SC Folklore

Halloween can be a fun and festive holiday for both children and adults. But it also can be a spooky time when one can have unexpected encounters with the supernatural, or paranormal. It seems that wherever one travels, each destination will have its fair share of folklore...

Old Exchange Building and Provost Dungeon, Charleston, S.C. Isaac Hayne was imprisoned there in 1781. He was a very popular businessman, well-off, whom they led through the streets of Charleston, by his sister's home, in shackles and chains on his way to the gallows. She...

During the Halloween season, Clinton Cease Farms in Lexington, SC transforms into Deceased Farms, a haunted attraction that is sure to get your spine tingling.

Find stories from the Old Post Office, Annie's Inn, and the cemetery at St. Thaddeus in Aiken, S.C.

OLD JAIL, ABBEVILLE, S.C. The Old Jail is Abbeville's oldest public building. The sheriff lived on the first floor, and prisoners were kept on the second and third floors, the worst of whom were kept on the third floor, which has high rafters, perfectly suited for hangings...

Folklore claims a pirate captain buried treasure at 37 Meeting Street in Charleston. There are three versions of the story. The captain later found one of his supposedly trusted crewmen attempting to dig up his treasure. It is believed that the crewman remains to this day,...

Built in 1802 and operational until 1939, the Old Charleston Jail housed the city’s most notorious criminals. Among those criminals, John and Lavinia Fisher and members of their gang were kept there until their execution in 1820. Among other famous prisoners, Denmark Vesey...

According to Ernest Shealy, The Ghost Hound of Goshen or “Happy Dog” is not a nice spirit. But does this killer canine really exist or is it just a made-up mutt? Shealy, curator of the Newberry Museum, recounts the story of Union and Newberry counties’ famous ghost dog. In...

More than 150 years ago, the legend of Alice Flagg of the Hermitage began. This young lady from the banks of the inlet in Georgetown County has touched the lives of many, including the Chandler boys – who grew up sleeping in Alice’s room. Variations to the history are...

Ghost of Madeline, Newberry, S.C. The legend of Madeline, the young woman who climbed the bell tower of Keller Hall at Newberry College, and while searching for her fiance', John, she slipped and fell to the ground with the bell tower rope wrapped around her neck, and was...

Poogan's Porch has been located on Queen Street in Charleston, S.C. since 1976. Zoe St. Amand and her sister, Elizabeth, were spinsters who lived together for more than 60 years, the last 20 of which were lived there on Queen Street. When Elizabeth died after a short...

Plowden C.J. Weston went to England to be educated but returned to his beloved Pawleys Island, where he and his lovely English wife, Emily Esdaille Weston, built the Pelican Inn. He lived until almost the end of the Civil War, but died of tuberculosis in 1864. After his...

In this episode of Palmetto Scene, view ghost stories from around the state.

It’s no secret that Charleston is one of South Carolina’s most haunted cities. The SCETV production team decided to highlight a place with lots of claims of unexplained paranormal phenomena…the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point. The USS Yorktown has a long history dating back...

During the golden age of piracy, there came an afternoon on which a pirate ship sailed into Murrell's Inlet to bury a treasure they would imbibe in that very night. By late in the afternoon, the rum had been buried and the pirates had begun to build there bonfires. Many...