Harrowingly Disturbing Haunted and Haunting Locations of the United Kingdom

The countries of the United Kingdom have long and storied histories stretching back thousands of years. As such, it perhaps should not surprise us that the United Kingdom is also home to a plethora of haunted and indeed haunting locations, each with its own strange tales and legends to tell. Furthermore, most of these strange and sometimes sinister locations are still paranormally active today and remain of great interest to paranormal investigators and enthusiasts alike.

A great place to start when exploring some of the most haunting locations in the United Kingdom would be some of the rail stations of London’s underground rail network. Given that the London Underground is one of the busiest and oldest networks in the world, as well as being one of the most widespread, it perhaps should not surprise us that there are many tales of spooky goings-on and paranormal activity.

The old Aldwych Station, for example, which was built in the same location as the Royal Strand Theatre, was seemingly home to the manifestation of an actress who once appeared regularly on the stage there. Many people who have found themselves at Piccadilly Station late at night, on the other hand, often hear strange sounds coming from nowhere, sounds that some have even described as sounding like Morse Code. Stranger still is the sounds of footsteps made by invisible feet, otherworldly banging noises, and even the apparition of a strange woman on the platform who boards the train and then disappears at the Elephant and Castle Station.  At the underground station at Convent Gardens, multiple people have witnessed the apparent ghost of the actor, William Terriss, who was murdered where the station now stands in 1897, with some staff who have encountered the ghoulish spirit finding the incident so terrifying that they insisted on being transferred to other lines. As spine-chilling as these stations and encounters are, there are others that are even more so – and what’s more, they have very real, harrowing events connected to them.

In Bethnal Green Underground Station in the east end of London, many commuters report hearing the desperate cries of people in a state of panic and terror. Rather than these cries belonging to spirits of a long-gone age centuries ago, however, they are, according to some, those of Londoners who used the underground station as a bomb shelter during the Second World War. At the time, this area of London was greatly overpopulated, and it wasn’t unheard of for thousands of people to be at the station during German bombing missions. That was very much the case on the night of March 3rd, 1943, an evening that would end in tragedy and is the origin of the panicked cries people still hear today.

According to the account, after hearing the ominous sound of the air raid sirens, residents of the East End quickly made their way to the shelter at Bethnal Green station. As they descended the staircases in almost complete darkness, a young woman carrying a baby and bedding stumbled and fell. A woman behind her, also carrying a small child, tripped over her. Ultimately, within no time at all, multiple people were tripping over bodies in front of them, causing an eventual pile-up that claimed the lives of 173 people, most of whom were crushed to death, with 60 others injured. Incidentally, the UK government did its utmost to suppress the incident for fear of breaking the population's morale. After delaying an official announcement, the government claimed that a bomb had caused the deaths and injuries, with the truth only being officially recognized almost half a century later.

There have been multiple reports from staff and commuters of strange activity at the station, but an encounter from the early 1980s is perhaps more terrifying than others. Although the exact date is not known, one evening in 1981, an employee was working late on admin and paperwork after the station had been locked for the night. As he was doing so, though, he heard the sounds of children crying. At first, knowing he was the only person in the station, he assumed the sounds were drifting in from outside, so he went back to work. However, the cries continued, and as they did, they got louder, possibly closer. By the time he heard the sounds of multiple women screaming in terror, he ran out of the office and into the ticket area. However, there was no one there. The desperate cries suddenly came to a stop. Beyond disturbed at this point, the employee quickly gathered his belongings and left the station as quickly as possible.

Similar horrifying screams have been heard by many coming from nowhere at Farringdon Underground Station. These ghostly screams are said to belong to the spirit of 13-year-old Anne Naylor, who lived in the Farringdon area in the mid-eighteenth century when the area was a mixture of poverty and criminality. She was put to work as an apprentice hatmaker. However, her employer regularly beat her, with one of these beatings eventually resulting in her death in 1758. Anne’s lifeless, dismembered body was dumped in the grounds that the station sits on today. Almost as soon as building on the station started people began reporting hearing the mystifying screams, leading many to believe that Anne’s spirit remains in the station.

