The Paranormal Database

Laughter

Location: Sumburgh - Sumburgh Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1987
Further Comments: Air crew staying at this hotel would say rooms 28 and 33 were haunted. One visitor staying in room 33 would be awoken multiple times by the TV turning itself on and heard a child's laughter.

Sailor

Location: Symbister - Symbister House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One story says the site is haunted by a sailor murdered by a gardener that accused him of cheating during a card game.

Field of the Dead

Location: Unst - Burra Fiord
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Anyone who plants a spade in the earth at this location in Burra Fiord shall be struck by tragedy (according to folklore). One woman who dug there lost her best cow. When she dug there a second time, her husband died.

Bloody Corn

Location: Unst - Swinaness
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The area was said to have been the site of many gory battles. One farmer used the soil from the area to plant his corn, but come harvest, discovered that the stalks were filled with blood.

Water Horse

Location: Unst - Unnamed loch
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: A tired traveller mounted a horse he found at the side of the loch only to find that the creature tried to drag him into the waters. The traveller managed to jump clear just before the horse entered the water - the horse disappeared in a blue haze.

Engraving of a mermaid, circa 1757.

Saxi and Herman

Location: Unst Island - General area
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Saxi and Herman, two giants who were brothers, once lived on the island. They both fell in love with a mermaid who said she would marry whoever would swim to the North Pole with her. Both brothers began the trip, but neither returned.

The White Wife

Location: Uyeasound, Unst - Road between Watlee and Uyeasound, on the Watlee Brae
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa January 1999
Further Comments: The area featured in local press after the council provisionally agreed to erect a statue to honour the White Wife of Watlee, a pale female apparition which haunts roads in the area. A local musician, Steven Spence, claimed the smiling entity manifested in his vehicle as he drove down the Watlee Brae.

Sea Trows

Location: Ve Skerries - Sea in the area
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: These water-based troll-like creatures were once believed to swim the waters here, occasionally coming onto land to rest. It is thought they dressed in seal's skin while swimming, pealing it off to resemble humans when needing to leave the water.

Friendly

Location: Veensgarth - Herrislea House Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The older part of this building is supposed to be haunted by a friendly ghost.

Nygole

Location: Whalsay - Exact location not known
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A water horse known as a Nygole was found by a traveller returning from the kriegs at Skura. Mistaking the creature for a normal horse, the traveller mounted it, only realising his mistake after the Nygole set off at a fantastic speed. The traveller escaped the creature after driving his knife into its back.

The Trow, a malignant member of the fairy family.

Trow

Location: Yell - Area around Windhouse, exact spot said to be known to the local population.
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Pre-mid-Eighteenth century, Christmas Eve
Further Comments: A shipwrecked sailor made his way to Windhouse on Christmas Eve, only to find the family in the process of leaving. They explained to the sailor that every Christmas Eve, terrible things would happen, and a death would normally occur. The sailor offered to spend the night in the house, and sure enough, after sunset, the sailor encountered a huge Trow. The sailor grabbed an axe and gave chase, catching up with the creature outside and giving it a whack (or two). When the family returned home, the sailor took them to the spot, where the body had vanished, leaving only bright green holly.