Haunted hitchhiking stories take center stage in this eerie conversation, from faceless roadside apparitions to ghostly passengers who vanish from moving cars. If you’re drawn to phantom hitchhiker legends, roadside hauntings, and true ghost accounts with a local-history twist, this episode delivers plenty to keep you looking over your shoulder.

Graeme Milne and Karen Swanston revisit a mix of Scottish and English supernatural encounters, including the White Wife of Unst, the Gray Lady of Kinghorn, and a well-documented Bedfordshire sighting that made it into the newspapers. Along the way, they compare older folklore with contemporary witness reports, asking what happens when a story is repeated, recorded, and passed on through generations.

There’s also a fascinating detour into cinema, with a look at Return to Glennascaul, Orson Welles’ atmospheric short film inspired by ghostly road encounters. It’s a fitting companion piece to the real-life tales discussed here, and a great pick if you enjoy your hauntings with a side of classic black-and-white mystery.

[00:00:04] - Opening chat and introduction to more haunted hitchhiking stories
[00:01:28] - The faceless woman of Caterham Bypass, Surrey
[00:03:31] - The White Wife of Unst, Shetland: origins, sightings, and family second sight
[00:06:54] - A late-night encounter beside the loch and the “White Wife” legend in local reports
[00:08:16] - Three witnesses on Unst and the figure on the dark country road
[00:10:05] - Lincolnshire, 1918: the mysterious passenger and the drowned man
[00:12:16] - Orson Welles and Return to Glennascaul
[00:16:00] - Roy Fulton’s 1979 Bedfordshire phantom hitchhiker encounter
[00:19:43] - The Gray Lady of Kinghorn, Fife: bus stops, buses, and hotel hauntings
[00:26:06] - Closing thoughts and sign-off

• Return to Glennascaul (full film): https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Return+to+Glenascaul+Orson+Welles

• Orson Welles biography: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Orson-Welles

• Arthur C. Clarke’s World of Strange Powers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke%27s_World_of_Strange_Powers

• Phantom hitchhiker folklore overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_hitchhiker

• Unst, Shetland: https://www.visit-shetland.com/places/unst

• Kinghorn, Fife: https://www.visitfife.com/destinations/kinghorn/

This episode is a reminder that some of the best ghost stories begin on empty roads, after dark, with only a passing stranger for company. Whether you prefer folk legend, newspaper accounts, or cinematic hauntings, these stories blur the line between folklore and lived experience in a deeply unsettling way.

Keep the lights on for the next one.