Woman in White Evening Dress Reported on Scotland's 'Ghost Road'; Headless Piper Said to Haunt Moor

ANNAN, SCOTLAND — A woman in a white evening dress is said to have crossed the busy A75 near Annan on a dark January night, according to an account published by Spooky Isles. The sighting was reported on the Kinmount Straight by John Hill, a member of the Mostly Ghostly team.

Kathleen Cronie of the Dumfries and Galloway group shares the story on her tours. She says other motorists have reported figures stepping in front of their vehicles, only to discover no trace of any accident. The road has been dubbed "Scotland's Ghost Road", and Ms. Cronie describes further reports of an elderly man in tweeds, a hooded figure, women and children who appear to belong to another era, and unusual animals. She adds that she considers the road itself unremarkable; it is the reported encounters that make it central to the A75 Haunted Highways Tour.

Away from the traffic, one of her favourite legends concerns the Headless Piper of Corsock Moor. According to the legend, a drover caught on exposed moorland in a fierce storm meets the spectral musician. Ms. Cronie recalls that her grandfather, Tom Carnochan, would ask whether she had yet found the piper, which she took as his way of supporting her work.

Mostly Ghostly began on Halloween 2008 with an investigation at the Theatre Royal in Dumfries, which opened on 29 September 1792. Ms. Cronie says she and others on the staircase that night heard deliberate footsteps crossing a wooden floor, though the theatre manager, she says, was in his office. She recalls feeling awe rather than fear.

The group is now a four-person storytelling collective. Its tours blend research with costumed presentation and also take in witchcraft, crime and battles. At Castle Loch in Lochmaben, a visitor is reported to have heard a "battle cry", while others mention hooves or a sense of being watched.