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North York Moors - Ghosts?

catseye

Old lady trouser-smell with yesterday's knickers
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I was up walking the old railway line that goes around Rosedale on Christmas Day, in the snow. And I got to wondering - does anyone know of any ghost or ghost type stories regarding this old lime working line? Or, indeed, of the moors in general?

I've looked about and all I can find is old folk tales, mostly very very old that have passed through many generations before being written down. I'd be interested in actual recent ghosts of the high moors. I know there were deaths related to the rail line, and Sheriff's Pit is quite an atmospheric location (when not full of tourists in trainers). So has anyone got anything they could point me towards reading, or any personal tales?
This is the location I'm talking about... tell me that's not slightly spooky! rosedalesnow.jpg
 
Whilst I've always liked space around me, I always found the North Yorks moors a pretty bleak place even in summer. There's something not quite "right" about large tracts of largely uninhabited land in the UK - gave me the shivers it did. You can fancifully imagine lost souls wandering about the place - ugh.
 
I've lived here for nearly thirty years and, whilst I hold the moors in high respect (you can die up there if you aren't careful, even nowadays), I find them to be quite peaceful. I wouldn't mind the odd lost soul, but there don't seem to be any! Which is kind of the point of my initial post. We have tales of boggarts and historical ghosts (Sarkless Kitty and the like), but nothing more recent. And some of the more isolated farms must have spirits or shades wandering!

We don't lost many hikers up there now, thanks to Mountain Rescue!
 
The wrong part of the Moors but there’s an account in Morrissey’s autobiography of an apparently ghostly apparition he saw from a car while driving across Saddleworth.
 
The wrong part of the Moors but there’s an account in Morrissey’s autobiography of an apparently ghostly apparition he saw from a car while driving across Saddleworth.
Yeah, completely different moors, but that's the kind of story I'm after. Thanks @NomDeGuerre!
 
Mount Grace... I have a vague memory about something at Mount Grace priory.
 
The wrong part of the Moors but there’s an account in Morrissey’s autobiography of an apparently ghostly apparition he saw from a car while driving across Saddleworth.
Now Saddleworth moor is in the same league. It wouldn't surprise me if there were souls wandering about that place bearing in mind the terrible atrocities that occurred there.
 
Morning all and happy new year.
You would think that there would be some stories/sightings on the old pack horse routes like the one above apple tree wick near burnsall and Bolton Abby.
And isn’t there a corpse way on some of the moors where they carried the dead down to the villages to be buried
 
Morning all and happy new year.
You would think that there would be some stories/sightings on the old pack horse routes like the one above apple tree wick near burnsall and Bolton Abby.
And isn’t there a corpse way on some of the moors where they carried the dead down to the villages to be buried

Bolton Abbey is in the Dales, opposite side of North Yorkshire to us, but we do have loads of old pack horse routes across the high moors (where most of the old roads ran, the lower parts being flooded in winter), and also corpse roads. They may have given rise to one or two old folk tale type hauntings, but I'm on the hunt for more recent 'spooks and scares'. Considering the North York Moors is pretty huge and mostly covered in heather upland, maybe all the ghosts are wandering about and just not getting seen by anyone. Which must be very frustrating for them.
 
I was up walking the old railway line that goes around Rosedale on Christmas Day, in the snow. And I got to wondering - does anyone know of any ghost or ghost type stories regarding this old lime working line? Or, indeed, of the moors in general?

I've looked about and all I can find is old folk tales, mostly very very old that have passed through many generations before being written down. I'd be interested in actual recent ghosts of the high moors. I know there were deaths related to the rail line, and Sheriff's Pit is quite an atmospheric location (when not full of tourists in trainers). So has anyone got anything they could point me towards reading, or any personal tales?
This is the location I'm talking about... tell me that's not slightly spooky!View attachment 33251
Walking in the snow on Christmas Day is magical enough :)
 
Not too far away are the moors to the east of Lancashire. I have a fantastic little book called Mysterious Lancashire by Philip Rickman & Graham Nown from 1977 (Dalesman Books).

They go into details of their theories of leylines running through this desolate area, including maps of the area and such leylines. Interestingly this area is intersected by the A666.

I know that it isn't the North York Moors, but if you live in a locale nearby this book is well worth rooting out if you can find a copy.
 
Not ghost related but I remember a school Geography field trip with a bunch of 12 year old scouse scallywags to ingleborough crag to see the limestone scenery (snore) as we were climbing up the crag into the teeth of the inevitable howling Gale a cry went up from one gummy toothed stevedore accented pre-teen “ Ay lads..diss foocken mountains COVERED in fookin magic mushies lar,!” And indeed it was so. There were millions of psylicybin flavoured pixie hat BLUE magic mushrooms all around our plucky band. In seconds everyone had emptied crisps, Tupperware boxes and carrier bags of sarnies crisps and wotnot and every pocket, rucksack and bottle was crammed full of highly potent shrooms before the chain smoking alcoholic teachers could catch on or catch up.

Some foolhardy chaps started snaffling raw fungus before realising its emetic effects when uncooked/ untried and started Technicolor yodelling on the summit in front of confused members of the rambling clubs which surrounded us while teachers started trying to strip search a bunch of delinquent schoolkids on one of Yorkshire’s most scenic spots screaming “anyone caught with Magic Mushrooms on the coach will be left here to walk home” and other empty threats.

needless to say many thousands of them managed to make their way back with us hidden in pants, spare socks in hats and Wellington boots and the rest of that term was the most interesting of my years as schoolboy.

no ghosts but still a very happy memory. With lots of visions in the aftermath.
 
Not ghost related but I remember a school Geography field trip with a bunch of 12 year old scouse scallywags to ingleborough crag to see the limestone scenery (snore) as we were climbing up the crag into the teeth of the inevitable howling Gale a cry went up from one gummy toothed stevedore accented pre-teen “ Ay lads..diss foocken mountains COVERED in fookin magic mushies lar,!” And indeed it was so. There were millions of psylicybin flavoured pixie hat BLUE magic mushrooms all around our plucky band. In seconds everyone had emptied crisps, Tupperware boxes and carrier bags of sarnies crisps and wotnot and every pocket, rucksack and bottle was crammed full of highly potent shrooms before the chain smoking alcoholic teachers could catch on or catch up.

Some foolhardy chaps started snaffling raw fungus before realising its emetic effects when uncooked/ untried and started Technicolor yodelling on the summit in front of confused members of the rambling clubs which surrounded us while teachers started trying to strip search a bunch of delinquent schoolkids on one of Yorkshire’s most scenic spots screaming “anyone caught with Magic Mushrooms on the coach will be left here to walk home” and other empty threats.

needless to say many thousands of them managed to make their way back with us hidden in pants, spare socks in hats and Wellington boots and the rest of that term was the most interesting of my years as schoolboy.

no ghosts but still a very happy memory. With lots of visions in the aftermath.

I would just like to say that I was sniggering so hard at this story, my (Scouse) In-House GP came in and asked if I was alright!
 
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