Is Cullinan SA’s most haunted small town?

Is Cullinan SA’s most haunted small town?

This question has been posed ever since South Africa’s famed Mystery Ghost Tours of South Africa opened in Cullinan.

The answer is “Maybe, although Parys is also very haunted”, said Mark Rose-Christie, owner of the tour company.

The most startling ‘site’ (which becomes “sight” when you see her), is the lantern lady who walks at night at the old railway station.

Lady Anne Cullinan (wife of Sir Thomas Cullinan, who found the largest gem quality diamond in the world) appears as a Replay Ghost (a.k.a. Residual Apparition) at the old St. George’s church, which also has a mysterious trap door which has to do with some hidden diamonds. Inside the church is a stone pulpit where a golden goblet is buried inside, but nobody knows why.

The old Cullinan hospital with some of its abandoned ghostly-looking white-washed buildings and mortuary have some gruesome tales, one of which is called “Little Boy Lost” – which is about a little boy who died in the hospital before his only nearby relative, his grandmother, could visit him. Another tale is about the hospital’s own Florence Nightingale.

For some reason, Cullinan certainly has more Crisis ghosts than other towns. Such ghosts are expected at the diamond mine, often appearing to warn miners of impending danger or an accident that is about to occur. Crisis ghosts also appear at various buildings, one of which is an old sandstone building that once belonged to one of the senior staff members of the mine. They are the spectres of an elderly man pushing and equally elderly lady in a wheelchair, who seem to be in a rush. It seems to be some sort of emergency that they must have faced long ago.

A CCTV camera captured their images on video in recent years.

Mc Hardy House has several ghosts, one of which is mining manager William Mc Hardy’s son, who was killed tragically when the family tried to go out for a picnic to celebrate the purchase of their first motor car. The son, James (who is often picked up on ghost hunting cell phone apps), was standing on the car’s running board, but lost his footing and fell under the rear wheel. His grave is one of many spooky graves that can be visited in the old graveyard.

If you wish to visit these locations and others, the Mystery Ghost Tour is running in Cullinan on 27 November and 3 December to celebrate the festive season.