Phantom hitch-hiker stories in Ireland ?

Number 10 Shirt

Has anybody ever heard phantom hitch-hiker stories that took place in Ireland ? I have heard stories of encounters with ghostly passengers that took place in Britain, America and France but never Ireland.

GodlessM

Someone posted such an experiece on the boards here not long ago.

As for the legend itself, haven't heard of it in Ireland; closest thing I heard was a Black Dog along a road somewhere between Lough Conn and Lough Cullen that used to appear and follow travellers on the road until they left it at which point it would disappear.

Number 10 Shirt

GodlessM wrote: »

Someone posted such an experiece on the boards here not long ago.

As for the legend itself, haven't heard of it in Ireland; closest thing I heard was a Black Dog along a road somewhere between Lough Conn and Lough Cullen that used to appear and follow travellers on the road until they left it at which point it would disappear.

What was the gist of the story posted do you remember ?

GodlessM

Number 10 Shirt wrote: »

What was the gist of the story posted do you remember ?

IIRC the guy said he was driving past some house that was supposedly haunted and as he did a young woman appeared in the passenger seat. She apparently then disappeared once he got far away from the house. Something like that anyway. It's either in the Foxford thread or the Ghost Experiences thread I think.

Number 10 Shirt

GodlessM wrote: »

IIRC the guy said he was driving past some house that was supposedly haunted and as he did a young woman appeared in the passenger seat. She apparently then disappeared once he got far away from the house. Something like that anyway. It's either in the Foxford thread or the Ghost Experiences thread I think.

Thanks I had a look at the foxford thread and it is on the first page.

Unpossible

People in the cork thread mentioned something about a girl and fota island.

MrMojoRisin

Unpossible wrote: »

People in the cork thread mentioned something about a girl and fota island.

Yeah, the story goes that, if you drive past Fota House on the main road to/from Cobh at around midnight, you'll see a little girl sitting in the back seat via your rear view mirror. They say that the little girl used to belong to the family that lived in Fota House years ago, circa the 18th century, but she died tragically. Fell off a wall, or something. I think her death had something to do with the main wall outside Fota House - the wall you see from the road. Maybe it's true, maybe it isn't.

I drove past Fota House with a couple of buddies at around midnight to literally 'road-test' the theory last year and we didn't see anything. I'd say it's just an urban legend - I've heard of that story as far afield as Utah in the US. Same story, varying locations.

As for phantom hitchiker-type stories.. My sister's friend told her a strange story a good 12 years ago about a hitchhiker. Herself and her parents were driving home on the main Killarney road in the direction of Cork late one night when they saw a man thumbing in the distance. Her father was driving. As they approached further, they saw that his eyes were glowing a vivid red. Maybe he was wearing contacts? Anyway, obviously, her father declined to give him a lift and he said he had an awful bad feeling, like a feeling of dread. After they drove past that fella, she said that the car interior became freezing cold despite the heater being switched on and the interior being cosy just a minute before. She said that nobody spoke for the rest of the journey home.

A couple of months later, her father complained he wasn't feeling well, so he went for tests and eventually found out he had cancer. The cancer turned out to be terminal and he died within a year of the diagnosis. I do know that her father died of cancer alright. She told my sister that she believed the man they had seen on the road had been a sort of 'omen of death', given that the three of them saw him only months before her father died. I don't know.

Creepy story anyway and it was just unfortunate about her father. I can't say I ever saw anything strange on that stretch of road though, and I've driven along it at night many times.

Monta

I just read that post when I was browsing this forum and had to register etc as this is my first post. I had two wierd experiences on the Cork-Killarney Rd both in daytime and on the windy bit, I was driving along looked up and saw a tall seriously seriously skinny guy with big eyes dressed in what looked like a khaki poncho who seemed to be holding a stick or something under the poncho standing on the side of the road, I moved my eyes away for an instant and he was gone when I looked again. I came home and told my wife and she told me that a year before I had come home after driving the same stretch and told her about an old woman who just similarly dissappeared like a ghost (something I actually forgot about).

toxicity234

outside kilcormac in offaly, there was a man in 40 kill by a truck at 12.30 in the morning must be 10 or 11 year ago. the street light go for about 200 meters outside of the town.
sometime when i drive home at around that time. i come to the top of the town and i see that man walk out of the town.
but my the time i make it to the end of the streetlight he walk into the darkness.

