The Prince Rupert Hotel in Shrewsbury

If you're after a really scary night, The Prince Rupert Hotel in Shrewsbury, Shropshire could be the hotel for you. In room six, guests have reported seeing the figure of a jilted bride hanging from the ceiling, while room seven is believed to be haunted by the ghost of a young man who killed himself after an unhappy love affair. Apparently, the disturbances in room six were so unnerving that it has now been turned into a conference suite

Prestbury - The Most Haunted Village in Gloucestershire

You will find the charming village of Prestbury, with its thatched and timbered cottages, on the north-east fringe of Cheltenham. It was made part of the Cheltenham Borough in 1991 following a boundary change.

Apparently more paranormal activities have been experienced here than almost any other village in England. Only Pluckley in Kent is said to boast more ghosts haunting its streets. It is, therefore an excellent place to visit during the build up to Halloween if you want to match a walk with the seasons.

Having parked your car in the small public car park just off Mill Street, an ideal pub to visit before or after your walk is the 17th century Plough Inn, Mill Street. The Plough Inn which is said to have begun life as a bakery, stands opposite 12th century St Mary’s Church where the ghostly Black Abbot is said to reside.

This delightful thatched pub serves well-cooked basic pub grub and a fine selection of real ales, which are all served with a smile. It also boasts a picturesque garden at the rear.

Your walk starts at the car park. On leaving it turn right into The Bank and right again into Mill Street then walk on in this direction until you reach the B4632 which – despite being a B road – is very busy. Caution is advised before crossing. Having crossed the road, walk 100 yards to the left until you reach a stile and a way marker. On entering the first field walk diagonally left until you reach another stile.

Now it is a matter of following a well-worn track, bearing slightly to the left until you come to a stile which bears right and takes you to yet another stile and a field leading to Queen’s Wood, which will appear in front of you. Now cross a track, having climbed a stile each side of the track, and enter the field that abuts the wood. This walk does not take you into the wood, instead keeping it on your right you follow its boundary and then a path which dips down past several old oak trees to a stile that returns you to the main road. As you walk this section Cheltenham’s famous racecourse comes into view, also the magnificent 15th century Tudor Manor House, once the home of Lord Ellenborough, a former Governor General of India, now the Hotel de la Bere, which like so many buildings in this area is reputed to be haunted.

Once you have crossed the road again, turn right and follow the pavement which bears left through a stylish housing estate. Soon you will spot a track on the left hand side which leads to a gate, and then a kissing gate and a field. You will now be approaching the Hotel de la Bere on the right and be close enough to admire its ancient architecture properly.

At this point a well-worn track, which appears on the horizon to the right, will guide you back to Prestbury. Having passed a series of paddocks and fields you will cross a footbridge and gate that would have once provided a crossing over a fast moving stream. This year it is bone dry, not a spot of water to be seen.

Keeping the hedge to your right aim for the right hand corner of the field where you will discover yet another kissing gate and a minor road that leads to Shaw Green Lane. As you walk this lane you may encounter a ghostly rider, said to be a royal dispatch rider. Walk this lane without hearing the spectral hoof beats and you will come to a footpath that travels through the houses and will take you back to Mill Street. You could return home at this point, or have fun wandering round Prestbury, spotting the many streets and buildings that are reputed to be haunted. These include:

• Sundial Cottage in the Burgage where you might hear a young girl playing the spinet. As the Burgage is a medieval passage, you might well encounter a phantom with an arrow through his heart who is said to appear from time to time too.
• Reform Cottage, Deep Street, is built alongside a monk’s burial ground, so be prepared to see a ghostly monk or two.
• In Mill Street you may well spot Mrs Pree’s ghost who glides along the road towards the fields. As this street is the scene of many hauntings, you may also meet the Black Abbot wandering there, also a man dressed in a mackintosh.
• Stand outside the Plough Inn and be prepared for the sound of horses hooves galloping down the street. Herdsmen once found it difficult to get their sheep to pass the Plough Inn and dogs are sometimes seen to cower beside the front door.
• High Street is home to a ghostly old lady in a large hat, a singing ghost and a woman in long cloths and a mob cap who glides two feet above the surface of the road.

Chickamauga, Chattanooga Tennessee

The Battle of Chickamauga was one of the most important battles in the Civil War. It was a confederate victory and is considered by historians to be the most significant Union loss of the war. The battle also saw the second highest casualties of the war, behind Gettysburg. In the aftermath of the battle 34, 624 Americans were killed and another 24,430 were wounded. In a twist of ironic foreshadowing the river that the battle is named for was named by the Cherokee Native Americans before the battle took place and can be loosely translated to mean “river of death”. But perhaps the Cherokee had their own reasons for calling it river of death.

The Chickamauga battleground is claimed to be the home of many paranormal entities. Some claim that one of these ghosts dates back to a time before the civil war. It is said during the battle that many of the soldiers claimed to see a six-foot humanoid on the battlefield. It is said that the figure would drag off the dead bodies and wounded, and some claim to have seen it eat the dead. The creatures most striking feature was its piercing green eyes. Sightings of Old Green Eyes as locals affectionately call him still continue to this day. Other apparitions are said to haunt the ground as well. A mysterious lady in a white dress is often seen wondering the battlefield; perhaps looking for a lost loved one. The most interesting of all these sightings, though, are those of whole cavalries.