Liverpool Street Station not only has multiple reports of strange noises but also of shadowy figures, including a man wearing overalls strolling down the platform before disappearing into thin air. Furthermore, some of these grim manifestations have even been captured on security cameras. It is very likely the cause of this paranormal activity is the fact that Liverpool Street Station was built over a site that was once a mass grave. In 2015, over 3000 skeletal remains were discovered in and around the immediate vicinity of the station, with initial studies suggesting many of the dead were victims of the Black Death.

Without a doubt, one of the most intriguing and regularly seen spirits of Liverpool Street Station is that of a woman who was once a patient at Bedlam Hospital, which was, essentially, a facility for the mentally unwell and which once stood on the grounds that the station sits on today, and whose desperate screams can be heard throughout the building. Researchers David Brandon and Alan Brooke have investigated the hauntings, as well as the mystery woman’s background. It is thought that she was a patient at the hospital at some point in the 1780s. According to the information they managed to uncover, the woman in question would cling to a very specific coin, becoming immediately violent towards anyone who tried to take it from her. It is said that when she died, the coin was removed from her dead hand, and she was buried without it. Some believe it is this action that causes her spirit to remain in the tunnels of the station today, still searching for the coin she retained her entire life.

The Bank Underground Station is also awash with multiple spirits and dark energies, although one in particular stands out – the Black Nun, sometimes referred to as the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, who is said to haunt not only the Underground Station but the Bank of England also. It is believed the Black Nun is the spirit of Sarah Whitehead, whose older brother, Philip (officially named Paul, and who Sarah lived with) worked at the Bank of England as a clerk in the early nineteenth century. Unbeknownst to Sarah, Philip had a habit of living beyond his means and quickly found himself in debt. By 1812, he had become so desperate that he attempted to forge a cheque from the bank for around £3000 in today’s money. He was quickly caught and arrested, however, and after being found guilty of fraudulently attempting to obtain funds, he was executed.

Sarah had no idea of her brother’s arrest or execution, as Philip had arranged for her to stay with friends. Upon her return, she would visit the Bank of England to ask about her brother’s whereabouts. After several visits, bosses at the bank eventually told her the truth about her brother’s actions and fate, which seemed to send Sarah into a state of shock from which she didn’t recover. She began to dress entirely in black and would often return to the bank, asking where her brother was, as if she simply refused to believe the truth. As these visits continued, her behavior became more and more erratic, and eventually, she was forcibly removed from the premises as soon as she arrived there.

Although records are not entirely clear, it appears Sarah Whitehead died sometime between 1837 and 1843. She would, though, continue to visit the Bank of England and Bank Underground Station following her death, with multiple people reporting seeing the strange lady dressed in back over the decades that followed.

Undoubtedly, one of the most chilling encounters with the Black Nun unfolded in 2001 when a station employee spotted a lady dressed in black in one of the station's corridors on the CCTV system. It was well past midnight, and the station had been closed for several hours. The employee located the corridor the lady was standing in and went to see who she was. Upon arriving at the corridor in question, he did indeed see a lady dressed in black standing there. As he walked toward her, however, “she looked up, straight at me, looked down again, and turned and walked away!” As the employee followed, he was more than shocked to see her simply disappear into thin air.

Perhaps the strangest and most thought-provoking of all the paranormal-type activity recorded in the underground rail networks of London are those at the British Museum-Holburn station, not least as one of the spirits said to roam the station is that of an ancient Egyptian woman. How much of the accounts are fact and how much urban legend is uncertain, but the British Museum Station opened early in the 1900s to connect the facility to the rail network. By the early 1930s, though, the much more modern station at Holburn was opened, and as it was only a very short distance away, the original line was closed down. Some researchers state, however, that a “secret” tunnel not available to the public still links the museum to the station – and it is this tunnel that many people claim is home to strange goings-on.

