THE STORY
Reported Haunting
The Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow is inseparable from Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Local folklore places the Headless Horseman in the churchyard and surrounding roads, while visitors have long associated the historic church and burial ground with phantom hoofbeats, shadowy figures and the atmosphere of Irving's famous tale.
Built in the seventeenth century, the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow and its adjoining burying ground became one of the central settings associated with Washington Irving's 1820 story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." In the tale and the folklore that grew around it, a headless Hessian soldier killed by a cannonball during the Revolutionary War rides through the countryside searching for his missing head. Modern Sleepy Hollow tourism and ghost lore continue to connect the churchyard, nearby cemetery and old roadways with reports of galloping hoofbeats, fleeting dark riders and other eerie experiences. The church and burying ground are historic public attractions; paranormal claims remain folklore rather than established fact.