Author: Ashley

Ashley is a history lover, paranormal enthusiast, and easily swayed sceptic with a BA and MA in the History of Art. Originally from Canada, Ashley lives on England's Isle of Wight (one of the most haunted islands in the world!) and enjoys internet deep dives into peculiar histories from around our weird and wonderful planet.

24 February 2023

Biblically Accurate Angels: Christianity’s Undisputed Horror Icons

Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones. Christianity’s highest ranking angels and the closest beings in proximity to God. But instead of beautiful heavenly creatures, The Bible describes them as their own brand of terrifying Lovecraftian abominations.

Weird History

10 February 2023

‘Something Wicked this Way Comes’: Witchcraft in Scotland and the Curse of Macbeth

The theatre world is filled with superstitions: always turn the ghost light on before leaving an empty theatre, never whistle backstage, tell an actor to ‘break a leg’ instead of ‘good luck’, keep peacock feathers off the stage, and never — under any circumstance — utter the name ‘Macbeth’ inside a theatre.

Paranormal Encounters/Weird History

1 February 2023

Death in Apartment 85: The Kramatorsk Radiological Accident

After the recent fiasco in Western Australia involving a missing -and now found- eight millimetre radioactive capsule containing Caesium-137, I couldn’t help but wonder if something like this has happened before. Because history does enjoy repeating itself and we often don’t learn from our mistakes. And lo’ and behold, it has happened before… more times than I’m personally comfortable with...

Weird History

27 January 2023

My Chemical Romance’s Black Parade at LA’s Haunted Paramour Estate

In 1918 oil heiress Daisy Canfield commissioned an estate, known today as The Paramour, in the Silver Lake neighbourhood of LA. A tragic car accident on Mulholland Drive during a foggy night sent her to an early grave in 1933. Eighty years later, rock bands My Chemical Romance and Papa Roach experience distressing paranormal activity while recording in Daisy’s former home.

Paranormal Encounters

16 January 2023

The Murky Truth About the Meowing French Nuns

The idea of an outbreak of nuns trading their hymns for the sounds of wailing felines – especially in a medieval French convent – is not only creepy but it also feels like the premise of a film in the Conjuring universe. But where did this story come from? Do we have any proof that it actually happened?

Weird History

9 January 2023

Akhenaten’s Purgatory: Dissecting the Legend of the Mad Pharaoh’s Cursed Soul

According to legend, the angered priests of Egypt put a curse on Akhenaten upon his death to wander the great expanse of The White Desert of Farafra for all of eternity as punishment for abolishing their jobs, their gods, and the destruction of their temples.

Paranormal Encounters/Weird History

7 January 2023

The Bizarre Tale of Ali Razeghi, Fars News Agency, and the Non-Existent Iranian ‘Time Machine’

A bizarre article from the Iranian news agency Fars reported in April 2013 that a local inventor had created a form of time machine. The article was mysteriously removed almost as quickly as it was posted — but not quickly enough to evade the radar of international press.

Weird History

23 October 2022

Ancaster Hermitage: Haunted Ruins in the Canadian Woods

The beautiful and haunting ruins of The Hermitage in Ancaster, Ontario is a hotspot for paranormal investigators searching for the wandering ghost of William Black who, according to local legend, ended his life after being forbidden from marrying the woman he loved.

Paranormal Encounters

16 October 2022

Lavender Town Syndrome and the Foundation of a Sinister Pokémon Creepypasta

If you played Pokemon Red and Blue as a kid, you likely have this sinister, gloomy song permanently engrained in your brain. It’s unsettling, it’s slightly off tune, it reeks of death and sorrow, but it’s just music… right?

Digital Mythology

13 September 2022

Zeitpyramide: A Conceptual Representation of our Perception of Time

Thinking about the concept of ‘time’ and our insignificance in the grand scheme of human history can be both daunting and depressing. Even understanding our complex perception of time is entire field of study within psychology, cognitive linguistics, and neuroscience. So in what ways could your average person understand the passage of time, or begin to perceive future events far outside of one’s own lifetime?

Offbeat Travel/Weird History