We often hear of people seeing or hearing a ghostly presence but it’s not often people can smell them.  Ghostly aromas are less common than signs involving the other senses, yet they do occur.  One survey estimated 8% of witnesses remembered some kind of smell.

Unfortunately, this kind of evidence presents us with a problem – aromas cannot be recorded.  We can photograph spirits and record their echoing footsteps but no one has been able to capture their aroma.  We have to rely on corroborative witness statements for any kind of ghostly aromas to be taken seriously at all.

But there are enough instances on record which allow us to examine this unusual phenomenon more closely.  The smells which have been reported can be broadly divided into two groups – nice and nasty.  The latter group seems to be present in hauntings where a violent death was involved or where the spirit is malign.

It is said that at Foxcote Manor the awful smell of a martyred bishop being burnt to death can be experienced each year on the anniversary of his demise.  Is this a genuine haunting or is the horror of such a violent and painful death somehow imprinted on the surroundings?

As unpleasant smells go, none could be worse than that noticed by a woman living in Illinois in 1944.  Awakened during the night by a sickly sweet smell, she soon found herself paralysed from the waist down.  Other people living close by experienced similar attacks over the next week or so.

Sceptics may point to sleep paralysis as a solution but it seems unlikely that it would affect so many people in one small area.  It would also appear that the smell itself was the cause of the paralysis, rather than occurring as a physiological result of it.  Despite the many theories, no human was ever found to be the culprit and the case remains unsolved.

There have also been many instances where people have reported seeing or feeling some kind of malevolent or demonic spirit and smelling sulphur at the same time.  But as sulphur is commonly equated with the Devil, is this merely an overactive imagination playing tricks?

Fortunately most ghostly presences are usually pleasant.  Flowers and perfume are commonly reported, often with a connection to the ghost the witness sees.  In 1981 a recently widowed man saw his wife’s ghost and reported being able to smell her distinctive perfume as well.

The woman had died by her own hand only a few days before, so it is possible that her perfume would still be in the house anyway.  The visual sighting could have been a crisis apparition or just a vivid and recently bereaved imagination playing tricks on its owner.

Perhaps more interesting are those aromas which recur over a period of many years and are witnessed by many different people.  In these instances, as with the previous example, the aromas almost always present themselves with other evidence such as a visual or auditory experience.

Many years ago a young bride took part in a game of hide and seek which she played rather too well.  The chest she hid in became her coffin, as once shut, it could only be opened from the outside.  She died clutching her bouquet of lilies-of-the-valley and wasn’t found until fifty years later.  People have reported being able to smell lilies-of-the-valley as her distraught and ghostly form floats by.

The aroma of violets accompanies the ghost of Caroline Connelly who is buried in the mausoleum at Blickling Hall in Norfolk, England.  Violets were her favourite perfume and seem to remain so even in death, because a cub mistress reported the strong smell of violets when she and a group of cubs stayed in the mausoleum overnight.

So it seems that ghostly smells, when they do manifest, have a direct connection with a spirit.  Obviously when a family member recognises a scent associated with a loved one, this could be put down to wishful thinking on his or her part.  The best evidence comes from strangers to the ghost, who wouldn’t know the relevance of such an aroma until after they have related their experience.

The same point can be made about sightings such as the ghostly bride with her bouquet and the martyred bishop.  Where people have no previous knowledge of the haunting and go on to report the familiar aromas, this is much better evidence than that which comes from those who were previously aware of the ghosts.  Our minds can be very suggestive, after all.

So the next time you smell something unusual, it might be worth having a look round to see if you are in the company of someone – or something – unexpected.