My night in Britain’s fanciest building, where I slept in a room said to be inhabited by a witch – and took photos that captured “glowing spiritual energy”.

If you want to get a little spooky this Halloween, book a night at the Ancient Ram Inn, said to be the most haunted building in Britain.

This ramshackle inn in south Gloucestershire has attracted the paranormal investigators of Most Haunted and the US series Ghost Adventures. Poltergeists you may share a bed with include a witch, a monk, and a succubus (a female demon).

The Grade II listed inn is located in the historic town of Wotton-under-Edge, on a former pagan burial ground and at the intersection of two ley lines, ancient invisible lines believed to have high spiritual energy. More than 800 years of history and spooky events are locked within its walls. Some in the literal sense: a mummified cat was found in the cave in the wall and the skeletal remains of children with broken daggers were unearthed under the stairs, evidence of satanic rituals.

The Bishop’s Room is considered the most haunted room. When the inn was still in operation, guests were often seen fleeing in the middle of the night, claiming to have been grabbed and even dragged out of bed by a sinister being.

I joined a group of paranormal enthusiasts who paid ghost experience agency Haunted Rooms for the pleasure of being scared to death.

This is the Bishop’s Room, said to be the most haunted in the inn. Guests claim they were grabbed and dragged out of bed

The monumental inn is located on a former pagan cemetery. More than 800 years of history and spooky events are locked within its walls

“You have to be willing to believe the unbelievable,” warned our guide Jim Nutbrown. But amazingly, he said it wasn’t an Amityville Horror type of activity. “There will be subtle signs and some nights you won’t get anything.”

But we were lucky.

Darker than dark

Is the message on the window a joke? Or a request from beyond the grave…

Laura’s group used a Ouija board in three rooms, including the haunted attic (above).

With the lights off and the doors locked, the group gathered for a séance. Two women across the street noticed that the dark corner behind me was getting even darker. My head tingled under my woolen hat and I felt very uncomfortable. After a minute the corner cleared again.

This made it all the more tempting to sleep in the back of the car.

Ghouls in the film

Laura visited the inn with a group of paranormal enthusiasts “who paid for the pleasure of being half-scared to death from the haunted experience agency Haunted Rooms.”

Some will find logical explanations for the noises, temperature drops and electromagnetic field (EMF) spikes we observed that night. But even the biggest skeptic might have trouble explaining the bright lights I caught on camera. On two separate occasions I flashed my camera in total darkness near the excavation site of the children’s skeletons, and one minute a flash of light appeared and the next it didn’t. My guide suspects orbs, manifestations of spiritual energy.

Another member of the group captured a face behind his wife’s head with his night vision camera. It was like finding shapes in the clouds. It could have been something, it could have been nothing.

In the shed, some of us felt physically ill. We saw the thermometer drop by three degrees Celsius in ten minutes and didn’t feel like we were alone at all.

A soft knock sounded under the solid floor, and soon after the spirit of the previous owner, John Humphreys, who lived there until his death in 2017, made contact via an EVP recording. After asking, “Is John Humphries here?” A tired voice whispered, “It’s me.”

The Overnight

Here on the photo is the witch’s room where Laura spent the night with her traveling companion

Laura’s guide said that this beam of light was possibly a “manifestation of spiritual energy”.

To the left of this image, a streak of light can be seen near the wall. Was it spiritual energy?

3 hours. Six of us stayed while the others returned to their warm, haunted hotels. My plus one and I made ourselves comfortable in the Witch’s Room, named after a woman who hid there after being accused of witchcraft in the 16th century.

We pulled our sleeping bags up to our eyes. “At least a succubus can’t pull my feet out of the sleeping bag,” I thought to myself. We fell asleep with our eyes closed. We got up at 07:00. The house was quiet, but just as eerie at dawn.

We didn’t feel alone there, but much to our disappointment we slept undisturbed.

Whether you’re a skeptic or a believer, you can’t deny that the Ancient Ram Inn has a fascinating backstory, and it’s enough to give even the biggest skeptic goosebumps.

For more information visit www.hauntedrooms.co.uk.

The previous owner, John Humphries, spoke to the group via an EVP (electronic voice phenomena) recording.