The Paranormal Database

White Outline

Location: Belfast - Grey Point Fort, Helen's Bay
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: August 2003
Further Comments: While on a day out, the Garvin family caught a white shape on their video camera. When slowed down on replay, they reported a figure which resembled a Second World War soldier.

Footfalls

Location: Belfast - HM Prison Belfast (aka Crumlin Road Gaol)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 1986, around 02:00h
Further Comments: A prison officer reported hearing heavy rubber-soled boots while on his rounds on A Wing, even though all staff were issued with sneakers. Believing his co-workers were playing a joke on him, he checked up on them, and found that they were playing cards. A couple of hours later, the officer heard a voice call out 'numbers C3', though once again could not find who was responsible. Asking his co-workers if they were 'playing around', they denied it, and recommended that the officer did not say anything to anyone.

HMS Caroline, copyright Phil Willis.

Stoker

Location: Belfast - HMS Caroline
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Currently undergoing refit as a museum, HMS Caroline is reputedly home to a phantom stoker who is said to have committed suicide on the ship.

Hitchhiker

Location: Belfast - Horseshoe Bend
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s onwards, last seen 2008
Further Comments: A vanishing hitchhiker is reported to haunt this area, last seen by a group of five friends driving through the area.

Phantom

Location: Belfast - McAuley Street Mill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1882
Further Comments: Little is known about the ghost which made a sudden appearance at the old mill here in the nineteenth century.

Victorian in Crinoline

Location: Belfast - Old Belfast Crown Court
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: It was reported that RUC officers on night duty watched a Victorian lady wearing Crinoline ascend the back staircase and continue along the corridor, before disappearing through the end wall.

Apologise to the Tree

Location: Belfast - Ormeau Golf Club
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Tree still present
Further Comments: If the fairy tree found near the course is hit by an errant golf ball, the player is advised to apologise to avoid the wrath of the little people. Even if not struck, it is said that golfers nod at the tree as they pass. Just in case.

Sitter

Location: Belfast - Private house along Finaghy Road North
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Occupants in a bedroom in this house would report feeling something sitting at the base of a bed. Footsteps would also be heard pacing in the room.

Fading Man

Location: Belfast - Private house along Windsor Avenue
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 1970s
Further Comments: Unable to sleep one night, this witness turned over in bed to see a semi-transparent young man smiling down at her. He had very short hair, wore a collarless shirt and had braces on his trousers. The witness said there was a warm and friendly atmosphere in the room. The ghostly figure slowly faded away.

Victorian Lady

Location: Belfast - Private house, Fromme Street (since demolished)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: Gerald J Tate wrote that his brother awoke to find a young Victorian woman in his bedroom. She wore a blue dress and had around her neck a locket holding a shiny stone. The brother fled the house and ran to his parents who lived just around the corner. A few years later Gerald was talking to a co-worker when he discovered the man's uncle had lived in the same house and had experienced some violent poltergeist-like effects, including almost being pushed down the stairs by an unseen force.

Prison

Location: Belfast - Private residence, Ashley Gardens
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1954
Further Comments: Two men were imprisoned for a month after illegally entering an alleged haunted house along this road. Police confirmed in the courthouse that the site had a reputation for being haunted, although no witnesses came forward to claim they had seen a ghost.

Large Figure

Location: Belfast - Private residence, Twaddell Avenue
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: May 2008
Further Comments: A large black figure with a bald head was spotted standing by a bed. The figure held his hands down his sides and appeared angry. Some people on the site felt they were being watched after dark, while the back door of the premises would close by itself.

Dark Figure

Location: Belfast - Queens Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The mysterious cloaked dark figure on the bridge who just disappears is thought to have been a suicide victim from over one hundred years ago.

Queen's University, copyright Phil Willis.

Malfunctions

Location: Belfast - Queen's University
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A room in the Peter Froggatt Centre is notorious for causing equipment to malfunction, only to work perfectly when removed from the area. Stranmillis is home to a graveyard close to which visitors report feeling their clothing being pulled at. One story says the library is home to an older man who walks through the wall.

Wind

Location: Belfast - Raphael Street
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It was said that even on calm days, a strange wind would pass along this street, blowing items over and along with ease.

Biddy

Location: Belfast - Smithfield area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Biddy is said to haunt the area where she drank herself to death after inheriting two hundred and fifty pounds. Her ghost is said to wander the area. In addition, Smithfield was also the location of J. J. Herdman's Mill, where in 1900 an accident killed 13 women and girls. Their ghosts were reported for many years after the tragedy.

John Savage

Location: Belfast - The Brickyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Nineteenth century landlord John Savage slit his own throat after suffering what is thought to be a state of depression. His ghost was said to haunt the brickyard.

Helena Blunden

Location: Belfast - The Irish Linen Mill (currently a print shop)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: N/A
Further Comments: A known hoax which claimed a woman named Helena fell on the basement stairs and was dead before she hit the bottom step.

Figure in Carriage

Location: Belfast - Ulster Folk and Transport Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 2017
Further Comments: The local press published a photograph of a spooky looking figure sitting in a train carriage, although the 'ghost' is most likely accidentally created using a slow shutter speed.

Woman Drinking Coffee

Location: Belfast - Vicarage Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This female ghost walks down the street carrying a cup of coffee in one hand and a cigarette in her other.

John Herdman

Location: Belfast - Waterworks
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Shot in 1862, John Herdman is said to haunt the area of the Waterworks.

Shadowy Figures

Location: Belfast - York Road Railway Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s - present
Further Comments: A strange person has been reported sitting in the locked canteen at night. This may be the same figure glimpsed in the running sheds - during a bungled robbery, a man was either shot or beaten and subsequently died from his injuries. Night staff have also reported hearing disembodied footsteps in the area and on one occasion, having a fire extinguisher thrown at them.

Victorian Woman

Location: Belfast - 91 Beechmount Grove (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: June 1989
Further Comments: John Skillen released a book of his experiences in this house where he lived with his family. During their time here, the ghost tossed John against a wall and slapped his children. The family moved away after the attacks escalated.

A rather dramatic green UFO over Belfast.

Green Triangle

Location: Belfast - Above Yorkgate shopping centre
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 12 November 2006
Further Comments: Shoppers at the centre reported seeing a green triangular ufo cross the sky above them.

Galloper Thompson

Location: Belfast - Alexandra Park Avenue and Shore Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: A member of the Thompson family who loved horses died and took to galloping along the Avenue after dark (the horse taken from the family stable and normally found exhausted the following day). The haunting ceased after the ghost, nicknamed 'Galloper Thompson', was caught in a bottle and tossed into the sea.