The Paranormal Database

The ghost of Benjamin Gear.

Benjamin Gear

Location: Dartmoor (Devon) - Cranmere Pool
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A former mayor of Okehampton, the figure is said to haunt the waters of the pool. He also takes the form of a black horse. There are reports of an exorcism attempt which may have failed.

Old Crockern

Location: Dartmoor (Devon) - Crockern Tor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Riding on the back of a skeletal horse, Crockern insists on moving down this path waving a sword in his dead hand.

Yeth Hounds

Location: Dartmoor (Devon) - General area of the River Tavy
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: These variants of the shuck, complete with hunters on horseback, have been heard running in this area after dark. Part of the Tavy is also said to be haunted by the ghost of Sir John Fitz, whose body was found in the river.

Limpety

Location: Dartmoor (Devon) - Green Hill & Black Lane area
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Lost on the moor during a snowstorm, a master of the Dartmoor foxhunt claimed that a petite man on a grey horse came from nowhere and led him to safety. He later saw a painting of a gypsy called Limpety and named him as his saviour, only to be told that he had died on the moor 50 years previous.

People on Horseback

Location: Dartmoor (Devon) - Lustleigh Cleave
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1956
Further Comments: Wearing clothing from the middle ages, witnesses observed several horsemen galloping across this Dartmoor area. Another party of witnesses saw what looked like cavemen moving around the stone circle at the Cleave.

Military Horseman

Location: Dartmoor (Devon) - Newhouse Inn (ruins)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This figure wearing a grey greatcoat has been seen riding along near the ruins of this building.

Coach Arriving

Location: Dartmouth (Devon) - The Royal Castle Hotel, The Quay
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Autumn months, 02:00h (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Early morning, during the time of golden leaves, the sound of a horse and coach can be heard coming to a stop outside the hotel. There are sounds of someone jumping on board before the hooves can be heard pulling away. One of the bedrooms may be haunted by a robed figure, and the sounds of two people fighting can be heard in the courtyard.

Clibbon

Location: Datchworth (Hertfordshire) - Area around the station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Found guilty of highway robbery, Clibbon was tied to the back of a horse and dragged around the town until he was dead. His screams are sometimes heard. The same area is also home to a headless horse, though it may not be the same creature associated with the highwayman.

Small Carriage

Location: Delamere Forest (Cheshire) - Road by the Station Cafe
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 14 February 2006, 04:00h
Further Comments: Returning from a late shift at work, this witness drove past a horse pulling a small, two wheeled carriage that was dimly lit by lanterns. The driver of the carriage remained motionless as the witness's car went by.

Horse and Rider

Location: Denbury Down (Devon) - Woodland in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A figure on horseback has been observed in the distance, holding a shield and sword. Perhaps connected to this entity, the sounds of a horse charging through woodland have been reported. There may be an additional relationship to the nearby Denbury Hill Iron Age hill fort which folklore says contains golden treasure.

Runaway Horse

Location: Denchworth (Oxfordshire) - Road leading into Denchworth
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 14 January 2006, around 21.00h
Further Comments: While driving into Denchworth, two people spotted a panicked horse, which galloped from a side road in front of their car. The driver immediately slammed on the brakes and turned the headlights down so as not to startle the creature further. Not quite believing what they had both seen, they turned the headlights back up only to see the horse galloping in front of the car for a few more seconds before vanishing.

Wild Men

Location: Dent (Cumbria) - Area north of town
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Dressed in animal skins and on horseback, the dozens of phantom, wild-looking figures are reportedly Viking raiders.

Sounds of a Running Battle

Location: Derby (Derbyshire) - Alvaston area, near the castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century and 2009
Further Comments: Three girls reported listening to the sounds of a small battle here in the early twentieth century - gunfire, galloping horses, and men shouting. Four people also heard the sounds while out late at night during the 1980s, and two brothers passing through the area in 2009.

Old Soldiers

Location: Derby (Derbyshire) - Normanton Barracks
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Squadies tell tales of seeing strange people in the newer buildings who vanish if approached, while outside a phantom horse and cart are occasionally seen.

Death Coach

Location: Derrymore (County Kerry) - Derrymore House
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Late nineteenth century
Further Comments: As the owner of the house lay dying, the other family members around his bed heard a horse drawn coach pull up outside the house. Believing it to be the doctor, they rushed downstairs, but nothing could be seen on the gravel driveway. The owner died soon after.

Darrie Loughlin

Location: Derryveagh Mountains (County Donegal) - Area around Lough Dheerig (possibly Lough Derg?)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early to mid nineteenth century
Further Comments: Around eighteen months after his death, Darrie Loughlin's ghost started to appear in the area, riding a white horse towards the lough.

Sketch by Franz Marc.

Runaway Horses

Location: Devizes (Wiltshire) - Oliver's Castle, aka Roundway Castle, aka Rundaway Castle - Bloody Ditch
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is said eight hundred men died at the Battle of Roundway Hill in 1643, after a battlefield manoeuvre which trapped cavalry in a slopped area. The men and horses were slaughtered, and since the battle ghostly horses have been seen galloping around the area. A headless ghost was once also said to walk the area, possibly linked to a barrow on the site, as is the phantom hound which drags a chain from its neck.

Grey Pony

Location: Digby (Lincolnshire) - Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The churchyard is haunted by a man who rides around on a grey (or white) pony. A local superstition says that anyone who runs backwards around the tomb of Robert Cooke will hear crockery rattling in the grave.

Kitchen Horse

Location: Dirleton (Lothian) - Beadles Cottage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The kitchen was built over the old stables, and the sound of a horse kicking a stable door is said to be occasionally heard. Horseshoes belonging to Shetland ponies have been found in the garden.

Black Coach

Location: Doneraile (County Cork) - Area outside Doneraile Court
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: August 1887
Further Comments: A farmer returning home encountered a coach pulled by four headless horses, which pulled away from the Court's driveway at breakneck speed. The man later learned that Viscount Doneraile died just before his encounter. The ghost of Lady Casteltown has been reported within the building, as has her husband.

Icen Way, Dorchester.

Horses

Location: Dorchester (Dorset) - Icen Way
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sounds of horses dragging prisoners to their execution site are said to be heard along this road.

Coach in the House

Location: Dorchester (Dorset) - Wolfeton (aka Wolveton) House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One owner of the property won a large amount of money when he drove a horse and coach up the stairs inside the house - his victorious ghost reportedly re-enacts the antic. A separate entity is that of a headless grey woman, a member of the Trenchard family who slit her own throat, while a priest is said to haunt the gatehouse (where he was held prisoner).

Rider

Location: Dorking (Surrey) - Graveyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A decapitated rider on horseback follows a road that no longer exists - the figure crosses the gravestones and vanishes through a hedge.

Horse

Location: Dover (Kent) - Common Lane and another unnamed lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January 1963
Further Comments: Police were called after a riderless horse was spotted cantering in the area. No horse could be found, and in one area the creature had been reported, the snow showed no hoof marks.

House Party

Location: Downend (Isle of Wight) - Area near Knighton Gorges
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 December knight seen (reoccurring), house reported in the twentieth century
Further Comments: A manor house has been seen in the area, a party in full flow visible through its windows. However, the house was demolished many years previous. Even when not seen, locals have reported hearing music coming from the site. A large black knight on horseback is still occasionally seen, once a year.