Haunted hotels

Dalston Hall Hotel, Lake District, Cumbria
Gosforth Hall Hotel, Lake District, Cumbria

Minerva Hotel
Strange whispers have been caught on tape here. The ghost of Laura Aubrey is said to reside here.

Old Hall Hotel, Buxton
Petty France, Gloucestershire
The Black Swan Hotel, Wiltshire

The Garrick’s Head Hotel, Bath.
In the Georgian period 1740-1830 Bath was the out-of-town social centre for the great and the good of London and few could be said to have more influence on the organisation of this social scene than Richard Beau Nash. He was a legendary gambler and socialite and owned The Garrick’s Head Inn. Next door was the Theatre Royal with which it was connected by secret passages. One can imagine dissolute Rakes escaping through the tunnels when things were not going so well at the gambling tables. Tragedy and bloodshed has also visited the Inn. A woman hanged herself behind a bedroom door when a duel was lost by the man she loved when she was the prize. Perfume has been smelt in the building, one wonders if it could it be hers? Duels over wagers and for the love of a woman would have been commonplace in such a setting. Perhaps we should not be surprised when those mortally wounded linger in the place of their demise.

A heavily built man dressed in Regency clothes has been seen by a landlord’s son entering one of the passages. His squeaky footsteps can also be heard. The theatre is no longer extant but the ghost of a woman who threw herself to her death from an upstairs window of the Inn had often been seen from the stage, sitting in one of the theatre boxes watching the performance. In one of the upstairs rooms it is said there is a window that refuses to stay shut. The sensation of having one’s face stroked has been reported and various auditory anomalies are regularly witnessed. Much of the recent activity has involved the movement of objects; keys, a mallet, even the heavy till. The smaller objects even disappear and turn up again later in places that have already been searched One unfortunate lady staying at the Inn was awoken by various strange phenomena over a period of days. On one occasion she heard a knock on her bedroom door. When she bid them enter, the handle clearly turned but the door never opened. On another night she awoke to find her room filed with an ethereal glow. On turning on the light the uncanny glow disappeared. On yet another occasion she wasn’t the only person to be disturbed. Around three in the morning she and several other guests congregated on the landing after hearing a rumbling ghostly laugh.

A reporter from a Bristol paper spent a night in The Garrick’s Head and was astounded to hear footsteps and other strange noises from empty rooms in the ancient hostelry. One interesting pattern has been noted. Each time a new landlord takes over the Inn, the ghosts become more active. Are they introducing themselves to the newcomers as the real residents of The Garrick’s Head.


The Old White Lion Hotel, Howarth, West Yorkshire
In 1906 Lily Cove, from London the only female skydiver in her time, visited the village, she stayed in room 7. The next day she plunged to her death at a gala in Howarth. Her body was taken through the village and everyone drew their curtains as a mark of respect. She is buried in a moorland cemetery just outside the village. People staying in room 7 have experience something very strange, often describing 'whilst relaxing in bed' when they feel a sensation of suddenly dropping through the air. Some have complained of waking and seeing a white faced young lady in old fashioned clothes gazing down at them from the foot of their bed.

The Schooner Hotel, Northumberland
The Station Hotel, Dudley