Outside the bustle of Belfast lies a small, almost-forgotten lane once known as Old Pound Loney (or simply Pound Loney), running off Divis Street towards Durham Street. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this area was lit by gas lamps, tended by a lamplighter — a man whose nightly task was to patrol the narrow streets, lighting and extinguishing lamps to guide passersby in the dark.

According to local tradition and folklore recounted in Belfast ghost-stories archives (such as Rushlight Magazine), after the lamplighter’s death townspeople claimed his spirit continued the duty he had performed in life. It is said that his ghost walks the same lanes after dusk, pausing to light a lamp or ensuring lamps are alight where darkness might fall. Some say you can still hear the faint sound of his footsteps or see a dim glow where lamp-glass once reflected his torch or lantern.

There is no confirmed record of his name or dates, nor definitive proof of death in those circumstances; the story lives in oral tradition. But the tale has been retold often enough to be part of Belfast’s ghost-lore, especially in the Old Pound Loney community. Whether or not you believe in ghosts, those narrow lanes, old gas lamp brackets (if any remain), and echoes of a bygone city past give the place a flicker of haunted beauty.