The Paranormal Database

Never-ending Cave

Location: Cheviot Hills - Eelin's Hole (exact location not known)
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A cave system here was thought to either be endless or to come out on moorland several miles away. One tale tells of a hunting party which chased their prey into the cave entrance only to never emerge, while another has the familiar piper enter playing his pipes, only for the instrument to abruptly end and the man never to be seen again.

Elfin Music

Location: Chillingham - Area around the Hurle Stane (aka Hurl Stone)
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This site was said to often be filled with the sound of fairy music and singing.

Lady Mary Berkeley

Location: Chillingham - Chillingham Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2003
Further Comments: Broken hearted after her husband ran off with her own sister, Mary slowly pined away in the castle. Her ghost sometimes brushes past tourists in the tower. A blue boy also walks the castle and has disturbed the sleep of guests with his fearful cries. As a side note, the cattle found on the grounds are either direct descendants of the aurochs or are related to fairy cattle.

The ghostly Duke of Argyle's mistress.

Silky

Location: Chirton - Chirton Hall (no longer standing), also referred to as Churton Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: Once the home of the Duke of Argyle, this building was said to be haunted by his former mistress who died suddenly, the sound of her silken dress giving her nickname.

Gliding Woman

Location: Chirton - Unnamed road leading down to the river
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late nineteenth century
Further Comments: A tall elderly woman in a black dress and bonnet, accompanied by a black dog, was encountered by a miner as he walked towards the river. The phantom emerged from a hedge and touched the top of the miner's head, paralysing him, before drifting back from where she had come. The snapping of a twig broke the miner's petrification, enabling him to run away.

Lovesick Woman

Location: Cleadon - Windmill on the Cleadon Hills
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This woman leapt from the windmill after being jilted by her lover - her shade is still said to linger in the area.

Royalist

Location: Cleadon - Britannia public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This phantom Royalist soldier died on the site from his injuries and has been seen near the bar. A ghostly coach and horses also haunts the area. As a side note, a secret tunnel is said to run from the pub to a nearby house.

Giant Cow

Location: Corbridge - Banks of the river
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1660
Further Comments: A giant skeleton, around 6.5 metres in length, which was dug up on the banks of the river was believed (at the time) to belong to a rather large cow.

Woman with Pram

Location: Corbridge - River Tyne, heading towards Bardon Mill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Summer, year unknown
Further Comments: Wearing a blue dress and pushing a pram, this phantom woman walks at speed along the bank of the river. Her presence is said to be around the spot the body of a woman and baby were found pre-twentieth century.

Grey Lady

Location: Craster - Craster Tower
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Condemned to walk the same path for evermore, the grey lady enters the front door before walking up the stairs to the drawing room. Another pair of ghosts have been heard duelling, their swords clashing outside the building, while one owner heard the wheels of an invisible coach crunch on the driveway. The same witness and his family experienced mild poltergeist activity in the tower.

White Lady

Location: Cresswell - Pele Tower
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A daughter of the Cresswell family, this woman starved herself to death after witnessing her brothers murder her lover, a Danish prince. The phantom is said to look out from the roof.

Wicked Priest

Location: Cullaby - Cullaby Castle (pseudonym)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This ghost was once bricked up in the castle's walls, however the wall was knocked down, and the spirit freed to create havoc.

Victorian Gentleman

Location: Cullercoats - Dove Marine Laboratory
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s-1990s
Further Comments: Said to have been spotted by late working PhD students, a tall, dark Victorian looking figure wearing a top hat has been seen.

Children's Party

Location: Dalton - Dalton Head Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: After finding children's bones in a hidden closet, a visitor to this house awoke during the night to hear the sounds of dancing and singing in the upper part of the building.

Silky

Location: Denton - Denton Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Named after the sound of her silk dress, this spirit was often heard moving around the premises. The ghost may be that of a mistress of a former Duke of Argyll.

White Lady

Location: Detchant - Well (once used for cattle, current state unknown)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early nineteenth century
Further Comments: This site was another Northumberland well said to be home to a phantom white lady.

The ghostly Lady Derwentwater.

Lady Derwentwater

Location: Dilston - Dilston Hall and nearby woods
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Waiting for the return of her husband, Lady Derwentwater has been gazing out of one of the windows (or if not seen direct, her lamp has been spotted flickering in the distance). Her spirit is also said to stalk the nearby woods. A legend says that when Lord Derwentwater was executed at the Tower of London in 1716, the stream running by the hall turned red with blood.

Protection Cross

Location: Dilston - Maiden's Walk
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Circa 1715
Further Comments: As James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater, rested under some trees the evening before joining the Jacobites, a phantom woman in grey visited him. The woman handed James a crucifix, saying it would protect him against bullets and swords.

Strange Toilet

Location: Dunston - Raine Engineering Company
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1974
Further Comments: A cleaner claimed to have heard a boy falling to his death near the staff toilet, while several staff refused to go near the area, as they have heard a phantom voice call out 'Maria'.

Hobthrush

Location: Elsdon - Elsdon Moat
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Hobthrush, a brownie-like entity, tirelessly worked here until, after someone spotted his hat was a bit worse for wear, made him a new one. Offended, Hobthrush left and never returned.

The moor is said to be protected by a nature spirit.

Brown Man

Location: Elsdon - Elsdon Moor
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A stocky dwarf like figure, the brown man looks after the local wildlife, and has been known to kill anyone who persistently harms the natural balance.

Ella

Location: Elsdon - General area
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Legend says the town is named after Ella, a Danish giant who terrorised the area and reduced the city to the village it is now.

Winter

Location: Elsdon - Winter's Gibbet
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The last man displayed on a gibbet in England, Bill Winter now haunts the place he was displayed for the crime of murder. A local legend states that wood from the gibbet can be used to banish toothache.

Dunstanburgh Castle, copyright Tim Robinson 2012

Sir Guy the Seeker

Location: Embleton - Dunstanburgh Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Sir Guy's spirit cannot be laid to rest until he rediscovers the maiden that he once stumbled upon while hiding in these ruins from a storm. Another ghost on site is the Earl of Lancaster, executed on the site (though the executioner was so incompetent it took almost a dozen blows to remove the Earl's head). Finally, a woman lies enchanted somewhere in the ruins, and will awaken when the 'right knight' blows his horn. It is thought that the same woman is responsible for the shining stones which could once be found in the area, which were considered part of her hidden treasure to be awarded to the person who saved her.

Thirteen O'Clock

Location: Embleton - Dunstanburgh House
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1955 - July 1957
Further Comments: This property featured in the news after ex-RAF occupant Patrick Phelan and family found cups and saucers smashed against walls, pillows thrown around, and listened as their grandfather clock began chiming thirteen times. Disembodied footsteps were also heard. Visiting RAF officers also experienced evidence of something strange when they heard a large garden urn overturn, apparently unaided. The RAF, who owned the house, served Phelan with an eviction order after non-payment of rent.