THE Alhambra has its Italian opera singer, Abbot House its medieval Benedictine monk, now the Press can reveal the latest West Fife spectre ... the Ferry Toll Phantom.

The ghostly apparition of a soldier was spotted at dusk last month on Rosyth's Ferry Toll Road "trudging" towards the Dockyard by a commuter driving home to Crossford from work.

And she claims the sighting has turned around her previous scepticism regarding the spirit world.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said, "I saw a youngish soldier wearing army fatigues with socks and boots as if combat ready and he seemed to be trudging along on the pavement.

"He was fairly small built with short crew-cut hair and I would say around 18-years-old.

"I registered him but did not take any particular notice. Then, for some reason, I looked into my mirror - the soldier had disappeared. I turned round to see nothing.

"It occurred on a straight piece of road, there were no turnings off and not enough time for him to turn off and go in another direction." The woman, who works for an Edinburgh consultancy firm and was driving west along the road, added, "I don't usually pay much attention to ghost sightings but in this case I can't think of any other explanation and there did seem to be something unusual about him.

"As I said I would describe him as trudging rather than just strolling or walking - (it) was slightly peculiar and that's why I maybe looked back and checked." Derek Green, Scottish co-ordinator of the Ghost Club of Great Britain told the Press there had been a number of 'side-of-the-road-sightings' in Scotland over the years.

He said, "Road apparitions are quite a frightening thing for people. There are even cases when apparitions have stepped out in front of cars.

"You tend to find that if it is a ghost from that area more people than this woman will have spotted it over time. Whether they come forward or not is another thing.

"There could be something in that area but you'd need the background history.

Douglas Spiers, an archaeologist with Fife Council said, "Specifically in that area there are no actual bases, gun batteries or camps close by but there were an awful lot of military personnel, navy personnel and activities around Inverkeithing dock.

"The naval base in Rosyth and the Forth Rail bridge were of strategic importance - the rail bridge linked Scotland across the Forth and was of immense importance.

"It was a target from the very first days of the Second World War and in the first war.

"There was a sheer intensity of military activity in Inverkeithing and further up the coast where tens of thousands of military personnel in both wars were around in that area." And as an academic man whose work is based on fact and science, is he a sceptic when it comes to things that march in the night?

"As an individual I have an open mind. While I don't discount any sighting or observation that they have seen, I have no reason to believe why anybody would fabricate one.

"I have dug up more dead people than most people have had hot dinners. I've dug up many hundreds in my life and I've never seen a ghost.

"The real difficulty is, as a personal experience, you are either there or not. They tend to leave no physical evidence. Who knows what this lady saw?"