The Paranormal Database

Headless Shape on Horseback

Location: Icklingham (Suffolk) - Icklingham Way, southern corner
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Archbishop of Sudbury (or another senior religious figure) was decapitated near to this point by his enemies, the man now returns on dark nights to retrace the route of his death. Another story names the headless horseman as a highwayman, or one of three rebels executed nearby for the murder of the Archbishop.

John Head

Location: Ilsley (Berkshire) - Area around the church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After upsetting the Duke of Cumberland, John mysteriously vanished. His decapitated body was discovered many years later. His funeral match is still reported to occur in the village, four tall men carrying his headless corpse.

Headless Figure

Location: Inkpen (Berkshire) - Barrow located on Sadler's Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The barrow is said to be either haunted or protected (or both?) by a headless figure. At least one barrow in the village is said to contain a solid gold (or silver) coffin, though when the barrow was dug up in the early twentieth century, nothing was found.

Ewen of the Small Head

Location: Isle of Mull (Argyll and Bute) - Duart Castle
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Prior to a death in the MacLean family
Further Comments: This decapitated figure on horseback is seen as a member of the family who killed him lies dying.

Headless Woman

Location: Itchen Abbas (Hampshire) - Area near Rectory Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown - pre-1933
Further Comments: Mentioned in an old newspaper article, some confusion existed on whether the woman who carried her head to be 'real' or a story constructed by non-locals who had moved into the village.

Headless Woman

Location: Itchen Abbas (Hampshire) - Private house close to the river
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Midnight (reoccurring), pre-1935
Further Comments: A phantom woman holding her decapitated head would walk along the driveway, although villagers questioned the credibility of the two witnesses who had claimed to encounter the entity.

Headless Person

Location: Kegworth (Leicestershire) - Churchyard and Market Place
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1960
Further Comments: A lorry driver was left slightly unnerved after watching a headless person leave the churchyard, cross the Market Place and vanish through the closed door of a house (that no longer stands).

An old woodcut of a woman churning butter.

Headless Girl

Location: Kensworth (Bedfordshire) - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The area surrounding the church and the hill on which it sits is reputedly home to a phantom milkmaid who has lost her head in an unknown accident, and a ghostly witch. Another story associated with the church is that the structure was supposed to be erected on the common, but each night all construction materials were moved by an unseen hand to the top of the hill.

Headless Monk

Location: Kilchrenan (Argyll and Bute) - Road between village and Ardanaiseig, stone by the road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is idly speculated that this ghostly monk may have been sacrificed on this old stone by pagans.

Headless Horseman

Location: Kilcummer (County Cork) - Hill in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This area was the haunt of a headless horseman who died while racing the country roads. His ghost was put to rest after a local man was brave enough to let the decapitated figure ride by his side.

An old postcard showing Dean Castle.

Rolling Head

Location: Kilmarnock (Ayrshire) - Dean Castle
Type: Manifestation of the Living
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A female servant in the building once saw her master's decapitated head roll across the floor in front of her, even though he was still alive and well in another part of the building. Exactly a year later, the Laird lost his head in the Tower of London. In more recent years, an old woman dressed in black has been seen on site, radiating an evil aura.

Horseman

Location: Kilmington (Wiltshire) - Bull Lane region
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A grisly headless horseman rides around this area of the village.

Headless Cyclist

Location: Kingsthorpe (Northamptonshire) - Road passing cemetery gates
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Winter 1940
Further Comments: Hit by a car on a cold winter's night around 1915, this cyclist appears when the weather conditions match those in which he died. The accident decapitated him, hence his present form.

Headless Nun

Location: Kircubbin (County Down) - Nun's Quarter
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s?
Further Comments: A floating, headless nun was spotted by a group of friends - they ran, shocked at what they had witnessed.

Headless Woman

Location: Kirkcudbright (Dumfries and Galloway) - Bridge in the Buckland Valley
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Although frightening, the headless woman on the bridge had a reputation for helping the underdog and was credited for foiling a robbery by scaring the (potential) victim away. It was thought that she had been robbed and murdered close by and was determined to prevent others from suffering the same fate.

Pink Lady

Location: Kirkmahoe (Dumfries and Galloway) - Carnsalloch House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Named by one media outlet as 'one of the most haunted buildings in Scotland', the site was supposedly home to a ghostly pink lady, and a headless horseman who would traverse the driveway. Fire heavily damaged the house in 2018.

Woman with Dog

Location: Knowl Hill (Berkshire) - Seven Stars Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A woman dressed in white escorted by a ghostly dog are said to haunt this inn. Other spectres reported here include a headless lady and a man dressed in black.

Raided Building

Location: Langley Park (Durham) - Langley Hall (ruins)
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: Over the past two hundred years, there have been several reports of this building seen to be on fire with soldiers running around its base - the vision vanishes if investigated. Another tale of the area tells of a headless coachman who drives a phantom coach.

Headless Figure

Location: Langton Long Blandford (Dorset) - White Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This lane was once believed to be haunted by a male figure who carried his head under his arm.

Funeral Coach

Location: Lanreath (Cornwall) - General area (Blackadown Moor?)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1750s
Further Comments: A funeral coach pulled by headless horses reputedly terrified people in the area. The locals summoned Rev Richard Dodge to banish the entity. Searching for the apparition, he found the coach parked on the moor, a phantom coachman standing beside it, and by the phantom's feet, the local vicar lay unconscious. Dodge said a prayer, the coachman fled in his vehicle and the vicar recovered (after a few days in bed). The coach never returned to Lanreath.

Headless Calf

Location: Latchingdon (Essex) - Road between Latchingdon & Southminster
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: There are no recent reports of this decapitated young cow, though it has been said the sightings only stopped prior to the Second World War.

Headless Chicken Runs Blindly

Location: Layer Marney (Essex) - Layer Marney Churchyard
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Christmas (reoccurring)
Further Comments: With an unknown origin, a headless chicken appears and runs blindly around the gravestones.

Headless Coachman

Location: Leam (Derbyshire) - Leam Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: A groom and his assistant heard galloping approaching Leam Hall. Expecting the lord and lady of the hall, the pair stood outside awaiting the coach. However, instead of the master's coach, the approaching vehicle was of a 'strange design' and was driven by a headless man. The phantom coach was driven straight past the witnesses and vanished into a closed gate.

Headless Horseman

Location: Leek (Staffordshire) - Moorland by road from Waterhouses
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A headless horseman dismounted and walked alongside one terrified man crossing the moors after dark. The entity met his match when seven members of the clergy banished him.

Headless Men

Location: Leicester (Leicestershire) - Between Leicester and 'Bambury, upon Dunmothe' (ed note - latter place cannot be located on modern maps)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Possibly fifteenth century?
Further Comments: An old account states that several men encountered a headless phantom crying out 'Bowes! Bowes!'.