Fuzzy Clam

toxicity234 wrote: »

outside kilcormac in offaly, there was a man in 40 kill by a truck at 12.30 in the morning must be 10 or 11 year ago. the street light go for about 200 meters outside of the town.
sometime when i drive home at around that time. i come to the top of the town and i see that man walk out of the town.
but my the time i make it to the end of the streetlight he walk into the darkness.

Any chance you could arrange that sentence so it makes sense.

Unpossible

MrMojoRisin wrote: »

I drove past Fota House with a couple of buddies at around midnight to literally 'road-test' the theory last year and we didn't see anything. I'd say it's just an urban legend - I've heard of that story as far afield as Utah in the US. Same story, varying locations.

Don't those type stories where something appears in the car only happen when the driver is alone?

MrMojoRisin

Unpossible wrote: »

Don't those type stories where something appears in the car only happen when the driver is alone?

Oh, is that right? Alright then, I'll be home at the weekend, so I'll take a drive out there and test it solo. If the little girl appears and doesn't make me drive into the ditch ("Ya bastard! You doubted me on boards.ie!"), I'll let you know how it goes, lol.

Unpossible

MrMojoRisin wrote: »

Oh, is that right? Alright then, I'll be home at the weekend, so I'll take a drive out there and test it solo. If the little girl appears and doesn't make me drive into the ditch ("Ya bastard! You doubted me on boards.ie!"), I'll let you know how it goes, lol.

Remember to bring a camera :pac: no one in these stories ever just stops and tries to have a conversation or take pics.

MrMojoRisin

Unpossible wrote: »

Remember to bring a camera :pac: no one in these stories ever just stops and tries to have a conversation or take pics.

Lol, I know. True.

What I'll do is, I'll take my camcorder, strap it down to the dash with some duct tape and have it pointed in the direction of the back seat. If there's any footage of note, I'll upload to YouTube and post the link here.

Should be a laugh.

Unpossible

Could you fit a few cameras in? Put one on the boot cover behind the back seat, maybe one on the back seat and have a microphone recording everything too?

MrMojoRisin

Unpossible wrote: »

Could you fit a few cameras in? Put one on the boot cover behind the back seat, maybe one on the back seat and have a microphone recording everything too?

I'll have to borrow a camcorder from my sister. She has a dictaphone, which should do nicely for the recording side of things. I'll let you know how it goes!

tigerblob

Unpossible wrote: »

Don't those type stories where something appears in the car only happen when the driver is alone?

In Roscommon on the Racecourse road there is a house that is supposedly haunted, a friend of my mother's was driving past it one day when a headless man appeared in his back seat! The driver pulled in and ran into the house for help, when the occupant opened the door he said that this wasn't a good time because his father had just died. The man stayed in the back seat and was seen by guards and the monsignor, and didn't leave until the monsignor said prayers.

Rhys Essien

About the girl appearing in the back of your car when you look in the rear view mirror on the Fota road in Cork.I heard a story where it happened to a lad in his early twenties and supposedly he was so shocked he hardly spoke for a few days later.

MrMojoRisin

tigerblob wrote: »

In Roscommon on the Racecourse road there is a house that is supposedly haunted, a friend of my mother's was driving past it one day when a headless man appeared in his back seat! The driver pulled in and ran into the house for help, when the occupant opened the door he said that this wasn't a good time because his father had just died. The man stayed in the back seat and was seen by guards and the monsignor, and didn't leave until the monsignor said prayers.

That's really cool.

Can anyone else confirm that story?

tigerblob

MrMojoRisin wrote: »

That's really cool.

Can anyone else confirm that story?

Oh I don't know lol, I mean loads of people saw it and know of it but I doubt most of them are on Boards!

edwinkane

tigerblob wrote: »

Oh I don't know lol, I mean loads of people saw it and know of it but I doubt most of them are on Boards!

I wonder did any of them take any pictures or recordings?

MrMojoRisin

Rhys Essien wrote: »

About the girl appearing in the back of your car when you look in the rear view mirror on the Fota road in Cork.I heard a story where it happened to a lad in his early twenties and supposedly he was so shocked he hardly spoke for a few days later.

