Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Country and County: North America

Folklore / Folktales

La Llorona, The Weeping Woman

Stories of La Llorona, the weeping woman are told all over the Hispanic world, with versions coming from Venezuela to Spain and from California to Puerto Rico, but the legend is perhaps most associated with Mexico. The tales differ slightly from place to place but the basic elements are always the same.

Apparitions / Hauntings

The Wynyard Ghost

In 1785 two junior officers serving with the 33rd Regiment of Foot in Nova Scotia had an interesting experience, witnessing the apparition of Lieutenant John Otway Wynyard, 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards. The following account of event was found in ‘The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain’ by John Ingram (1897).

Haunted Hotels / Haunted Pubs / Hauntings

Manresa Castle, Port Townsend

Built by Charles Eisenbeis, the first mayor of Port Townsend, the impressive 19th century Manresa Castle certainly has a reputation of being haunted and has appeared on several paranormal related television shows, but the authenticity of some of these ghosts has been thrown into question in the following article by Jonathan Martin entitled,

Hauntings

Fairbanks House

The Fairbanks House at 511 East Street, dates from the mid 17th century and is thought to be North America’s oldest surviving timber frame house. It was built around 1637 for Jonathan Fairbanks (Fiarbanke, Fairbanck, Fairebanke or Fayerbanke) (born 1594 – died 5 December 1668), his wife Grace (nee Lee) and their six children.

Folklore / Occult / Occult Traditions / Salem Witch Trials / Witchcraft

Salem Village Parsonage (1692)

Salem Village (now Danvers) was settled by European farmers from nearby Salem Town in the 1630’s becoming a separate parish in 1672. The Parsonage dated from 1681, and from 1689 when the covenant church was established it was the home of English born Rev Samuel Parris (born 1653 – died 27 February 1720), his family and household slaves.

Apparitions / Ghost Ships / Hauntings

The Bannockburn

In the days before the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Bannockburn was one of the most famous ships to mysteriously vanish on the Great Lakes. She’s one of the more commonly sighted ghost ships of the lakes, often seen struggling through the November storms, a victim of the Witch of November.

Apparitions / Ghost Ships / Haunted Battlefields / Hauntings / WWII Hauntings

USS Arizona

On 7th December 1941 the US Pacific Fleet was attacked in Pearl Harbour by aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy, bringing the United States of America into World War II. The attack lasted 90 minutes and resulted in the loss of 2,386 American lives and wounding a further 1,139.

Legends / Native American Legends / Passamaquoddy Legends

Of the Woman Who Loved a Serpent Who Lived in a Lake

The Passamaquoddy people were primarily settled in modern day Maine (USA) and New Brunswick (Canada). The following Passamaquoddy legend was taken from Charles Leland’s ‘The Algonquin Legends of New England; or, Myths and Folk Lore of the Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Tribe’ (1884)

Hauntings

Deep River Public Library

On 20 April 2010, Regine Labossiere reported on the reputed haunting of the public library in Deep River, Connecticut.