Just one of these spirits is the previously mentioned ancient Egyptian woman – named Amen-Ra – whose mummy resides in the museum itself. Many employees have reported hearing her ungodly shrieks coming from the tunnel, with some people even reporting seeing her move along the old rail track. Even more bone-chilling, one account states that this ancient Egyptian spirit is even responsible for the disappearance of two women one evening in 1935, who seemingly vanished into thin air while walking through the station. Even stranger, on the night of their disappearance, many employees and commuters reported hearing the unsettling screams and shrieks coming from the tunnels around the platform. Stranger still, and certainly all the more disturbing, some versions of the account offer that several scratch marks were discovered on the walls of the museum near where the ancient Egyptian mummy was housed the day after the two women disappeared.

We should note that while the legend and account remain well-known in the area today, no newspapers from 1935 carried a single mention of the disappearances, or the screams or scratch marks. However, it is worth our time to briefly explore the person who discovered and purchased the mummy, Thomas Douglas Murray, and more specifically, the run of sheer “bad luck” he had shortly after buying the ancient remains. For example, a short time after he had packed the mummy off to London, Murray was accidentally shot, the wound being so bad that he had to have his arm amputated. Perhaps even more ominous, the two servants who had assisted and guided the mummy back to England died suddenly only days later.

These bizarre and potentially deadly events continued, with Murray eventually parting with the mummy, selling it to a friend of his sister. Upon taking ownership of it, she had the remains photographed. However, when the photographer was developing the pictures, he was shocked to see the face of a “living Egyptian woman staring furiously with an expression of singular malevolence” straight at him. Whether true or not, the photographer died suddenly and mysteriously a short time later. The mummy was eventually donated to the British Museum, but the apparent curse still wreaked havoc. Several legends offer that visitors to the museum who took photographs of the mummy on display met with sudden ends shortly after, while staff at the museum began hearing the screams of a distressed woman almost immediately after the remains went on display.

Although it isn’t an underground rail station, the underground vaults at Edinburgh’s South Bridge in Scotland are very much worth examining here. According to the book The World’s Most Haunted Places: From the Secret Files of Ghostvillage.com by Jeff Belanger, the underground vaults are widely regarded as one of the most haunted locations in the United Kingdom. The South Bridge was opened in 1788 with much anticipation as it would finally connect the old part of the city to the ever-expanding new section that accommodated the equally expanding population. Expecting much footfall on this new thoroughfare, many local business owners set up shops and businesses on either side of the bridge. As they did so, many of them closed the arches of the bridge to create workshops and even separate spaces to rent to other businesses or individuals, and ultimately, created the vaults.

In his book Hidden and Haunted: Underground Edinburgh, Des Brogan stated that “by the middle of the nineteenth century, these vaulted areas were being used as workshops by many of the people who lived in the tenements”, businesses that ranged from “cobblers, butchers, wine merchants, bookbinders, and jewelers”. To begin with, the area thrived, an unintended but prosperous consequence of the new bridge. However, over time, things changed, and the underground vaults took on a much more ominous feel.

As trivial as it might seem, the harsh, rainy weather of Scottish winters began to cause leaks to these new business premises, especially the lower parts where the vaults were. This constant leaking rainwater created a perfect environment for ill-health to thrive and for disease to spread. Furthermore, many of the original business owners had made enough money to move to other areas of the city that offered much sounder accommodation. Most would keep their businesses at the bridge, but the living quarters were now empty and essentially abandoned. This accumulation of abandoned rooms and vaults was quickly taken over by a mixture of the poor and criminals – essentially, the vaults quickly became a ghetto or slum area. So much so that the authorities decided to rehouse the remaining tenants, and while this was clearly the correct decision, this action seemingly encouraged those with unsavory intentions to the vaults. It quickly became a hive of illegal bars, gambling joints, and brothels, with many crimes and even murders being committed there. Ultimately, the underground vaults were a place most of the city's residents didn’t wish to go, and authorities eventually sealed them shut.

If we fast-forward to the 1980s, though, the vaults were rediscovered by former rugby player and businessman, Norrie Rowan, who immediately sensed a business opportunity upon exploring the underground network. He installed electric lighting throughout the vaults and then made arrangements with a tour company to give guided tours of this subterranean labyrinth. It wasn’t long after these tours began that the accounts of paranormal encounters began to spread.

