Mr Curran had been taking a series of shots, one after the other, to create a panorama. The one showing the strange figure was therefore taken within seconds of the one preceeding and the one after it. It appears on no others in the series.

The photo was printed in the Galway Independent newspaper. Local historian William Henry said there were stories of a White Lady haunting the Long Walk but not an elderly nun.

Read more at http://galwayindependent.com/stories/item/1110/2012-7/Ghostly-image-causes-a-stir

The second appears in my latest Spookology article. This critter was also fairly typical: huge, black and shaggy-haired but with a lean, lurcher-like silhouette, unlike the classic mastiff-type body. I spoke personally to the witness of this previously unrecorded Black Dog sighting, which took place in Brymbo, near Wrexham, in the 1970s. The Arran encounter took place in the 1960s. Both are therefore comparatively recent sightings of these folkloric apparitions. In my article I also detail another, even weirder animal-like apparition seen at Brymbo (in the 80s!), a demonic-looking thing with horns that stood on its two hind legs and glowered menacingly at the witnesses.

There is a higher than average ghostly content to February’s Phenomena. two of England’s best-known haunted houses are disssected: the Ram Inn, Gloucestershire, by Robert Young and Salmesbury Hall, Lancashire, by Matt Forde. Dave Sadler investigates the classic spook, ‘Molly Leigh, the Burslem Witch’, hunting out her haunts in Staffordshire.

Dave also presents a useful article on the many points of interest to recognise in a clear night sky, not only for their own sake but also to help you distinguish them from unidentifiable illuminations – ie UFOs. The wide range of phenomenology that must be considered when addressing the subject of UFOs is explored in a considered article by Lorin Cutts.

The final highlight is by Steve Mera and is a thought-provoking examination of a case of disappearance in Southampton. The numbers of people who simply seem to vanish off the face of the Earth in Britain alone is extremely worrying. Of course, some people won’t want to be found but what of the others? Malevolent human agency or something stranger? Whatever the answer, it can’t be pleasant.

And do look out for my advert for my new iPhone app Ghost Finder London – thanks for the publicity, guys!

Lancashire is a big county with a rich heritage of folklore and an increasing wealth of contemporary supernatural reports. It’s no easy task distilling all this down but Dan has succeeded admirably. Ghostly old favourites like Peg O’Nell, the White Lady of Salmesbury and the violent thingummy of Written Stone Lane rub supernatural shoulders with far less well known spooks (at least to me), including the ‘morphing, swirling’ entity that terrified a household in Accrington, a ‘violent and offensive ghost’ in Chorley and a Grey Lady who is attracting hordes of would-be ghosthunters to a dangerous old railway tunnel at Preston.

Dan also provides separate sections on, for example, haunted pubs, halls and theatres and the remarkable range of spooks encountered in Blackpool. And there are boggarts galore.

Of course, it’s not all ghosts. The author can hardly avoid witch-lore in Lancashire and he also draws fairies, UFOs, death omens, vampires and natural wonders into his net. There is a fine section on strange creatures reported from the county, including big cats, black dogs, the famous ‘Beast of Green Drive’ and a surprising number of Bigfoot-type sightings. I was particularly amused and intrigued by the 18^th century reference to ‘two large sea monsters’ in the River Ribble, one of which was killed by fishermen and found to have teats ‘which they squeezed milk out of; and they said it was the sweetest milk they ever tasted’.

Dan has used a wide range of sources to research ‘Paranormal Lancashire’, not just the standard works on the county’s folklore – of which there are many – but lots of obscure historical records in papers and periodicals, combined with up-to-the-minute newspaper and website reports. The book is far more than a collection of stories and sightings, however. Dan takes an informed and insightful approach to his subject, drawing parallels, noting recurrent themes, asking questions and suggesting answers. This, combined with the wealth of accounts he showcases, makes ‘Paranormal Lancashire’ a thoroughly satisfying read.

My only criticism is the lack of indexing – an index for place names, at least, is essential in my opinion and I would have liked to have seen one for types of ghost and other phenomena. The latter would have been particularly helpful considering the spartan nature of the contents, which only hints at what you might expect in the four lengthy chapters. A really good book with masses of information deserves an index – and ‘Paranormal Lancashire’ is just such a book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8faq5amdK30

Of course, now it’s the Top 10, we’re into really spooky territory, with a wealth of reported activity from each location. I hope you enjoy the entries as the ghosts come thick and fast.

You can read the latest entry at: http://www.uncannyuk.com/838/top-50-most-haunted-places-in-britain-10/

Thom came all the way up from London for a day to take some photos of me in my house in North Wales, surrounded by ghost books. The idea, I think, is to imply how my childhood experience inspired my interest in the supernatural. All the images in the portfolio have this aspect: the lady who was struck by lightning, for example, has becaome fascinated by weather and she is photographed, if I remember correctly, with a ceiling in her house which she has painted with a stormy sky.

The photos – or some of them - are set to be displayed as a gallery on a national newspaper’s website. I’m not sure mine will necessarily be chosen. The caption simply states ‘Richard – Childhood Poltergeist Victim’. A bit dramatic but not unreasonable in that the invisible thingy did scare and hassle me somewhat. It’s a nice picture. I look all wistful and pensive – or perhaps just a bit of a loony. But that’s not unreasonable either.

Thom is a very likeable and charming bloke, by the way. To see more of his work visit: www.thomatkinson.com The photo is © Thom Atkinson

‘It looks very solid and not your typical translucent ghost of legend but I can assure you that we were the only people in the cellar and we are all together in the room except a lady who looks nothing like the figure in the video and the owner who was shut up in a private wing of the mansion so definitely not her. Our medium had just commented on how she was sensing the presence of a clergyman. I did not notice it until weeks later whilst editing the video.’

