With the extra Spring Bank Holiday in the United Kingdom, many of you will be looking for somewhere interesting to visit or investigate over the next few days. Here are a selection of locations worth checking:
North-West England
In Chester's attractive Northgate Street stands a restaurant called East Glory, which was formerly the Blue Bell Inn. In 1645, when the city supported Charles I in the civil war, a beautiful young woman and her soldier lover were staying at the inn when the young man had to ride off to fight the parliamentarians. He fell at the battle of Rowton Moor nearby, but day and night his girlfriend is said to await his return, gazing tearfully from an upstairs window.
Formby stands on the coast between Liverpool and Southport and is noted for its extensive sand dunes. This is where the unholy hound known as "Old Trash" gets its exercise, spreading ill fortune among all those who see it. Its name comes from the sound it makes as it splashes through the water-logged sand.
Wray Castle stands at the northern end of Windermere in the Cumbrian Lake District, and both the wooded shore and the lake itself have something of a reputation. A ghostly white horse, a phantom boat, eerie noises floating across the water … The story is told of a boatman who went on to the lake at night to investigate, only to return with his face a mask of terror. Unable to speak, he died a few days later. Was it the ghost known as the Crier of Claife that he saw?
North-east England
If you like spectacular ghosts, they don't come better than the phantom hearse of Whitby. They say that when a Whitby sailor was buried in St Mary's churchyard, a large hearse with four jet-black horses would appear beside the grave at night, ready to take him away. A group of ghostly mourners would appear from the coach and remove the body from its grave. The spectral coach, lit by burning torches and driven by a headless phantom coachman shrouded in a black cloak, would then gallop away at speed and plummet over the cliffs into the sea.
Winter's Gibbet is located high up on moorland at the side of the road from Elsdon to Morpeth in Northumberland. It is named after William Winter, who was hanged in Newcastle for committing a murder in 1792. Winter's body was put inside the gibbet cage and left to rot for all to see. The present gibbet is a replica, erected in 1867, that stands near the original. The ghost of Winter, the "Brown Man of the Moors", has often been seen both here and in the surrounding countryside.
Visitors to York's Bedern area, off Goodramgate, have often spoken of strange experiences, including the sound of children's laughter or screams of terror, as they walk through Bedern Arch on cold nights. In the 19th century this was the site of York Industrial Ragged school, where hundreds of orphan children were kept in dreadful conditions. Many died at the hands of the alcoholic schoolmaster George Pimm.
Central England
The village of Eyam, in Derbyshire, was devastated by bubonic plague in 1665. Two of the victims, Emily and Sarah, are said to haunt the 17th-century Miners Arms pub. They can be heard playing, as well as opening and closing doors. Also haunting the pub is an old woman who roams the corridors dressed in black. She is believed to be a former landlady, who was murdered by her husband.
Late-night visitors to the derelict churchyard of St John the Baptist, on the outskirts of Broughton, Northamptonshire, report hearing the moans of a criminal who was hanged in the 1820s. The ghosts of a young man and of a pretty girl wearing a white dress have also been seen. On Christmas Eve, one of the ghosts will apparently appear to a passing member of the opposite sex and ask them for a kiss. If it is given, the kisser is doomed to die within a month. It is said that the ghosts are those of a couple who were killed in an accident at a nearby fair in the 1850s.
The Herefordshire church of St Mary's, Avenbury, was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 but closed for worship in 1931. Now hidden behind luxuriant undergrowth, the ruins are said to resound with unexplained bells and organ music, while the spirit of the last incumbent lingers on. His "parishioners" include a witch who was buried within sight of the church, a crowd of headless mourners, a man who was executed for arson and a group of spectral monks. Not a place to visit alone at midnight ...
Eastern England
The attractive cobbled street of Elm Hill in Norwich is home to a number of ghosts, not least that of Father Ignatius, who, determined to restore monastic life to England for the first time since its suppression by Henry VIII, founded a monastery here in the 1800s. Ignatius was famous for threatening anyone who opposed him with eternal damnation, and at least three people who publicly took issue with him died within 24 hours. Many witnesses have seen his spirit stalking the hill at night with a Bible in hand, loudly cursing passers-by.
