Liverpool Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana
Swishing
Location: Liverpool - Private residences, Edge Hill area
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1986/87
Further Comments: Footsteps which shook the bedroom were felt by two witnesses at different times, while a 'swishing' was heard as if someone were walking toward the kitchen and brushing the wall with clothing on several occasions. Large metal objects such as baking tins and colanders mysteriously disappeared and were never found. Another house on the same road reported poltergeist activity with heavy furniture being moved across the door in an empty bedroom, trousers flying around the room and people being awoken by loud clapping sounds.
First added: 2020-02-25 | Last updated: 2020-02-25 | ID #13596
Lady in Red
Location: Liverpool - Royal Court Theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s (lady), 1970s (Cavalier)
Further Comments: One member of staff witnessed a ghostly older lady wearing a red cardigan in the bar area, while a few years earlier two stagehands watched a ghostly Cavalier emerge from a wall who turned to face the men before disappearing through the same wall. The site is also reputed to be haunted by a former caretaker.
First added: 2024-01-27 | Last updated: 2024-01-27 | ID #15243
Bride
Location: Liverpool - Royal Infirmary
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The old house which once stood here before the hospital was the scene of the ultimate wedding day disaster in which the bride fell to her death from an upper story window while her guests partied on below. Her shade has been reported by nurses in the newer building.
First added: 2003-10-26 | Last updated: 2003-10-26 | ID #4728
Liver Birds
Location: Liverpool - Royal Liver Building
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: Several myths exist concerning the two metal birds perched on the Liver Building, all relating to the birds coming to life and departing the city, resulting in its downfall. One myth says the birds face away from each other to ensure they do not fall in love and become animated, while another story says if an honest man and a virgin woman meet and fall in love in front of the birds, the statues would spring into life.
First added: 2014-10-18 | Last updated: 2014-10-18 | ID #11624
Old Man
Location: Liverpool - Royal Philharmonic Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Little is known about this shade that is sometimes seen drifting around the building.
First added: 2003-05-31 | Last updated: 2003-05-31 | ID #4274
Former Slaves
Location: Liverpool - Royal Southern Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Once held in cells on the site where the hospital was later constructed, many of the slaves still haunt this area.
First added: 2003-10-26 | Last updated: 2003-10-26 | ID #4727
Edinburgh
Location: Liverpool - Skies above town
Type: Other
Date / Time: 27 September 1846
Further Comments: A white city appeared for a short time over Liverpool - it was thought to be a mirage of Edinburgh, though no one could identify any of the buildings.
First added: 2003-01-23 | Last updated: 2003-01-23 | ID #3689
Mile Long Craft
Location: Liverpool - Skies over Anfield
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 25 July 2007
Further Comments: Lee Jones, his wife and her mother watched a huge saucer shaped craft hovering in the sky, clouds occasionally covering the object. A passenger jet that passed near the craft enabled Jones to estimate the ufo was about a mile long. Other witnesses reported seeing the craft throughout June and earlier in the year.
First added: 2007-09-23 | Last updated: 2007-09-23 | ID #7974
Cellar Dwellers
Location: Liverpool - Slaughterhouse public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2004
Further Comments: Liverpool's oldest pub, the Slaughterhouse is reported to be haunted by a couple of shades who tend to enjoy lurking in the basement and making fleeting appearances in the bar.
First added: 2004-05-03 | Last updated: 2004-05-03 | ID #5121
Mary Norris
Location: Liverpool - Speke Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mary unknown, hunting dogs in 2007
Further Comments: Rather than face up to her husband's massive debts, Mary is said to have killed her son before taking her own life. Mary is said once to have manifested during a dinner party, most guests watching her disappear through a wall. Other people have reported the sounds of children crying during the night. A night fisherman at the pond heard a voice ask, 'have you caught anything yet?', but upon turning around, he could not see anyone nearby. Finally, two witnesses out walking after dusk in 2007 could hear the sound from a pack of hunting dogs emerging from dark woodland but were unable to spot the source. A modern myth appears to place a werewolf on the site.
First added: 2002-10-03 | Last updated: 2021-08-22 | ID #2522
Tablecloth
Location: Liverpool - Springwood Avenue, close to Allerton Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa September 1979
Further Comments: Two teenagers jogging along the avenue heard what they thought sounded like a horse a short distance behind. Turning to have a look, they observed what appeared to be a tablecloth and a horse's body without a head running along. Frightened, the pair ran faster and when they turned again, the entity had gone.
First added: 2018-12-27 | Last updated: 2018-12-27 | ID #13063
Green Globe
Location: Liverpool - St James Cemetery
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 10 May 2021, around midnight
Further Comments: At least one witness spotted a strange green globe within the cemetery. Ghosts reported in the area including a limping man in Victorian attire and a woman in black. One piece of local folklore says the water from a natural spring in the cemetery turns black if boiled (although the Liverpool Echo debunked the claim in 2017).
