OLD RAM INN: Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire

A wonderfully ramshackle old inn, the Ram became a private residence in the 1960s. For years the owner was more than happy to encourage ghost hunters to visit the place and enjoyed talking about his own experiences here. But you can have too much of a good thing, and the owner came to the conclusion that the investigations were making things worse. At the time of writing the Ram’s doors closed are firmly barred against ghost hunters.

The manifestations previously recorded here have been many and varied. Ghost sightings are said to have included a Cavalier, monks, a cat and a ‘witch’. The most commonly reported apparition is that of an attractive woman in a long blue dress. The ghosts are also claimed to be rather ‘hands on’, with female visitors in particular experiencing unwelcome cold caresses in a chamber known as the Bishop’s Room. The owner has also stated that he has been shoved on a couple of occasions by an invisible force.

In the June 2011 edition of Phenomena Magazine, parapsychologist Rob Young recounted his own experiences at the Ram Inn. He writes that he has seen beds shake in the Bishops Room and bar stools move across the floor in the former bar. On one occasion a table trapped him in his seat. Intriguingly, Mr Young noticed that the dramatic phenomena only occurred when a particular investigator was present – it was impossible for this person to have faked them, but could he have been an unwitting conduit, as adolescents are supposed to be in poltergeist cases? For the time being, at least, the Ram Inn will keep its secrets.

Please remember this property is now closed to ghost hunters and the general public.

[SOURCE: Paranormal Cotswolds by Anthony Poulton-Smith; Rob Young in Phenomena Magazine issue 26]

Text c. Richard Holland 2011.

11. BEN MACDHUI: Cairngorm Mountains, Aberdeenshire

Scotland’s second highest mountain and the highest in the spectacular Cairngorms National Park is arguably Britain’s most haunted open space. The ‘ghost’ of Ben MacDhui, if it can be called that, is a terrifying phenomenon known as ‘the Big Grey Man’.

The most abiding aspect of the BGM phenomenon is the sound of heavy footsteps crunching along the empty peak or mountainside. Several reliable witnesses have experienced this, including professional climbers; a climbing enthusiast who happened to be a Professor of Organic Chemistry; and a botanist from Aberdeen University collecting samples. The botanist’s brother, who was accompanying him, also heard the footsteps. Other weird sounds have been reported, including unearthly music and, on one occasion, ‘an enormously resonant Gaelic-speaking voice’. These latter phenomena were both reported from a pass leading up to the summit called Lairig Ghru. Lairig Ghru and the area round the cairn on the summit of Ben MacDhui seem to be the focal points of the BGM.

Often accompanying these inexplicable sounds is a feeling of mindless dread. Several sober academics and experienced climbers have suddenly turned tail and run down the dangerous crags for no very good reason. In 1945 expert mountaineer Peter Densham told colleagues he had been eating his lunch near the summit when he suddenly heard crunching footsteps coming from the cairn. The next thing he knew, he was dashing across the mountain in an uncontrollable panic. He ran so wildly, that he nearly charged off the edge of a cliff and only just managed to stop himself in time.

Despite its name, the Big Grey Man itself has rarely been seen. Those who have generally describe it as a huge, hulking, shadowy figure in the mist. Some think this might be a so-called ‘spectre of the Brocken’, caused when a climber’s shadow is thrown onto a bank of cloud, but most mountaineers are familiar with this natural phenomenon. Those who’ve seen it more clearly have variously described the BGM as ‘a tall, stately human figure’, ‘a great brown creature’ and a figure ‘with pointy ears, long legs and feet with talons’.

Whatever the nature – or rather the supernature – of the Big Grey Man, the phenomena are ongoing, with a sighting and a separate report of the sounds of crunching footsteps being made be separate witnesses just a few years ago.

[SOURCE: The Grey Man of Ben Macdhui by Edinburgh Psychic College; Karl Shuker in Paranormal Magazine issue 42]

Text c. Richard Holland 2011. Photo of the summit of Ben Macdhui c. Oliver Mills

12. SOUTH BRIDGE VAULTS: Niddry Street, Edinburgh

As a tourist attraction based almost entirely around its alleged ghosts, a ‘buyer beware’ tag should perhaps be placed on this entry, since most of the reports of supernatural activity in the Vaults has been made by the company which manages it, Auld Reekie Tours.

