The Paranormal Database

Playful Creature

Location: Dunbar - Off coast
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: July 1939
Further Comments: A father and daughter watched a sea monster playing in the waters just off the coast for 30 minutes.

Glowing Eyes

Location: Dundar - Woods in the area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A witness recounted how friends were terrified by a strange black dog with glowing red eyes which appeared and disappeared around them. The sightings were accompanied by high pitched screeching.

Pale Lady

Location: East Linton - Hailes Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s?
Further Comments: Locals have reported strange banging sounds coming from the castle, as well as the occasional glimpse of a phantom woman in white.

Grey Lady

Location: East Saltoun - Saltoun Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This shadowy female form reportedly haunts the rooms of this hall - some believe the entity to be a former owner who lost her pearls, and she now spends her time searching for the elusive jewellery.

Lady Mary Douglas

Location: Edinburgh - Dalmahoy House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Lady Mary, manifesting in the form of a white lady, is said to wander along the corridors, looking into the original rooms. Her presence is reported to be calming.

Johnny One Arm

Location: Edinburgh - Dalry area, in particular West End Place
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1979
Further Comments: John Chiesly's ghost haunted the area for 300 years, running around with a bloody stump where his arm should have been, screaming and cackling. When a one armed skeleton was found hidden under the floorboards of a local house and removed for burial in 1965, the entity was thought to have vanished forever; however more sightings were reported between 1976 and 1979, and poltergeist-like occurrences in the mid-1980s.

Deacon Brodie's Tavern, Edinburgh.

Brodie

Location: Edinburgh - Deacon Brodie's Tavern and Brodie's Close
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Deacon William Brodie, respected upstanding citizen by day, sly robber at night, was caught and hanged for his crimes in 1788. The novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was based (loosely) on his life. Brodie's ghost is now said to leave the tavern and quickly cross the road to the close which has also taken his name.

Edinburgh Castle, Scotland.

Viscount Dundee

Location: Edinburgh - Edinburgh Castle
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: Viscount Dundee was seen by Lord Balcarres while the lord was held in the castle. He later discovered that the Viscount had died at Killiecrankie around the time of the sighting. Note that Colinburgh Castle also claims this event for itself. A phantom drummer has been reported at the castle, said to forewarn of bad news. This ghost was blamed when the arms of a tunic on display apparently moved as if beating an invisible drum. Early in the twenty-first century, a group of workmen claimed to have photographed a glowing ball of light, though the image looks more like the reflection of the flash in glass.

Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Scotland.

The Magician

Location: Edinburgh - Edinburgh Festival Theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This tall, dark stranger who lurks in the shadows is thought to be part of a magic act which perished in a fire on the site.

Suicide

Location: Edinburgh - Former council offices, St. Giles Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The offices were once thought haunted by a man who hanged himself on the site.

Fraser Suites, Edinburgh.

Basement Noises

Location: Edinburgh - Fraser Suites
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010
Further Comments: Staff have reported hearing strange bangs in the basement, and a certain area down there has a cold spot which never grows any warmer, no matter the temperature outside.

George Street, Edinburgh.

Jane

Location: Edinburgh - George Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: Jane once owned a shop along this street, which she sold on the recommendation of her friends. She regretted it almost immediately, though, and died soon after. She was seen several times post-mortem, heading along the street to her former property.

Rolling Barrel

Location: Edinburgh - Grange House (demolished 1936)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1936
Further Comments: The sounds of a barrel being rolled around the building have been reported - on investigation, no such item could be found.

Grassmarket, Edinburgh.

Grizel

Location: Edinburgh - Grassmarket
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The face of this lady, heavily scarred by fire, has been seen around the area of the Grassmarket - her and her brother were killed by the local authorities for sex crimes and black magic. Some people have also reported seeing her in a phantom coach being pulled by a team of six horses.

Greyfriars cemetery, Edinburgh.

Cutting Ghost

Location: Edinburgh - Greyfriars cemetery
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: The spirit, or spirits, here are said to be most upset about the way they were treated in life, and now extract revenge on the living by causing cuts and bruises on anyone who visits the graveyard. That is what the tour guides will tell you, anyway.

The Heart of Midlothian.

Spitting

Location: Edinburgh - Heart of Midlothian
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: Edinburgh's Heart of Midlothian, found in the centre of the City, marks the site of Old Tolbooth, a prison demolished in 1817. Local legend says if you spit upon it, luck shall befall you (and it's still spat upon today, so don't go too close).

Holyrood House Palace, Edinburgh.

Mary & Family

Location: Edinburgh - Holyrood House Palace
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Mary Queen of Scots, Lord Darnley and David Rizzio (Mary's private secretary) all haunt this building. Rizzio's death was most gruesome - he was stabbed 56 times by Lord Darnley and a group of Scottish lords. The outer door of the Queen's apartments is said to be still stained with Rizzio's blood which will not wash away. Meanwhile, in the garden, a naked ghost named Bald Agnes appears. Agnes was striped and tortured on the belief that she was a witch in 1592.

Coachman

Location: Edinburgh - Hopetoun House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: A few phantoms are said to have made their home at Hopetoun, including a former coachman seen in the restaurant (the former stables) and another figure spotted in the staff toilet.

Pale Woman

Location: Edinburgh - Hunter's Tryst Inn, Oxgangs Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1985
Further Comments: This white, spectral woman lurks around the one time coaching inn. One guest felt invisible lips kiss his cheek as he lay in bed.

Jamaica Street, Edinburgh.

Red Hat

Location: Edinburgh - Jamaica Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late eighteenth / early nineteenth century
Further Comments: This area was haunted by a copper-coloured man in a red hat - a landlord took his tenant to court as it was believed the 'haunting' was created to control low rent prices.

Kirkyard, Coventanter's Prison, Edinburgh.

Bluidy MacKenzie

Location: Edinburgh - Kirkyard, Coventanter's Prison
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1996
Further Comments: While George MacKenzie has been blamed for the phantom attacks on sightseers at this locale, other people say it is the spirits of the prisoners. Either way, many visitors on the local 'ghost walks' have been pinched, pushed, pulled, and even cut while at this spooky site.

Ann Street, Edinburgh.

Mr Swan

Location: Edinburgh - 12 Ann Street - private residence
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Late nineteenth century
Further Comments: As he drowned at sea hundreds of miles away, Mr Swan appeared to his family at the house and took the opportunity to wave goodbye before disappearing into thin air. Some report that he still returns once every few years to have a quick look in. As a side note, during the 1950s one house along Ann Street was said to be home to a white lady; it is unclear whether this is the same property or another.

Curse of the Mummy

Location: Edinburgh - 15 Learmonth Gardens
Type: Curse
Date / Time: 1930s
Further Comments: The figure of an ancient priest was seen in the building after the family returned from a trip to Egypt - it was said that the ghost had accompanied a bone that had been illegally removed from a tomb by a family member. When the piece of skeleton was destroyed, the haunting stopped.

Yellow Eyes

Location: Edinburgh - 25a Regent Terrace
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1979
Further Comments: The strange events which occurred in this shared flat included a voice which asked 'yes?', the sounds of a baby crying and heavy footsteps, the disappearance and reappearance of personal items, and the brief glimpse of a pair of narrow yellow eyes in the darkness.

Female Form

Location: Edinburgh - 36 Rutland Street
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 December 1887, 07:30h
Further Comments: A doctor who lived her reported seeing the apparition of a female patient he had seen the previous night. The doctor later found out the woman had died at the exact moment of his encounter.