Manningtree in Essex, and nearby Mistley, are associated with Matthew Hopkins, the 17th-century "Witchfinder General" who embarked on a reign of terror around the eastern counties in the 1640s. Hopkins apparently died of natural causes in 1647, thereby denying many people the revenge they felt they deserved. His ghost has since been seen at Mistley pond (always around the full moon), the Mistley Thorn hotel and Hopping bridge, where the screams of a tortured witch are said to have been heard.
The Nutshell, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, is reputed to be Britain's smallest pub, yet this ancient timber-framed building still has room for a number of phantoms. A young boy who was murdered here has been seen flitting up and down the stairs near closing time, while the cellar houses the ghosts of a monk and a nun, who were believed to have had an affair.
South-west England
Overlooking the fair city of Bath is a delightful little folly known as "Ralph Allen's Sham Castle", built by an 18th-century wheeler-dealer. He is said to return from time to time on dark nights to ensure that his little architectural whimsy is as it should be.
The Royal Castle hotel is an ancient hostelry standing on Dartmouth's quayside, overlooking the river. In 1688, Queen Mary was staying here and sent a coach to bring her husband, the dour Dutchman who became William III, from Torbay. On many occasions, staff and guests have been woken at 2am by the sound of hooves on cobblestones, voices, the jingling of harness and neighing of horses. An unseen clock tolls as the phantom coach rushes off into the darkness.
Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire, witnessed the brutal murder of Edward II during the night of 21 September 1327. Let's just say that two men seized the king and made particularly unpleasant use of a red-hot poker. Edward's screams were heard miles away, and ring out again on the anniversary of the foul deed.
South-east England
The Eclipse Inn, Winchester, Hampshire, has been a pub since 1890, but was previously a rectory. In 1685, Dame Alice Lisle was executed in the marketplace outside the building after "Hanging" Judge Jeffreys condemned her to death for harbouring fugitives from the battle of Sedgemoor. She spent the last days of her life in a small upstairs room in the building, and since then there have been repeated sightings of a "lady in grey". A plaque marks the site of her execution.
Pluckley, in Kent, claims to be the most haunted village in England, with a phantom coach and horses that trots down the main street, the hanging body of a schoolmaster in Dicky Buss's Lane, another hanged man in Park Wood, a ghostly highwayman, a spectral miller and the White Lady of Dering, a young woman who haunts the churchyard of St Nicholas's. Nearby Dering Wood, meanwhile, is said to be inhabited by the spirits of those who became lost in it at night.
The Little Angel, in the Berkshire village of Remenham, is haunted by Mary Blandy, executed in 1752 for poisoning her father, apparently because he would not allow her fiance into the house. Mary was friends with the landlady of the pub, and took refuge there after her father's death. She now makes her presence felt with mysterious sounds in upstairs rooms, slammed doors and eerie knockings.
London
Few cities are more haunted than London, and few buildings claim more ghosts than the Tower of London. Many people have been executed within its precincts, but was there ever a death more gruesome than that of the Countess of Salisbury in 1541? Her son, Cardinal Pole, a vehement critic of Henry VIII, wisely escaped to France, so Henry decided to execute his mother. She was no pushover, however, even in old age, and refused to place her head on the block. Instead, she capered around on the scaffold as the infuriated headsman tried to hit her with his axe. Bit by bit, he sliced pieces off her, inflicting appalling wounds from which she eventually expired. On 27 May, the anniversary of this death by a thousand cuts, the shadow of an axe can supposedly be seen over Tower Green.
On 3 March 1943, Bethnal Green tube station in the East End witnessed the worst ever disaster associated with the London underground, when crowds of panicked locals tried to shelter from what they thought was an air raid. In all, 173 were crushed to death and 92 seriously injured at the entrance from the south side of Roman Road. On many occasions since, witnesses claim to have heard screams of pain and terror in the vicinity, especially after 8pm, when the catastrophe occurred.
The Rising Sun, in the City, is a pleasant and historic old pub that, because of its proximity to St Bartholomew's hospital, was once a watering hole for criminal low-life who exhumed freshly buried bodies and sold them to teachers of anatomy. Over the years, those sleeping on the premises have heard unexplained noises and found their bedclothes suddenly yanked away. Staff closing up at night have heard movements upstairs when they knew the place was empty. Are these noises made by the ghosts of the "resurrectionists", men whose repulsive activities mean they will never find rest?
