1. Edinburgh Castle – Edinburgh, Scotland

In the most haunted city in Europe you will find the Edinburgh Castle, located in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Visitors to this astounding structure reported that it is being haunted by a phantom piper, a headless drummer, spirits of French prisoners from the Seven Years War and colonial prisoners from the American Revolutionary War. There is even the ghost of a dog that wanders the grounds of a dog cemetery that is located on the property. There also been reports of sudden drop in temperature, shadow figures, people even felt as if they were being watched. Reports of something tugging at peoples clothing, unseen beings touching peoples face, someone even reported a burning feeling on their arm. There are even repetitive occurrences of a specter in a leather apron that stalks the corridors.

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The Edinburgh Castle stands marvelously between the sea and hills, and is over 900 years old. In the ancient dungeon are cells that are now the eternal resting place of the souls that continue to haunt this castle. Castles, back in the day, served as fortresses for the military. This castle still has ties to the army and is still used mostly for ceremonial and administrative purposes. Sentries stand watch at the gatehouse after open hours in order to guard the Honors of Scotland.

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2. The Queen Mary – Long Beach, California

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The Queen Mary was once a luxury ocean liner, but those days came to an end when the city of Long Beach purchased the ship in 1967 and transformed it into a hotel. A seventeen year old sailor was crushed to death in the engine room while trying to escape a fire. Now he is heard banging on pipes and knocking on the doors. In the hotel’s lobby, a “lady in white” has been seen lurking about. In the pool are ghosts of children. One of the spirits is a girl who broke her neck accidently near the pool. She is heard by many, asking for her mother and her doll. There is even unexplained activity in the hallway to the pool’s changing rooms. There has also been evidence of the furniture moving by itself. People also said they experienced unseen people touch their hands. A specter can be heard screaming in the front hull. Some believe him to be a sailor who was killed during a collision with another ship.

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3. Raynham Hall – Norfolk, England

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In 1936 the ghost of “the Brown Lady” was captured on film. It is considered one of the most authentic ghost pictures ever taken. The first sighting of “the Brown Lady” was during the Christmas season 1835 when Colonel Loftus was visiting. Late one night as he headed to his room, he saw a figure in front of him that suddenly disappeared as he tried to get a better look. A few days later, he saw this woman again. He said she looked like a noble woman wearing a brown satin dress. Her faced glowed, highlighting her empty eye sockets.

The Brown Lady – Picture Source

4. The Bell Farm – Adams, Tennessee

The Bell Farm became most famous through books, TV shows and movies. In the 2005 movie An American Haunting, the events that took place at the Bell Farm were dramatized. What’s so shocking is not what was displayed through movies, but the story of the Bell Farm haunting. It is the only notable and recognized throughout the paranormal community of a ghost that caused the death of a living person. During the years of 1817 and 1821 a woman entity terrorized the Bell family. She became known as the Bell Witch or more personally, “Kate.” She had tortured John Bell (the father) so much which lead to his death. He did suffer from a nervous system disorder. Because of the terrorizing, he was unable to sleep or recuperate and “Kate’s” antics made his condition worse. Beside John’s deathbed was found a vile of black liquid. When paranormal experts asked “Kate” what it was, she claimed she gave it to him. It was thought that this liquid Kate gave to John, is what killed him. In those days, to test the validity of the liquid, they placed a drop of the liquid on the family’s cat’s tongue which immediately killed it. Current residents near the Bell Farm believe Kate is still up to no good.

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5. The Whaley House – San Diego, California

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The Whaley House has the title of “the most haunted house in the U.S.” Thomas Whaley built the house in 1857 on land that was once a cemetery. Since then, numerous ghost sightings have been apparent. It was witnessed during closed hours the second floor shutters would open and close. People also noticed an eerie energy in different spots throughout the house. In the courtroom there is the smell of a cigar as if someone is sitting there smoking it. In a hallway there is the smell of perfume as if someone freshly sprayed it. There are also reports of numerous ghost sightings in this house as well.

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If you found this article interesting, here are some more paranormal articles that you’ll sure find fascinating:

Haunted Places in Illinois

Haunted New Orleans

Most Haunted City to Visit in the United States

How to Tell If Your House is Haunted

Six Haunted Houses in Virginia

10 Haunted Houses in Minnesota

10 Scariest Haunted Houses in the United States

We sigh out of relief, and are glad to be safe at home. But there are places where the dead walk, where the cursed vent their rage still. There are castles where terrible events have shattered the walls between this world and the next. In such locations the dead are restless and troubled; thus they remain trapped in purgatory. This is a brief look at three such locations in the rain swept land of Scotland, but bear in mind that there are thousands of castles, all of them with their own dark stories.

Edinburgh Castle

The most famous and most touristic of the Scottish castles has more than its fair share of ghosts. The castle sits atop a basalt plug left by a dying volcano. Millenia ago during the last ice age this rock resisted the advance of great glaciers, which crashed into it and were forced around it carving out the valleys on either side of castle rock. This affords Edinburgh castle the perfect defensive position, and it has been used for this purpose since ancient times. Beneath the castle itself lies an interconnected web work of countless tunnels and passages. Many are known and many more kept secret. It is rumored that all of Edinburgh is accessible through this most secret network.

A century ago, when the passages were first stumbled upon, a piper was lowered down into the tunnels and sent to explore them. With the simple instruction to keep playing his bag pipes so those above could chart his progress, the brave piper descended into the depths. For a while the haunting music of the pipes drifted up to those at the entrance. Suddenly the music stopped and a lonely silence descended upon the corridors.

Search parties were swiftly organized and sent down into the tunnels, but the lonely piper was never seen nor heard of since. Often, his drifting music can be heard in the castle as the lonely piper walks for ever more, trapped in the ancient catacombs beneath Edinburgh.