Nevertheless this is a very spooky place indeed, an entirely enclosed series of chambers within a city bridge which was only rediscovered in the 1970s. Not only that but it is certain that many people died here, roasted alive in a fire in 1824. The Vaults were the focal point of ‘the South Bridge Poltergeist’ many years ago but most of the phenomena since reported dates from the time they opened as a tourist attraction in 1996.

The various presences and apparitions are of uncertain identity and include ‘the Watcher’, a solitary, silent apparition of a man in a long cloak. An invisible force is said to exist in one chamber which has pushed and shoved people on a number of occasions and in author of the vaults a gang of burly builders fled in a panic after being pelted with stones and seeing their equipment being moved about.

Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire ran an investigation here, monitoring the experiences of volunteers spending hours on their own in separate vaults. One heard breathing and another saw a figure wearing an apron. Variations in magnetic fields and air movements were recorded from the ‘haunted’ chambers. Further evidence that these aren’t just claims to attract curious tourists came when journalist Mark Ottowell visited the Vaults in 2009 and he distinctly heard ‘resounding footsteps’ approaching him and then retreating, with no one was visible to make them

[SOURCE: Supernatural Scotland by Roddy Martine; Mark Ottowell in Paranormal Magazine issue 51; www.auldreekietours.com]

Text c. Richard Holland 2011 Photo c. Mark Ottowell

13. MARSDEN GROTTO: South Shields, South Tyneside

This extraordinary pub is built against the cliffs on the sea shore and back into an interconnecting series of caves. Despite its comparatively modern, rather industrial appearance today, this is an historic hostelry; indeed the caves have been used as habitations for centuries.

The earliest proprietor of the Marsden Grotto, one Peter Allen, and his wife both haunt the pub; the latter is seen in a rocking chair smoking a pipe. Another female apparition, said to be the Allens’ daughter Margaret, also makes her presence known near an old stairwell. Local researcher Mike Hallowell, who has written extensively on the Marsden Grotto, happened to be present when a visitor from Japan was startled by the ghost’s sudden appearance. He wrote: ‘I didn’t see the ghost but from the look of the chap from Tokyo it was pretty obvious that he had seen her – he was shaking from head to foot.’

Mike has witnessed spooky activity in the pub first hand, however. While taking part in a TV series on ghosts, he saw an ashtray fly across the room, juts after somebody made a disparaging comment about the pub’s best-known spook, a young smuggler who was shot dead here hundreds of years ago. This ghost, according to Mike, ‘has been known to become violent on occasions’.

Another Tyneside-based writer and ghost-hunter, Darren Ritson, has also investigated the Marsden Grotto. On one vigil Darren saw not only a tall dark figure but also a mysterious misty shape in the pub, while his colleagues heard inexplicable footsteps. The Marsden Grotto is a seriously haunted pub with paranormal activity of some sort or other being reported on an almost monthly basis.

[SOURCE: Paranormal South Tyneside by Mike Hallowell; Paranormal North-East by Darren Ritson; Haunted Britain by Antony Hippisley Coxe.]

Text c. Richard Holland 2011. Photo c. Thunderbird Craft & Media

14.MARSTON MOOR: Long Marston, North Yorkshire

Echoes from the Civil War Battle of Marston Moor, which was fought on July 2, 1644, and in which 4,000 Royalists died, have been witnessed several times in the past century.

The best-known example is that of the motorists who got lost on their way to Wetherby and saw half-a-dozen men in ‘fancy dress’ creeping along a ditch. Only later did they realise that they had been driving through the old battlefield and that the figures may well have been examples of the ghosts reported by locals on many previous occasions – including the sighting in 1932 when a car driver nearly ran into three or four men in Royalist outfits similarly skulking by the side of the road.