Wales
Conwy, in north Wales, is dominated by a brooding 13th-century castle and possesses arguably the finest medieval town walls in Britain. Ghosts are almost de rigueur in such a historic place, and the castle duly boasts a cloaked figure on the battlements and a horseman silhouetted against the full moon. A monk in a cowl walks the waterfront and the churchyard at night. Also seen in the churchyard is what has been described as a "phosphorescent ghostly cat".
The Skirrid Mountain Inn, in Llanfihangel Crucorney, near Abergavenny, is a revered old hostelry that used to double as a courtroom and place of execution. Almost 200 convicted felons were put to death here. Perhaps their spirits have never left the place: some customers claim to have felt a noose tightening around their necks, and to have been left with the marks to prove it. And whose is the unseen presence that brushes past people just as the temperature drops dramatically?
Margam Abbey, near Port Talbot, was a Cistercian monastery until it was dissolved in the 1530s. Legend had it that anyone who demolished its gatehouse would see their family punished. Early in the 18th century, however, the ruined abbey was inherited by young Lord Mansel, who promptly did just that. He died shortly afterwards, swiftly followed by the uncle who had succeeded to the estate. His successor, too, died prematurely. All three apparently turned into ghosts, whose activities only ceased when a later owner re-erected the gatehouse. Later, in 1840, a mansion was built on the site incorporating some of the abbey's fabric, but it is now a romantic, roofless ruin.
Scotland
The Grassmarket in Edinburgh was once the site of public executions, reflected in pub names such as The Last Drop and Maggie Dickson, whose inspiration survived hanging and lived for a further 40 years. On 11 May a coach drawn by headless horses is said to drive down the West Bow to the Grassmarket. In rides the ghost of Major Weir. Previously a respected citizen of Edinburgh, in 1670 he provoked both astonishment and disgust when he admitted incest with his sister, adultery with a housemaid and bestiality with various domestic animals, alongside confessing to being a sorcerer and a devil worshiper. He was strangled and then burned at the stake, while his sister was hanged.
Located 26 miles north of Portree on the Isle of Skye, Duntulm Castle was abandoned around 1730 and now lies in ruins close to the sea. Legend has it that ghosts drove the MacDonalds out of Duntulm Castle. It is still said to have some remarkable inhabitants. These include a prisoner who was walled up in the tower to die, a weeping nun, and a nursemaid who accidentally dropped a child from the battlements into the sea below. The child was the son of the clan chief, and as a punishment the nursemaid was cast adrift in the sea on a small boat. Her screams can still be heard.
The Drover's Inn, near Loch Lomond, West Dunbartonshire, has several ghostly presences. These include "George", a former regular whose ashes were for some time kept next to the fireplace, and "Angus the Drover", who was murdered nearby in the 1750s and wanders the inn late at night, screaming in pain. Overnight guests have also seen a family gathered at the foot of the bed, one of them, a small boy, waving avidly. In the 19th century, when a young girl drowned near the inn, her lifeless body was laid out in room six. Many guests who have slept there have woken in the night to feel a wet, icy-cold body next to them in bed ...
Northern Ireland
Dobbin's Inn stands close to Carrickfergus Castle, and in the 1700s the landlord's wife was said to have had a steamy affair with a soldier from the garrison. When her husband found out, he murdered them both. Elizabeth's spirit has never left her old home, which is now a hotel. A number of guests have been woken by a gentle touch on their faces, and occasionally an indistinct female figure flits across reception and disappears into a fireplace.
Lisson House near Cookstown, County Tyrone, is more than 400 years old. One of its most notable owners was Sir Robert Ponsonby Staples (1853-1943), who sincerely believed that the world's problems were caused by shoes, which prevented the wearers from benefiting from the earth's magnetic charge. Leading by example, he went everywhere barefoot. Odder still, however, are the house's supernatural manifestations, which include unexplained "cold spots", mysterious flowery aromas, disembodied footsteps and the pitiful sobs of an unseen child.
