The Paranormal Database

Mermaid or Whale

Location: Porthleven - Bay
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 14 September 1786
Further Comments: Following a storm, a large creature was discovered on the beach. It was alive, until concerned locals beat and stabbed the creature to death. The creature measured just under 49 feet (15 metres) from head to tail, had a back tougher than a turtle's shell, and two stubby arms. While some of the creature's killers named it as a whale, others were not so sure and declared it to have been a mermaid.

Mrs Ruberry

Location: Porthleven - Ship Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A former landlady, Mrs Ruberry is said to remain in the building, as is a French prisoner of war who took his life on the site. Another local story says the inn is connected to several other notable local locations via secret tunnels, although they remain undiscovered.

Black Figure

Location: Porthtowan - Beach
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: While out walking along the beach, a man heard a voice from the sea whisper 'The hour has come but not the man'. The witness heard this recited twice more, before seeing a shadow like figure run down a nearby hill and into the sea, heading towards a ghostly ship anchored offshore.

Dog and Dragon

Location: Porthtowan - Mile Hill area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A fearful dragon once made its lair near here but was driven off by a mysterious white shuck-like creature. The dog is still said to haunt the area.

Wrath

Location: Portreath - Sea cave in the area
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Wrath was a giant who lived in a cave with direct access to the sea. He would wait for a ship to wreck before taking the surviving sailors home to eat.

Small Man

Location: Portreath - Smugglers Cottage guest house, West Beach
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Thought to belong to a man's whose skeleton was found in a hidden room in the mid-twentieth century, this petite ghost has made infrequent appearances over the last three hundred years.

Battered Serpent

Location: Portscatho - Gerrans Bay
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1876
Further Comments: Caught by two fishermen who found the beast wrapped around their offshore crabbing equipment, they proceeded to hit it with an oar before finally killing the creature on nearby rocks.

Kate, her Lover and her Father

Location: Poundstock - Penfound Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 26 April (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Kate and her lover, John, had decided to elope before her father married her off to someone else. The pair were caught as they tried to run away; the father and John engaged in a sword fight, managing to kill each other, as well as Kate who had tried to break the scuffle up. This meaningless battle is now re-enacted once a year at midnight.

Murdered Priest

Location: Poundstock - St Neots Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 02 March 1971
Further Comments: Killed in the mid-1300s, this holy man has been seen drifting around the churchyard and standing by the altar. He was murdered after speaking out against the local smugglers. In 1971 a man reportedly spoke to the priest, mistaking him for a real person.

Rotting Sea Serpent

Location: Praa Sands - Beach
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1933
Further Comments: The body of what was thought to be a sea monster was later identified as a rotting basking shark.

Drifting Wreaker

Location: Priest Cove - Off coast
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This man, who once made a living from dashing ships on ragged rocks, now drifts out at sea holding on to a plank of wood that prevents him from being dragged under.

Middle Aged Man

Location: Quintrell Downs - Likely the A3058
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Spring 2001
Further Comments: A couple caught up in stop/start traffic watched a middle aged man in dark trousers and pullover cross the road in front of them before vanishing into thin air when he reached the kerb on the opposite side. There was nothing remarkable about the figure (until his disappearing act) and he carried something in his hands, although the witnesses did not notice what it was.

Knocking

Location: RAF Cleave (no longer operational) - General area
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1940s
Further Comments: The WAAF huts were said to be haunted by the sounds of knocking - armed guards were unable to pinpoint the source of the noise. The sounds faded after a few weeks.

Redruth, Cornwall.

Raining Snails

Location: Redruth - Area near the town
Type: Other
Date / Time: 8 July 1886
Further Comments: Thousands of snails were reported to fall from the sky during a storm in the area.

The Chancellor Death

Location: Redruth - Scorrier House
Type: Other
Date / Time: 11 May 1812
Further Comments: A man who lived here dreamt that he saw the Chancellor of the Exchequer shot in London. He told several people of his vision before news of the assassination reached the town.

The sky over Redruth.

Spinning Saucer

Location: Redruth - Sky over town
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 09 July 1976
Further Comments: A schoolteacher and several pupils watched a white spinning disc with pulsating lights pass overhead.

Roundheads

Location: Redruth - Victoria Inn, Four Lanes
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: The roundhead soldiers murdered in this 700 year old inn in 1640 are said to occasionally return.

Tin Miner

Location: Roche - Roche Chapel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This miner (or smuggler, according to other accounts) was murdered by the Devil's agents, and now haunts the area where the crime occurred.

John Thomas

Location: Sancreed - Road between Sancreed and St Just
Type: Manifestation of the Living
Date / Time: December 1783
Further Comments: Thomas vanished while travelling to St Just, and was presumed robbed and killed. Eight days later, his friend saw a figure that resembled the missing man and approached it. The figure vanished, but John's friend could hear cries of help, and soon found Thomas at the bottom of a nearby pit, where he had fallen over a week previously.

Tregeagle

Location: Sennen - Escalls Cliff and Genvor Cove (latter place name now changed?)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of Tregeagle the wizard is cursed to make trusses from sand at the cove and carry them to Escalls Cliff.

Anne George

Location: Sennen - First and Last Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2004
Further Comments: Anne was the wife of a fence who profited from smuggling. She turned king's evidence against her husband's 'business' partner but was soon drowned by several villagers who were also involved in the trade. Anne continues to haunt the inn, manifesting in black clothing, and has been observed many times by the current owners.

Young Boy

Location: Sennen - Penrose Farm
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Seventieth century?
Further Comments: After his father and brother were believed to have drowned at sea, the remaining young son (and heir to a medium sized estate) was murdered and buried in a shallow grave by his uncle who wanted the property for himself. However, the other brother was washed up safely ashore and led to his sibling's hidden grave by a phantom voice. The uncle hanged himself in the house before he could be arrested.

Hooper

Location: Sennen Cove - Coastline
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Prior to a storm
Further Comments: This misty spirit, also known as Hooter or Whooper, would manifest prior to a storm out at sea and warn fishermen not to venture out.

Slipping Woman

Location: Sennen Cove - The Irish Lady rock, Cowloe Rock
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This rock is named after the woman who held on to it after her ship ran aground nearby and all hands were lost - she slipped off after a couple of hours and was drowned before rescuers could save her. Her shade has been seen struggling to remain on the outcropping.

Camlann

Location: Slaughterbridge - River Camel, Stone marker close to Worthyvale
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: This area has been named as a likely contender for the battlefield where King Arthur was killed by Mordred. Arthur's tomb is said to lie nearby, marked by a sixth century stone