Why do so many hauntings happen in isolated places? PETER A. McCUE explores the provocative theory that some frightening paranormal encounters may be warnings rather than hauntings
I’m not a great fan of what I’ll call the ‘spirit theory’ – the popular notion that ‘ghosts’ (place-linked apparitions) are discarnate human spirits.
For one thing, the apparitions or entities described often have a non-human appearance. Another problem is that, in many ‘hauntings’, different types of apparition are reported, which wouldn’t be expected if just one ‘earthbound’ spirit were behind the phenomena in any given case.
I’ve recently written about a property in Edinburgh where the apparitional cast has allegedly included a man of Victorian appearance, girls in nightdresses, Roman legionnaires and other figures [1]. In addition, spooky sounds have been heard in the building, and people have reportedly experienced poltergeist-type phenomena there.
As in the Edinburgh case, there’s often a theatrical character to ghostly manifestations, which makes me wonder whether they could be the orchestrations of a higher intelligence.
Is this done for some purpose? If so, what could it be?
In what follows, I’ll offer a few tentative suggestions, and I’ll cite some cases that may be relevant.
Some of them are drawn from books by Paul Sinclair, who is a very active investigator of anomalous phenomena. He’s based in Bridlington, East Yorkshire.
His five books, which mainly focus on North and East Yorkshire, cite a welter of strange incidents, with much first-hand testimony. Naturally, this raises the question of whether his area is a ‘hot spot’ – a region that has hosted a disproportionately large number of strange manifestations. But without reliable comparative data, it’s hard to know.
Beneficial Frights?
If people have frightening paranormal experiences in particular places, could the phenomena have been orchestrated to drive them away or deter them from returning?
If so, could this sometimes have been done for their own good, because there were hazards associated with the sites?
Forge Valley, North Yorkshire
Take, for example, an incident mentioned by Paul Sinclair in one of his books [2]. It involved two brothers and a third man.
One night in August 2018, they wild-camped in a dark, wooded ravine in Forge Valley, North Yorkshire. Sinclair doesn’t give the precise location, but he states that the River Derwent flows through the ravine.
On the night in question, one of the men, Dave, said that he felt they were being watched.
Then a pair of huge amber eyes lit up in the darkness.
Not long after, the men saw a monstrous entity to which the eyes belonged. It had huge shoulders, biceps and forearms. It was leaning forward, as if about to charge them.
Instead, though, it reportedly stood watching them for hours. It had an exaggeratedly large, wolf-like head and large ears.
The men reportedly felt ‘anger and hate’ coming from its eyes.
When it started to get light, the men packed up and left the area. By then, the entity seemed to have gone.
However, Dave felt that they were still being watched, although that impression ceased when they reached a logging road.
Along with two friends and two of the above-mentioned witnesses, Sinclair visited the location in June 2020, and again in August that year.
On the second occasion, the five of them spent the night there with various items of equipment. However, nothing overtly paranormal occurred during either visit.
I wonder whether the site is prone to flooding in wet weather.
If so, could the monstrous entity have been a hallucination or materialisation intended to deter the men from camping there again and possibly risking their lives?
Pembrey Forest, South Wales
Pembrey Forest is on the South Wales coast, a few miles south of Kidwelly. The forest has supposedly been the setting for strange happenings.
Apparitional phenomena have allegedly included sightings of cavaliers, deformed people and Second World War soldiers.
Visitors to the forest have reportedly been grabbed in a way likely to make them fall over.
Campers have supposedly found their equipment heaped in a pile or their cooking implements thrown into the woods [3].
Maybe it’s just coincidental, but there used to be large-scale military ordnance production in the area.
Could there be residual toxic chemicals, asbestos or even unexploded ordnance in the locality?
If so, perhaps the ghostly phenomena have been orchestrated to frighten people away.
Grovely Wood, near Wilton, Wiltshire
Grovely Wood, part of the Wilton Estate, is a relatively large tract of woodland in southern Wiltshire. It contains both deciduous trees and evergreens.
