The Paranormal Database

Charles Fort in Kinsale.

White Lady

Location: Kinsale - Charles Fort
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1870s
Further Comments: This woman leapt to her death from the battlements after discovering that her father had mistakenly shot dead her newlywed husband. Since her death, she has been seen walking through locked doors and was blamed for knocking unconscious at least two witnesses. The site was also haunted by a rabbit which attacked guards asleep on duty.

Lanes around Kinsale.

Fisherman

Location: Kinsale - Lanes around Market Square
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A ghostly fisherman is said to walk around these lanes, moving down to the quayside where he vanishes.

Desmond Castle in Kinsale.

White Lady

Location: Kinsale - Road from Fort to Desmond Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Julian Hawthorne's minor vampire story Ken's Mystery is said to be based on an encounter with a phantom woman who travelled from the fort to Desmond Castle, where she vanished.

Stone Thrower

Location: Kinsale - St. Multose Church
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: As a scout, Brian O'Neill of the Kinsale Ghost Tour was with a group of nine other lads in the churchyard when they were all simultaneously hit on the side of the head by ten little pebbles.

Wine

Location: Kinsale - Two Found Out Well (no longer accessible)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 31 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The water in a well close to Kinsale was said to turn into wine on New Year's Eve, but anyone who gazed into the water at this time would die. A couple went to see if the legend was true, and the following morning their bodies were found next to the well.

Black Hound

Location: Lismire - Road between village and Bawnmore
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A man cutting turf along this road just after dusk was approached by a large phantom hound. The presence worried the man, so he quickly left. It was speculated he was digging close to buried treasure, and phantom animal protecting the hoard.

Monster

Location: Lough Abisdealy - Waters
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: January 1914
Further Comments: Three witnesses observed the giant black snake as it crossed the lough. The creature was estimated to be some ten and a half metres in length with its head held clear of the water. Its body formed two large loops breaking the surface of the lake as it moved. The creature was said to have developed a taste for the local sheep.

Rising Dead

Location: Loughane - Mathey graveyard, close to Coffin Field
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A military officer murdered a local priest and died himself shortly after the crime when his horse threw him into a swollen river. Soldiers decided to bury the officer in the closest graveyard, that at Loughane. However, the following night, all the dead took exception to sharing their ground with the murdering officer. The deceased rose, grabbed their headstones, crossed the River Shournagh, and reburied themselves where Mathey graveyard is today.

Cormac Tadhg McCarthy

Location: Macroom - Carrigaphoca (aka Carrigaphouka, aka Carrigaphooca) Castle
Type: Vampire
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Charged with tracking down Irish rebels, Cormac once ate the flesh of one man he caught. This may have damned him, and as such a few believe he still lurks the ruins of the castle. The site is also home to a Pooca, a ghastly grim entity which reputedly attacks visitors if the opportunity arises.

Strange Field

Location: Mallow - Fields near Longfield's Bridge
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A farmer named Lynch was crossing a field en route to Cork. The field was full of people, some kicking a football, others just walking around. Lynch realised that for each step he took, he moved back two. After several hours of going nowhere fast, two men who Lynch knew to have died took him by the arm, removed him from the field, and escorted Lynch to Longfield's bridge. A week later a farm machine cut off Lynch's arm where the ghosts had touched it, and he died soon after (special thanks to the Churchtown Village Renewal Trust, from their 'The Annals of Churchtown').

Dancing with the Devil

Location: Mallow - Majestic Ballroom
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1960s?
Further Comments: According to one legend, a particularly good looking stranger asked a local girl at the ballroom to dance with him. She did so, but halfway through the tune the girl collapsed to the floor and the man quickly left. Upon recovering from her swoon, she told her friends she had looked down at his feet during the dance and spotted cloven hooves!

Not Boxer

Location: Mawbeg - Bridge over the River Bandon
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Late nineteenth century?
Further Comments: Mick Donovan spotted this phantom hound and mistook it for his own dog 'Boxer', calling out to the creature until he realised that the entity was a ghost.

Changeling

Location: Minane - Exact location not known
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A changeling child was whipped and left at a crossroads after being substituted for a healthy human baby.

VBM

Location: Mitchelstown - Grotto
Type: Other
Date / Time: 05 September 1985
Further Comments: After becoming another hotspot during 1985 for BVM reports, several children reported seeing the statue change into a demonic figure.

Shouting Shepherd

Location: Mitchelstown - Mitchelstown Caves
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghostly shouts sometimes heard emerging from the caves is said to belong to a man looking for a fairy ewe which had helped him become wealthy. When the creature grew too old to produce quality wool, the shepherd tried to kill the creature, which escaped and led all his flock into the caves.

Mahon Mac Mahon

Location: Monkstown - Giant's Stairs
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Rocks still present
Further Comments: Several giants lived in the cave, including Mahon Mac Mahon, who kidnapped children and forced them to work brass and iron. A blacksmith by the name of Robert Kelly managed to enter the cave and return one child to his parents - the child had been missing for seven years but had not aged a single day since disappearing.

Woman

Location: Mullagh - Road in the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1880s?
Further Comments: Dan Keohane was said to have encountered a phantom woman who tried to attack him in the early hours of the morning. He managed to keep her at bay with a small piece of steel until the cock crowed and she vanished.

John Kelleher's Leprechaun

Location: Mushera (mountain) - Rock near the summit
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: John Kelleher captured a leprechaun under a rock on the mountain and agreed to let the creature go on the condition that it gave him a purse of coins. The little man told Kelleher that if he dug where he stood, he would find the purse. Kelleher let the leprechaun go, stuck a stick in the ground to mark the position and went home to find a shovel. Returning a short time later, the man found hundreds of identical sticks all stuck in the earth around the area.

Chicken Eater

Location: Myross - Forests in the area
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1921
Further Comments: After the local population of chickens took a dive, the problem was blamed on an unpleasant creature which one local man spotted in the nearby woods. The witness said he passed the monster as it sat on a rock - the size of a dog, the creature resembled a cat, though it had a tapering, bald tail.

Murderer's Footprints

Location: Newmarket - Glash/Glenamuckla
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Evidence still present?
Further Comments: In the middle of a field, fenced off, can be found two ancient footprints. These are where a reluctant murderer stood and fired a gun at his victim. Village elders say that when it is dewy, more of the murderer's tracks can be seen.

Breaking Glass

Location: Newmarket - James O'Keeffe Memorial Centre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: The centre was once a convent but was converted to office space once the nuns moved away. One room was said to be haunted by the ghost of a nun who leapt to her death from the window. During the renovation work, builders found the window in this room smashed; they replaced it, but within 24 hours the glass had broken again. A local priest was called to bless the area, after which the glass pane remained intact.

U-28 Monster

Location: Off Coast - Iberian Wreck
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 30 July 1915
Further Comments: U-boat commander Freiherr George G von Forstner claimed to have encountered a giant 'crocodile-like' creature as the U-28 torpedoed the British steamer Iberian. As the Iberian sank, a huge explosion occurred from under the sea. Moments later, the monster appeared, blown out of the water before travelling back down and sinking beneath the sea.

Rostron's Monster

Location: Off coast of Cork - Sea
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 26 April 1907
Further Comments: Sir Arthur Rostron, while the Chief Officer of the Campania, sketched a long necked sea monster off the coast of Cork. Rostron later became the Captain of the Carpathia, involved in rescuing Titanic survivors.

White Woman

Location: Passage West - Road towards Cork
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: Not much is known about the phantom woman who was said to haunt this road.

Smuggler's Gold

Location: 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.