Des Brogan was one person involved with these tours, and he offered that if any of the guests “were at all sensitive to the other world, they would feel very uncomfortable” in the vaults. One particular person claimed to Brogan that they could see several different apparitions and manifestations while in the vaults, giving the researcher detailed descriptions of each one. He was more than shocked when other mediums and experiencers visited the vaults and went on to give him the exact same descriptions of what appeared to be the same entities.

It appears that many spirits reside in the vault network beneath Edinburgh’s South Bridge. Some people report seeing children running playfully through the vaults, while others see shadowy men and women, often out of the corners of their eyes, only for the figures to disappear when they turn to face them. Some people have reported hearing strange noises and voices coming from various rooms in the vaults, while some have even claimed to have been grabbed or pushed by an apparently invisible assailant. It is likely that these spirits once worked or even lived at the vaults during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. One presence, though, stands out from the rest.

Sometimes called The Watcher but mostly known as Mr. Boots, this menacing figure is not only heard in the underground vaults but is often seen, usually wearing knee-high black boots with “rough trousers” stuffed into them, hence his monicker. Brogan would describe this entity as looking “unkempt and unshaved, with very bad breath”, a detail incidentally, that many other people often report. What also makes Mr. Books stand out is that it seems he only appears in one particular vault of the network. Some mediums and paranormal investigators claim to have sensed a second presence in the room, the spirit of a young girl who it has been suggested was murdered by Mr. Boots (although there are no historical records to back up such speculation).

Some investigators and mediums have even claimed to have communicated with this bad-tempered presence, claiming he has told them that any candles must be placed on the floor and not to be shined anywhere near his face. Even more disturbing, more often than not, when a person enters the room in question, the electric lights suddenly go out, thought to be the work of Mr. Boots, not least as when the lights are checked after, no obvious fault can ever be found. Some people even claim to have been pushed or pulled toward the door, with some also claiming to have heard Mr. Boots tell them in no uncertain terms to, “Get out!” Although physical manifestations of Mr. Boots only occur in this particular room, many people have reported hearing him walk about the tunnels of the vaults, his keys jangling in synch with his heavy footsteps.

It isn’t just the guests to the vaults that have had unnerving encounters with Mr. Boots, many of the guides themselves have also run into him. Perhaps one of the most chilling featured a guide who was left alone in the vaults after all of the tour guests had left. As he was making his way toward the exit, he blew out any remaining candles. Then, however, he heard the unmistakable sound of heavy footsteps approaching from behind him. He remained still in the vault he had entered only moments before. The footsteps continued to approach, eventually coming to a stop seemingly right outside the vault. He couldn’t see anything, but he later claimed to have had the real sense that someone was watching him. This went on for several moments before the footsteps began again, this time walking away from the now terrified tour guide.

A similar encounter was told by another tour guide. She claimed she was extinguishing candles before locking the vaults for the night when she noticed the flickering glow from two candles a little way up the corridor that she must have missed. She immediately began in their direction. However, when the candles appeared to dim noticeably, she stopped her approach. She focused her gaze on the now dim candles, trying to see what was causing their brightness to lessen. It was only when a dark figure moved to one side, causing the candles to become immediately brighter once more, that she realized something had been standing directly in front of them.

Whoever Mr. Boots might have been in reality is open to debate. Paranormal researchers and investigators have, though, developed a profile of sorts for him. Due to his territorial-like behavior, as well as the sound of jangling keys during his apparent patrolling of the vaults, it is likely he was a nightwatchman or security guard, most likely during the late-eighteenth or early-nineteenth centuries, which was when the vaults were used to store valuable stock and goods, certainly items that were on the radar of many criminal gangs of the city.

While there are, then, many underground locations that are of interest to us here, there are a plethora of equally strange locations above the ground, not least several particularly intriguing haunted roads.

