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The Island of the Dolls of the Xochimilco Canals in Mexico

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Right outside of Mexico City you will find The Island of the Dolls in the Xochimilco Canals. Thousands of dolls hang in the small forest of the island, and according to the old caretaker of the island, the dolls are all possessed by spirits. 

In 2001 Don Julian Santana Barrera was fishing in the Xochimilco canals, not far from Mexico City with his nephew. The old man farming alone on his small island on the canals was around 80 years old and was well known for being a peculiar man among the locals. Sometimes in the 1950s, Santana Barrera had left his wife and rest of his family to live as a hermit on this island known as The Island of the Dolls without any electricity in a one-roomed hut. 

Santana Barrerawas a religious one, and rarely ventured outside of the island. He sometimes went over to the closest village to have a drink, but had been barred after he started to preach loudly about the bible and spirits many years ago, and had since then, stayed on his tiny island by himself and the spirits he claimed haunted his island.

Px-lga/Wikimedia

While Santana Barrera and his nephew were fishing together he started singing and claimed that mermaids were in the water, waiting for him. 

The nephew was used to the peculiar habits of his uncle and left for a moment, not thinking too much about it. When he returned he found Santana Barrera lifeless with his face down in the water. According to the nephew it was in the very same spot where a little girl had drowned that started the hauntings on The Island of the Dolls and his uncle’s lifelong project.

The Island of the Dolls in Mexico

But what story is behind this haunting on The Island of the Dolls has continued to intrigue people, and turned it into one of the most well known ghost stories in modern time?

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Mexico

As you navigate the labyrinthine waterways of Xochimilco on colorful trajinera boats, the atmosphere begins to change. The air grows heavier, and the sunlight struggles to penetrate the thick canopy of branches on the Laguna de Tequila. 

This place used to be a place of hiding for the Aztecs when the Spanish conquistadors came and rid their way of life. Now, the man made canals and small islands called chinampa, popularly known as floating gardens are one of the few remnants of that time. 

It is here you will find The Island of the Dolls or Isla de las Muñecas in Spanish, and the tiny farming island has by far become the most well known chinampa, and perhaps the most famed ghost story we have from Mexico. 

The Ghost of the Drowned Girl in the Canals

Sometime in the mid 20th century, Don Julian Santana Barrera, the caretaker of the island, started collecting dolls and hanging them up in the trees in the forest on the chinampa island in the lagoon around the same time he had been beaten up for talking about religion in town. The habit of collecting dolls had started in the small, but soon hundreds and then thousands of dolls were hanging in the trees over the next decades. 

Read More: Check of all stories from Haunted Forests

He said he had discovered the drowned body of a young girl in the waters years before surrounding his home. Some say he saw her drifting down the canal dead or he didn’t manage to save a drowning girl he saw tangled up in the water lilies. According to many retellings she had been playing with her sister when they got separated and she was taken by the current. 

The details of how it started is hazy, and any signs of a drowned girl connected to this story has not been found and there are no official reports about this. His family mostly think that Santana Barrera merely imagined the drowned girl. But he still set up a crucifix on the place that he claimed she died and. 

The next day he came across a doll drifting down and he believed it belonged to the girl. The doll was wearing a straw hat with sunflowers. Some also claim he heard the voice of the girl screaming she wanted her doll. He hung it from the tree as a talisman to ward off evil spirits. But seemingly, it seems it started to attract spirits if we are to believe the legends.  

Tormented by the spirit of the deceased, Santana Barrera began hanging dolls from the trees as a means of appeasing the girl’s restless soul. He was a catholic christian that also believed in the local mysticism. 

A Forest of Staring Eyes

The dolls that dangle from the branches on The Island of the Dolls have become grotesque effigies, each one seemingly frozen in a moment of silent terror. Their dismembered limbs, weathered features, and empty stares create an unnerving tableau that chills the bravest of hearts. As the wind whispers through the trees, the dolls sway with an otherworldly energy, as if animated by forces beyond mortal comprehension.

According to those close to him, it was like something possessed Santana Barrera, and it was like something on The Island of the Dolls changed him and drove him to always trying to appease the drowned girl’s spirit as well as the rest of the dolls. 

The artificially made islands called chinampa is a remnant from the Aztec and people grew their crops on the island. When the crops failed on Barreras island, it was supposedly the spirits of the dolls fault and he needed to appease them somehow. Santana Barrera claimed that the dolls themselves were possessed and continued to collect dolls, trading them to him throughout his life. 

Karpinico/Wikimedia

Santana Barrera traded them for his vegetables, he scoured the canals and found old, discarded dolls and hung them up as they were, even if they were missing a limb or was just a single head. If they were covered in moss or dirt didn’t matter, they all ended up in his collection on The Island of the Dolls. In the end there are about 4000 dolls on the island. When people came to visit he welcomed them and showed them around, looked at the dolls as his protectors and charged a fee for taking their photos. 

