The Paranormal Database

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.

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.

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.

A ghostly figure walks the streets.

John Savage

Location: Belfast - Ardilea Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: John Savage owned a few properties along this road. After he committed suicide, his ghost was said to return to this area.

Daniel Joseph Jaffe

Location: Belfast - City Cemetery
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Daniel is said to have started haunting the area around his monument after it was vandalised.

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.

Face in a Coffin

Location: Belfast - Crumlin Road Prison (now a museum)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A visitor who lay in a coffin for a photograph later realised that the captured image showed a strange face next to his. It is worth noting that the photograph is likely to be a case of pareidolia rather than the paranormal. The prison is also home to a phantom man seen walking down C Wing, and the sounds of both male and female voices.

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.

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 his 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.

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.

Ethel

Location: Belfast - Craigavon House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: December 2014
Further Comments: East Coast Paranormal Society carried out an investigation on this site and claimed to have caught a bearded figure reflected in a mirror. Another entity said to haunt the building is 'Ethel', a former matron who worked on the site when it was a hospital.

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.

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.

Figure in Carriage

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

Black Man

Location: Belfast - Arden Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 1972
Further Comments: A brief myth which sprang up around Halloween, the streets were said to be the haunting ground of a black figure which could change size.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Matron

Location: Belfast - Belvoir Park Hospital (closed 2006)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: While an operating hospital, stories claimed a ghostly matron walked the wards, the sound of her dress heard rustling along the floor. Since closing, it is claimed security staff have been spooked by shadows and strange sounds.

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.

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.

Buttoncap

Location: Carrickfergus - Carrickfergus Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Affectionately known as Buttoncap, named after the large button worn on his headdress, this spooky soldier haunts a small area near an old well. Another version of the story says the ghost can be found in the well. The soldier's life ended when he was executed after being falsely accused of sleeping with his commanding officer's wife.

Elizabeth

Location: Carrickfergus - Dobbin's Inn Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Elizabeth, wife of former owner Hugh Dobbins, had an affair with a soldier stationed at the castle. When Hugh discovered the relationship, he murdered the couple. Elizabeth, also known as Maud, now contents herself by stroking people's faces as they sleep or by making fleeting appearances in the reception area.