The Paranormal Database

Horseman

Location: Athelstaneford - Ridge behind village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This raggedy horseman is thought to be a remnant from the battle between Picts and Angles in 832.

St Andrew's Cross

Location: Athelstaneford - Skies over the village
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This area may be the place where King Hungus saw the cross of St Andrew in the sky and took it as a sign of impending victory over the English - he ordered all his men to paint the symbol on their shields, and the fight was won the following day.

Running Woman

Location: Auchendinny - Disused rail tunnel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This phantom female killed herself in the nearby river after breaking up with her lover. Her ghost haunts the tunnel and surrounding area, running along before vanishing suddenly.

A floating, ghostly woman (public domain).

Drifting Woman

Location: Auchindinny - Firth Woods
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: The ghostly woman who walks between the trees drowned herself after her lover ran away. Another story says that her lover was murdered by the woman's jealous father.

Grey Lady

Location: Bathgate - Former Bridgecastle Hotel (now converted into flats)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Little is known about the grey phantom woman who once haunted this hotel.

Fast Foot

Location: Bathgate Hills - Area known as Knock Forest
Type: Other
Date / Time: Circa October 1988
Further Comments: Seen running in the forest by a family, this man-like creature travelled at an estimated speed of seventy miles per hour and ran through a fence. One of the witnesses described it as being seven foot tall and like a photographic negative.

Anne Bruce

Location: Biel - Lady's Walk, in grounds of the mansion
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Anne has been named as the white woman who walks along the path which bears her name. She spent many months walking this path after discovering her husband's infidelity after his death at sea.

Old Man in Brown

Location: Blackness - Hill overlooking The Binns - house along the River Forth
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This old man dressed in brown has been observed picking up sticks in the area.

Edgewell Oak

Location: Bonnyrigg - Dalhousie Castle
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Prior to a death in the castle
Further Comments: A fall of a branch from the Edgewell Oak was said to indicate a death in the castle.

White Woman

Location: Borrowstounness - Kinneil House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa nineteenth century
Further Comments: A phantom white lady is said to haunt the house, throwing herself from the roof and occasionally heard stomping on the staircase. She has been variously named as Lady Alice or Ailie, Lilyburn, Lilburne or Lillieburn.

Disguised Queen

Location: Borthwick - Borthwick Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Mary Queen of Scots left the castle in 1567 dressed as a boy to escape her enemies - her ghost here remains clothed in this way. Another phantom in the castle has been named as Ann Grant, a servant murdered after falling pregnant with the lord's child.

The Coalstoun Pear

Location: Coalstoun - Coalstoun House (also known as Colstoun House)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Exact dates unknown
Further Comments: The Coalstoun Pear was a lucky charm stored in a silver box for safety. It was said to have been picked in the thirteenth century by a wizard who married a Coalstoun daughter and has remained in the hands of the family ever since. Sometime around the sixteenth century a member of the family tried to take a bite from the fruit, bestowing a brief period of ill fortune. The pear became as hard as rock soon afterwards, perhaps preventing its destruction.

Woman in Black

Location: Cockenzie - B1348 between Cockenzie and Prestonpans
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom woman dressed in black clothing walks between these two places.

Howling Hound

Location: Cramond - Barnbougle Castle
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Prior to death of the local laird
Further Comments: This dog accompanied his master to the Crusades; the howling was first heard when his owner died on the battlefield.

Horseman

Location: Crichton - Crichton Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This horse backed rider enters the building though the original gate, that is now walled up. The ghost of Sir William Crichton is also said to haunt the site, walking towards castle tower, manifesting on the date of his death (although that date is not certain, only being recorded as prior to July 1454).

Green Lady

Location: Dalkeith - Country Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown (although 'photographed' early 2021)
Further Comments: A green lady is said to haunt the park, although others believe the entity is a younger girl who fell from a window. A photograph taken in 2021 of the entity is more likely to be an image of a snowman.

Monk

Location: Dalkeith - Dalkeith fire station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2004
Further Comments: A medium was called to banish a phantom monk blamed for creating strange voices, eerie screams and loud bangs at night. Reports of the phantom monk on the site of a former abbey date back to the eighteenth century.

Balls of Light

Location: Dalkeith - Dalkeith House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Spring 1998 and 2012 (nurse)
Further Comments: An American exchange student recounted how he had witnessed glowing basketball sized spheres of wispy light which moved around this building. The nursery is reputedly haunted by a child (or baby) and their nurse, who may hold the child in one hand and her head in the other. Other stories say she just holds her head in her hands while crying. Another ghost, that of the Duke of Monmouth executed in 1685, is said to travel along General Monk's Walk at night.

Man in Black

Location: Dalkeith - Private residence
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010-2012
Further Comments: A family of three reported being terrified by the ghosts in their home, including a man in a black suit with a cap, and a blonde woman wearing white nightclothes. After two blessings by a minister failed to clear the property, the Midlothian Paranormal Investigations team claimed to identify the entity as Thomas Laidlaw, and after their visit, the hauntings ceased.

Those Poisoned

Location: Dalkeith - Private residence
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: In February 1911, thirteen people were poisoned at the residence of Charles Hutchison after drinking coffee laced with arsenic. Charles' son John was suspected of the act but escaped to the Channel Islands where he poisoned himself. The phantoms of those who died of the poisoning are said to be restless, although little is known of their activities.

Green Lady

Location: Dechmont - Craigbinning House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: During the early twentieth century it was believed this house was the haunt of a green lady.

Kitchen Horse

Location: Dirleton - Beadles Cottage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The kitchen was built over the old stables, and the sound of a horse kicking a stable door is said to be occasionally heard. Horseshoes belonging to Shetland ponies have been found in the garden.

Aircraft of the Future

Location: Drem - Drem Airfield
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1934
Further Comments: A lost pilot recalled flying over disused airfield in the 1930s and saw it operational, with yellow RAF aircraft on the ground - these did not exist at the time. He later checked and found the airfield really was unused. A few years later, the airfield was reopened for training purposes, and aircraft based there painted yellow.

Black Aggie

Location: Dunbar - Dunbar Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Clear nights
Further Comments: The flitting ghost of the Patrick, ninth Earl of Dunbar, has been spotted around the ruins of Dunbar castle. Bagpipes have also been heard coming from the empty ramparts.

Footsteps

Location: Dunbar - Jersey Arms (currently Creel Restaurant)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This former smuggling inn is said to be home to phantom footsteps which may be using an old tunnel which once lead to the harbour.