The Tamnadeese Terror

On 29 March 1992, the Sunday Life newspaper reported on a ghost that had begun haunting a roundabout on the outskirts of Castledawson, a village in County Derry. Taking the form of a woman with “long flowing hair,” the ghost – which had been dubbed the “Tamnadeese Ghost” - would emerge from the centre of the roundabout and scream at the drivers.

One of those who had encountered the ghost was Castledawson woman Harriet Hudson.

“The most striking feature was her long straight blonde hair. As I was driving round, she walked from my right into my path. She was waving her arms and staggering. She looked to be drunk.

“I got alarmed because she came out on me so abruptly and I had to swerve violently to the left to avoid her.”

When she lurched out at one motorist, he was so convinced that he had run someone over that he ran into a nearby takeaway and demanded that the staff call the police.

While only a handful of people actually saw the ghost, many heard its screams in the night, with one mother claiming that her children were too afraid to go out in the evenings because of the ghost’s “mysterious haunting cries.”

Local man Neville Chambers, who believed “supernatural forces were at work, had first heard the screams a month before: “The hair stood on my head. I don’t know what it was but the screams I heard, I’ll take to my death.”

According to the Sunday Life, the locals believed that a local road-building project, which had just been completed and was due to open, had disturbed a grave. There was no evidence for this, but some locals were demanding that the opening of the new road be delayed, while others were lobbying for a team of “ghost-busters” to be called in.

But, as the saying goes, one man’s scary roundabout is another man’s fun day out; and the initial Sunday Life story brought the curiosity seekers to Castledawson in their droves.

According to one local: “There have been big crowds here and the only thing missing from the roundabout these nights is a mobile chippie van. The chippie van would have done a roaring trade.”

Sources:

Sunday Life, 29 March & 5 April 1992