The M6, for example, is said to be home to a ghostly legion of Roman soldiers that motorists often witness marching alongside their respective vehicles. The majority of these sightings happen near Junction 19 of the north-south link to Rugby, where, coincidentally or not, two major Roman roads exist close by – the Fosse Way and Watling Street. What is further interesting is that these two roads cross at High Cross, around 10 miles away, where the remains of a Roman fort are still visible. Of further interest, in 2016, a discovery of a previously unknown Roman settlement was made just outside of Rugby. Was this settlement made up of the soldiers that are regularly seen on the motorway today? Did something of importance take place here that left an electromagnetic imprint causing these sightings in our contemporary era? It is also worth noting that this same stretch of road also has reports of “ghost cars” that suddenly appear at the roadside, as if they have been in a horrific accident, as well as a “phantom lorry” that is sometimes seen driving the wrong way on the busy road. Perhaps there is something about this location that causes these paranormal visions to manifest.

Another road where you are likely to see a ghostly figure while traveling along it is Platt Lane in Westhoughton in Manchester, specifically, the ghost of one of the many dead miners who lost their lives in the Pretoria Pit mining disaster, which sits close to the road. At around 8 am on December 21st, 1910, a huge explosion ripped through the mine, trapping 900 workers underground. The explosion was later determined to have been the result of a build-up of gas from an undetected collapsed roof. While some of the miners who died were killed in the explosion, most of the 344 miners killed that day were the victims of carbon monoxide poisoning.

In the decades that have followed the disaster, many people have reported seeing miners, clearly dressed in out-of-time clothing, sometimes carrying a pickax or even pushing a cart of coal, heading toward the old mine, as if they were heading to work. More disturbing, though, are some of the reports from people who claim to have seen one of the miners standing at the roadside, as if frozen. However, when they look more closely, they notice the eyes of the ghostly figure watching them as they drive by.

On the A229 in Kent, many motorists have reported seeing a strange lady dressed entirely in white appear on the road before vanishing. What is particularly intriguing about this apparent apparition is that in 1965, a young lady named Judith Langham was knocked down and killed on the part of the road where many people have reported seeing the strange lady appear. Even more remarkable, Judith was killed on her wedding day, and was wearing her white wedding dress when she was knocked down (we should note that some sources claim Judith was struck down on her hen night). This same stretch of road is also home to an apparent phantom hitchhiker. Many people recall picking up the “talkative” gentleman, stating how pleasant he was. However, as soon as the person leaves the A229, this strange chap simply disappears.

An even stranger section of road exists on the A21 in South London, with many motorists claiming the road simply “disappears” right in front of them with another road “taking its place”. Almost all of these strange incidents have been reported where Old Gracious Lane reaches the newer section of the dual carriageway. On this same stretch of road, other motorists have reported seeing a strange grey-haired woman wearing a particularly heavy coat walking along the roadside.

If we travel north of the border into Scotland, we can find several roads where apparent phantom vehicles are reported, many of which are documented in the book Scottish Ghosts by Dane Love. Many motorists, for example, have reported experiences with ghostly cars on the A7 in Midlothian, with several of these incidents resulting in traffic accidents. Love relays several accounts where motorists report driving behind what appears to be a normal car one minute, only for it to disappear right in front of their eyes.

There are similar tales from the Island of Skye, with reports of phantom vehicles along the A87 going all the way back to the early 1940s. The first recorded sighting took place in 1941. On the evening in question, Dr. Allan MacDonald was driving along the road when he noticed a car that appeared to be following him. He decided to pull over to the side of the road in order to allow the car to pass. However, when he did so, the strange vehicle simply vanished into thin air. There are very similar occurrences on the A850 and the A863 between the towns of Sconser and Drynoch, only these encounters speak of a vehicle appearing out of nowhere and driving towards the respective motorist before disappearance as if it had never been there.

