The Paranormal Database

Dolly Munroe

Location: Richhill (County Armagh) - Richhill Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: Dolly is one of several ghosts that are said to haunt the site. The Northern Ireland Paranormal Research Association often conduct investigations here and claim that that Dolly's presence has been detected.

Richmond Castle (public domain).

King Arthur

Location: Richmond (North Yorkshire) - Richmond Castle
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Beneath the keep of the castle, deep underground, is a secret room where King Arthur rests until Britain needs him. A young drummer who was sent down a tunnel to find the hideout vanished without trace, though his phantom drumming can still be heard underground. Finally, the castle's Gold Hole Tower had associated folklore which said gold was concealed underneath, although no evidence of this has ever been uncovered.

Ripley Castle, Yorkshire.

Bottom Half of a Lady

Location: Ripley (North Yorkshire) - Ripley Castle, the Tower Room
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1998?
Further Comments: Witnessed by one of the castle guides leaving the Tower Room, this ghost walked through two closed doors. The Tower Room also experienced poltergeist activity when the chimney was unblocked in the middle of the twentieth century - pictures were turned around and the furniture positions altered. The other ghost of the castle is said to be a nun, who walks around at night, knocking on bedroom doors, and entering when invited.

Drifting Figure

Location: Rivington (Lancashire) - Rivington Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1967
Further Comments: A team of workmen on site claimed to have seen a strange white figure floating around the castle before it disappeared.

Lucy Walters

Location: Roch (Dyfed) - Roch Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Lucy has been reported running around the castle, her white clothing flowing as she moves, passing through closed doors if they stand in her way.

An old postcard of Rochester Castle.

Lady Blanche de Warenne

Location: Rochester (Kent) - Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Varies: Blanche on Good Friday or 04 April, Dickens on 24 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A bystander in a battle for the castle, the Lady Blanche was killed when an arrow entered her heart - her shade has been observed still staggering with the shaft protruding from her chest. It is also believed that Charles Dickens's ghost haunts the moat; he has been seen both here and at the Corn Exchange clock.

A illustration of an English Roundhead by Wayne Lowden.

Roundhead

Location: Rockingham (Northamptonshire) - Rockingham Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late nineteenth century
Further Comments: Charles Dickens is said to have watched a ghostly figure move towards and disappear at the iron gate while staying at this castle. Jack Gould, in his Gothick Northamptonshire, speculates that it could have been the ghost of a Roundhead as this was the path they took when storming the castle.

Richard Ely

Location: Roscrea (County Laois) - Ballaghmore Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Richard was shot in the castle by a poacher and has remained here since. One of the flagstones is still discoloured by his blood.

White Lady

Location: Roslin (Lothian) - Area around Rosslyn (or Roslin) Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The white lady is one of three phantoms to haunt this area, the other two being a phantom horseman and a ghostly black dog.

Pet Dog

Location: Roslin (Lothian) - Roslin Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The pet dog of an English officer killed during a battle at the site can be heard crying out for its master.

Rothesay Castle, from the Evening Express, 30 July 1897.

Lady Isabell

Location: Rothesay (Argyll and Bute) - Rothesay Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Local stories tell of a female form which moves along the battlements after dark, with the occasional scream heard. One account says the entity is white in colour, while others maintain the ghost is green. The woman has been named as Lady Isabell, who took her own life rather than being forced to marry a Viking raider. A step, known as the 'Bluidy Stair', is said to have a bloodstain that can never be removed.

Grey Lady

Location: Ruthin (Clwyd) - Ruthin Castle (hotel)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Clear nights
Further Comments: This lady was married to a fifteenth century steward at the castle - she decapitated her husband when she discovered him with a younger woman. In turn, she was beheaded for the act of revenge, and now the spook makes fleeting appearances at the former fortress. A man in armour is also occasionally reported.

Joker

Location: Ryde (Isle of Wight) - Ryde Castle Hotel
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The poltergeist here is said to have a good sense of humour.

Restless Dead

Location: Saddell (Argyll and Bute) - Abbey and castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is said that a former laird removed the headstones from nearby churchyards to use as construction material for his castle - hence, much of the area is haunted by those disturbed. Particularly noted are the shades of a monk and that of a white lady.

Anne Erskine

Location: Saint Monance (Fife) - Kellie Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century?
Further Comments: Anne is still seen around the area where she plummeted to her death. Another ghost, Professor James Lorimer, sits in a castle corridor - he restored the building from a ruin in the late nineteenth century.

Lammikin

Location: Saline (Fife) - Killernie Castle
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A former home of wizard Sir Michael Scott, this site is better known as being the possible location featured in the folk song Lammikin, where an unpaid mason murders a woman and a child in the castle which he is owed money for constructing.

John Wilson

Location: Sanquhar (Dumfries and Galloway) - Sanquhar Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Wilson was murdered just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and his ghost still protests. A blonde-haired lady dressed in white also haunts the castle - she was murdered in the late sixteenth century, though her body not discovered for almost three hundred years.

Stubborn Figure

Location: Scaleby (Cumbria) - Scaleby Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Though little is known about this ghost, legend says it refused to leave for seven years after an exorcism.

An old photograph of Scalloway Castle.

Figure

Location: Scalloway (Shetland) - Scalloway Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: During a production of Macbeth, a witness reported seeing a figure on the wall of the castle who vanished. Local folklore says Earl Patrick Stewart, who commissioned the castle, insisted the walls contain the hair and blood of locals.

An old postcard showing Scarborough Castle.

Piers Gaveston

Location: Scarborough (North Yorkshire) - Scarborough Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Beheaded in 1312, Piers spent his last free days in this castle - he now returns, walking the paths. A darker version of the story says he tries to lure visitors to the cliff edge before pushing them off.

Woman with Child

Location: Seaton Delaval (Northumberland) - Seaton Delaval Castle, chapel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Her husband failing to return from battle, this woman forever keeps watch from a window in the hope he one day comes home. There are additional reports of phantom music and the pacing sound of women's heels.

Murdered Women

Location: Selkirk (Borders) - Newark Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 13 September (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The castle is said to contain the souls of the women and children murdered by brutal soldiers at the site, who are heard once a year.

Sleeping Knights

Location: Sewingshield (Northumberland) - Castle ruins
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Early 1800s
Further Comments: Legend says the site of King Arthur's hall; a farmer once claimed to have discovered the location, deep underground, accessible only by a secret passage that he'd accidentally stumbled upon. He found a cavern full of sleeping knights, dogs and two royal looking figures - but ran away and could not remember where the passage was.

Nancy

Location: Sheffield Hutton (North Yorkshire) - Castle and attached farmhouse
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A former servant, Nancy now walks around the area wearing a black cloak with the hood pulled up. Seen outside several times by an owner's father, the phantom also scared a house guest to such a degree that they fell down the stairs.

Sir Walter

Location: Sherborne (Dorset) - Sherborne (New) Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 28 September, St Michael's Eve (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Sir Walter Raleigh is said to appear here once a year, near a tree that was named after him. Other ghosts claimed to haunt the castle include horses and a ghostly child. At one time, it was thought the castle was cursed, as ill fortune befell several of the owners.