From a bookshelf to an interactive atlas
Spooky! began with a fond memory of a book I had (and still do, albeit coverless and very dishevelled) when I was at an impressionable age – Haunted Britain by Antony D. Hippisley Coxe. Highly inappropriate for a young brain with an imagination, it was a gazetteer that made Britain’s strange stories something you could explore place by place, every page containing locations to avoid on a dark night, during the daytime or in my particular case, Canterbury Cathedral on a Friday evening. Quite when Friday afternoon ended and the evening began the book did not specify, so it was best to avoid the area any time after midday on a Friday – just to be on the safe side.
This project takes inspiration from that format and brings a 21st century twist to the map I made in the 1970’s with a large scale A-Z of the UK and a silver paint pen. TSR
This is an original AI driven project by Tektonic Ltd, not a digital edition of Hippisley Coxe’s book. It is not affiliated with its author, estate or publishers.
Image: Haunted Britain by Antony D. Hippisley Coxe, Pan Books, 1975 edition. Original text, cover design and photography © their respective rights holders. AI-restored cover image shown in acknowledgement of the book’s inspiration for Spooky!.
Unashamedly an AI-based project
Spooky! is Tektonic’s own demonstrator, created to explore how much can be achieved with AI across design, development and structured content. AI was used to generate and revise the WordPress theme, research published accounts, prepare summaries, organise catalogue data, write validation scripts and assemble update packages. The design and brief evolved through an ongoing conversation.
Tektonic supplied the direction, priorities and decisions. The aim is to show what an iterative AI-led workflow can produce while keeping the work open to inspection. AI-generated research can contain errors, so source links, uncertainty and location notes matter. Automated checks and editorial review within the project are not an independent audit, and no first-hand paranormal investigation or field survey is claimed.
Stories, sources and uncertainty
The gazetteer covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its two categories distinguish Legends & Myths from Supernatural accounts, including ghosts and hauntings. Each record explains the legend and provides supporting references. Single-source accounts are included and labelled; several references may support different parts of a record without independently confirming the same event.
A published account establishes that a story has been circulated, not that its supernatural explanation is true. Explained hauntings retain their ordinary explanation. The collection uses original summaries alongside attributed historical extracts from earlier releases. It does not reproduce Hippisley Coxe’s gazetteer. Aerial sightings and lists of historical witchcraft accusations are outside its scope.
Sources include historical folklore collections and published heritage accounts, such as those from the City of London Corporation, Historic Royal Palaces and Dr Johnson’s House. Source links are attribution, not an endorsement of paranormal claims.
Using the map and suggested routes
Region, county, subject and text filters explore one national catalogue. Record counts refer to narratives, not unique haunted properties: several stories may share a building or locality. The collection is a work in progress rather than a complete inventory of British folklore.
Provisional pins are clearly marked. Some represent a broad locality or landscape rather than a checked building, entrance or encounter site. Suggested routes use separate visit-orientation stops and measured road or path routes. Routes follow an editable sequence of places with no fixed mileage limit; Google may choose a different path, and travel to the start and home again is extra. Always check current access, opening arrangements and the final directions. A map marker grants no right to enter private land.
Open to correction and further discovery
Place names change, traditions acquire new details and published sources can disagree. Spooky keeps citations and qualifications visible so that readers can assess the accounts and identify improvements. To discuss the project or suggest a correction, visit Tektonic with the record title and a supporting reference.