13 haunted inns of Britain and Ireland

Britain and Ireland are famous for their inns and hostelries - and their ghosts. Spectral monks, Victorian ladies and, even, a nude clog-wearing lady abound. Historian and inveterate ghost-hunter Richard Jones seeks out the most charming inns with the spookiest ghost stories in his book Haunted Inns of Britain and Ireland. Here, we feature some of his seriously spooky places to stay in the UK and Ireland.

The South West
The Dolphin Tavern
Quay Street
Penzance, Cornwall
01736 364106
At least three ghosts are known to reside here. The old sea captain - who wears a tri-cornered hat, lace ruffles and a jacket with brass buttons - is known as George and plods the upstairs rooms and corridors in the dead of night. Another is a woman in Victorian dress, who flits across the main bar, startling onlookers. The final phantom is that of a fair-haired young man, who has been discovered standing at or sitting on the end of successive landlords' beds. No one has ever discovered his identity, for when spoken to, he melts away.

The South
The Crown Hotel
25 Market Street
Poole, Dorset
01202 672137
Legend holds that in the 17th century deformed twins were born to this building's owner. Their parents kept them chained in an upstairs room away from the eyes of the world. The poor mites eventually died and were, tradition claims, buried under the floor of the inn's larder. Their ghosts have since become a more or less permanent ethereal fixture, and the sound of children playing has often echoed across the inn's empty courtyard at the dead of night.

Adapted with permission from Haunted Inns of Britain and Ireland by Richard Jones, New Holland, £12.99.

London
The George Inn
77 Borough High Street
Southwark, London
020 7407 2056
This establishment is the capital's only remaining galleried coaching inn and the woman seen floating around the rooms is believed to be the technology-averse former landlady, Miss Murray. She kept the George for 50 years in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the end of the coaching age led to the demolition of neighbouring inns. Three galleries of the George were demolished before public outcry saved the building. Here, new tills can be guaranteed to go wrong. Computers crash for no reason. And digital cameras often malfunction when photographing the interior of one of the London's most timeless hostelries.

The South East
The George
45 Guildford Street
Chertsey, Surrey
01932 886781
The George was probably built as a hunting lodge in the 14th century, and has managed to acquire a ghostly lady of unknown identity. Many times people have been enjoying a drink in the bar when they hear quick footsteps across the upstairs floor. 'It's her', someone might cry, and those in the know will dash upstairs in hopes of catching her. But in vain - there is never any sight of her. Sometimes an indentation is found in the centre of a bed upstairs, as if someone (or something) has been sitting there just seconds earlier.

The Home Counties
The Ostrich Inn
42 High Street, Colnbrook
Slough, Berkshire
01753 682628
In the late 1300s wealthy travellers would stop to change into finery here before appearing at nearby Windsor Castle. The landlord Jarman soon devised a method of relieving them of their riches and their lives. He would ply them with drink and put them in his 'best room'. When they were asleep, he would undo two bolts on the ceiling in the room beneath. The bed above would tilt down at a 45-degree angle, sending the sleeper tumbling into a vat of boiling fat. He would steal his victim's belongings and dispose of the body in the river. Finally, one night a drunken stranger crawled into bed only to climb out again to use the chamber pot. When the bed tilted and disappeared, his shouts roused the other guests and Jarman's murderous career was over. On the gallows he boasted of having killed more than 60 people. Staff are often troubled by the sinister atmosphere in certain sections of the inn and nighttime sleep can be disturbed by the eerie sound of creaking boards, ghostly sighs and spectral bumps, attributed to Jarman's hapless victims.

East Anglia
Old Ferry Boat Inn
Nr Holywell, St Ives
Cambridgeshire
01480 463227
The stone floor of the Old Ferry Boat lies hidden beneath plush carpet, except for one rectangular slab of ancient granite which the owners would never dare cover, for beneath it are said to rest the mortal remains of Juliet Tewslie. Neglected by her lover, Tom, Juliet is said to have hanged herself on 17 March around 1078. On finding her body, Tom was overcome with grief and remorse. He buried her where she had died, marking the grave with the block of granite over which the inn was later built. The evening of 17 March is something of a party night at the inn. The first chimes of midnight are said to bring Juliet rising from her grave to float around the pub.

Adapted with permission from Haunted Inns of Britain and Ireland by Richard Jones, New Holland, £12.99.

