The 20 most haunted places in the world

Venice might be the most romantic place in Europe, but it is also one of the most haunted. You can insert your comment about cursed love here, but good luck finding your voice in the chill of Poveglia. This abandoned island was used as a quarantine station for over a century before housing a mental hospital, which closed in 1968. It is so scary that visitors are actually prohibited, presumably for fear of, well, fear.

Hard no, hard, hard no. La Isla de la Muñecas loosely translates to ‘Island of the Dead Dolls’, which is actually more terrifying than the name suggests. The island’s hermitic owner began hanging dolls from trees in the 1940s, ostensibly to ward off evil spirits, possibly by creating a scene too creepy even for demons.

Once a mighty fortress in Rajasthan, legend has it that Bhangarh Fort was completely abandoned overnight. Why it was abandoned isn’t entirely clear (some say a hermit cursed it), but myths surround the 16th-century fortress, and its spooky status is so strong that it is illegal to be there after dark.

The Welsh love a pub almost as much as they love a story, and the oldest pub in Wales is packed with chilling tales. Located in the hills near Abergavenny, The Skirrid Inn doubled up as a centre for hangings over the centuries, and the spirits of the executed still stalk the corridors. Not exactly first-pint small talk.

Let’s be honest; it would be weird if a 19th-century penal colony wasn’t haunted, right? Port Arthur in Tasmania (Australia’s most haunted state, for the curious) is a spine-chilling spot, a place of misery where more than 1000 people died in grim circumstances, where psychological torture was more common than physical. 

The credibility of a haunted house might crumble somewhat under positive overnight reviews, but this is America, baby! Moreover, Lizzie Borden’s acquittal didn’t back up the house’s reputation as a double-murder scene, but how do you explain the strange noises at night? That couch wasn’t there when you went to bed, was it?

📍 Check out the most haunted Airbnbs in the US 

The Chuuk Lagoon may be a tropical paradise, but dark secrets hide under its waves. The lagoon is home to the world’s largest ghost fleet, making it a magnet for wreck-diving enthusiasts eager to find the remains of the Japanese South Pacific fleet. Looking for the world’s most beautiful haunted spot? Get yourself to Micronesia, pronto.

A stay at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel is only for the bravest (and wealthiest) souls. Constructed in the late 19th century, the imposing hotel is haunted by many spirits. The most notable among these is former bellman Sam Macauley, but the hotel also has a burning bride, a secret room with no windows or doors, and more. The spirit of Macauley will supposedly vanish if you attempt to tip him, which is at least one positive.

Let’s be honest, it would be weird if the Tower of London wasn’t haunted, wouldn’t it? This 11th-century castle on the north bank of the Thames was a place of oppression from the start, a fortress where unruly elements were brought to the brink of death through cruel means. Today, the tower is haunted by precisely 13 ghosts, from queens to explorers to anonymous souls. If you feel a tap on your shoulder, don’t turn around. 

Packing this list with cemeteries would be simple, but spirits wandering graveyards isn’t exactly news. The paranormal activity at La Recoleta (Buenos Aires) is on another level entirely, with many of Argentina’s most influential personalities buried here. Its crypts struggle to contain the restless souls underneath, giving rise to a star-studded ghost get-together of the celebrity kind.

Ignoring that the name suggests bad hope exists, South Africa’s Castle of Good Hope is a seriously spooky place. The bastion is cursed, to cut a long story short, a hex that began when 18th-century governor Pieter van Noodt condemned to death seven men for desertion. Hearing voices and footsteps is par for the course in every section of the fortress.

The Grand Hotel was the first luxury hotel in Lebanon’s fourth largest city, but its days of entertaining the rich and famous are long gone. Instead, troubled spirits wander its abandoned corridors in search of peace, overlooking the city known as the Bride of the Summer Resorts. Aley is also called the City of Fog, which sounds decidedly more ghost-friendly.

A gorgeous 13th-century castle in Zealand, Dragsholm is home to three ghosts, although that could rise to four depending on whether you see the Earl riding through the courtyard. The existence of these ghosts isn’t speculation; it has been backed up by psychics and mediums, so keep your wits about you if you are staying here. One spirit is called The Lingering Bishop, a name full of symbolism and sinister foreboding. Just us?

The grandiose House of a Thousand Doors was the headquarters of the Dutch East India Railway Company between 1919 and 1942, passing into the hands of the Japanese occupiers in World War II. If all of that sounds like a recipe for a haunting, you are on the right track. Lawang Sewu is Indonesia’s most haunted building, with its basements particularly fertile ground for ghosts. If you are going into the basement of a neglected building, you are asking for trouble. 

Once the most expensive prison in the world, the bars and walls of Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary now house only the incarcerated spirits of bodies long gone. The prison closed its doors for the final time in 1971, but its story has taken on a life of its own, and the penitentiary is now a popular place for haunted walks and spooky adventures.

📍 Check out the most haunted Airbnbs in the US 

You don’t need to be an expert to understand that coffins aren’t supposed to move. The whole ‘final resting place’ thing suggests as much. That isn’t the case at Chase Vault in Barbados, however, as the family crypt has a history of moving coffins as the members of the Chase family undertake a macabre game of musical chairs. Or musical tombs. Either way, it is pretty spooky.

Around 2,500 people left the tidal island of Al Jazirah Al Hamra overnight in the late 1960s. The mass desertion officially came due to local politics, but ghosts are notoriously stubborn when it comes to packing up and moving on. The houses and mosques of the abandoned village are said to be haunted, with the evil spirits supposedly the real reason for the desertion.

Edinburgh Castle is scary enough without considering its long history of unexplained voices, footsteps and mysteries. Visitors to the castle often speak of weeping phantoms and musical apparitions, but it is the so-called ‘Unluckiest Prisoner’ that sticks in the memory. Imprisoned with the rats in the dungeon, he tried to escape in a wheelbarrow filled with excrement, only to be dispatched onto the battlements below. Not the best death, to say the least.

There are countless haunted mansions, hospitals and cemeteries around the world, but there is something about a haunted theatre that really excites ghost hunters. San Juan’s oldest theatre is an engaging house of performative culture, but the actors on stage share the spotlight with restless spirits eager for one last standing ovation. 

This doesn’t need too much of an explanation. The remains of more than six million people rest under the streets of Paris in a vast network of tunnels and skulls that spooks even the most hardened of visitors. Half a million people visit the Catacombs annually, but even that massive number is outnumbered by the wraiths, ghouls, spirits and lost souls that wait patiently to take their revenge on the city.