The Paranormal Database

Moaning

Location: Saltburn-by-the-Sea - Creek leading to the sea (around six miles inland)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Pre-nineteenth century, windy days (reoccurring)
Further Comments: When the wind was strong, a terrible groaning could be heard coming from the creek, which the fishermen believed to be a warning that the sea would take a life.

Trapped Shade

Location: Saltersgate - Saltersgate Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: The peat fire is said to have burnt continuously for two hundred years, with successive landlords upholding the tradition - the body of a murdered man is hidden under the spot, and it is told that his shade will escape if it ever goes out. The moorland nearby is haunted by the sound of sobbing.

Tom

Location: Sand Hutton - Busby Stoop Inn, road outside
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Tom Busby murdered his father with a hammer - an event which resulted in the public house in which the crime was committed being named after him. Hanged for the crime, his shade now comes back complete with noose, and any who see it are doomed. The shade was once thought to be centred on Tom's favourite chair, though when the chair was removed to Thirsk Museum, Tom stayed pub-bound. The chair itself was thought to be cursed, anyone sitting on it would die soon after.

Dancers

Location: Scalby - Moors in the area, heading north
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A young man heading towards Whitby spotted a group of fairies dancing in a circle. The man joined them. At one point during the dance the fairies called out 'whip, whip!', and they pulled out and cracked small hunting whips. The man then called out the same words, which resulted in the fairies whipping him and giving chase as he fled towards Whitby.

Horse and Cart

Location: Scampston - Mill (likely no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Eighteenth century
Further Comments: After the death of the man who transported corn to the mill, an old white horse and cart took to haunting the area.

Older Lady

Location: Scarborough - A171
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 05 November 2019
Further Comments: While travelling as a passenger on a Whitby bound bus, a witness noted an older lady on the bottom deck sitting a few seats behind. The lady cast a dim reflection in the window, and the witness could see her from the corner of the eye. The lady had no way of exiting the bus, but disappeared before the bus reached its destination, with no possible means of leaving. There are stories of the lady joining people in their cars on this stretch of road.

An old postcard showing Scarborough's Grand Hotel.

Lady in Red

Location: Scarborough - Grand Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s?
Further Comments: Along with the phantom woman in a red dress, other reports from this old hotel include laughing, singing, and poltergeist-like activities.

Lydia Bell

Location: Scarborough - Old Mansion House, St Nicholas Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Murdered nearby in 1804, the ghost of the teenage Lydia has been reported still haunting her former home. She wears a pink or red dress.

Strong Perfume

Location: Scarborough - Private residence, Hoxton Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2004
Further Comments: A couple who moved into this flat were forced to call in a vicar to bless all the rooms to dismiss a poltergeist who would play with lights, disrupt the shower system, and create a smell of perfume.

Glowing Light

Location: Scarborough - Reasty Hill, Silpho Moor
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 21 November 1957
Further Comments: A forty-six centimetre disc covered with strange hieroglyphics was found by three men who were investigating the sighting of a ufo which glowed eerily in the night sky.

An old postcard showing Scarborough Castle.

Piers Gaveston

Location: Scarborough - Scarborough Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Beheaded in 1312, Piers spent his last free days in this castle - he now returns, walking the paths. A darker version of the story says he tries to lure visitors to the cliff edge before pushing them off.

Edith

Location: Scarborough - Sitwell House, aka Woodend Creative Workspace
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2009
Further Comments: The Scarborough Evening News reported that a ghost hunt on the site had discovered a several entities on site, including a 'signal' received from poet Edith Sitwell.

The Future Dead

Location: Scarborough - St Mary's Churchyard
Type: Manifestation of the Living
Date / Time: 24 April (St Marks Eve) (reoccurring)
Further Comments: All those who will die between this date and next year's St Mark's Eve appear in this graveyard on the stroke of midnight and walk into the church.

Headless Woman

Location: Scarborough - Three Mariners (formerly an inn)
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This headless phantom would appear as a warning to any sailors staying in the building not to go to sea - those who did see her but ignored the warnings normally drowned.

Bride?

Location: Scarborough - Woodland near Open Air Theatre, Peasholme Park
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 01 July 2023
Further Comments: Two people watched, through a phone screen, a bride or nun-like figure standing in woodland. The figure vanished soon after being spotted.

Young Girl

Location: Scawsby - Private residence
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 2010
Further Comments: A woman in a bedroom became aware of a girl sitting on the bed. Believing the girl to be her sister's daughter, who was staying in an adjoining room, she reached out to touch the girl, but her hand passed through the figure.

Governess

Location: Scorton - Kiplin Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: A grey haired woman, thought to be a Victorian Governess, has been observed in the building. A pilot from the 1940s is said to haunt a kitchen, while mild poltergeist behaviour has been attributed to phantom children. Disembodied sobbing has also been heard and the smell of old pipe smoke detected.

Long Legs

Location: Seascale - Road between Seascale and Whitby
Type: Other
Date / Time: 05 August 2013
Further Comments: Driving back to a campsite, the passenger of a vehicle spotted a pair of extremely long white male legs, to just above the thigh, quickly bound across the road. The stride was too long and too fast to be human. Despite the passenger crying out 'what's that?', the driver did not see anything.

Pterodactyl

Location: Seaton Burn - Skies over the area
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Circa 1990
Further Comments: A Pterodactyl-shaped creature with a six metre wingspan flew around six metres over the top of houses. The creature moved at around 30mph and made absolutely no sound.

Man in Velvet

Location: Selby - Town Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: April 2010
Further Comments: A member of staff locking up the building spotted a dark haired man in a long velvet jacket on the balcony. When the staff member called out to the figure, he moved towards the staircase, the only exit. The staff member unlocked the door to the staircase to let the figure out, but there was no one there.

Big John

Location: Selside - Railway Line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Sometimes seen on the track by signalmen, this large male figure would suddenly vanish without warning.

Woman in Dress

Location: Semerwater - Countersett Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Little is known about this female shade that stalks the building.

Don't Upset the Tramp

Location: Semerwater (aka Simmer Water, aka Simmerwater) - Lake
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A tramp (or angel or witch, depending on the source) looking for a place to rest was turned away from every house in the neighbourhood, until he came to a farm on the hillside where the occupants of which gave him food and shelter. He thanked his guests and punished the other households by flooding the valley. The lake also once had two large rocks on its banks which were known as the Mermaid Stones, said to have been thrown there by the Devil and a giant.

Local Giant

Location: Sessay - General area
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A giant terrorised this area for many years, bullying and killing the locals. The massive man was finally slain when, after a day of abhorrent behaviour, he fell asleep by a watermill - the miller ran outside and hacked him to death with an axe. Another version of the story, in which the giant was accidently knocked out by windmill sails, names the giant slayer as Sir Guy Dawnay, who just happened to be passing through the area.

Running Woman

Location: Settle - Beggar's Wife Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Named after the wife killed by her mad spouse, she can still be seen running over the bridge, trying to escape her fate. The figure has no face, only a spider's web where the details should be.