Grace Neill's at Donaghadee, County Down, opened for business in 1611 and is the oldest inn in Ireland. For most of its life it was known as the King's Arms, but it takes its present name from a long-standing and characterful landlady. She died in 1916 but no one is sure whether she actually left. Glasses and other items are propelled around the bar by invisible hands, footsteps are heard upstairs when no one is there to make them and, very occasionally, the indistinct figure of a Victorian lady is seen.
North-West England
Formby stands on the coast between Liverpool and Southport and is noted for its extensive sand dunes. This is where the unholy hound known as "Old Trash" gets its exercise, spreading ill fortune among all those who see it. Its name comes from the sound it makes as it splashes through the water-logged sand.
Wray Castle stands at the northern end of Windermere in the Cumbrian Lake District, and both the wooded shore and the lake itself have something of a reputation. A ghostly white horse, a phantom boat, eerie noises floating across the water … The story is told of a boatman who went on to the lake at night to investigate, only to return with his face a mask of terror. Unable to speak, he died a few days later. Was it the ghost known as the Crier of Claife that he saw?
North-east England
If you like spectacular ghosts, they don't come better than the phantom hearse of Whitby. They say that when a Whitby sailor was buried in St Mary's churchyard, a large hearse with four jet-black horses would appear beside the grave at night, ready to take him away. A group of ghostly mourners would appear from the coach and remove the body from its grave. The spectral coach, lit by burning torches and driven by a headless phantom coachman shrouded in a black cloak, would then gallop away at speed and plummet over the cliffs into the sea.
Winter's Gibbet is located high up on moorland at the side of the road from Elsdon to Morpeth in Northumberland. It is named after William Winter, who was hanged in Newcastle for committing a murder in 1792. Winter's body was put inside the gibbet cage and left to rot for all to see. The present gibbet is a replica, erected in 1867, that stands near the original. The ghost of Winter, the "Brown Man of the Moors", has often been seen both here and in the surrounding countryside.
Visitors to York's Bedern area, off Goodramgate, have often spoken of strange experiences, including the sound of children's laughter or screams of terror, as they walk through Bedern Arch on cold nights. In the 19th century this was the site of York Industrial Ragged school, where hundreds of orphan children were kept in dreadful conditions. Many died at the hands of the alcoholic schoolmaster George Pimm.
Central England
The village of Eyam, in Derbyshire, was devastated by bubonic plague in 1665. Two of the victims, Emily and Sarah, are said to haunt the 17th-century Miners Arms pub. They can be heard playing, as well as opening and closing doors. Also haunting the pub is an old woman who roams the corridors dressed in black. She is believed to be a former landlady, who was murdered by her husband.
Late-night visitors to the derelict churchyard of St John the Baptist, on the outskirts of Broughton, Northamptonshire, report hearing the moans of a criminal who was hanged in the 1820s. The ghosts of a young man and of a pretty girl wearing a white dress have also been seen. On Christmas Eve, one of the ghosts will apparently appear to a passing member of the opposite sex and ask them for a kiss. If it is given, the kisser is doomed to die within a month. It is said that the ghosts are those of a couple who were killed in an accident at a nearby fair in the 1850s.
The Herefordshire church of St Mary's, Avenbury, was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 but closed for worship in 1931. Now hidden behind luxuriant undergrowth, the ruins are said to resound with unexplained bells and organ music, while the spirit of the last incumbent lingers on. His "parishioners" include a witch who was buried within sight of the church, a crowd of headless mourners, a man who was executed for arson and a group of spectral monks. Not a place to visit alone at midnight ...
Eastern England
The attractive cobbled street of Elm Hill in Norwich is home to a number of ghosts, not least that of Father Ignatius, who, determined to restore monastic life to England for the first time since its suppression by Henry VIII, founded a monastery here in the 1800s. Ignatius was famous for threatening anyone who opposed him with eternal damnation, and at least three people who publicly took issue with him died within 24 hours. Many witnesses have seen his spirit stalking the hill at night with a Bible in hand, loudly cursing passers-by.
Manningtree in Essex, and nearby Mistley, are associated with Matthew Hopkins, the 17th-century "Witchfinder General" who embarked on a reign of terror around the eastern counties in the 1640s. Hopkins apparently died of natural causes in 1647, thereby denying many people the revenge they felt they deserved. His ghost has since been seen at Mistley pond (always around the full moon), the Mistley Thorn hotel and Hopping bridge, where the screams of a tortured witch are said to have been heard.
