Recently, I received an e-mail from reader Gemma Briggs, in which she detailed her own spooky experience.

"When I was little, at about eight or nine years old, and the train tracks were still at Westoe.

"I was in the cemetery one day. Oddly, my friends and I used to wander around the cemetery quite a lot.

"On one such occasion I distinctly remember seeing what looked like a lady. She was wearing a long, hooded robe – with the hood over her head – and her arms were down my her sides."

Nothing too spooky about this up to now, you might say; but there was one other detail about the woman that truly identified her as something spectral.

According to Gemma: "she had no hands or feet. I mean, you could see the space between where the robe ended and the gravel below. 

"She didn't exactly seem to be floating or hovering, but eventually she moved towards the cemetery gates and just disappeared.

One of the peculiarities of the sighting was the fact that as the woman moved towards the gates, her feet (if she had any, invisible or otherwise) made no noise.

Gemma distinctly recalls that there was no "crunching sound" that one would normally expect to hear from someone walking on gravel.

Naturally enough, Gemma and her friends became rather excited at what they could see and, in Gemma's words, "began to make a fuss".

"The funny thing was, she didn't respond in the way that someone normally would", said Gemma. "She just maintained the same, upright pose and walked straight on out".

Gemma said the mystery woman wasn't transparent like many ghosts are said to be. She was in full view all the time and appeared completely solid.

Other than the fact that she had no hands and feet, she seemed absolutely normal.

The woman's clothing, Gemma recalled, was not in keeping with our own era: "It looked like something a monk would wear", she said, "and to be honest I can't be one 100 per cent sure it was a female. I just always assumed it was a lady".

Gemma is 25 years old now, but the experience she had as a youngster still haunts her, if you'll excuse the unintended pun: "I was quite shaken that day, and even now, I feel quite sickly when I think about it."

Over the years there have been a number of ghosts seen at Westoe Cemetery; an old man stooping down beside a grave, a strange light floating at great speed down a path, and a spectral woman in a grey dress to name but a few.

I had a spooky encounter of my own at Westoe Cemetery once.

As I was walking towards the gates to leave, someone (or something) pelted several small stones which hit me on the back of my head.

I turned around, but there was no one to be seen. Stone-throwing spectres are common in cemeteries.

It is tempting to suggest that cemeteries are obvious places to see ghosts; after all, they are the final resting places for the earthly remains of the deceased.

There might be something in this, but I also think that the serene, peaceful atmosphere of graveyards may put us in the right frame of mind to see beyond this "vale of tears" and glimpse the world beyond, even if only fleetingly.

Gemma Briggs had a truly extraordinary experience as a child, and although it disturbed her, it was something that researchers like myself would love to have on a daily basis.

Who the strange figure was we may never know, but hopefully she is now at rest in one of the borough's best-known graveyards.

* If you have any spooky stories you'd like to see in print, e-mail them to wraithscape@mikehallowell.com.