Most people never have a clue when they are going to die. You might live to be a centenarian, or you might suffer a horrible accident tomorrow. 10 strange omens have been recorded that seemed to warn of an imminent end, whether for a single individual or an entire family. These eerie signs range from ghostly apparitions to unsettling animal encounters, each leaving a chilling imprint on those who witnessed them.
10 Eglinton’s Observation
Archibald William Montgomerie, better known as the 13th Earl of Eglinton and 1st Earl of Winton (1812–1861), was a popular figure among his countrymen. He is most remembered for trying to revive jousting tournaments as a public spectacle in 1839, an effort thwarted by heavy rain that drove away a crowd of 10,000. When the event was reconvened a day later, most spectators did not return.
Less well‑known is the tale of October 4, 1861, when Lord Eglinton was playing a round of golf on the St. Andrews links in Fife, Scotland. Mid‑game, he abruptly halted and told his companion, “I can play no more. There is the Bodach Glas. I have seen it for the third time; something fearful is going to befall me.”
The Bodach Glas – the “dark gray man” of Scottish folklore – was said to haunt certain clans. That very night, Lord Eglinton died suddenly of internal bleeding, possibly a stroke, while handing a candlestick to a lady retiring to her room.
9 Death Gives Hugs
In 1924, Mrs. Bliss Coleman and her husband rented a room in a house in Oakland, California. Every day she returned from work during a 4:00 PM break. One afternoon, as she entered the house, she saw a third‑floor tenant chatting with the landlady, while an enormous 183‑centimeter‑tall (6‑foot) skeleton stood beside the tenant, its bony arm wrapped around the woman’s waist. Neither the tenant nor the landlady seemed to notice the ghastly figure.
Terrified but unable to explain the vision, Mrs. Coleman fled past the two women and took refuge in her own room down the hall. Three weeks later, the third‑floor tenant died, leaving her children motherless.
8 Questionable Hospitality
The English Civil War (1642–1651) forced Sir Richard Fanshawe and his wife, Lady Ann Fanshawe, to flee their Cork, Ireland residence in 1649 to avoid execution. While traveling to Spain they sought shelter with friends, eventually staying one night at the castle of Lady Honara O’Brien.
After dinner, the Fanshawes retired to their chambers. Around 1:00 AM, Lady Fanshawe was awakened by a voice at the window. She opened the curtains to see a woman leaning in from outside, dressed in white, with red hair and a ghastly complexion. The woman cried the ancient Irish lament “ochon, ochon, ochon!” and then dissolved like a cloud. Lady Fanshawe immediately woke her husband to recount the eerie event.
The next morning, Lady O’Brien explained that she had been up caring for a dying cousin who passed at 2:00 AM, and she had offered the Fanshawes the best room in the castle, unaware that a spectral woman appeared at that window whenever a family member died. The Fanshawes fled and did not spend another night there.
7 Hand Off
In 1934, Elliott O’Donnell recorded the unsettling experience of a young MacKenzie woman in Scotland. While fetching something from her bedroom, she heard a crash as she left. Investigating, she found a silver candlestick that had toppled onto the floor. As she bent to pick it up, she realized the cause: a disembodied arm protruding from the wall.
The arm, visible only from the elbow down, had pale skin, long fingers, and perfectly manicured nails—clearly female—while the rest of the body was absent. The limb gradually faded as she stared.
She feared for her ailing mother, recalling that a phantom hand was said to foretell a family death. Her mother recovered, but a few days later, a letter arrived announcing the untimely death of the young woman’s cousin.
6 The Family’s Curse
The tale begins with youthful Ewen MacClaine in 1538, heir to the chief of the MacClaines of Lochbuie. Impatient for his inheritance, Ewen’s ambition sparked a bitter argument that escalated into a full‑blown clash between father and son, each leading opposing forces.
During the battle, a supporter of the elder MacLaine beheaded Ewen with a single stroke. Yet Ewen’s corpse did not simply fall; it lurched, striking nearby clansmen before his horse bolted home. When the horse arrived, servants were horrified to find their master’s headless body still seated in the saddle, twitching erratically.
Terrified, they decapitated the horse and buried the master’s remains. Since that gruesome day, the headless ghost of Ewen MacClaine rides his favorite horse, cloaked in a green cape. Sightings of this specter have always meant that the observer would soon meet death.
