The Paranormal Database

Former Students

Location: Ballyvourney - Ballyvourney De Salle College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: After numerous stakeouts, CPI (Cork Paranormal Investigators) are convinced that this disused college is home to several entities, including a priest, a young boy and four teachers. The sound of laughing children and the ringing of a bell are just a few of the incidents reported.

Gobhnet

Location: Ballyvourney - St. Gobnait's Well (still present) and area surrounding
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Fifth century
Further Comments: Gobhnet (or Gobnait) was a nun who built an oratory on the site where she stumbled upon nine white deer. She kept bees that doubled as her protectors, chasing away thieves. The well on the site is still a site of pilgrimage, who tend to visit on 11 February.

Lynx

Location: Ballyvourney - Unnamed Road
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 1981
Further Comments: A large cat seen as it stepped in front of a car was later identified as a lynx.

U-28 Creature

Location: Baltimore - 17 km south west of Fastnet Rock
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 30 July 1915
Further Comments: Commander of the U-28, Freiherr George G von Forstner claimed that after torpedoing the steamer Iberian, the ship sank and exploded, throwing a huge animal out from the sea. The creature was described as resembling a sixty foot long crocodile, with four large webbed feet, a long, pointed tail and a pointed head.

Thrown Stone

Location: Baltimore - Fastnet Rock
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Rock still present
Further Comments: Ireland's most southerly point, Fastnet Rock was thrown into position by a giant from Mount Gabriel (Schull).

Money Stone

Location: Bandon - Monerone area
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A rock in the centre of the road was known locally as the Money Stone and according to legend was used to mark the location of buried treasure. People had tried to dig up the hoard but were always scared off by a supernatural presence.

A ghostly woman riding a horse.

Woman on Horseback

Location: Bandon - Roads in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: A phantom woman on a white horse once rode around this area. She is said to have given local man Owen Kelly a lift after he failed to recognise her as a spirit - after riding around in circles and crossing the river three times she vanished, leaving Owen by the fence of his farmland.

Presence

Location: Bantry - Bantry House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: A comforting presence is reported to felt in the nursery.

Shape Changers

Location: Bantry - Bay cliffs
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The mermaids said to live in this area would be capable of changing their shape as they came on to land. They would also be seen sitting on the rocks playing harps.

Animal Sickness

Location: Bantry - Farm near old Danish fort
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Pre 1938
Further Comments: A local story claimed that any disturbance to the fort would result in livestock death, although the farmer's wife disbelieved the tales and dug out an old well on the site. Cows soon fell ill, and calves died. The warning heeded, the woman filled in the well, and as the last stone put in place, a dreadful, disembodied laugh could be heard. The sick cows recovered.

Cloaked Figure

Location: Bantry - Priest's Leap
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990
Further Comments: Two friends playing in the area observed a tall figure wearing a white cloak moving towards them. The figure had its head bowed, was slightly transparent, and moved in a rocking motion.

Old postcard of Bantry Bay in County Cork.

Fear Gortach

Location: Bantry Bay - Hungry Hill
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Hill still present
Further Comments: People who walk across a patch of Fear Gortach (hungry grass) are said to become insatiably hungry. The grass is thought to be either created by fairies upset at a person's lack of generosity, or cursed by the Fear Gorta, the hungry man, an unshriven corpse who walks the land. The hill here was said to have several patches of the hungry grass.

Lights

Location: Bealad - General area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: Lights were said to move around the streets at night, and families who had suffered a bereavement would hear footsteps for a few days after death.

Belvelly Castle in County Cork.

Moreno

Location: Belvelly - Belvelly Castle
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Moreno was a Spanish bard who killed Dion, an Irish bard, in self-defence. However, Dion was well-liked, and one of his followers poisoned Moreno. The Spaniard's ghost is now said to sing on moonlit nights in his mother tongue. The castle is also reputed to be haunted by Lady Margaret Hodnett, described as 'faceless' by some.

Moving Well

Location: Berrings - Stoney Pew Line Well (no longer visible?)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Stoney Pew Line Well was considered a holy well and was said to have once been in the parish of Donoughmore. A local woman with no respect for religion went to wash four potatoes in its waters, so the well arose and moved itself four miles to Berrings.

An old postcard of Blarney Castle in Ireland.

Man at the Window

Location: Blarney - Blarney Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 15 October 2010
Further Comments: Echo Ghosthunters reported seeing a man by a window in the castle, but later found out there was no stairs leading to that spot. EVP was also recorded in another location.

Gift of Oratory

Location: Blarney - The Blarney Stone
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: Many still kiss this stone in the hope that it will aid them with their public speaking and eloquence. Some believe the stone came from the Middle East and was the pillow of Jacob, while others say it was a gift to Cormac MacCarthy after he saved a witch from drowning.

Little Man

Location: Bottlehill - Road heading towards Cork
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Farmer Mick Purcell was forced to take his cow to Cork to sell. While on the road Purcell met a little man and swopped the cow for a small bottle. Understandably, returning home with a bottle instead of money upset Purcell's wife, until he opened it - out sprang two figures which covered the table with gold and silver dishes.

Bunworth's Banshee

Location: Buttevant - Rectory?
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1750
Further Comments: As local rector Charles Bunworth lay dying in his room, a helper who was sent for medicine in a nearby town encountered a wailing woman who informed him Bunworth would die. Bunworth hung on for several days, with wailing and the clapping of hands entering his bedroom window from below. Men who investigated the sounds could see nothing. The sounds stopped as soon as Bunworth died.

Teleporting Goats

Location: Cape Clear Island - Goat house
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Early 2000s, for a five year period
Further Comments: A goat keeper on the island engaged the Ghost Eire team to investigate why three young goats would move between two pens separated by two six-foot walls, on six different nights. The goat keeper speculated it may have been fairies, upset that he had placed an iron roof on the goat shed.

Currabinny Woods close to Cork.

Thick Mist

Location: Carrigaline - Currabinny Woods
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 2007
Further Comments: A group of friends in the woods at dusk reported a thick mist that quickly descended the area. Footsteps and other noises surrounded them as they ran towards the car park. As they ran clear of the woods, the mist lifted, and silence returned once more.

Strange Creature

Location: Carrigaline - Drake's Pool
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Circa 1860s
Further Comments: A large animal was said to have made this location its home. Although no description of the creature was properly given, it was said to have been large and hunted for food on land. Local men tried to capture the beast but were unable to do so. After several years, the creature left the area, thought to have gone out to sea.

Powerful Dog

Location: Carrigaline - Lanes in the area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Said to have made its home in the ruins of a big house, this hound left its dwelling at midnight. Most witnesses were said to have been drunk men, although on one occasion several sober gentlemen chased the creature and had it cornered - the dog vanished in front of their eyes.

Dotty Clotty

Location: Carrigrohane - Carrigrohane Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: While visiting the family, Uncle Lindsay awoke one morning to see a phantom woman dressed in an old fashioned blue gown standing next to his bed. The family later told him the ghost was that of Lady Clotilda, nicknamed Dotty Clotty.

Lord

Location: Castlefreke (aka Rathbarry) - Area known as Kennel Field, connected to the castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: July, between 17:00h and 18:00h (reoccurring), last seen early twentieth century
Further Comments: A gardener for the family claimed to have witnessed the ghost of a former lord wearing riding gear. The ghost would stand motionless for a hour before vanishing.