13 haunted inns of Britain and Ireland

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.