If you’re a fan of Halloween, you’ve probably spent a good amount of time in some form of haunted house; be that a carnival fun house, a real life ‘haunted mansion’, or maybe just visiting vicariously by watching your favourite horror film. Odds are, by now, you’re pretty tired of haunted houses. Well, have you ever considered visiting… a haunted road?
There are an estimated 262,300 miles of road in Great Britain. So, it won’t come as a surprise to discover that some of the UK’s roads hide supernatural secrets.
This year, why not shut the door on that haunted house and get your little ghost hunters into the car for a spooky road trip. Or, if you’re unnerved by unearthly phenomenon, then it might be best to avoid these roads this spooky season!
1. Electric Brae (A719), Ayrshire, Scotland
Let’s ease the article in gently with a road that lets you ‘roll uphill’.
While it’s been at the heart of local superstitions for decades, the Electric Brae on the A719 is what’s known as a ‘gravity hill’ – set against a visually confusing backdrop, the road appears to go uphill. There is, however, a perfectly logical explanation for the road’s apparent defiance of gravity. Undiscovered Scotland explain that "the inland end of this stretch of road is actually 17 feet higher than the coastal end, giving an overall gradient of 1 in 86. Yet, because of the way the surrounding landscape slopes, the road appears to incline the opposite way, from its coastal end down to its inland end." Even so, watching your car wander uphill under its own steam is a mind-bending experience – and at first sight, a slightly spooky one.
2. Stocksbridge Bypass (A616), Sheffield to Manchester, England
Now it’s time to up the spooky stakes.
Rated by many ghost-hunters as ‘the most haunted road in Britain’, since its construction in 1989 there have been dozens of reports from both drivers and passers-by experiencing ghostly activity: seeing, hearing and sometimes even feeling apparently unexplainable things. Scary reports include multiple sightings of young girls in old-fashioned clothes dancing and singing ‘Ring a Ring o Roses’ around electricity pylons at midnight, as well as several experiences of cars being apparently hit while moving.
3. ‘The Hairy Hands’ (B3212), Dartmoor, England
The history of accidents and near-misses on this road in England’s southwest is focused around the spectre of ‘The Hairy Hands’, with crash survivors telling of a feeling of losing control of their cars as if strange forces were directing them. In 2010, Devon filmmaker Ashley Thorpe even made a short film about the legend of ‘The Hairy Hands’. Maybe it’s best to watch it after you’ve done your day’s driving; The Hairy Hands is a (hairy) nail-biter!
Of course, if you do fancy exploring the mysteries of the ‘Hairy Hands’ for yourself, you may want to bring some equipment to document your adventure. With a dash cam from Autoparts, you can record every twist and turn (hopefully without the spooky sightings).
4. The M6/M74 motorways, southern Scotland to central England
This 230-mile stretch of road is one of Britain’s longest motorways – and for spooky sightings, it might be the most famous. If any highway in Britain is storied enough to have a supernatural aura around it, it’s this one, given that this route has been used for millennia, with it originally being used for cattle driving and commerce across Hadrian’s Wall. If reports from the public are anything to go by, phalanxes of Roman soldiers have been spotted on this stretch of road walking in the direction of oncoming traffic, before disappearing.
5. Platt Lane, Westhoughton near Bolton, England
This route is near the scene of the 1910 Pretoria Pit mining disaster, and may have been the same road that hundreds of miners used to walked to work every day. The underground explosion caused 344 deaths, and more than a century on there are still reports of eyes peering through bushes on Platt Lane and ghostly figures – said to be the spirits of the deceased miners – wielding pickaxes before disappearing into the mist.
6. The Devil’s Highway (A666) Bolton, England
With an ominous highway number, it’s no surprise that this route was once cursed with an unusually high accident rate. What was causing so many crashes? Well, part of the problem was reported to be apparitions on the road, such as dark shadows, which drivers have swerved dramatically to avoid, putting themselves in danger. But improvements to the route around the new millennium, such as lowering the speed limit from 70mph to 50mph and the banning of cyclists, meant accidents were reduced by 60%. Nevertheless, the A666 is said to cover stretches of ground where mineshafts have collapsed, and some are thought to have gone undiscovered to this day. It could be said that history is literally buried beneath the road.
Make sure you’re seen on the road, especially in the dark winter nights, with our vehicle headlight bulb range.
7. The A229, Sussex to Kent, England
A road on which drivers have experienced some truly hair-raising encounters, the A229 has apparently been haunted by a number of spectres with distinct identities.
Drivers have reported ‘hitting’ pedestrians, before bringing their car to a shuddering halt, jumping out in a panic to check on the casualty, only to find there is no-one on the road. In one case on this road in the 1970s, a driver even covered the person he had ‘hit’ with a blanket before returning with the emergency services to find there was nobody there.
Even more spookily, the A229 is also famous for the reported sightings of a bride called Judith Langham, who tragically died in a crash on her wedding day and is said to haunt the road.
Wilder still are reports of conversations with ghosts in cars. A local yarn tells of a phantom hitchhiker who, when picked up, puts the world to rights, then disappears from the car mid-conversation.
Whatever’s on the road ahead, spooky or not, make sure your view is clear with our huge range of windscreen wiper blades.
8. B3314 near Tintagel Cornwall, England
An area of ancient culture and once an independent kingdom, Cornwall is no stranger to spine-chilling folklore . One legend concerns the B3314 road near Tintagel village, where holidaymakers and locals alike have seen a strange woman in Victorian attire walking unsteadily on the road. Panic-stricken drivers swerving to avoid this apparition have reportedly looked in their mirrors only to see her give a vacant stare, then disappear.
9. A21 near Sevenoaks, Kent, England
It might be located in a heavily populated area, but there are nevertheless said to be roadside spirits on the loose in one of England’s historic counties.
Part of the A21 dual carriageway splits Old Gracious Lane in two, and it’s claimed that as a result, a mysterious force makes some of the road ‘disappear’, merging traffic head-on to disastrous effect.
There is also said to be a cycling ghost who meanders along the A21 stretch in the hours of darkness without lights. This pedal-powered apparition, said to have caught the passing glance of dozens of Kent drivers, has been linked with the death of a cyclist hit by a vehicle on this road at some time in the mid-20th century.
If you cycle in hours of low light, make sure you check out our top tips and product recommendations for riding your bike safely in the dark.
10. Kinmount Straight ‘Ghost Road’ (A75), Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.
Last but not least, the Kinmount Straight is locally known as ‘The Ghost Road’. And the tales told of ghoulish sightings are sure to induce a Halloween fright.
Road users claim to have seen terrifying eyeless phantoms surveying your progress through this poorly-lit rural road, as well as ghosts on horseback who are said to trot across it.
Or you can drive from Gretna to Annan via Eastriggs, and you might experience an encounter with a well-dressed elderly fellow in tweed who appears out of nowhere!
So, there you go. There are many routes to a spooky Halloween this year if you are in the mood for some thrilling automotive adventures. Just make sure you take a slightly less haunted road back home… just to be safe.
