WHEN landlady Linda Birkett saw a teenage girl giggling at the top of the stairs on a cold February night in 1995, she thought it was a guest.

As she approached to help the lost girl she noticed she was wearing Victorian clothing, and then it dawned on her - there were no guests staying.

The realisation that she had just seen a ghost only hit her when the apparition vanished into thin air.

The encounter turned out to be the first of many meetings with the ghosts which haunt the Ancient Unicorn Hotel, in Bowes, County Durham, which Linda runs with partner Tony Leete.

Linda has delved into the pub's history to find the mischievous teenager and thinks she may be called Emma.

Local people say she worked at the 16th Century coach house as a maid.

But her affair with a local boy ended in tragedy and she is said to still haunt the village.

Linda, 41, said: "She's harmless really. She's just very naughty and giggles a lot. You know when she's about because the air goes stone cold and she usually switches the lights off or pulls a plug out and then laughs."

The hotel was once on the cross-Pennine route before the A66 was built, and served as a popular resting stop for travellers, as well as a temporary morgue for those unfortunate enough to lose their lives on the surrounding moors.

Today, the hotel is suffering financially from the effects of the foot-and-mouth crisis, but as Linda says, Emma and other ghosts could well be a blessing in disguise.

She said: "They're here whether we like them or not, so we've just got used to them. I suppose they give the place a bit of a spooky atmosphere."