in his own lifetime by locals, has been heard walking about in his former church and other various areas of his old neighbourhood. In 2024, one witness looked up from their bible and spotted a figure in dark red robes, wearing wither a hood or a strange hat, standing in the centre aisle. The figure promptly evaporated. Many years ago, the church was due to be constructed in a different place, but the building materials were relocated by a supernatural agency to the place it now stands.

Cursed Chest

Location: Morwenstow - Stanbury Manor
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: The chest is supposed to contain an evil presence that moves furniture around. Two old women who owned the chest prior to its delivery at the Stanbury are said to have been struck deaf when they first opened it and released the spirit hidden inside.

Short Balding Man

Location: Morwenstow - Tonacombe Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This short man, dressed in black and lacking in the hair department, is only one of several apparitions found in this manor house. A phantom woman in Elizabethan clothing carries a large bunch of keys, another ghostly woman is more mist than substance, and the sound of something (or someone) can be heard being dragged around along the floor.

The Wizard's Stone

Location: Mousehole - Merlyn's Rock
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: This rock is named after Merlin the Wizard, who also predicted that the town of Mousehole would be burnt to the ground (it was, by the Spanish in the late sixteenth century).

The Ship Inn, Mousehole.

Moving Pint

Location: Mousehole - The Ship Inn
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 05 October 2012, around 16:00h
Further Comments: While sitting around a table with four other people, one witness said their pint and mobile phone both moved five inches across the table unaided. A phantom modern dressed man was said to have once appeared during the twentieth century, vanishing when a member of staff tried to talk to him.

Giant Quoit

Location: Mulfra - Dolmen
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: The pile of rocks is said to be the discarded remains of stones used by giants during a game of quoits.

Short Pink Lady

Location: Mullion - Bochym Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This petite figure lost her potential husband after her father killed him in a duel, her distressed ghost being unable to leave the earth until this wrong is put to right. The duel itself is also reported to be replayed on the driveway.

Summoned Spirits

Location: Mullion - Vicarage
Type: Other
Date / Time: Circa 1630s
Further Comments: A maid at Thomas Flavel's vicarage opened one of his books on necromancy and was instantly 'seized by spirits'. Flavel was fetched from the church where he was conducting a service - the Reverend grabbed the book and read aloud (in reverse) the words the girl had looked at, freeing the maid from the spirits' grasp, although the girl displayed evidence of the spirits' abuse. Ironically, Flavel returned to the area in 1682 - another vicar had to lay his ghost.

Emerald Eyed Cat

Location: Mylor Bridge - Between Mylor Bridge and Carclew
Type: ABC
Date / Time: February 2000, and 2008
Further Comments: A large cat walked over to a stationary car and stared into the driver's eyes, face to face, through the side window. The creature then took off into the night.

Black Creature

Location: Mylor Bridge - Between Penryn and Mylor Bridge
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 2008, night
Further Comments: Walking late at night, a witness encountered a black animal with very matted, long hair crossing the road ahead. Although the size of a medium dog, the creature moved like a graceless cheetah and made a sound resembling a pig with a chest infection. It was suggested on the CFI forum that the creature was a wild boar with bovine TB.

Giant's Home

Location: Nancledra - Cottage (no longer standing) by the brook
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown, but cottage ruins said to visible in early nineteenth century
Further Comments: This giant was said to eat to occasional child and pass time by throwing rocks at other giants who lived nearby.

Young Woman

Location: Newquay - Area between Towan beach and Belushi's public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local legend says that a woman was killed when an old smugglers' tunnel collapsed while she was exploring it during the 1930s. Now people in the area hear a woman crying and occasionally glimpse her floating apparition.

Flying Horse

Location: Newquay - Barrowfields
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This barrow is home to a headless horseman who travels several metres above the ground.

Doctor Pusey

Location: Newquay - Crantock Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century?
Further Comments: A theologian in life, the ghost of Pusey has been reported sitting by a window deep in thought. A guest at the house tried to speak to him, mistaking the phantom as a real person. It was only after she complained to the owner about the 'rude man' that she was informed he was only a ghost.

Older Lady

Location: Newquay - Fistral Backpackers (no longer present)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: An employee spotted the reflection of an older woman wearing a flowery dress walk past behind them. The witness spun around, but no one else was there. At a different time, the same witness also heard their name whispered when cleaning an empty room.

Smoking Man

Location: Newquay - Golf Club
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Cleaners in the bar report the smell of smoke, although the site is non-smoking and no one is present. A former owner of the site was also spotted in the bar - he vanished from a locked room, leaving a shattered glass and broken bottle of scotch for a rather confused member of staff to clean up.

Newquay Harbour.

Vanishing Boat

Location: Newquay - Harbour
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2009 (last encountered?)
Further Comments: Late on a calm evening, a fishing boat came across an old boat close to the harbour. The crew of the fishing boat pulled alongside the vessel and found it empty. They called the harbourmaster, believing the craft to have broken free of its moorings. The crew were told the vessel had been lost at sea eighteen years previous, and when the men left the cabin to double check the old boat, it had vanished. I was told that most locals know about the boat, but do not mention it, believing the vessel to be cursed.

Ringing Bell

Location: Newquay - Headland Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-twenty-first century, at 02:00h every Sunday
Further Comments: Workers in the basement at the hotel would hear a servant's bell ring at the same time early Sunday morning, even though the bells were disconnected. Other workers would hear a little girl calling out their names, and a child would occasionally be seen running around. It is also claimed that phantom nurses haunt the site, from the time during the Second World War when the RAF used the building as a hospital.

Blinding Light

Location: Newquay - Old Headland area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A floating light is said to unnerve local fishermen as it moves along the path before vanishing neat the old lifeguard and boatyard. One story is that the light belonged to a smuggler, trying to wreck unsuspecting craft.