To travel further back into the ages past, we find another occupant who has haunted this castle since the 17th century. The headless ghost of a young boy hammering on his drums was spotted before Oliver Cromwell’s attack on September 3rd 1650. The headless boy has been seen since, always before an attack of some sort upon the capital.

Aside from the aforementioned notables, countless other ghosts haunt the castle (even ghosts of dogs). Having had such well used dungeons, where thousands lost their lives, has made Edinburgh castle one of the most unpleasant places for the living to stay. The feeling of great distress seeps out of the walls and into the souls of those who stay there. No doubt those who faded away in the dank dungeon have marked the place, their horror and despair carved in the rocks and bricks, drifting like a chill wind in the corridors. Think of these poor souls who now wander the darkness forever, trapped in the eternal nightmare caused by their violent deaths, and by the trauma of their captivity. Even those who have no knowledge of Edinburgh Castle’s grim past, soon flee in terror if left alone during the night, such is the feeling of despair that hangs saturated in the air beneath the castle.

Dunnottar Castle

With the infamous reputation as being the most haunted castle in all of Scotland, Dunnottar Castle naturally has a long and bloody history. The site was in use before even history began and has survived despite being sieged countless times and often destroyed only to be rebuilt later. Dark shadows walk the crumbling parapets, while the air takes on an icy edge. Those brave enough to enter the castle at night will hear the cries of the tormented souls drift in from the direction of the cliffs, or feel the shudder run up their spine as ghostly whispers slice at the silence. Perhaps it is no surprise that the historian Beattie of Caledonia, wrote about the place;
“To him who is familiar with history, Dunnottar speaks with an audible voice. Every cave has a record, every turret has a tongue…”

Its patchwork history began when St. Ninian built a church within the castle grounds. Come the year 681 the castle was besieged. Two centuries later in 900 the castle fell to the Vikings. In 934, the King Aethelstan of Wessex rampaged through Scotland. Thoughout the site’s stormy history of this period, various churches were thrown up to be just as quickly destroyed. Still the death toll rose.

By the end of the 13th century, the castle had grown into a small village; with a chapel, barracks, stables, and a graveyard. Barely three years before the turn of the century, in 1297, William Wallace sacked the castle and slaughtered its occupants – burning them alive in the church. The castle changed hands frequently as prior owners were driven off or slaughtered. An example of a typical episode occurred in 1685 when anti-Royalist Covenanters were imprisoned along with their families in the black depths. 160 people, women and children included, were tortured and subjected to slow agonizing deaths from malnourishment and brutality. That cliff of sorrows gained its specters when a few of these poor families attempted to escape down it. Dunnottar, even in this modern and enlightened age of ours, is still a terrifying place best visited during the day lest the specters of the night claim yet more victims.

Glamis Castle

One of the most stunningly beautiful castles to ever have been built in Scotland, Glamis Castle rises up like a Walt Disney fairytale castle, with its myriad of turrets rising up and piercing the sky. Since the 14th century its occupants have been extending it, so that it is a number of structures layered around each other, no doubt concealing a myriad of hidden spaces. The last such modification turned it into a grand baronial mansion.

It is the family home of the Earl and Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne and was the childhood home of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (the Queen Mum). Due to its royal history it is featured on the back of the Royal Bank of Scotland £10 note.

The castle is located near Angus, and its estate covers 14,000 acres (21.8m2) of the valley of Strathmore. The castle’s history is steeped in myth and legend, and it has a grim past as if to make up for its beauty. It has monsters, and demons, vampires, and the Devil himself who turned up to play cards with the unfortunate Earl Beardie. As if it didn’t have enough going for it, the castle is also believed by many to be the setting of Shakespeare’s cursed play; Macbeth.

A Grey Lady, haunts the family chapel, and it is suspected that she is the spirit of Lady Janet Douglas, who walks the corridors for all eternity, unable to find peace after her horrific death in 1537. She was burned at the stake as a witch on Castle Hill in Edinburgh having been charged of a plot kill the King (with poison). She has been spotted on a number of occasions, and may have been the inspiration behind J.K. Rowling’s Grey Lady in the Harry Potter series.

Another lady haunts the castle, and her ghost has been seen looking out of a barred window into the grounds and running about in the park, making sure that terrified witnesses get a good look at her mutilated face before disappearing off into the castle. She has no tongue, a clue to the horrors she suffered in her life, but history tells us nothing of who she was nor why she haunts the castle.

Last but not least is the infamous Earl Beardie, also known in his day as Alexander, Earl Crawford. It is said that he was staying in the castle one night as a guest, when in a drunken state he demanded a game of cards with his hosts, who flatly refused. Earl Beardie flew into an inconsolable rage, and declared that he would even play cards with the Devil himself to satisfy his thirst for the game. This had no sooner been uttered from his lips when a stranger hammered at the door, and inquired after Lord Beardie, asking if he fancied a game of cards. They holed themselves in one of the rooms, and began to play cards. No one knows how that game finished for screams and curses and yelling and cries of anguish issued forth, interspersed with the sound of rattling dice, and then silence as the stranger and the Earl disappeared. They say it was the Devil himself, and he took the Earl’s soul with him. Others say you can hear them playing still, in a secret room through which no door can reach.

Those who are not familiar with Scotland might be surprised by the sheer number of castles, but there are thousands of them, some crumbling ruins, some converted into flats and mansions, hotels and golf clubs. All have their own history, their own stories, none of them have escaped unscathed or unbloodied. All have had blood spilled in their halls, all have ghosts, all have hidden secrets. Remember and visit some of them next time you find yourself in bonny Scotland.