First added: 2021-05-27 | Last updated: 2025-01-25 | ID #14209
Cloudy Woman
Location: Liverpool - The Grange Hotel, Aigburth (no longer operating)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: March 2002. October 2005
Further Comments: While staying at this hotel, one man twice spotted a cloudy shape in the form of a woman, although her features were hard to define. Both times the entity walked past the man and disappeared into a wall.
First added: 2010-08-26 | Last updated: 2010-08-26 | ID #10014
Funeral
Location: Liverpool - Thomas Lane, Knotty Ash
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1891, midnight
Further Comments: A witness was said to have watched a phantom funeral occur, complete with coffin and guests (with deathly pale faces). The witness was later told that many years previous, a secretive funeral had occurred along the road, setting off from a nearby hall at midnight.
First added: 2019-11-07 | Last updated: 2021-05-13 | ID #13412
Stroking
Location: Liverpool - Unidentified property, city centre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1934
Further Comments: Three generations of the Collins family and two lodgers fled this property the day after moving in. During their first night, one lodger heard footsteps and felt his bedsheets being removed from the bed, the eldest Collins felt a small, soft hand stroking their neck, while others heard running footsteps and felt 'something' follow them up the staircase.
First added: 2026-02-21 | Last updated: 2026-02-21 | ID #16363
A Five Shilling Encounter
Location: Liverpool - Unknown house in Field Street
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: September 1904
Further Comments: Hugh Morgan was fined five shillings after being caught smashing a window of an empty house which was said to be haunted. Hugh claimed he was attempting to lay the ghost.
First added: 2021-09-28 | Last updated: 2021-09-28 | ID #14276
Footsteps
Location: Liverpool - Unnamed Ladies' School
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1900s
Further Comments: A classroom in this school was locked up after staff and students heard heavy footsteps walking in the adjacent room but could find no one within. Dust on the floor was undisturbed. A local story said that a murder had been committed in the room many years previous. Before the building was taken over as a school, stories of ghosts were rumoured.
First added: 2016-03-28 | Last updated: 2016-03-28 | ID #12090
William Kennedy
Location: Liverpool - Walton Gaol, prison cell G2
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Executed for murdering a policeman in the 1920s, Kennedy's shade remains in his former cell and continues to unnerve inmates.
First added: 2003-08-25 | Last updated: 2003-08-25 | ID #4505
Overwhelming Presence
Location: Liverpool - Walton Junction Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s onwards
Further Comments: It is said that ever since the last steam engine left this site, an evil, repressive presence has descended upon the area.
First added: 2005-04-26 | Last updated: 2005-04-26 | ID #6217
Monk and Nun
Location: Liverpool - Walton Park / Rice Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2012
Further Comments: A local legend says that a monk and a nun were executed in the area after they were discovered having an affair. Another legend says that the children which the nuns had out of wedlock were buried along the lane. All are said to haunt their respective areas. A photograph taken in the area in 2012 was said to show a nun, monk and some of the children.
First added: 2012-12-30 | Last updated: 2012-12-30 | ID #11203
Monk
Location: Liverpool - Walton, road close to St Mary's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980/81, 03:45h
Further Comments: A bus driver on his way to work watched a monk cross the road in front of his car. The driver slowed and watched the monk vanish, initially believing the figure had gone down a subway. The driver later learned that the area was supposed to be haunted by a monk and nun.
First added: 2020-02-24 | Last updated: 2020-02-24 | ID #13589
Brother or Sister
Location: Liverpool - Well in Everton area, but covered over pre 1859
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1850s
Further Comments: The site of a fratricide, the well was at one point considered haunted by the dead sibling before being covered over.
First added: 2003-10-26 | Last updated: 2003-10-26 | ID #12138
Young Man
Location: Liverpool - Westfield House, Westfield Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1975/76
Further Comments: This phantom figure came and sat with one witness as he lay in bed, entering and leaving the room though a wall. The ghost's voice was said to be kind and gentle, and during life the man would come and play with the children here - the sighting occurred in a former children's playroom.
First added: 2005-02-20 | Last updated: 2005-02-20 | ID #5874
Rumoured
Location: Liverpool - William Lockerby's home (no longer standing), Lockerby Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1930s
Further Comments: William Lockerby, after whom the street is named, owned a large house along the road, which had the reputation of being haunted (by who or what is not known).
First added: 2023-02-04 | Last updated: 2023-02-04 | ID #14780
Figure with Green Light
Location: Liverpool - Woolton Road, Allerton
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2019
Further Comments: Walking home late at night, a witness came across a shadowy figure holding an old fashioned lantern which glowed green. The figure walked quickly, crossed the road close to the cemetery and vanished into thin air.
First added: 2021-08-26 | Last updated: 2021-08-26 | ID #14259
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