Ghosts in Durham City are not easy to come by. Around every corner in York or Chester, they seem ready to jump out at unsuspecting tourists, eager to recount their grisly tale.

We could be forgiven for wondering if their stories are embellished for the benefit of local hotels.

In Durham, there are only a handful of ghosts - and they have little to say for themselves. The most colourful is Jimmy Allan, a gipsy piper who haunts a cell beneath Elvet Bridge. A lovable rogue, at one time he served as official piper to the Duchess of Northumberland. He was imprisoned in the cell in 1803 for horse theft and a string of other offences.

He was locked up beneath the bridge until he passed away in 1810, aged 77. The ghostly wail of Jimmy's pipes can be heard on cold, dark nights, just as the last drinkers drift away from their favourite haunts in and around the bridge.

Today, the cell is occupied by a bar that bears Jimmy's name. Just above it, in the 1990s, peculiar happenings were reported in a coffee shop on the bridge. It is said that a grandfather clock stopped for no reason and there were reports of an apparition of an old lady stoking a fire. It suggests Jimmy has at least one ghostly companion keeping him company on Elvet Bridge.

When the bar opened in December 2002, an assistant manager reported a glass suddenly and inexplicably flying from a shelf.

However, a prison cell existed thereabouts for many years, and the lives of many unfortunate and lesser-known inmates could have ended on the same spot. So if there are such things as ghosts, there could be a whole graveyard of them around the bridge.

Durham Prison replaced the Elvet cells in 1819. The prison is is said to be haunted by the ghost of an inmate who resided in a cell on the ground floor of the main wing. The cell was reputedly converted into a storeroom after complaints from prisoners who claimed to witness the vision of a murder in the cell during the night. It is thought that a former occupant of the cell was stabbed to death by an inmate.

But perhaps the best area for ghost hunting in Durham is Dryburn and Western Hill. Here, in times gone by, were situated the Gallows Field - where St Leonard's School now stands - and the Gibbet Knowle, in Back Western Hill. Many criminals were executed and left to rot there, and drawing and quartering was not uncommon.

Some of those executed were murderers, others were simply strung up for being Catholics or gipsies. It would be surprising if, of all places in Durham, there were no ghosts here.

Nearby is the Grey Tower, which overlooks North Road, near St Leonard's School. It is said to be early 19th or late 18th Century, but is something of an enigma. Its foundations could even be medieval. In truth, no one seems to know its origins, nor can anyone identify the ghostly face that is occasionally said to appear at a window on the upper level.

According to Frank Rushford, historian and one-time editor of the Durham Advertiser, who actually lived in the Grey Tower in the 1960s, it was known as the Haunted House.

In Durham today, the most haunted house may be Crook Hall. This charming medieval manor house lies just off the city's Framwellgate Waterside. Its Jacobean room is reputedly haunted by the niece of a temperamental owner, called Cuthbert Billingham, who lived there in the 1600s. Several visitors to the hall are said to have witnessed her ghostly presence, and she has become known as the White Lady.

By way of a contrast, the Grey Lady is said to haunt the black staircase of Durham Castle. She is rumoured to be the wife of a bishop, but no one knows for sure. The stairs date from about 1662, but their level is thought to have been adjusted over the years, because the lady does not walk on the steps. The ghost of a university don who threw himself down a flight of steps at the castle is also thought to haunt nearby Owengate.

Another ghost, this one of a boy kicked down the stairs of a former school near the cathedral at the north end of Palace Green, is said to still wander that particular building.

On the outskirts of the city, the Crossgate area has two female ghosts. One is a lady with a baby whose husband was reputedly killed at the Battle of Nevilles Cross. She enjoyed travelling in horse-drawn coaches so she has not been seen for many years. The other woman is thought to be a murdered inmate from the Crossgate workhouse.

The Bailey, which skirts the western edge of the cathedral, is perhaps Durham's spookiest street, where ghosts include a musician, a lady, some schoolchildren and a ruffled man wearing a nightcap.

Oddly enough, the city's most ancient building, Durham Cathedral, does not have a ghost as far as I am aware. However, strolling its venerable aisles and covered cloisters, it does not take much imagination to conjure some.