The Paranormal Database

White Woman

Location: Maryport - Netherhall Mansion (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1973
Further Comments: Before the mansion burnt down, it stood empty for twenty years. The caretaker reported seeing a phantom grey lady within the building, and even though the mansion was boarded up, furnishings and fittings would be found thrown around within. Some believe the grey lady started the fire which finally reduced the mansion to a shell which was demolished.

Black Tombstone Shape

Location: Mealsgate - Low Mill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A black shadow resembling a tombstone would appear in one of the bedrooms here, emanating an evil presence. On one occasion malicious laughter was heard coming from the dark shape. There were also reports of objects disappearing for weeks on end, only to turn up in predominant places.

Grey Horse

Location: Millbeck - Stone water trough
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1955
Further Comments: Author Alasdair Alpin MacGregor reported encountering the phantom of a grey horse at an overgrown water trough near Kirkandrews upon Eden. MacGregor relayed his sighting to a local postmaster, who told him reports of the apparition were not uncommon.

Dragging Sounds

Location: Millom - Commodore public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sound of heavy dragging likened to that of furniture being moved has been reported here.

The Hob

Location: Millom - Millom Castle
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Like many of his siblings, this hob helped keep the area clean and tidy. The creature left when a man offered him a hooded cloak to wear during winter.

Floating Woman

Location: Millom - Railway Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990, 23:00h
Further Comments: A local story says that a woman leapt from the bridge during the Second World War after hearing that her husband had died in battle. Some fifty years later, a witness spotted a woman in old fashioned clothing hovering above a hedge next to the bridge. The figure appeared to be missing her legs.

Old Nick moved many churches back in the day (public domain).

Sinking Church

Location: Millom - Sunkenkirk (aka Swinside) stone circle
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Stones still present
Further Comments: A church is said to have once stood here, but the Devil appears and dragged it underground - all that remains are fifty-five stones that form a circle.

Murdered Man

Location: Miterdale - Area where the Nanny Horton Inn once stood
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early nineteenth century onwards
Further Comments: Murdered in a farmhouse, this man returned with such ferocity that no one could live in the building and it fell into ruins. The phantom's influence also resulted in the local Inn also falling into decay, and some believe that he remains in the area.

Eleven Men

Location: Morland - Skellaw Wark
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown, likely to have been early nineteenth century
Further Comments: A small group of girls walking home witnessed these men walk by in single file, glowing with a weird yellow light and waving their fists in anger. Their skeletons were discovered in 1827, their wrists covered with golden bands. Another phantom, that of a dark skinned man, was said to drift between the rocks which once stood in the area.

An old photograph of Muncaster Castle.

Headless Carpenter

Location: Muncaster - Muncaster Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Murdered by a jester on the orders of the then owner Sir Ferdinard Pennington, the carpenter (who made the mistake of falling in love with Sir Ferdinard's daughter) was beheaded in the garden, where he now haunts. The jester has also been reported on the site, holding a severed head. The ghost of King Henry is another reported to haunt the castle, hiding from those who took him to London to be murdered, and finally the shade of Mary Bragg, hanged by the front gate as a joke turned tragedy, manifests as a white woman.

An old postcard of Naworth Castle.

White Lady

Location: Naworth - Naworth Castle
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Falling in love and becoming pregnant by the lord of the castle, a local girl committed suicide after being shunned by him after their love affair. Though her mother then cursed the evil lord (resulting in his death, and that of the estate's future heir), the young lass still returns to the site.

Crying

Location: Naworth - Railway crossing
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: A signalman was left terrified after hearing two children crying out in anguish. Another worker on the site encountered a man who asked for a light. The worker reached for his lighter, but the man vanished without trace. An accident at the crossing in August 1926 took eight lives, including two children.

Ealinghearth Dobby

Location: Newby Bridge - Fearing Brow (lane)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This white entity would unnerve people with its strange sounds and hitched rides upon passing carts.

Blaming the Boggle

Location: Orton - General area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After a boggle caused trouble and misery to the villagers, they requested the help of a preacher in exorcising the entity. Halfway through the procedure, the religious man received such a hard slap from the boggle, that he gave up and left. What became of the boggle is unknown.

Several Arm

Location: Overwater - Overwater Tarn
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Winter (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The severed arm of a Jamaican woman (see Ireby - Overwater Hotel, for more information) is said to prevent ice forming on the tarn. As the temperature drops, the arm punches upwards and breaks apart any frozen water.

Strange Presence

Location: Penrith - Beacon Edge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-twentieth century?
Further Comments: A local myth states that prior to being urbanised, a heavy, strange presence perforated the area. One author stated that it was once believed that unmarried mothers would leave their babies here.

House with Reputation

Location: Penrith - Building on corner of King Street and Crown Square
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1850s?
Further Comments: Belonging to the Harding family, a newspaper referred to the building as haunted, although lacked details of by whom.

Nun

Location: Penrith - Corner of Salkeld Road and Scotland Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 26 December 1930, 23:45h
Further Comments: A man walking his daughter home walked past a little figure dressed like a nun that unnerved both witnesses. A local tale claimed the area to be haunted by a monk or a man dressed in black, and one encounter that had happened around the 1890s resulted in a local family moving away.

Nicholson

Location: Penrith - Gibbet Hill (aka Beacon Hill), six kilometres outside of Penrith (gibbet marked by a stone)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Winter nights (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Hanged for the murder of his godfather, Nicholson's body was left dangling throughout the winter of 1766/1767 as a deterrent to others... Some say it still makes an appearance during harsh winters, his skeletal remains hanging from a gibbet.

Disappearing Guest

Location: Penrith - Greystoke Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A guest at the castle vanished without trace, leaving all his clothing and belongings. The ghost of the man has been reported several times, reappearing in the room where he was last seen. Rapping on the wall in the same room has also been reported, thought to belong to a monk who was bricked up alive in the basement.

Snooker Player

Location: Penrith - Melmerby Hall
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2000s, 2022
Further Comments: This entity is said to move the balls around on the snooker table after everyone has retired for the night. The manager for the site claimed that there were eight ghosts at the hall, but none were malignant. In 2022, a visitor experienced doors opening themselves and a shower which turned itself on.

Fast Moving Victorian

Location: Penrith - Road near Flusco
Type: Other
Date / Time: May 2013
Further Comments: A driver was forced to stop in the road when a man dressed in Victorian clothing refused to move aside. When another car approached from the opposite direction, the man ran off into a wooded area 'faster than Usain Bolt'.

Monk

Location: Penrith - Site of old monastery, Scotland Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 2014
Further Comments: The site where a monastery once stood was said to remain the home of a phantom monk.

Giant's Grave

Location: Penrith - St Andrew's Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: Large stones mark the place where a giant is buried - he is thought to be Sir Ewen (or Sir Ewain), a great boar hunter.

Monk

Location: Penrith - White Ox Farm (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 1930s
Further Comments: A nunnery once stood on this land, with a house attached to the farm having a reputation as being haunted and remaining empty.