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Northern Frights at Halloween - The Coalisland Hitchhiker

A lonesome road... &nbsp;&nbsp;Picture used with kind permission of <a href="http://www.hauntedisland.co.uk " title="http://www.hauntedisland.co.uk ">www.hauntedisland.co.uk&nbsp;</a>
A lonesome road...   Picture used with kind permission of www.hauntedisland.co.uk  A lonesome road...   Picture used with kind permission of www.hauntedisland.co.uk 

AFTER yesterday's vampire in Derry, Northern Frights takes a trip along the lonely road to Co Tyrone, where a ghostly figure tries to thumb a lift...

In January 2009, there were traffic jams along the usually quiet Mullaghmoyle Road near Coalisland. 

People had flocked to the area in the hope of catching a glimpse of a ghostly figure at the roadside. 

Dozens of people had reported seeing the figure of an old woman wearing a long white dress and a white cape walking along the road.

One teenager even claimed to have seen the ghost up to 20 times.

“I wasn’t scared when I saw her, I just got the creeps,” Ryan Bell told the BBC.

“She would have been in hers 80s or 90s, she also looked very sad and as if she was lost.”

Sinn Féin Councillor Desmond Donnelly said that people had flocked to the site and at one point "there was a line of up to 60 carson the Mullaghmoyle Road with people trying to spot it".

"It wasn't just one night, it was going on for a week or so over the holidays. I wouldn't be one for ghosts, but you know how this type of thing spreads," he said.

"If you ask me, it's more likely to be a reflection of the moon on the river that flows through the area. Although the talk is that what was seen was in the shape of a person."

Others seem to think that the phantom bears an eerie resemblence to an elderly woman who lived in a house nearby until her death in 2002.

A care worker who knew the woman said that she would have laughed at the idea of a ghostly figure in the area.

"She'd have told people what she thought of them," she told the Guardian.

"She was a lovely wee lady; very witty, she could tell you everything about the town."

However, there have been tales of phantom hitchhikers in the area for nearly two decades.

Warren Coates of the Northern Ireland Paranormal Research Association (NIPRA) said the group has received more than 10 reports of 'paranormal activity' in the area over the years. 

"It's related to a phantom female hitchhiker, who caused a stir five years ago," he said.

"Drivers would see her on the side of the road with her thumb out. When they pulled up to offer her a lift, she would vanish."

"Sometimes she would walk across the road in front of cars. But when drivers swerved to avoid her, she disappeared. These sightings were about a mile away from the latest sightings."

Send us your scary stories and tales of the unexplained from Co Tyrone and across the north.

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