The Nutshell, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, is reputed to be Britain's smallest pub, yet this ancient timber-framed building still has room for a number of phantoms. A young boy who was murdered here has been seen flitting up and down the stairs near closing time, while the cellar houses the ghosts of a monk and a nun, who were believed to have had an affair.
South-west England
Overlooking the fair city of Bath is a delightful little folly known as "Ralph Allen's Sham Castle", built by an 18th-century wheeler-dealer. He is said to return from time to time on dark nights to ensure that his little architectural whimsy is as it should be.
The Royal Castle hotel is an ancient hostelry standing on Dartmouth's quayside, overlooking the river. In 1688, Queen Mary was staying here and sent a coach to bring her husband, the dour Dutchman who became William III, from Torbay. On many occasions, staff and guests have been woken at 2am by the sound of hooves on cobblestones, voices, the jingling of harness and neighing of horses. An unseen clock tolls as the phantom coach rushes off into the darkness.
Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire, witnessed the brutal murder of Edward II during the night of 21 September 1327. Let's just say that two men seized the king and made particularly unpleasant use of a red-hot poker. Edward's screams were heard miles away, and ring out again on the anniversary of the foul deed.
South-east England
The Eclipse Inn, Winchester, Hampshire, has been a pub since 1890, but was previously a rectory. In 1685, Dame Alice Lisle was executed in the marketplace outside the building after "Hanging" Judge Jeffreys condemned her to death for harbouring fugitives from the battle of Sedgemoor. She spent the last days of her life in a small upstairs room in the building, and since then there have been repeated sightings of a "lady in grey". A plaque marks the site of her execution.
Pluckley, in Kent, claims to be the most haunted village in England, with a phantom coach and horses that trots down the main street, the hanging body of a schoolmaster in Dicky Buss's Lane, another hanged man in Park Wood, a ghostly highwayman, a spectral miller and the White Lady of Dering, a young woman who haunts the churchyard of St Nicholas's. Nearby Dering Wood, meanwhile, is said to be inhabited by the spirits of those who became lost in it at night.
The Little Angel, in the Berkshire village of Remenham, is haunted by Mary Blandy, executed in 1752 for poisoning her father, apparently because he would not allow her fiance into the house. Mary was friends with the landlady of the pub, and took refuge there after her father's death. She now makes her presence felt with mysterious sounds in upstairs rooms, slammed doors and eerie knockings.
London
Few cities are more haunted than London, and few buildings claim more ghosts than the Tower of London. Many people have been executed within its precincts, but was there ever a death more gruesome than that of the Countess of Salisbury in 1541? Her son, Cardinal Pole, a vehement critic of Henry VIII, wisely escaped to France, so Henry decided to execute his mother. She was no pushover, however, even in old age, and refused to place her head on the block. Instead, she capered around on the scaffold as the infuriated headsman tried to hit her with his axe. Bit by bit, he sliced pieces off her, inflicting appalling wounds from which she eventually expired. On 27 May, the anniversary of this death by a thousand cuts, the shadow of an axe can supposedly be seen over Tower Green.
On 3 March 1943, Bethnal Green tube station in the East End witnessed the worst ever disaster associated with the London underground, when crowds of panicked locals tried to shelter from what they thought was an air raid. In all, 173 were crushed to death and 92 seriously injured at the entrance from the south side of Roman Road. On many occasions since, witnesses claim to have heard screams of pain and terror in the vicinity, especially after 8pm, when the catastrophe occurred.
The Rising Sun, in the City, is a pleasant and historic old pub that, because of its proximity to St Bartholomew's hospital, was once a watering hole for criminal low-life who exhumed freshly buried bodies and sold them to teachers of anatomy. Over the years, those sleeping on the premises have heard unexplained noises and found their bedclothes suddenly yanked away. Staff closing up at night have heard movements upstairs when they knew the place was empty. Are these noises made by the ghosts of the "resurrectionists", men whose repulsive activities mean they will never find rest?
