The Paranormal Database

Begging Boy

Location: Castlelyons - Old Castle ruins
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This sad little figure is said to move around begging for his life to be saved. He was murdered by a former owner of the castle for misbehaving.

Changeling

Location: Castlemartyr - Exact location not known
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Mary Scannell discovered that her own healthy baby had been replaced by a sickly child which did not stop crying - a changeling! A wise woman told Mary to underfeed the changeling and to beat it. Within a week the new child had gone, and the fairies returned Mary's own baby.

Rocking Woman

Location: Castletownbere - Cliff near the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This area was haunted by a woman who would sing while rocking a cradle.

Horsemen

Location: Churchtown - Fort Field
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: While on his way home with his dog, Mr Sampson watched two men on horseback riding around the fort. His dog immediately ran home, leaving Sampson to watch the figures as they dismounted and vanish without trace (special thanks to the Churchtown Village Renewal Trust, from their 'The Annals of Churchtown').

John Wrixon

Location: Churchtown - Wrixon's Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Wrixon was seen ten years after his death, riding down the road which bears his name (special thanks to the Churchtown Village Renewal Trust, from their 'The Annals of Churchtown').

Horse & Rider

Location: Cloghroe - Concealed grave a few hundred metres from Ardrum House (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A member of this Ardrum House family died and, as requested in his will, was buried with his favourite horse. A rumour started that the burial included a small amount of gold, and driven by desperation, three local men attempted to dig up the grave. As they started work, they heard the rack of a whip, and the air filled with the noise of hooves bearing down upon them. Nothing could be seen so the men fled.

Gaolai

Location: Clonakilty - Bealad and Clonakilty areas
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: Gaolai was a phantom woman who haunted the roads around Brandon, Bealad and Clonakilty. She victimised men in the early hours of the morning, leaping onto their backs as they rode through the area. She is said to have been banished by Father O'Heal.

Thrown Stone

Location: Clonakilty - Knockatlowig (stone row)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: The largest stone found here is said to have been thrown into position by a giant standing a couple of kilometres away.

Breaking Crypt

Location: Clonakilty - O'Sullivan Tomb in the old cemetery
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present (as of 6 May 2012)
Further Comments: The O'Sullivan priests, uncle and nephew, were murdered in 1773 by British agents. The men were interred in the same tomb which legend says then cracked open so the murders would not be forgotten. Every attempt to fill or cover the holes since has failed.

Snapping Dog

Location: Clonakilty - Road east of town
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Three men travelling along this road found themselves followed by a hound which stayed a reasonable distance before vanishing at a roadside cross. When one man headed away from the other two, the hound appeared again, chasing and nipping at the man. After sharing their experience with a priest, the area was blessed and the dog never returned.

Road between Cobh and Old Church Cemetery.

Funeral Procession

Location: Cobh - Between town and Old Church Cemetery (aka Clonmel Cemetery)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: Local white witch Helen Barrett reports that she and others have observed the mass funeral for the victims of the Lusitania as it moves from Cobh to Clonmel.

Funeral

Location: Cobh - Clonmel Cemetery
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1988
Further Comments: A graves inspector was taking a series of photographs by the wall when they heard the murmur of many voices and footsteps approaching from the road. The inspector finished their work then turned to face the direction of the funeral, but nothing could be seen. The inspector walked a short way down the road and then all the sounds ceased. The witness quickly left the site.

Harbour Row, Cobh.

Just Passing Through

Location: Cobh - Harbour Row
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1942
Further Comments: While walking home, Bernie Dahl spotted another man walking towards him. Before he could sidestep, the strange man walked straight through him, leaving Dahl extremely shaken. Ten years after this, during repairs to the road, a skeleton was discovered in the spot of the encounter.

Moving Items

Location: Cobh - Heritage Centre
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: Two workmen reported finding their tools scattered around a room on two consecutive nights for which only they had keys, while a shop had a large piece of crystal carefully removed from a high shelf and placed in the middle of the floor.

Behind Cobh's Heritage Centre.

Old Fashioned Woman

Location: Cobh - Pier behind Heritage Centre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1994
Further Comments: A young woman was seen wearing a red cape as she walked through closed gates. The apparition was said to be floating off the ground.

Pillars Bar in Cobh, Cork.

Presence

Location: Cobh - Pillars Bar
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: A presence in this bar is said to be responsible for moving items, creating footsteps and bangs, creating strange dragging noises and cracking mirrors.

Spike Island, Cobh.

White Woman

Location: Cobh - Spike Island - general area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown (woman and solider), tall figure in May or June 1914
Further Comments: A white female form is reputedly one of the phantoms which haunts the island as is a phantom soldier with two black holes instead of eyes. In 1914, a witness fled from a tall, off-yellow glossy figure that stood looking over the sea towards Cobh.

Smuggler's Gold

Location: Cobh - Spike Island - Golden Rock
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This stash of gold was hidden by a smuggler in an area which came to be known as the Golden Rock. It was said that the hoard was protected by the ghost of a murdered servant.

St Colman's Cathedral in Cobh.

Black Hound

Location: Cobh - St Colman's Cathedral
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This phantom dog is said to hide around the base of the building.

Vanishing Hitchhiker

Location: Cobh - The Fota Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mostly unknown, coach in 1930s
Further Comments: A single woman is said to stand by the roadside, her thumb stuck out trying to attract the attention of passing male motorists. If the driver stops, she vanishes, but if the driver passes by, the ghostly woman manifests in the back of the vehicle. Or so the stories say. The road is also haunted by a little girl who fell from a wall alongside Fota House (she also occasionally manifests in passing cars). During the 1930s, several witnesses claimed to have seen a phantom coach, the sighting coinciding with the death of a prominent local woman.

Starving Child

Location: Coolkellure - Road in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A small beggar boy starved to death on the road in this area during the Great Famine and he now wanders the area.

Fox-Haired Woman

Location: Coppeen - Cahervagliair Ringfort
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ringfort would be raided for building materials during the construction of the old school, but the theft stopped after a woman with fox-coloured hair appeared. It is unclear whether the woman was a fairy, a ghost or just a concerned person.

Pot of Gold

Location: Coppeen - Unidentified Farm in the area
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One folktale from this area states that a farmer dreamt of the exact location where a pot of gold had been buried on his land. Rather than dig it up, the farmer told a family member who waited until nightfall and dug on the spot without the farmer knowing. Finding the gold, the thief fled. Simultaneously, the farmer had a stroke which left him unable to speak.

Mass

Location: Cork - Blackamoor Lane Friary
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: April 1838
Further Comments: This building was home to a phantom monk who finally left after Father Theobald Mathew, founder of the Total Abstinence Society, served Mass with him.

Black Cheeks

Location: Cork - Church of the Resurrection, Farranree
Type: Other
Date / Time: 13 September, 1985
Further Comments: Three children watched the BVM move in this church, almost falling on top of them. One child's mother said that the eyes of the statue turned red, while its cheeks and feet became black.