Paranormal Phenomena

The response to our “15 Most Haunted Places in America” video was great, so we’re continuing the theme with some of the Most Famous Haunted Places in the entire world. Check out these fascinating locations said to be roamed by spectral visitors.

1. Raynham Hall, Norfolk, England.

   Home to the ghost known as “the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall,” this country house in Norfolk has been the seat of the Townshend family for nearly 400 years. According to legend, the resident apparition is the ghost of Lady Dorothy Walpole, the sister of Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. On September 19, 1936, Captain Hubert C. Provand took a photo for Country Life magazine that has since become the most famous picture of a supposed ghost in history. According to Provand, he and his assistant were busy taking photographs of the house’s main staircase when a strange, unexplainable mist began forming on the steps. It began to move down the stairs as if it was walking while Provand snapped a few photos.

2. Poveglia Island, Italy.

   This island just to the south of Venice has an extremely dark past, being used as a quarantine station for those suffering from the bubonic plague during several points in history. Of course, it quickly became a place of death as the bodies began to pile up. In fact, so many people died on the island that it turned the soil rotten, and today the soil is comprised of about 50% human ash. The only crops that grows on the island are grapes, which can still thrive in ashy soil. The Italian tourism board prohibits visiting the island, requiring a lengthy application process to obtain approval for setting foot on the death-infested island.

3. Bhangarh Fort, India.

   Located in the Alwar district of Rajasthan, entry to this ominous mountainside fort is restricted after sunset. Legend tells of the beautiful princess Ratnavati, who received many marriage proposals, refusing the advances of a tantrik priest. The priest was well versed in black magic, and after falling in love with the princess, he cast a spell on a bottle of perfume that one of her maids was buying in the village, in order to make her love him. Ratnavati learned of this spell and threw the bottle, which turned into a boulder and crushed the tantrik priest, but not before he put a curse on the princess, her family, and the entire village. The next year, a great battle was fought between the forces of Bhangarh and Ajabgarh, which lead to the death of princess Ratnavati and most of the army. Locals believe that the curse prevents the rebirth of all those who live in the village and fort, leading to the innumerable ghost stories surrounding the fort.

4. Ancient Ram Inn, Wotton-under-Edge, England.

   Built on an ancient pagan burial ground in 1145, this cottage is supposedly haunted by up to twenty ghosts. The current owner, Caroline Humphries, inherited the The Ancient Ram Inn when her father John passed away in 2017. While renovating the property, he discovered small bones and daggers under the earth - which led him to believe that children had been sacrificed to pagan gods there before the structure was built. Paranormal experts have flocked to this site for years, with stories of flying furniture and misty apparitions torturing guests who stay overnight at the inn.

5. Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia.

   This former convict settlement on the Tasman Peninsula is now an open-air museum that is supposedly populated by the spirits of those who died in captivity. Visitors have claimed to have seen the ghosts of children, as well as hearing church bells ringing at odd times during the day. There’s also the story of the young Private Robert Young, who died in 1840 at the age of 20 by slipping off a small boat into the dark water below. His ghost is said to haunt the area around the jetty. One guest encountered him while staying at the Jetty Cottage; she woke one night and saw a specter in the room that had straight black hair and a ruffled white shirt. Other guests reported seeing the exact same specter in various locations around the jetty.

6. Burg Wolfsegg, Wolfsegg, Germany.

   The most famous ghost story of Wolfsegg Castle relates to the wife of the man who had it constructed, Ulrich Von Helfenstein. Legend tells of trouble within the couple’s marriage, caused by Ulrich’s military responsibilities that caused him to constantly travel. In his absence, his wife Klara would become bored and lonely at the castle and looked to others to fulfill her needs. Eventually, Klara engaged in an affair, which was later discovered by Ulrich. Legend states that Ulrich had her killed one night in her chamber by local men after discovering her adultery. Ever since her murder, tales began to circulate of a white woman roaming the halls of the castle, especially within Klara’s bedroom. Many believe that this is Klara’s spirit and she is also thought responsible for other bizarre activity, such as causing disturbances in electromagnetic fields, producing strange light anomalies and full-bodied apparition sightings.

7. The Amityville House, Amityville, New York.

   One of the most well-documented haunted houses in the world, the site of the Amityville Horror murders in November of 1974 captured international attention. The eldest child of the DeFeo family, 23-year-old Ronald “Butch” DeFeo, Jr., murdered his entire family in cold blood with a .35 caliber rifle. His two parents and four younger siblings all fell victim to his violence, but the rumors surrounding the events attempt to add a more supernatural context. Not only are the spirits of the slain DeFeo family said to still occupy the house, but many people speculate that the house was already haunted, and that it corrupted Butch into killing his loved ones. The successor residents to the DeFeo family, the Lutzes, lasted in the house for a mere 28 days, but apparently approached DeFeo’s defense attorney William Weber, with the proposition of selling a ghost story that was really a hoax. But the two sons of George and Kathy Lutz have claimed to have run-ins with the paranormal in their short stay in the house.