5 Gwrach Y Rhibyn, The Hag Of The Mist
Welsh folklore tells of the Gwrach y Rhibyn, a hideously ugly, winged hag who appears at night, flapping her wings against the window of a house where a death is imminent, shouting the name of the doomed individual. Although often dismissed as mere legend, the story was documented by Wirt Sikes in his 1880 work British Goblins.
One farmer recounted an incident on 14 November 1878. While visiting a friend in Llandaff, he was awakened around midnight by a terrifying screech and a shaking of his window. He opened the window to see a figure soaring away, glancing back at him. The hag had disheveled red hair, chalky skin, wings, and tusk‑like teeth, wearing a long black gown that seemed to have no body beneath the arms.
She screeched again at a nearby house before vanishing. The farmer later saw her enter the Cow and Snuffers Inn. The next day, the innkeeper was found dead, confirming the hag’s grim warning.
4 The Abused Cat
In the early 1800s, the Hartnoll family occupied a wing of a large manor house, leaving the rest locked and unused. The manor’s dim hallway intrigued young Mrs. Hartnoll, who explored it on several occasions, each time encountering a grotesque, mutilated black cat.
The first encounter: the cat emerged from a doorway, attempting to rub against her leg, only to sink into the floor. That evening, her brother died. Two years later, while again in the hallway, something struck her lower back; turning, she saw the cat, now bloodied and convulsing as if near death. She fled, and her mother died that night.
Four years later, sent on an errand through the forbidden hallway, she again saw the cat—this time a shadow appeared before her, followed by the cat. Her father collapsed and died that afternoon. The surviving siblings left the manor, never to return.
3 The Oxenhams’ Questionable Omen
In 1641, a pamphlet titled A true Relation of an Apparition in the Likeness of a Bird, with a white breast, that appeared hovering over the deathbeds of some of the children of Mr. James Oxenham of Sale Monachorum, Gent claimed five members of the Oxenham family were visited by a white‑breasted bird before their deaths in 1618 and 1635.
Later research revealed the pamphlet was a fabrication: three of the supposed victims never existed, one died on a different date, and the family never lived in “Sale Monachorum.” The witnesses listed were also fictitious. Nevertheless, the legend persisted.
In 1743, over a century after the bogus pamphlet, William Oxenham, aware of the supposed omen, joked with friends that he was not ill enough to die and declared he would “cheat the bird.” He died two days later after a brief, sudden illness.
2 A Castle’s Shame
Dr. Walter Farquhar (1738–1819), a baronet created in 1796, once visited Berry Pomeroy Castle while attending to the steward’s wife. He was shown an outer apartment and asked to wait while preparations were made.
While waiting, a beautifully dressed young woman entered. She ignored Dr. Farquhar, walked toward a stairwell, hesitated, then ascended. A sunbeam illuminated her face, revealing a strikingly sad, hopeless expression. In an instant she vanished, and Dr. Farquhar was summoned to attend to the ailing wife.
When he returned the next morning to check on the patient, he asked the steward about the mysterious lady. The steward lamented, “My poor wife! My poor wife!” He explained that a previous baron’s daughter had given birth to her own father’s child and later strangled the infant in the chamber above the room where Dr. Farquhar had waited. The ghost of this tragic woman was said to appear before a death in the castle. The steward’s son had previously drowned after seeing her, and the steward believed her presence now foretold his wife’s demise. Despite Farquhar’s assurances, the steward’s wife died at noon that day.
1 A Friendly Visit
On a radiant summer day in 1974, Dr. Julian Kirchick lounged beside his pool, enjoying the gentle breeze and birdsong. Suddenly, a noise rustled in the nearby bushes. He rose to investigate, only to stop two steps short.
Before him stood a skeletal figure clad in a monk’s hood and robes. Its hollow eyes stared back, its skin stretched tight over the skull, and its teeth were partially exposed in what seemed a friendly grin. The apparition beckoned with a bony hand, freezing Dr. Kirchick with fear. The vision eventually faded.
Months later, Dr. Kirchick learned the meaning of the encounter when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Garth Haslam has spent over three decades researching oddities, curiosities, mysteries, and legends, sharing his findings at anomalyinfo.com.