Ghosts of soldiers have also been seen on Atterwith Lane and its junction with Marston Lane, and men and horses have been seen at the clump of trees opposite the Monument. At the Monument itself one night, researcher Christopher Linton believes he heard the ghost of a running, and heavily breathing, soldier. The apparition of a young girl, possibly trampled to death by escaping cavalry, has also been seen near Wilstrop Wood, and no less a personage than Oliver Cromwell is said to haunt nearby Marston Hall, where Parliamentary officers were housed the night before the battle.

[SOURCE: Our Haunted Kingdom by Andrew Green; Phantom Britain by Marc Alexander; Christopher Linton in Paranormal Magazine issue47; Janet Bord in Paranormal Magazine issue 38]

Text c. Richard Holland 2011

15. CULLODEN MOOR, Inverness, Highland

Culloden Moor is the site of the last major battle to be fought on British soil (on April 16, 1746) and is certainly one of the most haunted. Phantom soldiers have been seen on the anniversary of the battle, in which the Jacobite forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie were defeated by an army under the command of the Duke of Cumberland.

Strange lights and the sounds of battle have also been reported and one man claimed to have seen a vision of the opposing armies in the sky above the field as he looked out of the window of a passing train. There is also said to be the ghost of a Highlander who mutters the word ‘Defeated’ before vanishing before the eyes of startled witnesses. St Mary’s Well on the battlefield is also said to be haunted by the ghosts of Jacobites.

Perhaps the oddest story recorded from Culloden is the one related by a visitor to the battlefield in 1936. She lifted up a square of Stuart tartan cloth that had blown down from a memorial stone and onto a grave and saw beneath it the prone body of a handsome young Highlander. Realising she was witnessing something uncanny, she fled the field.

The ghost of Bonnie Prince Charlie himself, dressed in green tartan, is said to haunt nearby Culloden House. 

[SOURCE: Phantom Footsteps by A A Macgregor; The Jacobites and the Supernatural by Geoff Holder]

Text © Richard Holland 2011

16. LINCOLN CASTLE: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

All areas of this impressive Norman fortress have a haunted reputation, including the grounds. For many years it was used as a prison and it is said the sounds of executions carried out here can still be heard in the castle precinct: right down to the expectant murmuring of the crowd and the subsequent massed gasp as the felon falls through the trapdoor to his death. Echoes of long-concluded battles have also been reported in the grounds: the clashing of weapons, screams of wounded men and the discharge of artillery.

The Prison Chapel is considered one of the most haunted places in Lincoln Castle. A female apparition has often been seen here and some visitors have reported hearing the jangling of keys and the clanging of cell doors. One or two have even claimed to see the dummies representing former prisoners move their heads!

Three towers are highlighted as especially haunted spots. ‘Distressed voices wailing with misery’ have been reported from the Lucy Tower and a range of phenomena have been experienced in the Observatory Tower, including shadowy figures, sudden drops in temperature and an invisible presence that tries to force visitors back down the stairs. A similar force seems to haunt the oddly named Cobb Hall Tower but this one has the sinister habit of picking on children. Fortunately on each reported occasion, a parent has been on hand to prevent their child being shoved down the hard stone steps. On one such occasion a parent glimpsed the apparition of an old woman dressed in black, the apparent cause of this malicious behaviour.

[SOURCE: Haunted Lincolnshire by David Brandon]

Text © Richard Holland 2011 Photo by Rodhullandemu / Wikimedia Commons

17. CHILLINGHAM CASTLE: Alnwick, Northumberland

Home of the best-known ghost in Northumberland, the ‘Radiant Boy’ (not to be confused with the almost identical Radiant Boy of Corby Castle in Cumbria), Chillingham is a wonderfully preserved fortress with a fund of spooky stories attached to it. The Radiant Boy, dressed in blue, manifests in the Pink Room in a luminous cloud and screams an unearthly scream before vanishing. It is said the skeleton of a young boy was found under the room’s floorboards many years ago and since they were given a decent burial he has appeared much less often.

The other two apparitions of Chillingham are of women: an anonymous White Lady who haunts the kitchens and domestic quarters and the shade of Lady Mary Berkeley who was thrown over by her husband for her own sister and who still sadly paces up and down the castle’s corridors at night.

