Tyrone ghost

Haunting tale of a ghost from Tyrone


Many people have already claimed to have seen the Tyrone ghost

On a dark and gloomy January night, down a lonely road in rural Tyrone, the freezing winter weather wasn’t the only chill in the air.

It was shortly after 9pm on a gloomy Thursday evening. Most people were tucked up by the fireside — but this intrepid reporter had gone ghost-hunting.

Nightly sightings of a mysterious white lady have brought hundreds of visitors to an isolated country road a few miles outside Coalisland.

Residents claim the ghost has been haunting the area for the last six weeks, although interest has soared since the story appeared in a local newspaper.

Every night they come, some from as far as Belfast and Enniskillen, hoping to catch a glimpse of the ghoul along the twisting, winding Mullaghmoyle Road.

By last night the story was making headlines across the water with three national newspapers dispatching reporters from London to investigate the ghostly goings-on.

Some people say the ghost has been haunting the area for years.

Others believe its reappearance is linked to the recent cutting down of a nearby fairy tree, located in a field beside a rambling farmhouse which now lies in ruins.

At night it is difficult to appreciate the full presence of the curious old building but by day its eerie effects could be seen — and felt.

Broken doors creaked in the wind while branches scratched against the collapsed roof. Nothing broke the eerie silence which surrounded the dilapidated cottage.

Down the road at the Four Corners public house, just a few hundred yards from the scene, it is a different kind of spirit which has had all the locals talking for weeks.

One man swears he has seen it 20 times, the landlord’s son has only spotted it on seven occasions, but almost everyone is convinced by the ghostly tales.

The landlord, Raymond Bell, said people young and old have reported sightings of the ghost, leading to frenzied speculation and interest.

“There are 20 or 30 people who have seen her in the past week,” he said. “My son Ryan has seen her seven times. He tells me it was an old lady who just crosses the road.

“The media attention is just unbelievable, especially from across the water. We’ve had calls from Scotland and England while people are coming from Belfast and Enniskillen.”

Another local said a fairy tree, which had been planted above a bottled spirit, had been cut down at a nearby field late last year.

“It was a common thing round here,” he said. “The local priest would have come round, exorcised a place and put the spirit in a bottle.

“Then a tree would have been planted so that it would never be disturbed, but that tree was cut down recently.”

According to Noleen Bell, who works in the local bar and has lived in the area all her life, Coalisland has never seen anything like it.

“You’re getting so many stories and jokes,” she said. “People are coming into the pub and that’s all they are talking about. I suppose it beats talking about the credit crunch.

“People come in their droves to see it. Some stay all night.”

Paul Corr (17) from Coalisland travels home along the road every night from work and said he had seen the ghost four times in the last few weeks.

“It is just like a white cloth-type thing which flies across the road on top of the hill. It’s nothing great, I haven’t seen any features or anything.”

Warren Coates from the Northern Ireland Paranormal Research Association said he was aware of previous paranormal activity in the Coalisland area.

“It related to a phantom female hitchhiker, who caused a stir five years ago,” he said. “Drivers would see her on the side of the road with her thumb out. When they pulled up to offer her a lift, she would vanish.”