The family of Santana Barrera opened the island to the public after his death in 2001 when his nephew, Anastasio Santana Velasco took over as the caretaker of the island. It ended in the Guinness World Records Book as the biggest collection of haunted dolls. In the one-room hut that Barrera lived alone in they displayed the first doll that Barrera found all those years ago. 

They also have put his favorite doll, Agustina there with her glasses and turquoise. She is the only doll with a name on The Island of the Dolls. She is said to have powers of healing, and people tend to leave little offerings for her. It is also said she used to walk around at night. 

Today it is his great nephew, Rogelio Sanchez Santana that is a caretaker of The Island of the Dolls and a guardian to the dolls. 

The Hauntings in the Forest on the Island

Local lore suggests that the Island of the Dolls is a nexus of paranormal activity, with the dolls serving as vessels for the spirits that inhabit the island. His nephews claim that the same screams that his uncle had heard can sometimes be heard on the island among the trees.

Visitors have reported disembodied whispers, eerie laughter, and the feeling of unseen eyes watching their every move. Some claim to have witnessed the dolls moving on their own or heard the anguished cries of the girl whose tragic fate led to the creation of this haunted forest on the haunted island.

Most trajinera boat rowers are willing to take tourists over to The Island of the Dolls, and there have even become a stop on the tours on the canals, but to this day there are still those that refuse because of the superstitions and legends hanging over the island. People leave offerings by the dolls for blessings and some even come to change clothes of the dolls as a sort of worship. 

As the water laps against the shores of Xochimilco, the island’s ominous presence beckons the curious, daring them to step into a world where the boundary between reality and nightmare is forever blurred—an experience that, once embraced, may leave an indelible mark on the soul.

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Featured Image: Wikimedia

Real story behind ‘haunted’ Island of the Dolls in Mexico 

The haunting story of the man who built the Island of Dolls | Guinness World Records 

The Island of the Dolls – Wikipedia 

Isla de las Muñecas 

The spooky story behind the Mexican Island of Dolls bring chills to those who visit – ABC News 

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Haunted Nights in the Château des Fougeret

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Dive into the world of French castles and explore the Château des Fougeret which host paranormal evenings and nights in their supposedly haunted rooms. Each room has its own story with its own ghosts rattling the doorknobs, moving objects across the room and keeping a watchful eye on the guests sleeping.

Overlooking the Vienne Valley on a high cliff, Château des Fougeret is an amazing example of French medieval architecture, looking like it came straight from a dark fairy tale with its round towers and rumors of being haunted by the previous occupants.

Read more: All our ghost stories from France

The castle in Queaux has been through many centuries of tumultuous history and caters today to those seeking the thrill of ghosts and the paranormal inside of the old French châteaus as they are roaming the corridors and crying about the past and fearing the present.

Discover the History of Château des Fougeret

First mentions of the Château des Fougeret dates back to the 1300 has a varied history as this castle has seen countless battles from the Hundred Year Wars and seen many changes throughout its history.

The Château des Fougeret is located in the verdant Vienne Valley of central France. Follow the winding river and explore the charming villages dotted along its shores. Spend an afternoon wandering through the breathtaking forest which encompasses this magical castle.

Read More: Château des Fougeret is not the only castle that are thought to be haunted. Read more ghost stories from the haunted castles around the world.

Inside the Haunted Rooms: The Château des Fougeret is filled with old trinkets and stuff from way back, helping to uphold the haunted aura from the gothic castle that have been restored since 2009.//Source: Wikimedia.

Admire the abundance of wildlife which roam freely in these parts and take in nature’s ever-changing colors. The big park around the castle was filled with plants from the New World like American Walnut Tree and giant sequoias, and must have looked otherworldly to people visiting this seemingly exotic place.

However, when the dark befalls on this Château, shadows in the corners and whispers in the dark take over. Today, the Château des Fougeret is mostly known because of the alleged paranormal activity. 

Paranormal Activity Nights at the Château des Fougeret

Much like other historic French castles, Château des Fougeret is no stranger to tales of paranormal activity. Many locals claim to have seen ghosts wandering the grounds and some even report hearing strange noises emanating from the chapel. Whether you believe these stories or not, there’s no denying that this legendary castle is an enchanting experience, full of culture and history.

In 2009, Véronique Geffroy and her husband François bought the empty Château des Fougeret, after it had sat alone for years of abandonment and decided to restore it to move in. After they moved in, they claim that they experienced a lot of paranormal activity in their home, and instead of fighting it, they decided to welcome it.

