Six of the best haunted hotels in Britain

View from a Signature Ivy Room at The Angel Hotel, Bury St Edmunds

From ghost tours to apparitions of Mary, Queen of Scots, Britain’s haunted hotels have enough ghoulish tales to give you a fright.

View from a Signature Ivy Room at The Angel (1024x683)
The view from the Angel Hotel, Bury St Edmunds, which overlooks the medieval Abbey Gardens

With so many centuries of history, including the grizzly executions of kings and queens, as well as bloody battles, it’s little wonder that Britain has so many stories of ghosts and witchcraft. For those with a penchant for the supernatural, a stay in some of the country’s most haunted hotels can get the hairs standing up on end, while for others it’s simply the perfect excuse to head to a medieval town and soak up some of the terrible tales.

Scroll down our list of six of our favourite haunted hotels…

The Ancient Ram Inn, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire

The Ancient Ram Inn dates back to 1145 and is considered one of the most haunted buildings in Britain. Stories of sacrifice and black magic abound while the hotel has appeared in various popular TV ghost-hunting shows, each time terrifying the living daylights out of anyone who sets foot there.

The Haycock Hotel, Cambridgeshire

Guests at The Haycock Hotel in Cambridgeshire have supposedly witnessed the ghost of Mary, Queen of Scots who stayed here on her way to execution at Fotheringhay Castle. Guests have also reported seeing apparitions and ghostly presences in public areas that send shivers down the spine.

Facade of The Angel Hotel
A coaching inn has existed on the site of the Angel Hotel since the 15th century

The Angel, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

The Angel Hotel is a 15th-century coaching inn in medieval Bury St Edmunds, covered in vine with an underground bar where locals claim to have heard creepy footsteps at the dead of night. Visitors can test their nerves by taking part in an annual ghost trail around the cobbled streets of the town hearing unnerving tales of murder, blood and guts in the town square, fire and uproar at the Cathedral, and stories of witches burned at the stake.

Ettington Park Hotel, Warwickshire

This Neo-Gothic mansion close to Stratford, was chosen as the exterior location in the 1963 film The Haunting. Various paranormal activity is said to occur in the library, with books flying off shelves, mysterious floating candles and the ghost of a monk in the church.

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Inexplicable noises of cartwheels and horses’ hooves haunt the 18th-century Jamaica Inn

Jamaica Inn, Bodmin Moor, Cornwall

Well known as the setting of the Daphne Du Maurier novel of the same name, this coaching inn dates from 1750 and is the site of smuggling paraphernalia, not to mention inexplicable noises of cartwheels and horses’ hooves in the cobbled courtyard. There is also said to be a man in a tricorn hat who walks through walls and the sounds of voices talking in foreign tongues.

Tudor House Hotel, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire

Spirits lurk in the corridors of this hotel in this picture-perfect Tudor town, including that of a ghost dog and a maid who apparently likes to tuck people into bed at night. So you might need to wrap up extra warm during your stay unless you want to be awoken by an uninvited visitor…

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