In a short article about ghostly phenomena that have allegedly occurred in the wood, Emma Heard states that smallpox killed 132 people in Wilton in 1737, and that the locals blamed four sisters, originally from Denmark, believing they had caused the deaths through witchcraft. [4].
The suspects were reportedly dragged into the woods, bludgeoned to death and buried apart in case they conspired from the grave and did more harm.
According to legend, four beech trees were either planted to mark each grave or mysteriously grew from each burial spot.
Three are still standing. One has become something of a shrine commemorating the sisters, with visitors attaching small trinkets and other items to the branches or hiding them in hollows.
Heard states that another of the beech trees has ‘been adorned with little gifts from nature’, although I’m not sure what she means by that.
There have reportedly been sightings of the sisters over the years, and figures have been seen leaning on the trees, although it isn’t clear whether Heard is referring to the aforementioned beech trees or trees more generally in the wood.
She mentions other phenomena, such as women’s voices being heard and, in respect of a Roman road in the wood, the sound of marching soldiers.
She notes that the wood was used to store ammunition during the Second World War and that there are disused bunkers hidden away within it. She speculates that the sound of marching may be related to troops who were based in and around the locality.
As for personal experiences, she mentions a couple of occasions when she and a friend were walking in the wood and the birdsong suddenly stopped.
They had an uncomfortable feeling of being followed or watched.
Then the birdsong resumed, and a sense of lightness returned.
As with the Pembrey Forest case, if there is a degree of environmental contamination at the site, could it be that paranormal phenomena have been orchestrated to frighten people away?
Admittedly, this is a very speculative notion, and it may be that both of these wooded areas are entirely safe to visit.
Badgerdell Wood, near Luton, Bedfordshire
Badgerdell Wood, also known as Bluebell Wood, is a small area of woodland north of the village of Caddington, close to the Luton conurbation. It overlooks the nearby M1 motorway.
In his interesting book Haunted Luton & Dunstable, Paul Adams describes a frightening experience that a group of six children had one day during the school summer holidays in 1979 [5].
They were in Badgerdell Wood and halfway through a daytime picnic when one of them spotted a strange creature nearby, which the others then saw as well.
As an adult, Colby Pope, one of the witnesses, recalled that the entity was about eight feet tall, dark brown or black in colour, and had glowing red eyes, pointed ears and huge wings. At its feet, there was a yellow glow.
To him, the entity appeared to be hovering or flying steadily.
It started moving towards them, and they fled. For fuller details, see Adams’ book.
It may be significant that, in April 1963, the severed and mutilated heads of six cows and a horse were found in the wood.
These and associated findings, along with more recent events at an abandoned church just outside Clophill, several miles north of Luton, fuelled speculation that practitioners of black magic were active in the area.
Adams notes that Badgerdell Wood was well known locally during the 1980s as a place where alleged devil-worshippers met.
My suggestion, therefore, is that the 1979 manifestation may have been orchestrated to deter the children from visiting the wood again and possibly putting themselves at risk.
Safeguarding the Environment
Does a higher intelligence sometimes orchestrate frightening phenomena to drive away, or deter, people whose actions might threaten the environment?
Take, for example, the following case.
Danes Dyke, East Yorkshire
Flamborough Head, north-east of Bridlington, is on a promontory that juts out into the North Sea to the east.
An ancient earthwork known as Danes Dyke cuts across the promontory from Danes Dyke Beach in the south to Bempton Cliffs in the north.
The dyke consists of a ditch on its western side and a flat-topped bank on its eastern side. It was presumably constructed to help people defend themselves from attack from the west.
Apart from a couple of roads that cross it – the B1229 and the B1255 – and a very short, unwooded section at its northern end, it is wooded along its entire length of more than two and a half miles, although the tree cover is relatively narrow.
In other words, we’re talking about a ribbon of woodland.
Sinclair mentions an experience related to him by someone called Nigel Briggs, although no date is given for the incident [6].
On the night in question, Briggs and three friends were at Danes Dyke, where they lit a fire.
They began to feel uncomfortable, and they thought they could see a tall figure watching them.
Eventually, Briggs approached it, carrying a shovel. He got to within about six or seven feet of it but found it difficult to make out any details.
