These are the Top 10 most haunted roads in the UK - ranked according to the terror they’ve inflicted and the believability of eye-witnesses.
With Halloween approaching, you might be planning a horror movie marathon or even a visit to a local scare attraction.
But, according to some tales of the supernatural, you might also end up scared witless while behind the wheel of your car and navigating some of the UK’s spookiest roads.
We’ve taken a look at some of Britain’s most famous cases involving spectral beings supposedly sighted on our highways and byways.
And the No.1 spot goes to the A616 Stocksbridge Bypass located to the north of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, close to the Peak District.
All of the elements are there - a faceless, cloaked being tormenting those on the road, shadow children dancing around a pylon, and eye-witnesses including two respected police officers.
Here’s the full Top 10:
1. A616: Stocksbridge Bypass, near Sheffield, South Yorks
Opened in May 1988, the bypass links the M1 motorway to the east with the Woodhead Pass to the west. It’s a notorious accident blackspot. And many claim it’s a spooky hot-spot, too. During the road’s construction, two security guards spotted a group of ethereal children dancing around an electricity pylon. When they got out of their vehicle, they found the ‘children’ had vanished and there were no footprints. The pair also saw a hooded, monk-like figure in the vicinity and were shaken to their core.
Local police were informed, with two officers - PC Dick Ellis and special constable John Beet - dispatched to investigate. While sat in their patrol car, they too saw a strange hooded figure while they heard what sounded like someone hitting the back of their vehicle. The officers later appeared on ITV’s Strange But True programme in 1994. PC Ellis said: “I became aware that someone had appeared directly on my right hand side and was virtually leaning and pressing themselves against the car. When I got out, there was no-one around at all. Nobody could have run away from us as there were bankings on both sides.”
The sightings continue to this day.
2. A149 Kings Lynn, Norfolk
There's a big black beast lurking in East Anglia that has been spotted for centuries. Locals call it ‘Black Shuck’ or ‘Old Shock’. And sightings are still prevalent today. In fact, Shuck features in a recent episode of BBC's Charlie Cooper's Myth Country. This dog is said to have glowing red eyes is most often seen on the East Anglian coast. And that’s where college lecturer Simon Corbin had his sighting in 2000. He said: "I believe I saw the ghost dog while I was doing my teacher training in Norfolk, in the year 2000 – shortly before I joined Kingston College.’ The College’s official website adds: "Simon, then living in King’s Lynn and working in Hunstanton, was driving on the A149 on a bright summer’s day when he saw a large black dog racing across the carriageway. In true ghostly fashion, the creature appeared from (and vanished into) thin air…"
3. A15 near Ruskington, Lincolnshire
Back in 2022, Select chatted with Dr Rob Gandy, a Visiting Professor at the Liverpool Business School at Liverpool John Moores University and who also happens to be an avid chronicler of road ghosts stories. He told us about chilling events witnessed on the A15 in Lincolnshire dubbed the 'Ruskington Horror'. The chief eyewitness in the case is Kevin Whelan, who even called ITV's This Morning programme with his sighting in 1998. While driving in his car, Kevin spotted something strange floating in front of him and presumed it was a white bin bag. Dr Gandy adds: “However, when he got to where it was, all of a sudden a face appeared around the car’s front pillar on the top-right of the windscreen, with the left hand up! It had a pitted face and Kevin could see its teeth.”
4. B3212, Dartmoor
Can a pair of hairy disembodied hands really be responsible for a series of road accidents? They can if you believe stories about the ‘hairy hands of Dartmoor’ legend, in which motorists describe how an unknown force grabs their steering wheel and tries to run them off the road. In the book Supernatural Dartmoor, author Michael Williams describes how one witness, a journalist called Rufus Endle, had stated how 'a pair of hands gripped the driving wheel and I had to fight for control'. The hands disappeared as quickly as they'd materialised and a crash was narrowly avoided.
5. A229, Kent
According the Kent Live, the A229 at Blue Bell Hill has seen a whopping 50 reported supernatural sightings over the last few decades. And most revolve around an apparent spectral bride seen waiting, mournfully, by the side of the road. Many believe the ghost is the spirit of 22-year-old Suzanne Browne, who was tragically killed at the spot along with two friends in an accident in 1965... on the eve of her wedding. Some motorists claim to have 'hit' this bride with 'beautiful eyes' with their car, only to find zero evidence that anyone had even been there. Accounts became so frequent even the local police began to suspect something supernatural was going on.
6. B1249, East Riding of Yorkshire
Werewolves aren't just the stuff of horror movies, they're real to those who've spotted them in Yorkshire since the 1960s. One recent case came in August 2016 when motorist Jemma Waller, 24, described seeing a monster which looked ‘like a big dog, probably bigger than my car, but it had a human face’ near the village of Halsham.
7. A666, the Devil's Highway, Greater Manchester
With its unique numbering structure and high accident rate, it's no surprise to learn that the A666 that runs from the outskirts of Manchester north to Blackburn, Lancs, is known as the 'Devil's Highway'. A large number of supernatural sightings there also add to the road's reputation. One report from 2015 even saw a motorist claiming to film a white-clad creature pursuing him down the road! You can judge the footage for yourself.
8. Scotter Road, Lincolnshire
Imagine looking out of your bedroom window and witnessing a 12ft tall, shrouded creature creeping down the road! That's apparently what happened to a then 20-year-old - known only as 'Katie’ - back in 1999 when she was living with her parents on Scotter Road in Scunthorpe, Lincs. Author and road ghost expert Rob Gandy collected the sighting and told Select: "They watched what looked like a monk coming from their right. The hood was stood up to a point, which was surprising given the heavy rain, but they couldn’t see his face because of the angle. However, what really flummoxed Katie and her Mum was the fact that the monk appeared to be 12 to 15 feet tall!”
9. M6 between Crewe and Knutsford: Cheshire
Many believe that the busy M6 is haunted by spectral lorries and vanishing hitchhikers, with an area between Crewe and Knutsford in Cheshire particularly sinister. In 2017, one eye-witness described almost ‘hitting’ a figure standing in the road - before it disappeared into thin air. They said: “To me, it looked like the figure had run across the lanes and was now waiting for me to him them - as if they were suicidal. But as I got closer the figure didn’t look like a solid figure. It looked almost translucent. And then the figure just vanished. There was nothing there. I literally blinked and it had gone.’
10. A3, Surrey
Did a ghostly ‘replay’ of a road accident which occurred weeks earlier really tip-off police about a tragic death? It did if you believe certain reports from Surrey in mid-December, 2002. In the evening of December 11th, Surrey Police received reports of a car swerving off the road and down a verge on the A3 near Burpham, to the east of Guildford. Officers arrived and, the next day, located a Vauxhall Astra as well as a decomposing body. Case closed? Not exactly. Because the body had been there weeks, even months, not a matter of hours. The victim had also been a wanted man, a suspect in a robbery, who had vanished without trace in June of that year. So who, or what, had the eye-witnesses really seen?
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