In 2011, a van driver was travelling from North Donegal to Sligo, setting out before dawn on what should have been an ordinary morning. Around 5 a.m., as he approached the Mile Straight – just before the lane to the right leading towards The Salmon Inn, when travelling south – something caught his eye.

Standing by the roadside was a young girl, no more than ten years old. As the van drew closer, the child turned slowly and began to walk up the narrow lane. Startled, the driver asked the two men travelling with him if they had seen her – but neither had. He remarked how strange it was to see a child out alone at that hour, miles from any house.

Over the months that followed, the driver and his two colleagues claimed to see the same mysterious figure on several more occasions along that same stretch of road. Each time, she appeared dressed in a dark coat and red dress, with an old-fashioned hat that looked utterly out of place in the modern day.

Locals believe that the apparition may be connected to the old railway station that once stood on the nearby lane. Some say the child was the daughter of a railway worker, who died tragically on the line many years ago – and that she still lingers, a lonely figure appearing in the dim half-light of morning, forever walking the road that once led home.