He became frightened and banged the shovel on the ground a few times, but the person or thing didn’t move or flinch.
It seemed to be at least seven feet tall, and it didn’t appear to be clothed.
Feeling apprehensive, Briggs and his friends left.
On the way out, Briggs looked back and saw the entity jump down to the bottom of the dyke – far too great a jump for a human to make without being injured.
My suggestion is that the entity was manifested to frighten Briggs and his friends away because their lighting a fire posed a threat to the woodland.
Wharncliffe Woods, Sheffield
Sinclair quotes an account given to him in 2017 by an informant he calls Jason Jones, who was from Sheffield but emigrated to Australia in 2002 [7].
The events in question had allegedly occurred some 30 years earlier, in 1987, when Jones was 18.
He and two older friends, Scott and Mark, were camping at night in Wharncliffe Woods, about two miles east of the eastern end of Broomhead Reservoir. However, the men weren’t using tents.
They lit a fire and eventually drifted off to sleep.
Jason woke at around 2am, feeling that something wasn’t right.
This was followed by an overwhelming sense of fear.
He heard a twig snap.
Very soon afterwards, ‘all hell broke loose’, with trees and branches cracking and breaking everywhere.
Then Jason heard Scott screaming. He was suspended upside down, two or three feet above the ground, being held by a creature.
All Jason could see of it was a big, black, fur-covered arm reaching down.
At the time, he assumed Scott was being held by an ankle, although it transpired that the entity had actually been holding him by one of his calves.
Suddenly, the creature released Scott and ran off, with the men hearing trees and plants breaking as it went.
As the creature seemed to get further away, there was a sound like a gunshot or a tree exploding.
It was followed by silence.
According to Jason’s account, Scott was so traumatised by his experience that he wanted to run away. However, Jason and Mark restrained him.
For his part, Jason feared that if they tried to leave while it was still dark, they would get lost.
They built up the fire and kept it going all night while they waited for daylight.
The implication is that they thought the fire would afford some protection.
However, they reportedly experienced a succession of further ‘attacks’, similar to the first, although no one was lifted into the air and no creature was seen.
Between each episode, there was a quiet period of about half an hour.
During the second ‘attack’, Jason inferred that two creatures were involved because he could hear movement from more than one direction.
As noted, sounds were reportedly heard suggestive of trees and branches cracking and breaking.
However, it isn’t clear from Jason’s account whether these were purely sensory impressions or whether trees were actually damaged.
If the story is true, there was a definite physical component to the events because, the next day, Scott’s calf was blue and swollen where the entity had held him.
I’ve found no other reports of people having such experiences in Wharncliffe Woods.
Sinclair seems to believe Jason’s story, but there appears to be no corroboration.
Nor does Sinclair indicate whether he enquired about the possibility of contacting Scott and Mark to obtain their recollections.
In the autumn of 2022, a documentary titled Elusive: Bigfoot Abroad was screened in the UK, or at least in Scotland, by Blaze, a Freeview television channel.
It ran for two hours and 25 minutes, although some of that time was taken up with commercial breaks.
Towards the end, there was an audio clip lasting about two minutes in which Jason discussed his 1987 experience with Paul Sinclair.
However, what he said differed in some significant respects from his account in Sinclair’s book:
- According to the documentary, he was in the wood with three friends, not two, as stated in the book.
- Whereas his account in the book refers to a series of ‘attacks’ occurring at intervals throughout the night, he mentions only one in the documentary – the incident during which one of his companions was lifted into the air.
- Although his wording wasn’t entirely consistent, he stated in the documentary that both of the victim’s calves were bruised. Sinclair’s book, however, mentions only one being affected.
- Jason’s wording suggested that the person who panicked and wanted to run away wasn’t Scott but one of the others.
Jason’s story is reminiscent of alleged Bigfoot activity in forested areas of the United States.
However, it’s hard to believe that Wharncliffe Woods, a relatively small area of woodland close to a heavily built-up area, is, or was, home to flesh-and-blood Bigfoot-like creatures.
If the story is basically true, the events may have been paranormal in nature.