Yeah, I heard about that one too. There's an excellent book out at the moment called 'Haunted Cork' by Darren Mann (you can get it on amazon.co.uk or www.thehistorypress.ie - my cousin tried to get it in regular bookshops and none of them had it).

This is what Darren writes about the Fota Road...

The Fota Road heading towards Cobh is one covered in tales of paranormal activity. Over a pint people may crack a joke about the headless horseman said to gallop at full speed, or the phantom carriage pulled by a team of phantom nags, but a couple of of the stories are ingrained in Cork's paranormal culture. I heard about the Fota ghosts from a Greek long-distance delivery driver I bumped into in Cobh. He told me that he hated travelling the road at night as his cab would become icy cold, no matter which setting he selected on the air conditioning. I was intrigued, and started to dig out other stories of the road.

The first ghostly stories of the Fota Road appear to date from around the early twentieth century. As a small group of people returned from a local dance, they watched as a coach pulled by a team of headless horses drove past them. Although the occupants of the carriage are not described, it is said a hand appeared from the coach and waved at the witnesses. Further down the road the coach was seen again, this time by a lad riding his bicycle. The cyclist was forced to mount the footpath to avoid hitting the coach hitting him (or passing through him, of course). The sighting of the phantom coach coincided with the death of a prominent woman who lived close by, and those in the know agreed that the vehicle had come to collect her soul.

It is now said that half an hour before midnight is a bad time to be driving in or out of Cobh. As the traffic is reduced to a handful of cars, a single woman stands by the roadside. Her thumb is stuck out, trying to attract the attention of passing male motorists. Unlike the normal vanishing hitchhiker who waits to be picked up before revealing itself to be a ghost, this woman disappears when a car stops for her. If a driver passes by without thought, the female phantom manifests in the back seat of their vehicle, disappearing a few seconds after being noticed.

Another version of the story says it is a man who suddenly appears and will only vanish once the car crosses the Fota Bridge.

A similar story concerns a young child. Driving alone just after midnight, one driver glanced into his rear view mirror to see a girl sitting in the backseat of his car. He spun around, but the child had disappeared. The driver was said to have been so shaken he drove to the side of the road, and with a quivering hand phoned his father to come and pick him up. It has been speculated that the young girl in question fell off a wall and died just outside Fota House in the late nineteeth century and her confused spirit occasionally enters passing cars.

The main problem with these latter stories is the lack of first-hand witnesses. The stories are all told by friends who heard them from mates, whose sister had heard the tales from their former boyfriend's cousin... They become impossible to track back to the source, and the more cynical amongst us would say that this is because they never happened.

These urban myths may serve as a type of warning; the woman vanishes if the driver stops to pick her up as a reward for chivalry, and those who are impolite are punished. The story of the little girl appearing after midnight could date back hundreds of years, warning horse riders of the perils of travelling alone on treacherous roads. But unravelling these myths is never that straightforward. Stories change and evolve, but they often have a foundation in fact.

The tale of the phantom woman by the roadside may have developed traits of an urban myth in the constant re-telling, but this alone does not prevent the phantom female from existing, and maybe, manifesting once again in front of an unsuspecting witness.

Well, I was down in Cork for the weekend and I headed out along the Fota Road both before and after midnight (just to be thorough, like!). I did bring a friend with me, but I left him off just after the bridge (where that old castle ruin yoke is) while I did my little 'ghost-drive'. I told him if I didn't return within the hour, to assume I'd been abducted by a ghost, or run off the road by one!

I set up the cameras in the car - one at the back right-hand corner of the back window and another stuck down to the dash in front facing the back seat - and drove towards Cobh and then back again. I kept the light on inside and put another small torch in the back seat to make sure everything was illuminated. It was all over and done with by 12:20pm.

Then I got Paul (friend) to drive back and forth each way on his own, so it was 12:45pm by the time the whole thing was done. We went back to his gaff and had a look through the footage and, truth be told, we didn't see anything unusual. Not a thing. In the excerpt above from Darren Mann's book, he mentions how he spoke to a Greek delivery driver who said the cab remained icy cold no matter what setting he put the air con on. We didn't have any trouble with the heater on Saturday night anyway. What a laugh though.

