The Paranormal Database

Shadowy Figure

Location: Leicester (Leicestershire) - Friar Lane (though topographical area has changed since report)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Likely early twentieth century
Further Comments: Normally manifesting as a set of footsteps which would follow people as they walked down this road towards St Mary's church, the shadow of this ghost once manifested and revealed itself to be headless and humped to one witness.

Headless Person

Location: Leicester (Leicestershire) - West Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1965
Further Comments: This headless shade was watched by witnesses as it drifted down the middle of the road.

Cavalier

Location: Leicester (Leicestershire) - Wygston House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Likely pre twentieth century
Further Comments: A ghost would appear at the window of this building once a month; one writer suggested the phantom to be an optical illusion created by the moon. Another story from the site placed a headless Cavalier here, although the figure never returned after being shot at by a visitor.

Headless Women

Location: Leigh (Dorset) - Pool in the area, exact location unknown
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Midnight (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Having drowned in the pool when their horse and coach fell in, these four headless women (still in their coach) rise from the water at midnight and travel around the area.

Slapper

Location: Leven (East Riding of Yorkshire) - Road near White Cross
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is said the area was once haunted by a headless white woman who would hunt down highwaymen and give them a slap. What became of the entity is not known.

Figure in Black

Location: Leven (East Riding of Yorkshire) - Unnamed brook in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Like other ghosts in this area, the ghostly figure in black is headless. The entity was seen squatting by the brook before reaching out and chasing the witness away.

Little Folk

Location: Lewesdon Hill (Dorset) - General area
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Cat and fairies unknown, headless horseman during late 1970s
Further Comments: The second highest peak in Dorset is said to be home to an extended family of fairies. In recent years, there have been reports of a large black cat living in the area. In the late 1970s, a woman and her two children all witnessed a headless horseman emerging from a fog bank.

Headless Hound

Location: Leweston (Dorset) - Junction north of Stokebridge Farm
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom dog with no head is reputed to cross a country lane close to the farm.

Headless Man on Horse

Location: Lilburn (Northumberland) - Crossroads
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Two ghosts were said to haunt this area. A man with his head under his arm rode upon a dun coloured horse, while at other times a phantom woman would appear, wringing her hands.

Headless Piper

Location: Lisburn (County Antrim) - Piper's Hill, near the Linen Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This poor ghostly piper is said to have lost his head after an accident with a cannon ball.

Headless Horseman

Location: Litchfield (Hampshire) - Angledown Barrow (aka Angle Down Barrow)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Holding his head under one arm, this horseman was said to have manifested when a small group of men attempted to dig up the barrow while looking for treasure (reputed to be a golden image).

Headless Horseman

Location: Lochbuie (Argyll and Bute) - Lochbuie House
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Prior to tragedy in the Ewen family
Further Comments: This decapitated ghostly figure was once Ewen of the Little Head. Ewen was killed in battle with a rogue laird and now appears in the area around the house to warn the Ewen family of impending doom. Another animal, a large black dog, is reported to patrol the grounds.

The Bean-nighe, or Scottish washer-woman, standing waist deep in water. Image by Wayne Lowden.

Bean-nighe

Location: Lochbuie, Isle of Mull (Argyll and Bute) - River by Moy Castle
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: 1500s
Further Comments: The Bean-nighe is a Scottish spirit, an ill bringer who would be seen washing the clothes of those soon to die. This creature has long breasts, slung over her shoulders, and if she were grabbed from behind, the Bean-nighe would say whom the clothes belonged; if yours, she could change fate. The owner of the castle, upon seeing the creature, tried to grab her but failed - he died in battle the following day. As if this entity were not enough to contend with, the area is haunted by a headless horseman.

Headless Horseman

Location: Loddington (Leicestershire) - Road on a steep hill in the area
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The horseman, holding his head under one arm, gallops at breakneck speed down the hill, with anyone who witnesses him doomed to suffer a family bereavement.

Headless Man

Location: Loders (Dorset) - Yellow Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The lane is said to be haunted by a coachman who lost his head while travelling too fast - he hit an overhanging branch, decapitated him in an instant.

Coach

Location: Long Bredy (Dorset) - Kingston Russell House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The driveway of the house is said to be haunted by a coach containing a headless footman and four headless passengers, driven by a headless coachman, pulled by a team of four headless horses.

Headless Horses

Location: Long Compton (Warwickshire) - Long Compton Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather dependent: After a storm
Further Comments: A coach pulled by six headless horses is said to travel up the hill. There are also vague reports of a shuck-like dog that runs in the same area. Another ghost, that of a scary old woman with matted black hair, was also reported here in 1973.

Headless Officer

Location: Long Marston (North Yorkshire) - Lanes in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown, likely pre nineteenth century
Further Comments: As the clock struck midnight, a headless officer upon his horse emerged from the ground and rode around the village lanes looking for the battle which once took place here. After two hours of searching, the ghost would give up and ride back to the area from which he came, vanishing into the ground. It was said that once the local population were taught such an entity could not exist, the phantom never appeared again.

The headless woman, from James Bowker's Goblin Tales of Lancashire.

Long Stone

Location: Longridge (Lancashire) - Written Stone Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Still visible
Further Comments: Local tradition state that this stone was laid to rid the Radcliffe family of a ghost. This may be the case, though the lane is still felt by many to be a place of evil, with a black shape moving around in the darkness. One account says the lane is still haunted by a decapitated old woman who keeps her head in a basket under one arm.

Headless Man

Location: Lulsley (Hereford & Worcester) - Sandy Lane (between Osebury Rock and the river)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One folk story says this road is home to several entities that appear to travellers, including a headless man, a white horse, a black dog, and a sad woman with flowing hair who wears a white robe.

Cuppage

Location: Lurgan (County Armagh) - Railway lines
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Date of last sighting unknown, but reputed to be a nightly event
Further Comments: Drunk after splitting up with his wife, Cuppage decided to try to convince her to return. Knowing that she would be on a certain train, he foolishly stood on the tracks; the train did not stop and Cuppage was decapitated. His headless ghost now walks along the track every night with head tucked under his arm. A slight variant of the tale has Cuppage lose a couple of limbs instead of his head, and now he looks for the missing appendages.

Headless Man

Location: Luton (Bedfordshire) - Dorset Court, Bailey Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A man watching television in his flat turned around to see a headless figure standing behind him. Blood started appearing over the bathroom walls. The flat underwent an exorcism, but the couple living there did not stop to see if it was successful - they moved out.

Headless Horseman

Location: Lydlinch (Dorset) - Lydlinch Common
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Little is known about the ghostly headless horseman reputed to traverse this area.

Pallbearers

Location: Lytchett Matravers (Dorset) - Road between village and Poole - A350?
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Somewhere along this road, four headless pallbearers hurry along before vanishing into a hedge.

Headless Monk

Location: Madeley (Shropshire) - Mount Hill (next to Courthouse)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: This decapitated entity terrified a teenage girl to such a degree she never returned to the area.