Haunted Places in Belfast City 2

Crumlin Road Prison

When this construction worker stepped inside this coffin for a joke he did not expect to find it already inhabited by a near invisible visitor. This image was taken in cell 18/19 a room which was once used during the prison’s hanging days as a waiting room for those about to be lead to their death. Since its founding in 1845 there had been 17 hangings within the prison walls. Even after their death some of the prisoners remained, with 15 un-marked graves next to the prison wall, each of them buried in non unconsecrated ground. The hangings were of course not the only deaths to occur in the prisons horrid history, it has had its fair share of suicides, murders and riots over the years, many of which occurring on the well named “Murder Mile”. The Murder Mile witnessed many bouts of death and turmoil, in fact it is the very place were the first petrol bomb was thrown, as well as being the location for the murder of the first on duty solider during the Troubles.
(Images from Flickr.com)

Over the years there have been many reports of strange events occurring within the prison walls. Phantom faces have been seen peering out of barred windows. Voices, screams and cries have been heard as though modern day visitors have stepped back into the prisons hay day. Many of the ghost stories revolve around the death of ten year old Patrick Magee in 1856. He was sentenced to three months in the prison but after being threatened by the prison’s hangman he committed suicide in his cell. Some people have reported seeing Patrick, along with the many other unfortunate souls who over stayed their sentence.

Galloper Thompson

Every town has a headless horseman, and Belfast is no different. Galloper Thompson haunts the Alexandra Drive area in the North of the City. His story has been told over many generations and it is common for children to be warned of the thundering hooves of Galloper Thompson late at night.

The real name of Galloper Thompson is Gordan Thompson, an avid explorer and well known local. It is said that when Thompson died he refused to go to heaven until he was laid to rest at his ancestral home, which once stood on the grounds of Alexandra Drive today. Little is known about how he ended up loosing his head but the common belief is that he was beheaded by the guillotine in the Old Beltex Mill.

Belfast Flaxworks 

Belfast Flaxworks was an old mill which once stood near Saint George’s Market at the edge of the city centre. The name of the ghost is Helena Burden, an aspiring singer and employee of the Flaxworks. Helena tripped over a mop and fell down a flight of stairs while she was working. Today the mill is gone but in a print shop that stands upon the Flaxworks grounds people have heard the screams of a woman descending from a stair case which is no longer there.