I will say one thing about that Fota Road though. When I was last home before last weekend, in January, and I went out on the piss to Cobh, I had to get a taxi home afterwards sometime after 11:30pm at least and when I told the driver (a young bloke, no more than 28 or so) I wanted to go back into town (Cork City), I noticed he sort of shifted uncomfortably. There was definitely a reaction in him. And, when we were going along the road, despite me being about as chatty as a mummified courgette, he was making a mighty effort to expound at length on the crappiness of the weather.

So, taxi drivers definitely do seem to be nervous about driving along that stretch of road late-ish at night, whether the tales are true or not.

Oh, and in Darren Mann's book, boards.ie is mentioned at the end of the book under 'websites'! We're famous now, lol! :pac:

C4Kid

This is what Darren writes about the Fota Road...

Thats a fascinating read, I never heard of those stories before I read this post about Fota Island.

It's probably a little disrespectful to say I would like to see if anything appears on that road next time I'm driving back along that road late at night.

TrustedApple

This reminds me on the road from freshford to urlingford its a 80 kpm back road

Me and my dad where heading home from work about 1 AM and just outside freshford

There was a old manw ith a hat and glasses was just standing on the side of the road under a sign and there was no lights or anything but there was a pull in about 20 m up the road with a light

I told my dad did you see the man standing there he said no. But i said turn around and no outher car has passed in the mean time and when we went back there was notting there at all not even the sign and i was like what the hell is going on here

Then the next day we had people in from freshford in work and i asked then is there anyone like that in the area and they said no

To this day i am still wondering why was there a man standing on the side of the road ? Why wasint he standing where the light was if he was going to be picked up ? what happend to the sign ?

I have a lot more storys about people on roads i will ask my mum and dad when they get home from work and i have a few more to add from the roads

castor 1

tigerblob wrote: »

In Roscommon on the Racecourse road there is a house that is supposedly haunted, a friend of my mother's was driving past it one day when a headless man appeared in his back seat! The driver pulled in and ran into the house for help, when the occupant opened the door he said that this wasn't a good time because his father had just died. The man stayed in the back seat and was seen by guards and the monsignor, and didn't leave until the monsignor said prayers.

Wonder how did he hear the prayers if he had no ears !

johndaman66

MrMojoRisin wrote: »

So, taxi drivers definitely do seem to be nervous about driving along that stretch of road late-ish at night, whether the tales are true or not.

I wonder is it possible for someone to provide a link to google street view for said strech of road. I'm intrigued;)

MrMojoRisin

Here is a satellite shot of directions from the Jack Lynch Tunnel to Fota House/the Fota Road (which is probably the most straightforward route to take).

MrMojoRisin

This might be a better shot. I can't zoom in beyond 100% because I end up losing destination B (Fota House on the Fota road), but you could always save the image to your own computer and zoom in.

Ali Babba

C4Kid wrote: »

Thats a fascinating read, I never heard of those stories before I read this post about Fota Island.

It's probably a little disrespectful to say I would like to see if anything appears on that road next time I'm driving back along that road late at night.

I knew a taxi driver who picked up a phantom hitch hiker on the Fota road about thirty years ago, he swore to his dieing day that it really happened and i'd believe him, he wasn't one for making things up. I know of another guy who used to work as a milkman a few years back and about four miles from the Fota road in Cobh he came across a ghostly figure hanging in the air, the figure was about eight feet tall with a hood but no head, scared the life out of him!! There was also a headless horse with the figure too and a lot of people have heard the horse and have been chased by the horse!! His uncle saw the same thing about ten years earlier. It's a very creepy place, any time I pass in my car the temperature plummets and the ice warning alarm goes off in my car even during the day sometimes!!

gerrycollins

While not a phantom hitch hiker story my father recalls a story from the 60's when a local dance hall was the talk of the county where it was told that a stange man came one night on his own and danced with most of the women better than any man there. Towards the end of the night he was sitting down and it was noticed that he had cloven feet ie. Animals feet like a goat/sheep etc. Anyways he fled chased by a few men however disappeared around a corner.

However around that time dance halls were in strong competition and Ireland of the 60's was very religious so a story like this could discredit a dance hall, it's the joy of urban legends