We rate the UK’s spookiest Ghost Tours just in time for Halloween
IF there’s something strange in your neighbourhood, you can bet there’s a ghoulish guide to show you where it is.
Ghost tours are becoming frightfully popular all over the UK as thrill-seekers queue up for the chilling chance to spot a spook. One vicar even banned nosy groups snooping in his haunted graveyard in Prestbury, Gloucs.
Drawing back the veil on the spirit world, here we reveal the top UK tours for ghost spotting and give each a scare rating out of five.
CHESTER
Best for scaredy-cats: Haunted pubs, churches, graves...and a chocolate shop poltergeist
WITH apparitions of screaming men seen running through its streets and women walking through walls, the ancient city of Cheshire has an eerie reputation as one of the most haunted places in the country.
Led by Liz Roberts, The Chester Ghost Tour takes punters through haunted pubs, shops, churches and sinister spots where witches, vikings and criminals were executed.
There is even a haunted chocolate shop where a woman hanged herself after being jilted at the altar in 1659. The poltergeist is known to chuck chocolates – so duck if you want to avoid the Cadbury’s Scary Milk.
SPOOKIEST SPOT: At St Mary’s Hill you can walk over the burial site of the witches and criminals who were hanged there.
One witch cursed the executioner who refused to bury her inside the church and vowed to appear to any man who walked over her burial ground at midnight.
TICKETS: £10 adults, £9 children, or £25 for a family of two adults and two kids. For more information, see .
SCARE SCORE: 🎃🎃🎃
IN Ye Olde Salutation Inn, in Nottingham, dolls are kept in the cellar for the ghost of a five-year-old girl, who died there in the 17th Century. When one landlord dared to clear them out, his beer went off overnight.
BRIGHTON
Scariest building: It’s not always fun to stay at the YMCA where a spooky spectre lurks
IF you do like to be terrified beside the seaside, then head to the East Sussex resort and enter haunted Steine House.
Ghost Walk Brighton takes you into the 215-year-old building where the ghost of George Prince of Wales’ secret wife Maria Fitzherbert is said to roam.
Paranormal activity on the property – now home to the YMCA – has even been caught on CCTV.
Elsewhere, the spirit of an amorous gentleman loiters on Black Lion Lane, where some women claim he has given them a peck on the cheek.
On Meeting House Lane, ghost-hunters often feel intense sadness by a spot where the spectral image of a shrouded woman who is thought to be a nun has been seen.
She has been spotted disappearing through a wall and covered by mist and cold air.
Those who have been on the walk report experiencing paranormal energy and being touched by spirits.
SPOOKIEST SPOT: There are plenty of spirits available at The Druid’s Head. The pub has witnessed more than 100 supernatural experiences, including flickering lights, sightings of apparitions, glasses flying off shelves and spinning bottles.
TICKETS: £8 adults, £4 children, £5 concessions. See .
SCARE SCORE: 🎃🎃🎃
ONE in three of us believes in ghosts. Just under a third have felt the presence of a supernatural force, and a whopping ten per cent think we’ve communicated with dead people.
EDINBURGH
Creepiest chills: Get a double dose of fear with creepy vaults and graves
IT’S all going down on the Double Dead experience – which takes you below ground for a terrifying tour.
Your guide leads you into the pitch-black South Bridge Vaults where ghosts, ghouls and real-life rats lurk.
Packed in and unable to see much in the darkness, it’s impossible not to feel a little panicky about what could reside in these chilling chambers.
Then it’s on to Greyfriars Graveyard, where a resident poltergeist who lives inside a crypt is said to have knocked more than 3,000 visitors unconscious.
City Of The Dead Tours boast that the locations are “two of the most haunted places on the planet” – and warn that the experience “can cause genuine physical and mental distress”. You have been warned . . .
SPOOKIEST SPOT: Watch out for Vault 19 on the first part of the walk.
On a recent tour, torches flickered out and a chill descended in the room.
One mum went to reach for her daughter’s hand, but she had vanished.
When the lights came back on, the little girl was found facing the wall in the corner . . . but who had led her there?
TICKETS: £16 adults, £14 discount. £12 children. See .
SCARE SCORE: 🎃🎃🎃
EVER felt a strange chill while driving? Phantoms are said to haunt many UK highways, including Stocksbridge Bypass in Sheffield; A32 Brighton; M6 Manchester; and “Devil’s Highway” A666 in Bolton.
OXFORD
Family-friendly frights: It offers a fun night for kids and grown-ups alike – but watch out for the Devil
SPOOKY Bill Spectre takes chill-seekers through the university town and gives them an education in frights.
Dressed as a Victorian undertaker, his tour is fun for brave children over Halloween and frightening enough for grown-ups too – even if you don’t believe in ghosts.
Oxford is packed with haunted spots and spooky sightings.
And as darkness falls, its atmospheric cobbled lanes and historical buildings take on a sinister edge.
On Brasenose Lane, the Devil himself is once said to have appeared. Meanwhile, apparitions abound around New College and Christchurch College.
On the night we went, punters Grace Kiddie and Talise Beveridge, both 22 and from Oxford, said they had come to experience supernatural energy while Michael Griffin, 33, had travelled from York to get a few scares.
SPOOKIEST SPOT: Medieval Oxford Castle has reported ghostly activity, while a number of paranormal investigations have taken place there. Inexplicable footsteps and strange mists have been witnessed, with ghostly figures seen wandering about.
The poltergeist activity has been so disturbing that priests have been called upon to perform exorcisms.
Enter if you think you have the sixth sense and can see dead people.
TICKETS: £10 adults, £7 children aged 13 to 15, £5 children five to 12. See .
SCARE SCORE: 🎃🎃🎃
THE so-called Screaming Woods in Pluckley, Kent, is one of the UK’s most haunted spots. Last year one mum caught two “ghosts” on camera as her children played there – in broad daylight.
DERBY
Best spine-chilling stories: A night in the cells in the company of a master storyteller . . . and a dead boy soldier
GHOST guide Richard Felix has come across a few spooks in Derby Gaol – and the skilled storyteller shares his tales of terror during a night in the cells.
He has bumped into a few spooks in the 18th Century prison, including a sinister figure dressed in a grey hood who brushed past him one night.
On another occasion, a door mysteriously slammed shut, locking him in. Pictures are said to fly off the walls.
Richard believes spirits still roam the world – and the room becomes chilly when he tells the story of Samuel Bonsall, a man wrongfully executed for murder. His ghost is said to haunt the tower.
The creepiest moment comes as we scale a tower which Richard says is haunted by the spirit of a dead boy soldier. Ghost-hunter John O’Toole, 55, a heating engineer from Derby, thinks he can detect a presence.
He says: “I felt tight in the chest – I felt something there.”
Suddenly, the lights flick off and on again.
Could it be someone playing tricks – or a ghost?
SPOOKIEST SPOT: Now a working museum, Derby Gaol isn’t regarded as one of the UK’s most haunted buildings for nothing.
Many of its prisoners were sentenced to brutal executions and several spirits are believed to reside in the walls.
Paranormal activity is said to peak between October and December.
TICKETS: £25. See .
SCARE SCORE: 🎃🎃🎃🎃
NEARLY three in ten pet owners claim their animal has seen a ghost or sensed something supernatural in the room. Four in ten people believe their furry friend will come back as a ghost.
LONDON
Most unnerving night: Ghostly voices and mysterious servant girl spotted in deserted alleyway
BILLING himself the “Master Of The Macabre”, ghost guide Richard Jones takes his punters along creepy cobblestones and through haunted buildings to a terrifying churchyard housing a solitary tomb.
Parts of the capital look eerie at night anyway – but after going on this tour of the City of London, many doubters may find it hard to be sceptical about the existence of the spirit world.
Leading the tour around shadowy spots and deserted alleyways, Richard says past participants have noticed power suddenly draining from their phones.
One group of ghost hunters who were armed with recording equipment were apparently told to “get out” by ghouls.
And a woman found that her keys had mysteriously bent in her pocket.
Richard has been guiding chill-seekers around London since 1982 and has written 22 books on ghosts and legends.
His tour ends in a graveyard where you are given a chance to perform a ritual to raise the spirits of the dead – if you dare . . .
SPOOKIEST SPOT: The ghostly face of a servant girl in a white mop cap has been photographed in a deserted alley a number of times. She was last seen there only a week ago – but no one knows who she is.
TICKETS: £10. For more info, see .
SCARE SCORE: 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃
PENDLE Hill, Lancs, was home to the ten Pendle Witches, hanged at Lancaster Castle in 1612 and buried there. Ghost-hunters are known to descend on the site for Halloween.
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