There is also the A75, widely agreed to be one of the most haunted roads in Scotland. There are multiple reports of all manner of things appearing out of nowhere, including animals and people, which then disappear only seconds later. One evening in 1962, brothers Derek and Norman Ferguson were driving along this stretch of road when a hen appeared out of nowhere, heading straight for their windshield. However, right before the moment of impact, the mystery bird suddenly vanished. In 1997, Donna Maxwell reported to the local police that she believed she had hit a pedestrian while driving along the road. The police searched the road and the surrounding areas extensively but found no one, nor did anyone come forward following appeals for information.

There are also several abandoned and one-time hospitals, asylums, and mental health institutions in the United Kingdom that are said by some to be haunted.

Perhaps one of the most intriguing of these apparently haunted asylums can be found in Lincolnshire at the St. John’s Asylum. While stories had swirled around the abandoned facility for many years, it was a photograph that appeared online in 2010 that really grabbed many peoples’ attention, given that it showed what seemed to be a shadowy ghostly figure staring out of one of the windows of the building. Following the release of the photograph into the public arena, the one-time asylum quickly became the focus of many paranormal investigators and enthusiasts, all of whom were eager to speak to the locals as well as see the building for themselves.

Many people who have ventured into the abandoned asylum report the overwhelming sensation of someone watching them, as well as seeing shadowy figures out of the corners of their eyes, which disappear into thin air whenever the person turns to look at them. Perhaps the strangest and most unsettling of all the apparitions, though, is that known as the “Grey Lady”, who, according to local reports, you are very likely to witness “throwing her baby” from one of the clock towers before leaping to her own tragic death.

St. John’s Asylum is far from the only haunted abandoned building in the United Kingdom. Also in Lincolnshire is Nocton Hall, a one-time stately home that was used as a makeshift hospital for American soldiers during the Second World War, as well as during the Gulf War almost half a century later. In more recent times, many with an interest in paranormal events have witnessed several strange manifestations there.

Perhaps most well-known is the semi-regular apparition of a young girl who is thought to have lived in the house long before it was utilized as a hospital. Many people have witnessed the ghostly youngster at locations all around the building, but there appears to be a particularly high concentration of sightings in one specific bedroom – and these sightings and manifestations are of a much more harrowing nature. Many people, for example, report hearing her crying, while others hear her speaking of a “devilish man” and what he had “done to her!” Even more terrifying, some of the people who have had a call to sleep in the room over the years have claimed that they have been awoken by the young girl’s unsettling cries – always at 4:30 am.

What makes the sightings and reports of this young girl even more harrowing is that the identity of the spirit can be connected to a young girl who not only lived on the property but was murdered there. The girl in question was a servant girl at the home who was raped and ultimately impregnated by the house owner’s son. When he discovered the consequences of his actions, the son murdered the young girl before hiding her body.  

Of course, not all of these apparently haunted hospitals and asylums were abandoned when spooky goings-on were experienced within their walls. Newsham Park Hospital in Liverpool, for example, is said by one particular former employee to be home to something otherworldly and “pure evil”, with the witness even going as far as to say that the whole building “should have been demolished years ago!” John Gray worked at the hospital for over a decade as a telephonist – often on the night shift. He recalled to the Liverpool Echo that you could “feel the evil in the atmosphere”, adding that there were even parts of the building that he, and many other staff, simply refused to enter.

Gray certainly had many of his own encounters to speak of from his time at the hospital. One particularly cold evening, for example, he went in search of a blanket to use during his shift. As he did so, he witnessed a strange man in a white coat “with no head” pass him in the corridor and walk straight through the wall. On another occasion, while working in the reception area, he suddenly became aware of a lady wearing Victorian-style clothing standing on the stairs opposite the reception desk. He would later describe the woman to other staff members, some of whom had seen her themselves and informed him she once worked as a matron at the hospital.

In its later years, the building was used as an asylum, as well as serving as a mortuary. In fact, it was quite active in the later years of its life, and perhaps because of this, there are many encounters experienced today that have ominous ties to the past. In one particular part of the hospital, for example, is a row of cupboards where staff placed “unruly” children in a (misguided) effort to encourage them to calm down. Many people have recalled hearing bangs and even cries coming from the cupboards, seemingly the spirits of the children who were left to suffer in there.

