The Paranormal Database

A postcard of Criccieth in Wales.

Soft Music

Location: Criccieth (Gwynedd) - Unknown cave near town
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Two musicians were tricked into entering the cave by fairies, who promptly took them to their realm. Occasionally the men's music escapes from the mouth of the cave to deter others from making the same mistake.

Piper

Location: Culrain (Highland) - Carbisdale Castle (aka Castle of Spite)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Though only a hundred years old, the castle is said to be haunted by a traditional piper and a lady in white, the latter named as Duchess Blair (or Betty, for short).

Choir

Location: Deddington (Oxfordshire) - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown (but pre 1950s)
Further Comments: Villagers heard the church organ and a choir singing in the church but found the building empty and quiet when they entered.

Piano Playing

Location: Denston (Suffolk) - Plumber's Arms public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1982-2003
Further Comments: Poltergeist activities were experienced over a 21 year period, which including pictures being removed or thrown from walls, a self-playing piano, and footsteps heard along the landing. An older man also manifested in one of the bedrooms.

Smashed Glass

Location: Devizes (Wiltshire) - Castle Hotel
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 15 March 2011
Further Comments: It was reported that a glass flew from a shelf and landed in pieces on the ground. Staff have had objects vanish only to reappear in different locations and have heard music coming from the old ballroom.

Fiddling

Location: Ditton Priors (Shropshire) - Between village and Clee Hills
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: While camping in a small piece of woodland, a couple of women clearly heard fiddles being played. The following morning, they asked the rest of the camp whether anyone else had listened. No one else had heard the music, although one man said he had previously heard the music, and that fairies were responsible.

Music Box

Location: Doncaster (South Yorkshire) - Burghwallis Hall, aka St Anne's Convent
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930s
Further Comments: The sounds of a music box were heard around the hall 'before the days of radio', and a small woman dressed in dark clothing was observed walking down a corridor. Two more witnesses saw a man dressed in grey which they mistook as their father as he dashed down the staircase. This could be the same figure that one woman woke up to; he stood over her bed watching her with a look of hatred and madness, vanishing as she hit the lamp.

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.

Airman

Location: Dublin (County Dublin) - Temple Theatre Nightclub (no longer operating) (formally St George's church)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1996 - 2003
Further Comments: A spokesperson for the nightclub claimed that P Diddy had encountered a ghostly airman in the nightclub, which had been a church. Another report said the nightclub, when not open to the public, was also home to the sounds of a church organ being played, the notes punctuated by bouts of coughing.

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.

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.

Northumbrian Pipes

Location: Durham (Durham) - Elvet Bridge (including Jimmy Allen's club)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The horse rustler Jimmy Allen died in this former cell days before his pardon arrived - he can still be heard playing on his pipes from beneath the bridge. The ghost of another man, who mysteriously vanished, would be spotted at the base of the bridge, standing on the river's banks.

Music

Location: Durness (Highland) - Fraisgell's Cave - Loch Eribol
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Created by fairies, this music emerges from the cave and floats across the waters of Loch Eribol.

Violinist

Location: Eastbourne (Sussex) - Devonshire Park Theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s and 1970s
Further Comments: This phantom player was once quite a frequent visitor to the theatre, though as of late he has become quiet.

Charlotte Square, Edinburgh.

Piano

Location: Edinburgh (Lothian) - Charlotte Square
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: The tinkling of phantom ivories can sometimes be heard over the noise of traffic. In total, four apparitions have been reported from the Square - a coach, a woman in old fashioned clothing, a scruffy beggar, and a monk.

Edinburgh's roads close to St Giles.

Lost Piper

Location: Edinburgh (Lothian) - Roads close to St Giles' Cathedral
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A piper sent to investigate tunnels running under the Cathedral became lost, his piping occasionally heard under the ground.

An old woodcut of bagpipes.

Bagpiper

Location: Elgin (Moray) - Red Lion Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This phantom piper has been heard playing his music on the second floor.

Nun

Location: Exeter (Devon) - Exeter Cathedral
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: July, 7pm (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Seen only around this time, the nun quickly disappears once spotted. A monk has also been reported in the area surrounding the cathedral, while a small group of witnesses heard music coming from within the building although it was dark and empty at the time.

Victorian Girls

Location: Falmouth (Cornwall) - Penmere Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid 1990s, approximately 01:00h
Further Comments: While walking home, a witness heard loud, distorted music coming from the station. He went to investigate and encountered two girls dressed in Victorian clothing (but no source of the music). One pointed down the tracks, as if she wanted the witness to follow, but he decided to turn around and leave the site.

Aunt Hessey

Location: Fintona (County Tyrone) - Ecclesville House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This ghost is never seen; only the rustling of her silken dress is heard in the drawing room. One guest once heard her playing the piano.

Playing Harp

Location: Fintry (Stirling) - Culcreach (or Culcreuch) Castle, Chinese Bird Room
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2004
Further Comments: The one time mistress of a member of the clan Buchanan held her lover here as he died, playing the harp as his soul left the room. On the verge of sleep, people have reportedly heard the harp notes drifting around the room. Other less soothing ghosts have been witnessed - the head of a boar on a plate floats around the battlements, while a grey shadow pushes past people in the corridors. More recently, a ghost has been blamed for turning up the jukebox as the machine plays Robbie William songs!

Discarded Bells

Location: Firth of Forth (Fife) - Under the estuary
Type: Other
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: After the bells were looted from churches across Edinburgh and tossed into the estuary, they continued to ring at Christmas.

Singing

Location: Fosterland Burn (Borders) - Close to a body of water
Type: Other
Date / Time: Summer, midnight, pre twentieth century
Further Comments: It was said that a fairy piper and singers would emerge from the burn and perform at midnight. One local farmer claimed he would listen to them during the summer months. The fairies could be more malicious and on one occasion tired (and failed) to kidnap a baby.

Man in Blue Suit

Location: Frimley (Surrey) - Johnson's Wax Factory
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: Shortly after hearing a strange harp which was being played out of tune, a fitter carrying an armful of pipes spotted a man in a blue suit heading towards a door that he also had to pass through. The fitter shouted out and asked the suited man to hold the door open for him, however the man in the suit walked straight through the closed door. When the fitter discussed the incident the following morning, he was told the figure was the ghost of an accountant.

Piper

Location: Glen Esk (Angus) - Waters of Lochlee
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: 19 June (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A great and popular piper was once taken by little folk donned in green across the waters - once a year we mortals have the chance to listen to his tunes.