The Paranormal Database

Two Horses

Location: Dufftown (Moray) - Balvenie Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1994
Further Comments: As well as the phantom horses, the ruined building is also home to a phantom white lady.

Bailiff

Location: Dunamon (County Roscommon) - Dunamon Castle (aka Donamon Castle)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: When empty, locals avoided this building, considering it haunted by a ghostly bailiff who wore a pot around his neck. A priest managed to trap the entity in a room which was soon bricked up.

Black Aggie

Location: Dunbar (Lothian) - 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.

Builder

Location: Dundalk (County Louth) - Roche Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Rohesia de Verdon promised a builder that if he constructed her a castle, he could marry her. By the time construction was complete, Rohesia had changed her mind and had the builder thrown out of a high window and he died on the rocks below. His ghost can be heard moaning from beneath the window.

Lady Waving Handkerchief

Location: Dundee (Angus) - Claypotts Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 29 May (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Appearing upset, this white woman frantically waves from a high window once every year - it is rumoured she was having an affair with the Cardinal Beaton.

Tall Hairy Man

Location: Dundonald (Ayrshire) - Dundonald castle area
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1994
Further Comments: While out with her dogs, a holiday maker saw a three metre tall man, with red glowing eyes and long grey hair that covered his body. The creature moved away, and the woman thought it better not to pursue.

Pooka

Location: Dunmanway (County Cork) - Ballynacarriga Castle (aka Ballinacarriga Castle)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This fairy/ghostly entity lurks down a depression known as 'Moll the Pooka's Hole'.

Soldier on Lookout Duty

Location: Dunnottar (Aberdeenshire) - Dunnottar Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This uniformed soldier has been seen watching over the sea, as if waiting for an invasion. Other people have reported crying and screams of agony coming from the ruins at night.

Alexander Hay

Location: Duns (Borders) - Duns Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Hays was killed at Waterloo but returned home regardless. Another soldier, this time a young teenager, loiters around the building that was once his former barracks.

Marching Army

Location: Dunster (Somerset) - Conygar Hill - Dunster castle
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: July 1951
Further Comments: A small group of tourists visiting the castle perched on top of a hill heard a large number of marching people approach their location, though nothing could be seen - the noise grew so loud that they all ran from the scene, stopping only once they reached the base of the hill.

Bagpiper

Location: Duntrune (Argyll and Bute) - Duntrune (or Duntroon) Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This musician piped a warning to his MacDonald clan leader that he was entering a Campbell trap - as punishment, the Campbells' took the piper and cut off his fingers, leaving him to bleed to death. The bagpiper's warning, a wild and unusual tune, now drifts across the landscape.

Duntulm Castle, Isle of Skye, Scotland.

Screaming

Location: Duntulm, Isle of Skye (Highland) - Duntulm Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A total of six entities are reported to haunt these ruins; the screams of a starving prisoner (walled up in the tower), a weeping nun, three drunkards, and the cries of a nursemaid holding a dead child (that she accidentally dropped from the battlements).

An old postcard of Durham Castle.

Grey Shadow

Location: Durham (Durham) - Durham Castle, black staircase
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Reportedly the wife of one of the former Prince Bishops of Durham, this figure haunts the black staircase where she fell and broke her neck.

Murdered Woman

Location: East Kilbride (Lanarkshire) - Mains Castle, Lymekilns
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Throttled by her husband during a domestic row (he was convinced she was having an affair), the lady has insisted on returning several times after her murder.

Pale Lady

Location: East Linton (Lothian) - 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.

Mary Sibbald

Location: East Wemyss (Fife) - MacDuff's Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A petty thief, Mary was killed for her crimes - her shadowy form has been reported at the castle ever since.

Old black and white photograph of Balmoral Castle.

John Brown

Location: Easter Balmoral (Aberdeenshire) - Balmoral Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The close friend of Queen Victoria, Mr Brown has been reported on site post-mortem.

Sarah Blundell

Location: Edenderry (County Offaly) - Blundell Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The phantom Lady Blundell, who died in 1701, periodically appears on the lawn surrounding the ruins of the castle. Folklore says there is a network of tunnels leading away from the site.

Lord Francis Jeffrey

Location: Edinburgh (Lothian) - Craigcrook Castle, Blackhall
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1970 (poltergeist), 2013/14 (footsteps)
Further Comments: A poltergeist in the building threw small metal items at staff, including paperclips and screws. Many years later, a member of staff reported hearing footsteps in an empty room above them and the following year two other people witnessed doors opening unaided. One story says that the castle is haunted by Lord Francis Jeffrey.

Edinburgh Castle, Scotland.

Viscount Dundee

Location: Edinburgh (Lothian) - 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.

Running

Location: Edinburgh (Lothian) - Lauriston Castle (aka Lauriston House), 2a Cramond Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1926 onwards
Further Comments: This entity creates the sound of footsteps moving quickly around the building. The sound is thought to be made by a former butler.

Lady Lindsay

Location: Edzell (Angus) - Edzell Castle (ruins)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Lindsay fell into a coma but was thought dead - she awoke in the church as the parish sexton tried to cut off her finger to steal a ring. He fled the church, leaving a cold and weak Lindsay who tried to walk back home to the castle but failed - she died just outside the door. Her shade has been reported at the castle, the church, and in-between, and is said to smell of death.

A skull-headed horseman.

Dark Horseman

Location: Ellistoun (Renfrewshire) - Ellistoun Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: December nights (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Possessing a grinning skull barren of flesh, this dark horseman and his black steed gallop furiously down muddy paths towards the nearby waterfalls.

Maria

Location: Elvaston (Derbyshire) - Elvaston Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Women unknown, man in rags in 2010, others in 2004 and 2012
Further Comments: Maria, former wife of the 4th Earl of Harrington, is said to manifest as a white lady who gazes from a window or walks around the area with a pale dog. A grey woman is also said to haunt the area, and in 2010 it was said that a family spotted a man in ragged clothing in nearby woodland who suddenly vanished. Two years later, two witnesses heard sounds close to the castle which they initially thought to be a party. When unable to see a party nearby, the witnesses realised the sounds comprised of men fighting, muskets discharging, and horses. Around 2004, a witness exiting the castle witnessed apparitions of horse-pulled carriages containing men who shouted and chanted.

Dunstanburgh Castle, copyright Tim Robinson 2012.

Sir Guy the Seeker

Location: Embleton (Northumberland) - 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.