Historic British hotels including The White Hart Hotel, Ballygally Castle and The Sun Inn have reported guest sightings of ghosts as spooky travel searches surge by 110 per cent.
Across the United Kingdom, historic hotels and inns have built reputations for tales of restless spirits, tragic deaths and unexplained activity. Guests claim to have heard children crying, spotted ghostly figures in corridors or woken to find unexplained marks in their rooms, leading some to run straight to reception for another room while others actively seek out haunted stays.
Google searches for "spooky travel" surged by 110 per cent in the past month alone, according to research by travel company Wild Frontiers. That rise follows last week's release of the film Ghosts: The Possession of Button House, centred around a haunted mansion.
The White Hart Hotel in St Albans
The White Hart Hotel in St Albans, Hertfordshire, is a historic coaching inn dating back more than 600 years opposite St Albans Cathedral. Coaching inns along Britain's old staging roads historically provided lodging and fresh horses for stagecoach travellers.
The hotel is said to be haunted by the spirit of Elizabeth Wilson, who was reportedly killed in 1820 after failing to duck as her carriage passed beneath an archway that still stands today.
"She has been seen," Amanda Allen, who runs ghost tours at the hotel, told the Daily Mail. "I have heard all sorts from her hanging around this alley, which is where she's most been seen, to walking up and down Holywell Hill with her head cocked to one side, and it's a quite dark area out here."
Child crying and cellar sightings at The White Hart
A fire at The White Hart in 1803 also reportedly claimed the life of a young girl believed to have been around seven or eight years old, whose ghost is now said to haunt the staircase.
"The amount of people who have come down and said, 'I can hear a child crying', and then they're saying, 'I can hear knocking on my room', and there's no children in the hotel," Allen said. "I know some people do knock on doors just for a laugh on the way past, but they've even reported kicking. There's people who have said that they can feel a presence."
Guests have also reported ghostly monks, strange messages written on mirrors, lights flicking off by themselves and unexplained happenings in the cellar.
"Our guests come and stay here, and some have stories, some probably don't feel anything," Fabio Curcio, managing director at The White Hart Hotel, said. "I find more people with stories than people don't see anything or feel anything."
"Personally, when I came here, I was not a believer in ghosts or spirits, but I have definitely changed my mind," Curcio added. Over the spooky season, the hotel hosted a Haunted History Ghost Tour, including a Halloween Special three-course meal and guided tour on October 31.
Lady Isabella Shaw at Ballygally Castle
In Northern Ireland, Ballygally Castle Hotel on the County Antrim coast is said to hold the tragic spirit of Lady Isabella Shaw, an aristocrat who died in the 17th century. The coastal property is part of Hastings Hotels, Northern Ireland's largest independent hotel group.
Lady Isabella was reportedly cruelly locked away in a small turret room by her husband, Lord James Shaw, after giving birth to their daughter, and fell to her death while trying to escape through a window.
Accessible only by a narrow staircase and closed to the public for overnight stays, the turret room remains intact while Lady Isabella's spirit is said to wander the corridors searching for the baby she was separated from, with guests and staff reporting her presence throughout the castle.
Night porters and midnight room changes at Ballygally
"Lady Isabella comes and goes as she pleases but typically it's our night porters who have experienced Lady Isabella around the hotel, with doors banging closed, windows blowing open and on occasion lights flickering up the stairs of the tower itself," Matt McRoberts, Head of Marketing at Hastings Hotels, explained.
Guests have reported "feeling spirits in their bedroom while they lie in bed" and seeing books or Bibles falling off tables with no explanation, "opening at a passage", alongside wardrobe doors banging and a white figure moving across the corridor.
"On occasion some guests have woken in the middle of the night and asked to change rooms," McRoberts added. "Thankfully it's few and far between so it's not a constant change of rooms but we always look to accommodate guests to ensure they get a good night's sleep and enjoy the hotel fully."
While some holidaymakers are "perturbed" by the sad spirit, others arrive wanting to "experience the ghostly antics" and occasionally leave disappointed when Lady Isabella does not appear, "vowing to return again in the hope they spot her", according to the manager.
Witchcraft lore at The Sun Inn in Dedham Vale
In eastern England, The Sun Inn sits in Dedham Vale on the Essex and Suffolk border. Beneath its cheery yellow exterior, the building houses seven en suite bedrooms above its pub-restaurant, one of which is tied to Essex's history of witch persecutions.
That room is said to be haunted by Elsa, a French maiden who worked at the Dedham Vale establishment and was the last woman in Essex to be burned for witchcraft. Falsely accused of being a witch by village women supposedly jealous of her beauty, she was promised help by a customer before walking into a trap to be captured by witch hunters.
Guests have reported feeling Elsa's presence in the bedrooms and seeing her wailing, crying and walking down corridors in various parts of the building.
"Housekeeping have reported going back into the room having set the room up and seeing a bum print on the bed! Other guests reported seeing a figure walking in the room in the night," owner Piers Baker said.
