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Hairy Hands
HairyHands
An artist's rendition, courtesy of BBC
Background
Type Haunting
Continent Europe
Country England
One-Time? No
Theories  · Road conditions
 · Ghost
 · Speeding drivers

The Hairy Hands haunting is a spirit rumored to haunt a stretch of road in Dartmoor, United Kingdom, which was purported to have seen an unusually high number of motor vehicle accidents during the early 20th century.

Manifestations[]

  • A pair of disembodied hands that appear suddenly, grab at the steering wheel of a moving car or the handlebars of a motorcycle, and then force the victim off the road.

Background[]

Since around 1910, drivers and cyclists have reported suffering unusual accidents between Postbridge and Two Bridges. In many cases, the victims reported that their vehicle had jolted or swerved violently and steered off the side of the road, as if something had taken hold of the wheels and wrenched it out of their control.

Notable Accounts[]

That's a story that's been repeated many times since its first suggested incident in June 1921 when a worker at Dartmoor Prison was killed as his motorcycle became uncontrollable and crashed.

The tale was related by his children who were riding in the sidecar, all they knew was their father shouting at them to get off the bike and apparently wrestling with the controls.

They jumped clear, he didn't.

This was repeated again sometime later, another motorcyclist, this time with a pillion passenger, seemingly driven off the road approaching the same spot.

This time the passenger saw things more clearly and insisted he saw a large hairy hand grasp the handlebars and forcibly upset the bike.

-BBC

In 1924 a young couple were camping in a caravan in the area and the woman was woken in the middle of the night by a heart-racing fear.

Her bunk faced the caravan window and up it she saw crawling a large hand, covered in hair and, she said, exuding an intent to do her and her husband harm.

Instinctively the lady made the sign of the cross and said the hand balked and made its way away.

-BBC

Trivia[]

  • In some cases, the hands are described as being invisible.
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Annabelle the Doll · Arlington Attic Ghost · Avon Haunted Bridge · Bassett Ghost Cars · Bell Witch · Blue Albino Woman · Bobby Mackey's Music World · Boy Scout Lane · Demon's Road · Demon of Brownsville Road · Devil Baby of Hull House · Eunice Welsh's Mausoleum · Faceless Figure of Dead Man's Curve · Fantasma Colorado · Ghost Bus of Highway 93 · Ghost Cow · Ghost Deer · Ghost Mammoth · Ghost Moose · Ghost Wolf · Ghosts of Disney · Ghosts of the Charles Haskell · Graceland Cemetery · Grant Park · Green Lady of Wahiawa · La Belle Cemetery · La Llorona · Mandy the Doll · Moody's Light · Old Man Weary · Old Woman in the Crawlspace · Purple Bubble · Purple Head Bridge · Ring of Children and the Banshee · Robert the Doll · Seaweed Charlie · Stiffy Green · Tall, Dark, & Gruesome · Tanaka the Drowned Ghost · Vincent Hitchcock the Doll · Waverly Hills Sanatorium · Whaley House · Wyoming Woman in Black
South American Hauntings
Hotel del Salto
Asian Hauntings
Haunted Doll of Hokkaido · Haunted of Wat Samian Nari · Lawang Sewu
European Hauntings
Berkeley Square Horror · Brown Lady of Raynham Hall · Borley Rectory · Deogen · Derbyshire Ghost Plane · Elemental of Leap Castle · Gef the Talking Mongoose · Glamis Castle · Hairy Hands · Pupa the Doll · Specter of Newby Church
African Hauntings
Australian Hauntings
Coalbaggie Haunting
Miscellaneous Hauntings
v · e · d
Europe
European Cryptids
Awd Goggie · Beast of Bosnia · Beast of Gévaudan · Beast Of Tenby · Black Bird of Chernobyl · Boneless · Canvey Island Monster · Catalonia Fallen Angel · Chudinov Organisms · Crimean War Monstrosities · Flying Worm of Prague · Gnome of Girona · Grampus · Grass Monster · Grecian Dolphin · Highway Humanoid · Hollingworth Lake Monster · Kovahsi Creature · Loch Ness Monster · Octosquatch · Owlman · Pennine Pterodactyl · River Thames Monster · Sea Monk · Sewer Humanoid · Shug Monkey · Singing Spiders of Paris · Sussex Serpent · Vampire Caterpillar · Werewolf of Camberwell · Wolfie · 1856 French Pterodactyl
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Alien Octopoids · Badajoz UFO Creature · Bat Beast of Kent · Bird Beasts of Var · Conil Aliens · Crimean Slug · Cumberland Spaceman · Cussac Aliens · Domsten Blobs · Felixstowe Fire Demon · Ilkley Moor Alien · Kinnula Humanoid · Pendeli Egg · The Sandown Clown · Scottish Mines · The Silver Man · Villa Santina Aliens · Voronezh Aliens · Zanfretta's Aliens
European UFO Sightings
Crucifix UFO · Plague-Bearing UFO · Rendlesham Forest Incident
European Hauntings
Berkeley Square Horror · Black Shuck · Borley Rectory · Deogen · Derbyshire Ghost Plane · Elemental of Leap Castle · Gef the Talking Mongoose · Glamis Castle · Hairy Hands · Houska Castle · Pupa the Doll · Rosslynlee Hospital · Specter of Newby Church
European Phenomena
Bélmez Faces · Black Volga · Devil's Footprints · Eyes in the Wall · Hessdalen Lights · Hungry Grass · Invisible Crowd · Rosenheim Poltergeist · The Green Hand · Trevor Silverwood Postcards · Wall-Jumping Dog · Zanetti Ghost Train
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European Events
Dancing Plague of 1518 · Disappearance of James Worson · Hollinwell Incident
European Locations
Flannan Isles Lighthouse

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Photo Gallery[]

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