Be careful driving to the cinema to watch new horror film Insidious 5: The Red Door - because Britain’s roads seemingly have more GHOSTS than potholes, according to our chilling study.
Fright flick Insidious 5 is the final chapter in a terrifying franchise first launched in 2010. It arrives in cinemas July 7th.
Directed by and starring actor Patrick Wilson, it sees a teenage Dalton Lambert (actor Ty Simpkins) grappling with the demons that have stalked him his entire life.
And to celebrate the most eagerly-anticipated new scary movie of the year, here we take a look at the most likely place you might encounter a spook in real life - and that’s on the UK’s haunted roads.
We analysed 20 years’ worth of information held by UK website The Paranormal Database.
The Database, founded by author and radio host Darren Mann, has been logging British supernatural reports since 2003 - and is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
The terrifying encounters revealed here focus on ghosts and ghouls seen on motorways and roads, and they cover everything from vanishing hitchhikers and vengeful highwaymen to demonic dogs.
Weird Wiltshire has more records for road spectres than any other county in the UK, ahead of Yorkshire, Dorset, Essex and Kent, which make up the Top 5.
There are a spine-tingling 59 records for road ghosts in Wiltshire, followed by 54 for Yorkshire, 52 for Dorset, 44 for Essex, and 42 for Kent.
Top 10 UK counties for haunted road reports:
(County followed by the number of road ghost locations listed by the Paranormal Database)
- Wiltshire - 59
- Yorkshire - 54
- Dorset - 52
- Essex - 44
- Kent - 42
- Suffolk - 42
- Norfolk - 39
- Somerset - 39
- Sussex - 38
- Lincolnshire - 33
Mr Mann - whose website documents all things paranormal, including UFOs, werewolves, and out-of-place big cats - says Wiltshire’s roads are special indeed.
He reveals: “In total, 1087 of my records relate to road hauntings, be they black demonic dog encounters, vanishing jaywalkers, or phantom highwaymen. My database comprises 14,060 records, so 7.7% of all collected paranormal events to date happen to be road ghost related.
“I am surprised that Wiltshire came so high in the list, as I only have 382 records for the county, which means 15.4% of all my records for Wiltshire occur on the roads. Maybe the high number of prehistoric monuments or the wealth of folklore in the county contribute to the eerie experience of driving Wiltshire’s roads.”
The encounters in Wiltshire include a giggling spectre terrifying a motorist in a layby, a chilling grey man stood in the middle of the road, and the phantom of a nun staring down passing cars.
And below you’ll find what we reckon is the most disturbing encounter from each of the Top 5 counties:
WILTSHIRE: The Giggling Girl
Location: Sevenhampton (Wiltshire), A420
Date / Time: August 2014, 23:00h
“Needing to make a telephone call, a driver pulled off the A420 and stopped outside a farm. The driver then heard a girl giggle in the darkness and spotted a white shape in the driver's wing mirror and the rear-view mirror, although the shape vanished when they turned their head.”
YORKSHIRE: Legless Ghost
Location: Boltby (North Yorkshire) - Road leading into village
Date / Time: June 2012, around midnight
“One witness in a car reported seeing a white woman wearing an old fashioned party dress, although the woman's legs disappeared below the knee and the face was blurred. The witness said it was like watching a 'replay', and although the witness's car headlights did not illuminate the figure, the woman was visible against the darkness of the environment.”
DORSET: Military Ghoul
Location: Christchurch (Dorset) - Bypass, heading towards Bournemouth
Date / Time: 04 August 2017, 01:30h
“A driver and passenger spotted a man dressed in military-style clothing standing on the central reservation. When the car was turned around to have another look at the figure, he had vanished; the car grew cold and experienced mild electrical interference.”
ESSEX: Faceless Monk
Location: Great Stambridge (Essex) - Country lane, exact location not known
Date / Time: 1 March 2003
“Three people reported seeing a cowled figure slowly moving by the side of the road in this small village. The figure wore a large wooden crucifix around its neck, and when it turned towards the witnesses, they could see that there was no face beneath the hood - just a gaping hole.”
KENT: Cloaked Figure
Location: Cranbrook (Kent) - Road towards Marden
Date / Time: 29 September 2011
“A driver and passenger watched as a cloaked figure jumped down from the trees in front of their car before leaping over the vehicle. The cloak could be heard 'whooshing' over the car. The figure was too tall for the driver to see the head, although the rest of the entity was described as human-like.”
** The Paranormal Database founder Darren Mann co-presents a weekly radio show on Ipswich Community Radio, called WSH (Weird S**t Happens), Sunday mornings 10-12 midday.
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