Wales
Conwy, in north Wales, is dominated by a brooding 13th-century castle and possesses arguably the finest medieval town walls in Britain. Ghosts are almost de rigueur in such a historic place, and the castle duly boasts a cloaked figure on the battlements and a horseman silhouetted against the full moon. A monk in a cowl walks the waterfront and the churchyard at night. Also seen in the churchyard is what has been described as a "phosphorescent ghostly cat".
The Skirrid Mountain Inn, in Llanfihangel Crucorney, near Abergavenny, is a revered old hostelry that used to double as a courtroom and place of execution. Almost 200 convicted felons were put to death here. Perhaps their spirits have never left the place: some customers claim to have felt a noose tightening around their necks, and to have been left with the marks to prove it. And whose is the unseen presence that brushes past people just as the temperature drops dramatically?
Margam Abbey, near Port Talbot, was a Cistercian monastery until it was dissolved in the 1530s. Legend had it that anyone who demolished its gatehouse would see their family punished. Early in the 18th century, however, the ruined abbey was inherited by young Lord Mansel, who promptly did just that. He died shortly afterwards, swiftly followed by the uncle who had succeeded to the estate. His successor, too, died prematurely. All three apparently turned into ghosts, whose activities only ceased when a later owner re-erected the gatehouse. Later, in 1840, a mansion was built on the site incorporating some of the abbey's fabric, but it is now a romantic, roofless ruin.
Scotland
The Grassmarket in Edinburgh was once the site of public executions, reflected in pub names such as The Last Drop and Maggie Dickson, whose inspiration survived hanging and lived for a further 40 years. On 11 May a coach drawn by headless horses is said to drive down the West Bow to the Grassmarket. In rides the ghost of Major Weir. Previously a respected citizen of Edinburgh, in 1670 he provoked both astonishment and disgust when he admitted incest with his sister, adultery with a housemaid and bestiality with various domestic animals, alongside confessing to being a sorcerer and a devil worshiper. He was strangled and then burned at the stake, while his sister was hanged.
Located 26 miles north of Portree on the Isle of Skye, Duntulm Castle was abandoned around 1730 and now lies in ruins close to the sea. Legend has it that ghosts drove the MacDonalds out of Duntulm Castle. It is still said to have some remarkable inhabitants. These include a prisoner who was walled up in the tower to die, a weeping nun, and a nursemaid who accidentally dropped a child from the battlements into the sea below. The child was the son of the clan chief, and as a punishment the nursemaid was cast adrift in the sea on a small boat. Her screams can still be heard.
The Drover's Inn, near Loch Lomond, West Dunbartonshire, has several ghostly presences. These include "George", a former regular whose ashes were for some time kept next to the fireplace, and "Angus the Drover", who was murdered nearby in the 1750s and wanders the inn late at night, screaming in pain. Overnight guests have also seen a family gathered at the foot of the bed, one of them, a small boy, waving avidly. In the 19th century, when a young girl drowned near the inn, her lifeless body was laid out in room six. Many guests who have slept there have woken in the night to feel a wet, icy-cold body next to them in bed ...
Northern Ireland
Dobbin's Inn stands close to Carrickfergus Castle, and in the 1700s the landlord's wife was said to have had a steamy affair with a soldier from the garrison. When her husband found out, he murdered them both. Elizabeth's spirit has never left her old home, which is now a hotel. A number of guests have been woken by a gentle touch on their faces, and occasionally an indistinct female figure flits across reception and disappears into a fireplace.
Lisson House near Cookstown, County Tyrone, is more than 400 years old. One of its most notable owners was Sir Robert Ponsonby Staples (1853-1943), who sincerely believed that the world's problems were caused by shoes, which prevented the wearers from benefiting from the earth's magnetic charge. Leading by example, he went everywhere barefoot. Odder still, however, are the house's supernatural manifestations, which include unexplained "cold spots", mysterious flowery aromas, disembodied footsteps and the pitiful sobs of an unseen child.
Grace Neill's at Donaghadee, County Down, opened for business in 1611 and is the oldest inn in Ireland. For most of its life it was known as the King's Arms, but it takes its present name from a long-standing and characterful landlady. She died in 1916 but no one is sure whether she actually left. Glasses and other items are propelled around the bar by invisible hands, footsteps are heard upstairs when no one is there to make them and, very occasionally, the indistinct figure of a Victorian lady is seen.
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