Perhaps the entities were transient materialisations.
Interestingly, there was a serious fire at Wharncliffe Woods in the summer of 2022, although I don’t know how it started.
It was detected on 14 August that year, with firefighting operations continuing the following day.
Given that there are two differing versions of what happened when Jason and his friends camped in Wharncliffe Woods, and that we have the testimony of only one witness, this case isn’t particularly strong from an evidential point of view.
However, if Jason and two or three companions really did encounter anomalous entities, they may have been manifested to drive the men away from the wood or deter them from returning, thereby reducing the risk of fire.
‘Spooky Wood’, near Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire
The town of Stocksbridge lies on the north-western fringe of Sheffield in South Yorkshire.
Jenny Randles relates a story told to her about an incident in 1948 involving a small wood near the town. She calls it ‘Spooky Woods’ [8].
But Dave Pickersgill, a Stocksbridge resident, informs me that the locals use the singular form, ‘Spooky Wood’, to refer to it.
Randles doesn’t specify its location precisely, but I gather that it’s about one and a half miles north-west of Broomhead Reservoir. The reservoir itself is roughly one mile south-south-west of Stocksbridge.
Randles’ informant, Jane Hayes (a pseudonym), was from Stocksbridge.
Along with three others, she was camping in the wood.
They were inside their tent when they heard what sounded like a horse galloping towards them.
The noise stopped when it reached the tent.
When they went outside to investigate, there were no hoofmarks in the soft earth.
They reportedly fled to the nearest farmhouse.
Hayes subsequently learned from local farmers that they had often seen lights in the wood, only to find nothing there when they went to investigate.
However, Randles doesn’t say whether the lights were above the trees, among them, on the ground, or some combination of the three.
About 10 years after she heard the ghostly galloping sounds, Hayes and her young son reportedly saw an enormous circle of lights hovering over a nearby reservoir.
The lights winked out, but Randles doesn’t say how long they remained visible.
Randles speculates that the sound of the horse heard at Spooky Wood was a ‘replay’.
However, I wonder whether the manifestation was orchestrated to frighten Hayes and her friends away because lighting campfires posed a risk to the local environment.
Conclusion
As I’ve explained, my conjecture is that, in some cases, localised paranormal phenomena of a frightening kind may indicate that there’s something wrong with the place itself or with the behaviour of people visiting it.
I’ve suggested that the phenomena are orchestrated by a ‘higher intelligence’.
That may sound a little vague, but for us humans some things may be unknowable, or difficult to know, unless the purported higher intelligence chooses to reveal itself.
Notes
- McCue, P. A. (in press). Recurrent paranormal activity in Edinburgh. Magazine of the Society for Psychical Research.
- Sinclair, P. (2021). Truth Proof 4: Beyond Reasonable Doubt. Truth Proof Publishing. pp. 15–24.
- ‘Pembrey Woods’: http://www.hauntedhovel.com/pembreywoods.html
- Heard, E. (9 August 2021). ‘Visit Grovely Woods and its haunting terrors’. Spooky Isles.
- Adams, P. (2012). Haunted Luton & Dunstable. The History Press. pp. 56–61.
- Sinclair, P. (2021). Truth Proof 4: Beyond Reasonable Doubt. pp. 174–175.
- Sinclair, P. (2019). Truth Proof 3: Bringing Down the Light. PBC Publishing. pp. 251–259.
- Randles, J. (2002). Supernatural Pennines. Robert Hale Ltd. pp. 192–193.
About Dr Peter McCue
Dr Peter McCue is a retired clinical psychologist with a longstanding interest in anomalous phenomena. He’s the author of four books with a paranormal theme: Zones of Strangeness: An Examination of Paranormal and UFO Hot Spots (AuthorHouse, 2012); Paranormal Encounters on Britain’s Roads: Phantom Figures, UFOs and Missing Time (The History Press, 2018); Britain’s Paranormal Forests: Encounters in the Woods (The History Press, 2019); and Curses, Coincidences & Malign Influence: A Parapsychological Perspective (Abramis Academic Publishing, 2021).