8. Casa Loma, Toronto, Canada.

   This centuries-old castle on a hill is home to many haunting stories, the most famous of which is that of the white lady who roams the halls of the second floor. Believed to be an early 20th century maid at the castle, she is most commonly seen by modern-day cleaning staff. There have also been reported sightings of Sir Henry Pellatt, who originally commissioned the construction of Casa Loma, as well as his wife Lady Mary Pellatt. According to mediums who claim to have felt their presence, the spirits of the Pellatt couple are not trapped there, instead choosing to return in the afterlife after being ousted from the castle when they couldn’t keep up with its costs.

9. Château de Brissac, Brissac-Quincé, France. (Pronunciation: “bree-SACK kain-see”)

   Built in the 11th century, this castle has been dubbed as the “tallest castle in France”, serving the Counts of Anjou in the first few centuries of its life. The famous spectral resident of the Château is known as the “Green Lady,” who is said to be the ghost of a woman by the name of Charlotte de Brézé, who was the illegitimate daughter of King Charles VII and his mistress, Agnes Sorel. A marriage was arranged between Charlotte and Jacques de Brézé, a nobleman. The politically motivated marriage between two incompatible people led to an affair on Charlotte’s part. On May 31, 1477, after Jacques had returned from a hunting excursion, he was informed of his wife’s affair with one of his huntsmen, Pierre de Lavergne. After catching his wife and her lover red-handed Jacques murdered the both of them in a fit of rage. Apparently Jacques moved out of the chateau shortly afterwards, as he could not stand the moaning of his late wife’s and her lover’s ghosts.

10. The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado.

    A single night in this hotel tucked away in Colorado’s mountain wilderness inspired Stephen King’s best-selling novel-turned-horror-film, The Shining. Massachusetts couple F.O. and Flora Stanley opened the isolated resort in 1909 - and supposedly never left. According to modern staff, Mr. Stanley occasionally pops up in photographs, and Mrs. Stanley can be heard playing her Steinway piano in the music room at night. There have also been reports of bags being unpacked, lights turning off and on, and the ghost of a little boy on the second floor. Paranormal experts refer to the Stanley Hotel as one of the most active ghost sites in the United States. To add to the ambiance, guest bedrooms have a TV channel that plays Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining on a 24-hour loop.

11. The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, Calgary, Alberta.

    This majestic hotel in the Banff Valley has welcomed famous guests from British Royalty to Marilyn Monroe. But it might be more well known for the apparent guests who have yet to check out. The most well-known part of the Banff Springs Hotel is the apparently missing Room 873, which is certainly there in the structure of the hotel, but the door has been replaced with brick and drywall. The story goes that a family of three checked into Room 873 years ago. One night the man went crazy and murdered his two loved ones. After the investigations into the murders, hotel management refurbished the room and put it back into service, but it seems the victims never really moved on, torturing guests of the room with screams in the middle of the night and leaving bloody handprints on the walls.

12. Tao Dan Park, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

    What makes Tao Dan Park a unique entry on this list is the fact that many locals have never heard of any spooky sightings or events at this park in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1. There was apparently a murder in the park in 1989, as a young man was lured there late at night to sell his motorbike. He was ambushed by three men and strangled to death as they robbed him of his wallet and keys, driving the bike away. Thankfully, the three men were all arrested for the crime, but local police claim that the murder never took place in the park. According to stories on the Internet, the ghost of the young motorcycle seller roams the park, looking for his lost lover. However, many locals refute these claims, saying that it is just a marketing tactic to encourage tourists to visit their city.

13. Aokigahara Forest, Japan. (Pronunciation: “oh-kee-guh-HAR-uh”)

    More commonly known as “the Suicide Forest,” Aokigahara Forest has the unfortunate distinction of being the world’s third most popular place to die by suicide. Since the 1950s, Japanese businessmen have wandered in, and at least 500 of them haven’t wandered out, at an increasing rate of between 10 and 30 per year. Japenese spiritualists believe that the suicides committed in the forest have permeated Aokigahara’s trees, generating paranormal activity and preventing many who enter from escaping the forest’s depths. There’s also the freaky common experience of compasses being rendered useless by the rich deposits of magnetic iron in the area’s volcanic soil. There are signs throughout the forest that discourage suicide and aim to prevent more tragic visits, but unfortunately, the trend of suicides has not slowed down in recent years.

14. Mont St. Michel, Normandy, France.

    The castle of Mont St. Michel stands on an island off the coast of Normandy and was originally a church, supposedly built by the Archangel Michael himself. A garrison was added to the abbey in the 15th century. Today, the massive structure is said to be haunted by the ghost of Louis d’Estouville, who commanded the garrison starting in 1434. A fierce Lord, Louis d’Estouville led the slaughter of two thousand Englishmen during the Hundred Years’ War. According to legend, the sand of the island was red with English blood, and Louis is said to still roam Mont St. Michel, ever its protector.

15. Akershus Festning, Oslo, Norway.

    This medieval castle was constructed in the late 13th Century to protect the Norwegian capital from invasion, but was most famously used as a prison that demanded grueling work from its inhabitants. During World War II, the castle was surrendered without conflict into Nazi control, and was used by the Third Reich to execute people for five years, until the war was over. The famous ghostly resident that guards the castle’s front gates is Malcanisen, which translates very literally to “evil dog”. Legend says that anyone who is approached by the demonic canine is sentenced to a horrible death that occurs sometime in the following three months. There’s also the story of a woman named Mantelgeisten who is often seen within the castle walls, appearing from the darkness wearing a long robe and sporting no facial features.