The Paranormal Database

Vanishing Children

Location: Edinburgh - Private residence, Comely Bank
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2017
Further Comments: A couple standing outside of their home had a conversation with a young boy and girl who vanished before their eyes.

Bearded Man

Location: Edinburgh - Private residence, Leith
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2007-2008
Further Comments: After one of the occupants spotted a large, bearded man in an overcoat standing by the kitchen door, the flat experienced a period of poltergeist disturbances that including running footsteps, bangs, rustling bags and finding family photographs placed face down in the kitchen. Guests to the property reported feeling as if they were being watched.

Dread

Location: Edinburgh - Private residence, Restalrig Crescent
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1988-1996
Further Comments: Eight years of cold spots, taps turning off and items being moved unaided, and a feeling of perpetual dread resulted in the family moving out of their home on Boxing Day.

Footsteps

Location: Edinburgh - Property along Waterloo Place
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1997
Further Comments: A workman in an empty building heard footsteps running on the floor above. He investigated and found no one. Returning to work, he heard the footsteps again a short time later. Other workers reported disappearing keys and knocking on a toilet door.

Most Haunted House in Edinburgh?

Location: Edinburgh - Quaker Meeting House, Victoria Terrace
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Around 1780
Further Comments: Formally owned by Major Thomas Weir who confessed to witchcraft prior to being executed, this house was considered extremely haunted (one occupier fled after only one night, having encountered a phantom calf) and was thought to have been demolished. However, in 2014 it was discovered that it had been modified and incorporated into a new building.

Fred

Location: Edinburgh - RAF Turnhouse (no longer operational)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1974, 1982-1997
Further Comments: During the 1980s and 1990s, workers at the MOD transport section would say 'hello' to Fred, the resident ghost. It was said that if Fred were not acknowledged, the phantom would open lockers and move things around. It was thought that Fred was a worker at the site during the Second World War; he died after walking into a propeller. The ghost of a young man in a grey RAF uniform was encountered in 1974, as it walked over to a witness and touched their forehead before vanishing.

Edinburgh's roads close to St Giles.

Lost Piper

Location: Edinburgh - Roads close to St Giles' Cathedral
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A piper sent to investigate tunnels running under the Cathedral became lost, his piping occasionally heard under the ground.

Centaur

Location: Edinburgh - Royal Botanic Garden
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: Robert Ogilvie Crombie claimed to have encountered several mystical creatures here, including a centaur, a faun named Kurmos, and Pan.

Woman in White

Location: Edinburgh - Royal Circus Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 1970s
Further Comments: At least three night porters reported seeing this tall, beautiful woman in white with long black hair move quickly down the corridors. Workers demanded to work in pairs until the ghost had been exorcised.

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh.

Woman in Blue

Location: Edinburgh - Royal Lyceum Theatre, Grindlay Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Observed in the upper gallery, the woman in blue's history is unknown. She may be the same entity seen perched high up on a lighting rig. Phantom laughter is also said to occasionally echo around the site.

Missing Tools

Location: Edinburgh - Rutland Place church (as of March 2010, being converted into public house)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: March 2010
Further Comments: The local newspaper reported that workmen have refused to work on the site at night because of strange moving shadows, footsteps in empty parts of the building, and disappearing tools.

Footsteps

Location: Edinburgh - Seventeenth century house near Dean Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s?
Further Comments: This house had an entity that opened the front door and could be heard ascending the staircase.

Little Girl

Location: Edinburgh - Sheep's Heid Inn, Duddingston
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2006
Further Comments: After building work restored the inn to its former glory, a visiting medium reported the ghost of a young girl close to the skittle alley. A former landlord known as 'The Major' is reputed to haunt the bar area.

Headless Woman with Child

Location: Edinburgh - Site of the Gillespie Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: Before the construction of the hospital, the land was given to a mansion that was haunted by a headless lady carrying a small child. When this building was demolished, their bodies were found concealed beneath.

St Mary's Street, Edinburgh.

Bloodied Woman

Location: Edinburgh - St Mary's Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Murdered in 1916, this woman is thought to still stand around the site of her death, looking dazed and confused.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Location: Edinburgh - Stevenson House (was a museum, now a private residence)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A phantom which has made the occasional appearance at this locale is named as former owner Robert Louis Stevenson.

The Edinburgh Filmhouse.

Woman

Location: Edinburgh - The Edinburgh Filmhouse (cinema)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Filmhouse was reported to be haunted by a phantom woman, though little is known about her and she has not been seen for many years.

Alice

Location: Edinburgh - The Howard Hotel, 34 Great King Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Alice is named as a very kind spirit, and any visitation has left people feeling calm.

The Scotsman Hotel, Edinburgh.

Printer

Location: Edinburgh - The Scotsman's News Building (currently the Scotsman Hotel), North Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: November 2004
Further Comments: A phantom man wearing an apron and carrying a tray of metal blocks was spotted in the basement by a member of staff. Another phantom, this time of a woman wearing black, was said to haunt the former reception area.

Pacing

Location: Edinburgh - Theatre Royal, Waterloo Place (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: Various people heard talking and pacing in the theatre when it stood, even though it would be devoid of human life.

Tolbooth Tavern, Edinburgh.

Glass Mover

Location: Edinburgh - Tolbooth Tavern, Canongate
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2007
Further Comments: The entity at work here is most likely to push around bottles and glasses, although the occasional shadowy figure has been spotted.

Heavy Footsteps

Location: Edinburgh - Tollcross Fire Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2013
Further Comments: Control room staff have reported hearing heavy footsteps on the balcony surrounding the rest area and within the corridors of the control room area. The footsteps sound as if they are walking over a stone type floor even though the balcony is metal and the corridors all vinyl or carpeted.

Legal Battle

Location: Edinburgh - Trinity, exact location unknown
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1835
Further Comments: A landlord took a tenant who resided in the village to court, claiming the man had slandered the name of his house by claiming it was haunted, and had also caused great damage to the walls by shooting at the 'ghost'.

Buckingham Terrace, Edinburgh.

Naval Officer

Location: Edinburgh - Unknown building, Buckingham Terrace
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: This former sea captain took his own life after murdering a baby whilst drunk. His scruffy form was seen racing around the building.

Short Woman

Location: Edinburgh - Unknown building, Forrest Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late nineteenth or early twentieth century
Further Comments: Believed to be a former nurse who poisoned her sister on the site, this sinister spectre was seen in the basement of the building and standing over a bed upstairs.