In addition, the low murmuring of male voices have been heard but although one guide was able to listen in for nearly 20 seconds before they ceased, no one has worked out what they are saying (Rupert Matthews states they are heard in the Library, but the castle’s website names the room as the Chapel – perhaps it’s both).

Rob Kirkup adds a few more spooks: ‘wails and groans’ emanating from a torture chamber, shadowy figures crossing the windows of the Great Hall and an invisible force that tries to shove people down the stairs leading to the Minstrels Gallery. Kirkup also states that the gardens are haunted by a headless gardener, an apparition has been seen emerging from the lake and a phantom funeral cortege has been seen from time to time in the grounds.

A former resident, Leonora, Lady Tankerville, considered herself to be psychic and had several visionary experiences while living at Chillingham. They included the crisis apparition of a soldier killed in the Great War and a group of people in Tudor dress walking along the parapet of a tower.

[SOURCE: Ghostly Northumberland by Rob Kirkup; Mysterious Northumberland by Rupert Matthews; www.chillingham-castle.com]

Text © Richard Holland 2011. Picture by Glen Bowman, Wikimedia Commons

18. PENGERSICK CASTLE: Praa Sands, Cornwall

A gloomy old pile on a bit of marshy ground near the sea, Pengersick is arguably the most haunted site in Cornwall and has become increasingly popular with organised ghost hunts.

One of these was carried out by members of the Ghost Club. Secretary at the time, Robert Snow, reported seeing a ghostly, misty shape materialise behind another investigator in the main bedroom. It was roughly the shape of a human being but vanished when someone switched the light on. After the light was switched off again, Mr Snow saw what he took to be a female figure near the bed. It approached him, but backed off when he went to meet it. He said that as he got close to it, he felt a zone of freezing air in front of it, ‘just like walking into a cold store’.

The ghost may have been that of a woman who has been seen on the four-poster bed writhing in agony. Another female phantom has also been seen in the room, walking in through the wall. Other spooks include a monk who was murdered by a former owner; a Mr Millington who tried to poison his wife but ended up being poisoned instead; a spectral dog with red eyes; and a black cat that chases equally ghostly rats. There is also an old legend attached to the castle which involves a murdered woman’s spirit entering into that of a white hare and causing the death of her killer by making his horse shy.

[SOURCE: Haunted Britain by Antony Hippisley Coxe; Haunted Castles by Richard Jones; Robert Snow in Paranormal Magazine issue 30. See also http://www.cotcpi.co.uk/pengersick%20castle%20report.htm]

 Text © Richard Holland 2011. Photo © Stacey Logan

19. BLUE BELL HILL: Maidstone, Kent

The roads that wind around Blue Bell Hill are patrolled by many strange phantoms. This is the haunt of the UK’s most famous ‘phantom hitch-hiker’: a young woman who accepts lifts from motorists but who then vanishes from the car. She is believed to be the spirit of a girl killed in a road accident in the 1960s.

However, she is not the only ghost to be encountered here. In 1993, according to phantom hitch-hiker researcher Sean Tudor, a family driving on Old Chatham Road in the early hours of the morning, saw a female figure dressed in a long gown, a tartan shawl and a bonnet. They slowed and the woman turned round and revealed a ‘horrific… wizened face’ with ‘small, black beady eyes’ and a mouth like ‘an empty black hole’. The apparition uttered a hissing sound and waved a bundle of twigs at the terrified family.

She may be the same ‘hag’ local researcher Neil Arnold was recently told haunts the back lanes around Blue Bell Hill accompanied by two spectral hounds. Mr Arnold also spoke to a man who, in 2001, saw a ‘large white hound’ bound across the road at Lower Bell apparently unseen by an oncoming driver. A grey dog ‘as big as a calf’ was seen on Blue Bell Hill in the 19^th century and may be connected to the mauling to death of a peddler by a similar dog a century earlier.

‘A hulking, hairy creature around seven-feet tall’ and with glowing eyes has also been reported in the woods around Blue Bell Hill.

[SOURCE: Paranormal Kent by Neil Arnold]

Text © Richard Holland 2011 Photo of a footpath on Blue Bell Hill is © Aylesford Tommo / http://www.flickr.com/photos/55976514@N02/