David Lester is a Civil War buff that takes part in the yearly reenactments of the battle. He claims that about five years ago, he and several of his friends went to say hello to some fellow confederate soldiers that were camped nearby. Lester found their unwillingness to break character charming and admired their dedication to the reenactment. Lester and his friends returned to their campsite several hours later and turned in for the night. The next morning when they got up, the campsite they had visited the previous night was gone. So were the confederate soldiers they spent hours with. There wasn’t even a sign of a fire or stakes in the ground where the tents would have been.

Babenhausen Barracks

At the German Babenhausen Barracks (now a museum) the ghosts of German soldiers, some in World War II era uniforms, have been reported. Lights are said to turn off and on by themselves and voices are heard in the basement. Footsteps and commands are allegedly heard at night, supposedly without physical cause. Legend has it that if a soldier happens to visit the museum and pick up a telephone, a woman will at times be heard “talking backwards”, unintelligible, in neither German nor English. The town was the site of a witch burned at the stake in the 19th century, and her ghost is said to have seduced, and then killed, several German soldiers since then. Pictured above are two American Soldiers at the Barracks in 1974

The USS Hornet

The USS Hornet was a flagship vessel in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was one of the most highly decorated ships of that time period. She was also a pinnacle part of the Vietnam War and had the honor of recovering the astronauts returning from the moon in the Apollo 11 and 12 space missions. This success also has a dark side as this decorated warship has seen over 300 deaths. Most of which were men struck down in battle, but others died in freak accidents like snapping cables that decapitate sailors or men accidentally being sucked into air intake pipes. The hornet, for all its success, also has the highest suicide rate of all the ships in the Navy.

The ship was retired in 1970 and was docked in Alameda, California and was opened up to the public in 1998 as a museum. It was then that many of the visiting tourists and crew aboard the ship began having paranormal experiences. Doors opening and shutting with no visible force, disappearing tools, objects moving by themselves, and the apparitions of sailors carrying about with their duties as if it was still 1944 are among the paranormal claims. Some people even claim that the ghosts on board the ship can be hostile in nature with claims that some have been pushed and grabbed by an invisible force while on board the ship.

The USS Hornet is a ship rich and history and possible rich in paranormal activity as well. Perhaps the cause for all this activity is the tragic past and abundance untimely deaths. Regardless of the cause of the haunting, the ship is notorious for its historical value as well as its ghosts. It is often called the most haunted vessel in the American Navy.

Bell Witch

The story of the Bell Witch has been a mainstay around campfires in the Tennessee area for many years. It is considered to be the most well documented haunting in American history. In 2005 the story received national attention when it served as the basis for the movie An American Haunting starring Sissy Spacek and Donald Sutherland. The movie, unfortunately, was not an accurate retelling of the story. It took the basics of the story and shoehorned it into a Japanese style ghost-revenge flick. The real story of the Bell Witch is far more interesting and frightening than the movie ever thought about being.

In the early 1800s a man by the name of John Bell decided to follow the lead of many other Americans at the time and seek opportunities out west. He uprooted his family from the Carolinas and moved to the Red River community in Tennessee, present day Adams, Tennessee. John was very successful in Tennessee. He acquired a large amount of land and a large house in Tennessee to raise his family. He also became a high-ranking official at his local church. His success would unfortunately come with an unbearable price.

The haunting did not start until 1817, after the Bells had been settled in their new house for several years. One day John was inspecting his crops when he spotted something strange in his field. He slowly approached the animal armed with his gun. The creature was an abomination of nature. It seemed to have the body of a large dog, but with an unusual head that resembled a rabbit. John took several shots at the animal before it got away from him. John thought nothing more of the incident, as guns in that time period were not known for being accurate, so he just assumed he had missed the strange animal.

Side note: Why do you think wars in this time period were fought where people stood in line and took turns taking shots at each other? It was to increase the chances they would hit something. This is not a joke, but the truth. This is how inaccurate weapons were.

That same night the Bells began hearing strange noises outside of their home. Sometimes it would sound as if someone was beating on the house from the outside. Other times it sounded as if an animal was loudly gnawing on something. As time went by the Bells frequently began experiencing these noises. The Bell men would often rush outside when the noises would start and try to find the source of the disturbances but to no avail. One day the noises moved to the inside of the house. The children began claiming that they were hearing the gnawing noises coming from within their rooms and were having trouble sleeping. The activity became more intense when the children began complaining that something was jerking the covers off them and taking their pillows while they tried to sleep.

As time passed the entity appeared to gain strength. Soon the family started hearing a faint voice in their homes at night. What the voice was saying was impossible to determine, but it appeared to be the voice of a feeble old woman. The voice eventually become more clear and would sing church songs, quote scripture, and sometimes even took part in conversations, though the voice was always cynical in these discussions. The entity even began identifying itself as the “witch” of Kate Batts, a former neighbor who John had several verbal altercations with after a slave purchase between the two ended badly.

The Lady of Bachelor's Grove

This photo was taking at Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery in Illinois. While it does not get the press that Illinois Resurrection Cemetery does, many experts in the field of the paranormal consider it to be one of the most haunted graveyards in the world. So what is so unique about a photo of a women sitting on a stone in a graveyard? According to the people who took this photo the woman was not there when the picture was taken. The photo was taking by Mari Huff who is a member of the respected paranormal investigating group Ghost Research Society, so this helps lend some credibility to the story. In my opinion, it looks to be a staged photograph but I definitely think the photo’s authenticity is worth a debate.