Of course, if there is one thing the United Kingdom has a lot of, it’s public houses or pubs. And many of these watering holes are some of the oldest buildings in the UK. It perhaps shouldn’t surprise us, then, that many of these public houses are also some of the UK’s most haunted buildings.

As we might imagine, London is home to several of these drinking establishments. The Spaniards Inn, for example, is said to have several spirits who reside within its walls, including none other than the spirit of highwayman Dick Turpin, whose father was once the landlord at some point in the eighteenth century. According to legend, Turpin regularly used the public house as a hideout and a place to formulate his next move. Many people have reported seeing the infamous highway men in the upstairs rooms of the property, with some witnesses even claiming to have seen his horse in the carpark.

As well as the well-known Dick Turpin, though, other spirits also haunt The Spaniards Inn. It goes back to 1585 when the pub was owned by two Spanish brothers – Francesco and Juan Porero.  Ultimately, they would both fall in love with the same woman. This led to a duel between the pair, a duel that saw Francesco victorious and Juan dead, his body buried on the land next to the pub. Many people have claimed to have seen his spirit in various parts of the building. Another spirit of The Spaniards Inn is that known as Black Dick, said to have been a moneylender who frequented the pub and was killed when a horse-drawn coach ran over him directly in front of the building. As opposed to seeing this menacing character, many people – customers and members of staff – have claimed to have felt something tugging at their clothes or prodding them in the back.

Another London public house – The Flask, which dates back to 1663 – has at least two ghosts that haunt it. The spirit of a Spanish barmaid who hanged herself in the basement of the pub following her landlord suddenly ending their relationship, for example, is regularly seen in the now-converted seating area of the one-time cellar by customers and staff alike. Another spirit, a soldier in a cavalier uniform, is often seen in the main room of the public house, although those who see him claim he disappears only a moment later.   

If there is any city in England that has as many, if not more, haunted public houses as London, it would be York in Yorkshire, which is widely considered to be one of the most haunted cities in England, in general. One of the oldest watering holes in the city is The Golden Fleece which has been a pub continuously since 1503. It is said to be one of the most haunted public houses in York with at least 15 different spirits residing there, including a mysterious figure known as One-Eyed Jack, who is usually seen wearing a large red uniform coat and carrying a pistol. A bad-tempered old man is said to haunt the pub’s bottom bar, while a young boy haunts the top bar. Perhaps the most well-known of these spirits, though, is that of Lady Anne Peckett, the wife of the one-time mayor of York, John Peckett. She is often heard walking up or down the stairs or along the corridors, with some staff members and guests even claiming to have seen her very briefly.

While many of these haunted drinking establishments can be found in London or York, there are many others around the United Kingdom. The Ostrich Inn in Berkshire, for example, is one of the oldest pubs in the country, with the foundations of the building stretching right the way back to 1106. What’s more, as well as boasting multiple different spirits in the modern era, several murders have taken place there in the past, one of which was said to be committed by infamous highwayman Dick Turpin, who we met earlier when we examined the hauntings of The Spaniards Inn in London. According to the reports, Turpin often stayed at the Inn, and one night, a disagreement with the housekeeper led to Turpin shooting him dead before he escaped out of one of the building’s windows. The most famous murders to have unfolded at The Ostrich Inn, though, occurred in the early-seventeenth century when the landlord of the time, Mr. Jarman, along with his wife, murdered several wealthy guests who were staying at the property in an attempt to gain financially.

The Ancient Ram Inn in Gloucestershire also stretches back to the twelfth century, with the establishment being built in 1145. It was, though, built on what once was a Pagan burial ground, and as we might imagine, there were apparent consequences to this. Some researchers suggest that as many as 20 spirits call the building home, including a demonic entity, as well as a young girl by the name of Rosie who was apparently murdered there, with some who have stayed in the building claiming to have heard Rosie’s screams coming from somewhere in the property.

