The Paranormal Database

Washing Machine

Location: Gilling West - Area around Crabtree Farm
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 02 August 2007, 01:00h
Further Comments: During an overnight camping and fishing trip, Philip Cotton and Jean Clark watched a rotating orange and blue object that made a sound like a washing machine. They retreated to their car because the noise grew too loud, but reported the light was 'friendly' and they did not feel afraid of it.

Hay Maker

Location: Glaisdale End - Hart Hall
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A dab hand around the farm, this hob left when (like so many of his other helpful friends throughout Yorkshire) the owners tried to give him new clothing to replace the rags that he wore.

Pistol Shots

Location: Goldsborough - Unnamed former farmhouse
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: This was (briefly) the childhood home to E D Walker, a former mayor of Darlington. The mayor reported several ghostly encounters by his family, including the sound of pistol shots, a bed lifting and being dropped three times in quick succession, and invisible dogs fighting just outside the building. Walker's brother and a visiting joiner fled the site after watching a white man appear in a room and vanish a few moments later. A few years after the family moved out, a skeleton was discovered under the kitchen.

Rainbow Eyed Barguest

Location: Grassington - Area near the village
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This shuck had rings of colour in its eyes and would rattle before making itself visible.

Poisoned Horses

Location: Great Ayton - Area near the river
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sounds of poisoned horses neighing haunts this area - a story tells how thirty men and over a dozen horses died after drinking poisoned water from this river. The river itself is said to reflect the dead soldiers, if one examines it for long enough.

No Running from Fate

Location: Great Ayton - Roseberry Topping (hill)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A Northumbrian princess was told on a certain day her son would drown. To prevent the death, the princess took her son and climbed to the top of this hill, which stands over three hundred metres tall, and is far away from rivers and the sea. Tired after the ascent, the princess fell asleep. Her son wandered away and discovered a small spring on the side of the hill. By the time the princess awoke and found her son, he had drowned in the spring's water.

Life or Death

Location: Great Ayton - Well dedicated to Saint Oswalde (or Chapel Well - there appears to be some confusion)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It was said that the well was aware whether the sick would live or die. An article of clothing belonging to the ill person could be thrown in; if it floated, the person would recover, and if it sank, then all bets were off.

Clogs

Location: Greenhow Hill - Stump Cross
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The roads in the area sometimes play host to the echoes of an invisible pair of clogs that travel the neighbourhood.

Butler

Location: Guisborough - Gisborough Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Walking around the corridors performing tasks which are no longer required, this phantom butler may not realise he is dead. Another ghost haunts the lobby area (though can only be glimpsed out of the corner of one's eye), while a shadowy old woman haunts the old nursery.

Black Monk

Location: Guisborough - Guisborough Priory
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January - first new moon of the year (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The monk that is said to appear at these ruins once a year has been rarely seen since the 1960s. A large chest of gold is also said to be buried in the area, watched over by a raven (or the monk, depending on the story source).

Monk

Location: Guisborough - Road just outside of town, by moors
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1985
Further Comments: Four people travelling by car along a dark road spotted a figure in the middle of the road ahead, illuminated by the headlights. The driver swerved, certain that they would hit the figure which, as the occupants passed, was a monk with a hood covering his bend head.

White Figure

Location: Guisborough - St Nicholas' Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A group of youths in want of playing a joke on the new sexton wrapped themselves in white sheets and hid behind a gravestone, lying in wait for the man. Hearing approaching footsteps, the teenagers jumped up - a shrouded figure with a skull for a face starred back at them. What happened next is unclear, but it is safe to assume the stunt was not repeated any time soon. Another ghost story told of this location is that one occupant of a grave was cursed to return each night. To end the haunting, the slab over the grave was covered in an iron chain which prevented the spirit from rising.

Woman in Black

Location: Gunnerside - Gunnerside Lodge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Having died in a fire, this woman in a black dress is sometimes seen on the site.

Abigail

Location: Hambleton - A170 through Sutton Bank
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Abigail was suspected of witchcraft and died leaping from a cliff trying to escape irate folk with their hounds. She was named in one local paper as the ghost which has taken to haunting the A170, wearing period dress or a dark hooded cloak.

Dropped Hot Rock

Location: Hambleton - Hood Hill
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown - stone still present?
Further Comments: Fleeing across the area with a stone lodged in his foot, the Devil shook his leg while passing over the hill. The stone fell upon the hill, with the Devil's footprint remaining visible.

Abigail Carstair

Location: Hambleton Hills - Whitestone Cliff
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Carstair was on the run after being accused of witchcraft - she leapt from the cliff rather than being tortured by the religious fanatics. Her shade is sometimes seen trying to hide in the area, while the ghostly horseman also reported in the same place may be one of her hunters.

An old woodcut of a dragon breathing fire.

Dragon's Lair

Location: Handale - Scaw Wood
Type: Dragon
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Living off maidens and the odd monk, the dragon was finally slain when a man wearing heat proof armour stabbed him through the neck. As a reward, he married the surviving maiden discovered in the lair.

Flying CDs

Location: Hardraw - Green Dragon public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2001-2023
Further Comments: Owner Mark Thompson witnessed a pile of compact discs fly into the air and move in different directions. The entity would also push a small glass ball around and may have been responsible for removing a glass of Guinness from a dismissive patron's hand before smashing it to the floor.

Headless Woman

Location: Hardraw (referred to as Hardshaw) - Rigg House & Rigg Cottage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The headless woman caused so much upset in the large old Rigg House that all the haunted rooms between the current house and cottage were knocked down - creating the buildings as they stand today.

Arguing Men

Location: Hardraw Scar - Waterfall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: During thunderstorms
Further Comments: The cries and shouts of three men can be heard here during thunderstorms - it was in such weather that the former friends first fought during their lives, which resulted in the death of one of them.

Treasure

Location: Harmby - Around the area of All Saint's Chapel
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A piece of folklore likely to go back to at least the eighteenth century says that treasure is buried somewhere around this area, although its source and value is unstated.

Drumming

Location: Harpham - Area of the church
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Prior to a death in the St Quinton family
Further Comments: Tom Hewson was killed by a member of the St Quinton's in the 1300s - ever since then he can be heard beating his drum prior to a death in the family. Some report that the drumming emanates from a well.

Pacifier

Location: Harpham - Spring, exact location not known
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A spring here was said to gush water which would calm savage beasts.

Mr Horsley

Location: Harrogate - Ashville College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Horsley is said to be a former teacher who now allegedly haunts this college.

Grey Haired Man

Location: Harrogate - Cavendish Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: November 1988
Further Comments: Seen sitting on the edge of a bed late at night, the short, aging figure rose and walked towards the window, suddenly vanishing into thin air.