Clues to an Eight-to-Nine Foot Ghost

In late 1908, multiple witnesses were reported to have encountered a towering spectral figure moving along the railway tracks in Galway, Ireland. One article in a Welsh newspaper puts the ghost’s height at “about nine feet in height.” A later report reprinted in papers from the U.S. state of Mississippi to the Taranaki region of New Zealand puts it at eight-foot. Given the excitement that comes with witnessing a ghost, we can settle on this one being, well, very tall.

An article appropriately titled “A Very Tall Ghost” introduces a problem in the case. It says the first two witnesses were “at a place called Glenville” when they first spotted the ghost. While I can find this place called Glenville on a map, I’ve found no evidence that tracks would have ever existed there. Other Welsh reports call the location “Glanville” and “Granville” — at times, in the very same article — but I can’t find those names near Galway. Was Glenville/Glanville/Granville a pub perhaps? Some other gathering spot? Unless someone says tells me otherwise, I’m concluding that this clue became waterlogged as it crossed St. George’s Channel from Ireland to Wales.

Luckily, another Welsh report adds that those two witnesses were “taking a short cut on the railway line to Galway from Newcastle,” and this is repeated in those papers in the United States and New Zealand. Here’s a much more helpful clue! It suggests our initial witnesses were very likely on the Galway and Clifden Railway, a branch of the Midland Great Western, whose tracks went northwest from Galway while hugging the west bank of the Corrib River. They look as if they would’ve gone fairly close to Newcastle. At least, closer to Newcastle than to Glenville.

From the April 1906 issue of Bradshaw’s Monthly Railway and Steam Navigation Guide. Scroll down to find a route map here, and you’ll see that the trains went fairly close to Newcastle but not near to Glenville.

Sadly, this railway closed in the 1930s, and the site of a restoration project at Maam Cross suggests the tracks were removed long ago. Finding where they once were might be very tricky.

Fear Not! There’s Much Better Clue

It’s those international papers that provide “the smoking gun” to anyone wishing to investigate any paranormal energy lingering today. First, this report describes a growing number of witnesses, presumably made curious by the earlier reports. We also are told that new sightings of the apparition place it at “the railway viaduct across the bank of the stream….” Indeed, an additional witness “declares that he saw it jump from the top of the viaduct into the Corrib, where it disappeared.”

The Galway & Clifden viaduct

Does that viaduct still exist? Well, while the tracks across it were removed with those on the land before and beyond, the stone pilings upon which they once rested remain, and they can be visited. Photos and a map are provided here. The best landmark is the the Salmon Weir a bit to the south. The Angling Ireland site says the cost of fishing in this stretch of river depends on where you cast your line. I’m not sure if there are any fees for ghost hunting. All I can say is: be courteous, and be smart.

On the one hand, if you do investigate the site of the once-haunted viaduct, you’ll have to do it from a bit of a distance. On the other, it’s a very tall ghost, so it might be easily seen! If you make the attempt, regardless of the results, I’d love to read about your experience in a comment below.

Discover more “Railroad Hauntings You Can Still Visit” at the page for
After the End of the Line: Railroad Hauntings in Literature and Lore.