Another establishment that stretches back hundreds and hundreds of years is The Skirrid Mountain Inn in Abergavenny in Wales, which is said to be home to all manner of paranormal activity ranging from strange shoves and pushes by someone who isn’t there to apparitions of strange figures. What is particularly interesting about The Skirrid Mountain Inn is that the building was once a courtroom. Furthermore, a beam of wood, still present and visible in the pub, was once used as a gallows to hang condemned prisoners, with some suggestions being that over 180 executions were carried out from this beam. With that in mind, it perhaps should not surprise us that many people have reported strange happenings inside the building.

If we return to Scotland for a moment, we can find The Banshee Labyrinth in Edinburgh, which resides close to the famous underground vaults we examined earlier. This public house – which was once known as the Nicol Edwards Pub – also serves as a nightclub, and has many paranormal encounters connected to it. Perhaps the most famous of these is an entity known as The Banshee, a female spirit whose appearance is said to be an omen of death. One particular account – perhaps the first encounter with this spirit in modern times – occurred while the pub was being renovated. Several of the workmen heard strange screams coming from somewhere in the building, although they couldn’t find a definite source. They continued their work before one of the men received a phone call to say that a close family member had suddenly died.

Another haunting watering hole of Scotland is The Droves Inn, which can be found in Loch Lomond. The establishment is named after the cattle drovers who often worked in the area, almost all of whom frequented the pub and, some say, still haunt the grounds and building today. And while several different entities are believed to reside here, the one known as Angus – who legend claims was hanged from a tree behind the building – is seen most often. According to some of the claims, Angus is often heard and even seen moving around from room to room, with some people even seeing him outside where he met his untimely and unjust fate.

A young girl is also said to roam around the public house, thought to be the spirit of a young girl who was found drowned in a nearby lake and whose body was then taken to one of the backrooms of the pub before she was collected by her family.  Many of those who have stayed in this room over the years have reported noticing how cold it is, and not only that but how the temperature suddenly drops to icy cold. Others claim to have physically seen the child appear briefly in the room, while one particular guest who had taken a photograph of the room was left shocked when they saw a little girl wearing a pink dress in the picture and who was definitely not there previously or after the picture was taken.

Without a doubt, though, one of the most intriguing and uniquely haunted public houses in the United Kingdom is Ye Olde Man and Scythe in Bolton, Lancashire, which dates way back to 1251 and is home to a plethora of supernatural spookiness. In February 2014, this ghostly activity was even captured on security footage. On the morning in question – February 14th – the landlord, Tony Dooley, ventured into the bar and found glass on the floor, the consequence of a glass that had seemingly fallen from the bar or had been dropped and not attended to the night before. With this in mind, Tony went to the CCTV footage to see who, if anyone, was responsible for the broken glass, or more to the point, who was responsible for not cleaning it up. However, before he could press play, he noticed that the footage had stopped recording at 6:18 am.

As intrigued as he was perplexed, Tony rewound the footage and then watched the last few moments before it stopped recording. To his shock, in the seconds before the footage came to a stop, a shadowy figure of a man was clearly visible walking across the screen past the bar. Dooley, a skeptic, in general, but fascinated by the footage posted it online, and multiple media and news platforms quickly picked it up.

Research suggests that the shadowy figure is likely the spirit of a Royalist officer who was likely executed outside the public house at some point in the mid-seventeenth century. In fact, records show that James Stanley, the 7th Earl of Derby, did indeed spend his last night alive in Ye Olde Man and Scythe in 1651 before he was beheaded just outside the building for his part in a massacre seven years previously. Even more spinetingling, the chair that Stanley sat in before going to his death still sits in the pub today. Was the figure in the video footage really him?

As would appear to be perfectly clear, then, for all their beauty and history, the countries of the United Kingdom are home to some of the most haunted and unsettling locations on the planet. Whether it is the stations of the London Underground, abandoned hospitals and medical facilities, or public houses that contain the spirits of those long-dead from hundreds of years ago, the chances are, no matter where you are in the UK, you are almost always no more than an hour’s drive away from a destination awash with paranormal goings-on – paranormal goings-on that should you decide to visit any of the locations we have explored here, you just might find yourself right in the middle of.