Heart of England
The Ancient Ram Inn
Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire
01453 842598
This inn possesses a genuinely chilling aura and a reputation so menacing that many local people won't walk past it. The 'Men's Kitchen' reputedly stands on a pagan burial ground and a baby's cries are often heard here. On the first floor, a medium entering the Bishop's Room was lifted off the ground and flung across the corridor. Witnesses have heard terrified screams of a man reputedly murdered here by having his head thrust into the fire. Those who spend the night here have often attracted the lustful attentions of either an incubus or a succubus. It is a place where nightmares abound and not for those of a nervous disposition.

The Midlands
Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem
Brewhouse Yard, Castle Road
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
0115 947 3171
The 'trip' in the name of this inn, established 1189, means a place to break your journey. In 1330 Edward III entered Nottingham Castle through the inn when he came to arrest his mother's lover, Roger Mortimer, who had been responsible for the murder of his father, Edward II. Mortimer was dragged to the Tower of London and exectued at Tyburn. Isabella's ghostly entreaties to spare her lover are said to still sound here and ghostly footsteps are often heard pacing around the caverns that form the pub's cellar (they can be visited with the landlord's permission).

Welsh borders and Peak District
Lion and Swan Hotel
Swan Bank
Congleton, Cheshire
01260 273 115
Dating from the early 15th century, this building has an ornately carved fireplace in the restaurant. Lions, together with four figures and fruits of a decidedly erotic appearance are featured. The carving's panels may once have been the end of a bridal bed, intended as a fertility aid. The hotel's female ghost appears in the vicinity of the fireplace in the early hours, wearing only a pair of clogs and a winsome smile. No one knows for certain who she was, although it is suggested that she was possibly poisoned by a love potion she had enthusiastically imbibed.

The North
The Old Silent Inn
Hob Lane, Stanbury
Keighley, West Yorkshire
01535 647437
One story tells that this inn took its name after Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed at the inn for several weeks during the 1745 Jacobean uprising. The villagers were told to 'keep silent' about their illustrious guest's presence and the name of the pub commemorates their refusal to betray their royal patron. As for the haunting, tradition holds that a kindly old landlady provided food for the wild cats that foraged on the moors. She would announce feeding time by ringing a bell from a doorway of the inn that has since been blocked up, and this is where a ghostly tinkling is now heard.

Adapted with permission from Haunted Inns of Britain and Ireland by Richard Jones, New Holland, £12.99.

Wales
The Skirrid Mountain Inn (pictured on first page)
Llanfihangel Crucorney
Nr Abergavenny, Gwent
01873 890258
Almost 200 felons were hanged from an interior beam in this delightful hostelry, which doubled as a courthouse from 1110. Several visitors have felt the terrifying sensation of an invisible noose being slipped around their necks and being tightened. Although they manage to break free from the malign grip, their necks bear the distinct impression of rope marks for days afterward.

Scotland
Globe Inn
56 High Street
Dumfries, Dumfries & Galloway
01387 252335
The interior of The Globe Inn is a veritable shrine to Robert Burns, with practically every inch of wall space displaying memorabilia to the man who said The Globe was a place where he enjoyed 'many a merry squeeze'. One of the inn's attractions was barmaid Anna Park, but the couple's affair ended when Anna died shortly after giving birth to an illegitimate daughter. Burns never denied that he was the father and his wife raised the little girl as their own. The bedroom where Burns is said to have conducted his trysts is now used to accommodate paying guests. But you don't have to stay the night to meet the benevolent female spirit - who appears dressed as an 18th-century maidservant. You are just as likely to encounter her when the bar is lively. She is known to appear whenever change occurs at the inn, or when the rafters ring to the sound of celebration.

Ireland
Grace Neill's
33 High Street
Donaghadee, County Down
028 9188 2553
Grace Neill's claims to be the oldest pub in Ireland. When John Keats visited the inn, then called The Kings Arms, he was 'treated to ridicule, scorn and violent abuse by the local people [who] objected to my mode of dress and thought I was some strange foreigner'. More hospitable was the eponymous Neill, who ran the inn for much of the 19th and early 20th centuries. She often greeted strangers with a kiss. The ghosts here appear in the cosy, dark front bar. Staff have watched an unseen hand move glasses and books around. Lights get switched on and off. Slow, ponderous footsteps are heard from the bar, crossing the floor above. And people have felt an invisible presence 'pass through them' in the vicinity of the pub's staircase.

Adapted with permission from Haunted Inns of Britain and Ireland by Richard Jones, New Holland, £12.99.