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UNINVITED GUESTS AT BRITAIN’S HAUNTED HOTELS
by Lindsay Hunt

Many of Britain’s hotels have taken on a ghostly aura. Far from scaring off potential visitors, inexplicable phenomena seem to attract the curious these days.

In accomodation throughout the land, Grey Ladies (or Ladies in Black, or White, or Blue, occasionally a daring shade of Red) are reported to drift through walls and float over lakes, accompanied by spectral orbs and sudden icy chills. Hooves clatter at midnight, ghostly legions march past along old Roman roads, doors lock and unlock of their own accord, and hidden children laugh or sob on secret stairwells.

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Britain has many historic buildings in atmospheric surroundings which take the lead in these alleged phenomena, coaxing medieval monks, Victorian serving girls, and unhappy lovers to revisit old haunts. If some grisly tale of a tragic death can be unearthed from bygone days, or better still, a skeleton in a cupboard somewhere, the psychic portents abound. Specialist short-break operators can arrange all sorts of hair-raising experiences involving séances, dowsing rods and ouija boards for hopeful ghost-hunters, or at least, a promising setting in which they might just happen. Of course, nothing is guaranteed and the chances are you will enjoy a perfect night’s rest.

For most of us, the faint chance of some other-worldly experience adds no more than an amusing tease to a hotel stay – at least, in broad daylight. For others, it’s a serious quest to prove there are more things in heaven and earth, undertaken only with quantities of recording equipment and a determination to stay awake all night.

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Certain hotels crop up repeatedly on the paranormal lists. Cornwall, in South-West England, famed as a land of myths and legends, is a classic venue for ghosts. Guests and staff of the Wellington Hotel in Boscastle have experienced many strange apparitions, dark shapes and inexplicable sounds, including a figure in period dress vanishing into a wall and an old lady passing through a closed bedroom door. Not to mention the mystifying case of a small dog (a real one belonging to a writer staying at the hotel), which suddenly got up and trotted out one night yapping and wagging its tail as if being taken for a walk by some unseen presence.

Immortalised in Daphne du Maurier’s novel, Jamaica Inn, once on a wild and lonely turnpike road across Bodmin Moor, has strong associations with smugglers. Disembodied voices speak in the long-dead Cornish language, and a coach and horses crunches across the gravelled courtyard at midnight ... In fact, that courtyard was resurfaced with cobbles recently, yet the noise of the metal-rimmed wheels remains the same as in olden times. Odd, isn’t it? But even odder is the stranger in 18th-century dress repeatedly observed sitting on a wall outside the inn. He neither speaks nor moves, but bears an uncanny resemblance to a former guest summoned by a message to meet someone outside. He left the bar and his half-finished tankard of ale, and was later discovered murdered on the moor. Has he returned to finish his drink?

Haunted Coaching Inns

Coaching tales are a recurrent theme in some of our fine old former coaching inns. The Molesworth Arms in Wadebridge is reputedly visited by a ghostly stagecoach at midnight on New Year’s Eve, its four horses whipped on by a headless coachman. At Dartmouth’s Royal Castle in Devon, a mysterious coach and horses draws up at the entrance to collect an unknown passenger and vanish into the night. The 15th-century Holt Hotel at Steeple Aston in Oxfordshire is haunted by the notorious highwayman Claude Duval, a former footman to the Duke of Richmond. He was apparently so popular with lady victims that tearful petitions for his pardon accompanied him to his execution.

A handsome timbered inn called The Feathers in Ludlow, Shropshire has several interesting ghosts. One is a woman who tries to drive rivals away by pulling their hair (beware Room 211 if you’re the female half of a couple staying here). Another is a Victorian gentleman with a dog, and a third seems to be a more modern apparition who confines her appearances to men only. She’s a pretty thing in a miniskirt and a see-through blouse who walks straight through cars parked outside. One shocked guest who witnessed this young lady felt in urgent need of a restorative brandy. Relaying his experience to the hotel barman, he was soon interrupted with the news that she had appeared to several guests on previous occasions.

London Haunted Hotel

One of London’s most haunted hotels is the five-star Langham opposite the BBC’s Broadcasting House. Its spectral residents include a silver-haired doctor who murdered his bride while on honeymoon, and a German officer who killed himself shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. Room 333 is said to be a haunted bedroom, as numerous BBC journalists attest.

Ruthin Castle, now a hotel in Denbighshire, North Wales, has a resident Grey Lady, believed to be the wife of one of King Edward I’s lieutenants. She murdered her husband’s mistress with an axe in a jealous rage and was later executed herself. The hotel is noted for its medieval-style banquets.

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Not all ghosts are sinister or ill-intentioned. In the spa town of Cheltenham’s De La Bere Hotel, a 15th-century manor house once used as a girls’ school, a former matron paces the corridors at night to check that her charges are behaving. In Scotland, Edinburgh’s four-star Royal Terrace Hotel is another much-haunted venue, whose blithe spirits include a nurse in 19th-century uniform, a child from the 1800s, and a gentleman enjoying a drink at the bar. There are also reports of cupboards opening and unbidden noises and movements.

Maybe some royal ancestor from your British past family history genealogy is rattling chains in an English hotel. Duke, Earl, Baron, or just a yeoman in Tudor England, your ancestor might still owe you a record of land deed to a baronial manor.

For details of supernatural stays in some of the hotels mentioned above, contact Haunting Breaks; tel: 01686 420301.

Other spooky websites include www.hauntedhotelguide.com and www.paranormaltours.com. To plan every aspect of your holiday in Britain, and search a comprehensive database of quality-assured accommodation, see www.visitbritain.com.

Haunted Hotels featured in the article

Wellington Hotel, Boscastle, Cornwall. Tel: 01840 250202.

Jamaica Inn, Bolventor, Launceston, Cornwall. Tel: 01566 86250. A paranormal investigation night on October 31st costs £90 per person including dinner and psychic research.

Molesworth Arms, Wadebridge, Cornwall. Tel: 01208 812055.

Royal Castle Hotel, Dartmouth, Devon. Tel: 01803 833033.

Holt Hotel, Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire. Tel: 01869 340259.

Feathers Hotel, Ludlow, Herefordshire. Tel: 01584 875261. Special breaks on October 28th 2006, January 27th 2007 and March 24th 2007 including a group tour, psychics, séances and dowsing.

Langham Hotel, London W1. Tel: 020 7636 1000.

De La Bere Hotel, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Tel: 01242 545454. Murder mystery weekend in November.

Ruthin Castle, Ruthin, Denbighshire, North Wales. Tel: 01824 702664.

Royal Terrace Hotel, Edinburgh, Scotland. Tel: 0870 850 2608, Two-night Haunting Breaks on October 13th and January 19th 2007 include ghost detecting with a psychic using dowsing techniques, séances, digital photographic equipment and a ghost tour.

Article Courtesy Visit Britain

See Also:

MUNCASTER CASTLE & COACHMAN'S QUARTERS
Haunted Castle in North England's Lake District

ETTINGTON PARK
Sleep To The Manor Born
Magnificent historic manor house hotel in Warwickshire, close to Stratford, Blenheim Palace, the Cotswolds and Warwick

ENGLISH KINGS & ALE, WITCHCRAFT AND FOOTBALL
B&B with a bit'o history - Stapleton's Chantry North Moreton
A bed and breakfast with an 800 year history in one of Oxfordshire's historic small villages

WATSON! THE BREW IS AFOOT!
THE SHERLOCK HOLMES PUB
For Sherlockiana fans a can't miss stop in London

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