Can you spot the ghost that turned up for this picture on Portadown ghost tour?

If you’d said to me 20 years ago there would be tourists in Portadown town centre I’d have laughed at you. In fact if you’d said to me 20 days ago there would be tourists in Portadown town centre I’d still have laughed.

However, last week I was one of nearly 20 tourists walking the streets of the Co Armagh town as part of a ghost tour organised by Portadown Heritage Tours, a branch of the local Orange Order.

And it was to be a ghost tour with a rather appropriate ending ... when a ghostly apparition joined the touring party for a final snap.

As the tour came to an end our guide Lisa Partridge gathered us together for a group photo close to the site of the 1641 massacre at the Bann bridge. She remarked that it was the site in Portadown where a ghost sighting was most likely.

She took the snap and I thought nothing more of it until Lisa shared the photo the next day.

As I scanned the image my eyes were drawn to a figure just behind me in the image that hadn’t been there when the photo was being taken.

In the space between the two ladies positioned fifth and sixth from the right, what looks to be a lady in profile view, with her hair pulled back, can be seen lurking in the background.

I don’t believe in ghosts and my explanation would be that it’s a coincidental arrangement of leaves at the fence behind us, but all the same it did send a few chills up my spine the first time I saw it.

Others in the office agreed that it did look a lot like a human form, and was certainly a lot sharper than some of the blurred images often attached to ghost stories.

Lisa said: “It wouldn’t be the first time a ghost has shown up in a picture taken in that area.

“We took a picture last year under the bridge down at the Bann river and we picked out what looked like the outline of a mother holding the hand of her child.

“It fits in with the 1641 rebellion stories and the massacre that took place at the bridge here.

“We tell people that this area is where they’re most likely to get a sighting.”

The 27-year-old explained how she got involved in historical tours of Portadown: “I’ve always had an interest in history, but was a bit wary of finding work after a history degree, so I did business studies instead.

“I came to the heritage tours from a retail background. The idea of heritage tours is we want to move the Orange Order forward.”

Portadown Heritage Tours was set up with the help of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Lisa, a member of WLOL No 101 in Edenderry, said: “It’s about community tourism. It’s local people telling local stories about places people walk past every day but don’t realise the significance of them.

“Our normal three tours are a town tour, a Drumcree tour and then the tours of (Carleton Street) hall.

“Through the history we were gathering from the other tours, ghost stories started appearing. The majority surrounded the 1641 massacre at the Bann bridge during the 1641 rebellion.

“For that there was actual documentation from witnesses about the apparitions.

“When you start looking for something it’s everywhere. People started coming forward with ghost stories.