When I began to research the ghostly folklore of Wales some years ago, I soon noticed that certain locations boasted far more spooky stories than others.

The odd thing was that these clusters had nothing to do with the one factor I would have expected: their population. Naturally, one would expect more ghosts to be reported from places where there were more people around to see them, ie the towns and cities. Indeed some might argue that since more people have died in the populated regions, the higher proportion of ‘unquiet spirits’ there might be floating about.

In the case of Wales, however, these clusters of old ghost stories were evident in the rural areas, particularly the Vale of Glamorgan and the county of Montgomeryshire. However, I soon learnt the reason for this isn’t that they are (or were) more haunted than other parts of the Principality – it was simply that the few people with a real interest in ghosts and folklore 100 or so years ago happened to live there.

The Vale of Glamorgan, for example, was the home of four or five important collectors of folk tales and Montgomeryshire was the home county of the Rev Elias Owen, the most important of the 19th century Welsh folklorists.

These early folklorists were actively seeking ghost stories from their neighbours and writing them down for future researchers such as myself to discover.

The same principle applies today. There do seem to be ‘window areas’ – regions where a concentration of paranormal activity occurs – but there also seem to be certain places that attract writers and researchers. Not big cities, but rural communities.

The county of Devon is one that springs to mind. No less than four of our regular writers live in Devon (Jon Downes, Richard Freeman, Nigel Watson and Lee Griffiths) and there are others, too. I live in a corner of North-East Wales and so was both surprised and delighted when two of my favourite authors, Janet and Colin Bord, happened to move into the neighbouring town. It was only after I started editing Paranormal that I discovered that top British ufologist Jenny Randles had also moved into the area.

No doubt other clusters will become apparent as time goes on. Anyway, it explains why in this issue you have two thoroughly enjoyable articles on haunted sites in Devon: a jolly little café which has some surprisingly sinister nocturnal visitors, and an innocuous patch of countryside where you might encounter anything from a glowing ball of light to a phantom cow.

The latter piece, by Jon Downes, is the first in a new series of ‘Popular Haunts’ – short articles extolling the spooky virtues of a favourite haunted spot in an author’s neighbourhood.

Location is important. There is so much we can learn from our surroundings (as successfully argued by Robert Goodman in his article, ‘A Sense of Place’ on page 28).

Not so long ago a zoologist decided to thoroughly investigate her own back garden in Leicester. She found three species of insect previously unrecorded by science. Similar success can be achieved in less orthodox disciplines.

If you haven’t already done so, why not get out there into your community, meet the local WI, Rotary Clubs, Historical Societies and so on – and see just how many unrecorded encounters with the paranormal you can uncover? You may learn of any number of previously unknown haunted properties, or a multiple UFO sighting many years ago. Who knows?

Other articles you may be interested in: