Britain's Haunted Hotels
Ghosts and apparitions haunt these rooms and corridors
Britain's historic hotels have many mysterious guests and here are some of the best ghostly tales of the spirits who haunt the corridors - and never pay their bills!
If you want a haunted hotel for Halloween or a ghostly getaway any other time of year, you can't beat Britain. Britain's timbered buildings and old coaching inns are full of ghosts. In hotels throughout the land, Grey Ladies drift through walls and float over lakes, horses' hooves clatter at midnight, ghostly legions march along old Roman roads and even modern girl ghosts in mini-skirts and see-through blouses appear.
Guests and staff of the Wellington Hotel in Boscastle have experienced many strange apparitions including a figure in period dress vanishing into a wall and an old lady passing through a closed door. Immortalised in Daphne du Maurier's novel, Jamaica Inn, once on a wild and lonely turnpike road across Bodmin Moor, has strong associations with smugglers. Disembodied voices speak in the long-dead Cornish language, and a coach and horses crunches across the gravelled courtyard at midnight. The courtyard was resurfaced with cobbles recently, but the noise of the metal-rimmed wheels is unchanged.
The Molesworth Arms in Wadebridge is also visited by a ghostly stagecoach at midnight on New Year's Eve, its four horses whipped on by a headless coachman. At Dartmouth's Royal Castle a mysterious coach and horses draws up at the entrance to collect an unknown passenger and vanish into the night.
In the De La Bere Hotel, a 15th-century manor house in Cheltenham once used as a girls' school, a former matron paces the corridors at night to check that her charges are behaving. In Scotland, Edinburgh's Royal Terrace Hotel claims a nurse in 19th-century uniform, a child from the 1800s, and a gentleman enjoying a drink at the bar. Spirits do seem to enjoy their spirits.
The Feathers in Ludlow has several interesting ghosts. One is a woman who tries to drive rivals away by pulling their hair (beware Room 211 if you're the female half of a couple). Another is one of the rare modern ghosts, a pretty girl who confines her appearances to men only. She wears a miniskirt and see-through blouse and walks straight through cars parked outside. One shocked guest who saw her felt in urgent need of a medicinal brandy. The barman calmed him down. 'Don't worry, sir,' he said. 'You're the sixth person who's seen her this year!'
For details of supernatural stays in some of the hotels mentioned above, contact Haunting Breaks. Other spooky websites include The Haunted Hotel Guide and Paranormal Tours
If you prefer to stay in an unhaunted hotel, search the accommodation database at VisitBritain
A longer version of this article can be read by clicking here.
See how to get your free London events guide when booking your London hotel by clicking here.
Read about the Edinburgh GhostFest by clicking here.
