13 haunted inns of Britain and Ireland

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.

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