Howard posted the video on YouTube. The link: http://is.gd/Ob2id5

My response was that this just HAD to be a real person, who’d come to snoop on what the team was up to. Perhaps the owner had snuck down to take a look, or someone else had turned up at the house in the meantime without SpiritQuest knowing about it? The figure seems to duck away when he/she realises someone has turned int heir direction. Its behaviour just seems too natural and as Howard says too much like a normal solid person. However, he is right in pointing out that ghosts are often very normal-looking. And none of us know enough about the (super)nature or behaviour of ghosts to say this positively isn’t one. Howard, at least, is pretty sure that the figure in the doorway is a genuine ‘manifestation’ – and to be fair, he was there.

What do you think? I’d value readers’ opinions and I’m sure Howard would too.

Here is Howard’s response to my doubts: ’As the video on You Tube explains there was only one lady who was with us on the night who was not with us in the room and, as seen in the video, she has light sleeves and is a different build so it’s 100% not her. The only other person in the house that night was the owner, a lady who remained in a separate part of the house throughout the night and who also is a completely different build and was dressed in different coloured clothing to the figure; so 100% sure its not her either. 

‘Going on the evidence I can say with absolute certainty that the figure in the basement is no one in the group or with the group and neither is it the owner – so who or what is it? A likely candidate for a full manifestation – and I mean FULL. As you can see it is solid and as animated as any living person which is why I feel it’s really something quite special. As you know when people see a ghost they often mistake them for a living person until they vanish or whatever so I think I might have just captured such an apparition on video which is very rare indeed.

‘When you think about it, I wonder how many figures show up on home videos that are not really there, after all if a manifestation is just like a solid form surely many of them would be videoed and photographed but go completely unnoticed. Food for thought or maybe the ramblings of an eccentric!’

(The photo shows me and Howard on the night in 2009 when Howard invited me to one of Spirt Quest’s investigations, coincidentally just after I’d landed the job of Paranormal Magazine editor. The photo is c. Spirit Quest).

Developing all this stuff is the reason for my silences on this blog from time to time and the slower-than-intended fashion in which I have uploaded the Top 50 Most Haunted Places articles on the main site. Although I need to pile into other databases now and explore other commercial opportunities, the hassle of all the testing and retesting that has gone on in the past few months is now over, so there shouldn’t be so many occasions in which I have to abandon Uncanny UK as I have had to do recently.

It took months to pull together all the haunted sites for Ghost Finder London. I’ve acknowledged the authors whose works most contributed to the database but I decided against giving the sources for each location (as I would have preferred to do) in order to help protect the intellectual property – it’ll be so easy to rip off this database. There are just enough locations lifted from obscure sources for me to pounce if I think the database has been lifted wholesale. No doubt I’ll face the same problem with Ghost Finder Wales, the next on the list, and those that follow. I’ve already come across a website that includes a gazetteer of haunted places from Wales all of which have been taken exclusively from my own books – which is a bit naughty, frankly.

Well, onward and upward. Ghost Finder London is in the App Store now priced at an exhorbitant £1.99, of which I will get less than half. Will I sell dozens, hundreds, thousands? I honestly don’t have a clue. I’d like to have it developed for Android, too, and all subsequent apps developed for both platforms. I hope there’s a future in this – by which of course I mean money. The amount of dosh I can expect to make from the sale of each app is the equivalent now of the royalties I might expect from a book with a cover price of about £18, thanks to the rotten deals writers get with publishers these days.  Although I love books – LOVE books – and spend most of my tiny disposable income on books, I cannot help but be enthused by these new markets. Avanti!

The app is available at: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ghost-finder-london/id493251459?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

PS: Illustrating this blog is the full original artwork of the ghostly Beefeater used on the splashscreen of Ghost Finder London by my friend Jonathan Edwards (www.jonathan-e.com). I love his work and am so chuffed he agreed to produce graphics for the Ghost Finder apps.

There’s an app(arition) for that!

Ghost Finder London iPhone app plots hundreds of haunted sites on detailed maps of the capital, with information researched and written by journalist and ghost expert Richard Holland.

Ghost Finder London is the new application for iPhone that allows users to locate and read about more than 300 haunted locations throughout Central and Greater London. Each site has been meticulously plotted on Google maps, tied in with the individual phone’s GPS.

The database has been researched and written by Richard Holland, former editor of Paranormal Magazine, author of five books about ghosts and editor of www.uncannyuk.com, a website devoted to ghosts and folklore in Britain.

The database has been arranged alphabetically by district but can also be searched for key words and location name.  The user can also access the information on each site one at a time by pressing the location-finding ‘pins’ on the map. By pressing the compass symbol, they can find the nearest spooky site to their own position. The detailed maps can then be used to hone in on the precise co-ordinates or expanded to show the number of haunted locations in the chosen area.

This is the most comprehensive gazetteer of haunted sites in London available digitally or in print. You’d have to buy a good many books to gather the same information. But Ghost Finder London is available for download at £1.99, less than the price of a pint in a haunted pub.

Many of London’s major attractions are haunted but so too are hundreds of less well-known locations, including pubs, parks, theatres, churches, roads and railway stations, to say nothing of the many obscure houses in quiet back streets. All have been precisely mapped on Ghost Finder London, making it a frighteningly good resource for Londoners and tourists alike.

Operation is intuitive and easily navigated. The application has been developed by iflowstudios. Ghost Finder is also enhanced by the fun graphics provided by one of the UK’s most sought-after illustrators, Jonathan Edwards (www.jonathan-e.com).

The app is available at: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ghost-finder-london/id493251459?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

For more information please contact Richard Holland: editor@uncannyuk.com