Myrtle Beach & Low Country Legends

Do You Believe in Ghosts?

While visiting the Low Country (south of Myrtle Beach) please beware of our oldest and most long-term residents, our ghosts. Part of the local history and culture of Myrtle Beach, SC is our fascination with the ghosts that roam in our eerily foggy marshlands at night. Let me introduce you to a couple of them.

The first and one of our most famous ghosts is Alice Flagg. Her brother a wealthy doctor owned a successful rice plantation in Murrells Inlet (now a popular dining destination 13 miles south of Myrtle Beach). Alice fell in love with a young merchant and they vowed to be together. In those days an heiress would never be allowed to marry outside of her social stature so, when she became betrothed to the merchant she hid her ring beneath her blouse next to her heart.

While Alice was away at school she became very seriously ill. She was sent to stay with her brother so that he could care for her. During her illness and delirium she dreamed of her lover and clung to the ring that he had given her for her life. This made her brother, the doctor aware of her commitment to the merchant and he tore the ring away from her and in his anger he threw it into the marsh.

Alice died and was buried in the cemetery at All Saints Church in Pawley's Island. It is said that she can be seen wandering the marshlands looking for her lost ring and her grave has many visitors. You can summon her spirit by walking thirteen times backwards around it and there is a circular path around her gravestone worn by those who have sought her spirit. Care to try it and see for yourself?

Another ghost seen in Pawley’s Island (a quaint village 23 miles south of Myrtle Beach) is simply known as the Gray Man. This legend dates back to the 1820's and is told like this: A young planter was on his way to propose marriage to his beloved. Sadly he never reached her. As his horse pounded through the tumultuous surf along the shore, the horse stumbled and threw him. His neck was broken and he died.

Two days later the young girls saw a blurry figure of a gray man as she walked along the shoreline. The figure disappeared as she tried to reach him. That night she dreamed of a terrible hurricane and the next morning told her family about what she had experienced. They left the beach hastily and their lives were saved.

Since then the Gray Man has been seen before the terrible storm of 1893 that wiped out every settlement at Magnolia Beach just north of Pawley’s Island. The Gray man has been seen before every major hurricane to hit Myrtle Beach including hurricane Hugo in 1989.