The House of Spirits: The owners felt a paranormal presence and to help pay for the renovations, they decided to held workshops, and ouija board sessions with their guests to try to come in contact with the spirits said to haunt the castle.// Source:Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

To help pay for repairs of the old and decaying castle, they started organizing paranormal nights in the château, even despite lack of safety like emergency exits, fire alarms and the weak floors. However, the nights turned out to be a success and they attracted a lot of media attention to their supposed haunted château.

Spend a Night in the Haunted Rooms

Now visitors can join workshops inside of Château des Fougeret of the paranormal sorts were mediums shows you the art of the turntable as well as a seance of the ouija board. After an evening of this you can spend the night inside one of the haunted rooms. The mediums that have held seances and tried to communicate with the castle claimed to have come in contact with not only one ghost, but many, each sitting in their former homes.

Paranormal Evenings: Care for a board game of Ouija board to summon the dead in the haunted castle? The owners of Château des Fougeret have become known for catering towards paranormal activity and are hosting seances to connect with the dead.//Source: wikimedia

Today the Château des Fougeret operates as a guest house and they have a few rooms they claim are more haunted than others, like what they call the Knights Room for instance that used to be a guard room and where they allegedly got in contact with a knight asking them to recite Our Father in latin.

There is also the Nurse’s Room where the former occupant is said to caress visitors’ hair in their sleep, crying children in the Master’s Room and the ghost of a little girl playing with the toys in one of the rooms and a man in a bowler hat in the Room with Watchtowers.

Read More: Ghost stories set in hotels and bed and breakfast places you can spend the night.

The Ax Murdered Usher’s Room

One of the haunted rooms called The Usher’s Room is one where a man was killed in the 18th century with an ax and has haunted the rooms and the guests staying there ever since. The owners of Château des Fougeret claims that people sleep poorly when visitors stay the night.

According to the legend it all happened in the 18th century when the Lord of Fougeret at the time, Louis Taveau didn’t pay his taxes and when the usher threatened to seize his property the lord of the Château killed him and buried him in the crypt. 

People who have stayed in this room tell about being disturbed throughout the night, hearing footsteps and that objects in the room are moving and even being thrown around. Some even claim that they have been left with scratches. 

The Ghost of the Sickly Alice and Marie’s Room

This is the room that used to belong to two young girls in different spots in history that are said to haunt the Château des Fougeret. They believe that the room is haunted by the girls because an alleged voice recording of a female voice calling for a Marie.

The first of the ghosts haunting the room is thought to be one named Marie who died suddenly in 1854 of meningitis in a time were this disease could be an epidemic outbreak. 

The other girl who is haunting this room is a girl named Alice who died when she was 23 in 1924. After her death her body was moved back into this room, and it is said you sometimes can smell the church incense used back then. People report feeling watched as well as the door handle turning by itself. 

According to the legend the daughter of the current owners moved into this very room and ended up developing the same kidney disease as Alice died of when she was the same age. Thankfully the disease is curable today. 

Haunted Porcelain Dolls: In the former bedrooms for the young girls, a porcelain doll are said to just appear in the middle of hte room. //Source:Photo by Skitterphoto on Pexels.com

In this room it is said that a funeral box suddenly appears and leaves a strange smell. It is said that this was a thing Marie had were she stashed her clothes and teeth.

Another strange thing known to appear in the room is a porcelain doll with a smashed head in the middle of the room. And we can perhaps agree that a haunted porcelain doll can be some of the scariest things there is.

Read also: There are plenty of stories about haunted dolls. Read about the haunted Okiku in Japan growing hair, Ruby that are making people sick, the crying doll called Mandy or Letta the doll from hell in the Moonmausoleum.

The Heartbroken and Bankrupt Felix’s Room

The most famed ghost in the Château des Fougeret is the heartbroken and broke Felix. He was weighed down after his father went bankrupt, losing his fortune as well as being heartbroken over a love he couldn’t have. He ended up taking his own life in 1898 and is said to haunt the room which was his former office. 

The people that have stayed in this former office talk about moving objects, turning door handles and stamping footsteps in the hallway outside. Someone also claims to have seen Felix’s ghost in the corridors outside his former office. 

Celebrating the Haunted Rumours

Today the Château des Fougeret is celebrating the paranormal and haunted legends that came with the place and keeps expanding during the course of the workshops by the mediums as well as their countless of ouija sessions, welcoming the thin veil between this life and the next.

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Château de Fougeret – Wikipedia

Enquête Paranormale au Château de Fougeret ft. @JORDANPERRIGAUD ! (Le plus hanté de France) 

The Fougeret

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Exploring the Ghost Stories on top of Paris’ Eiffel Tower

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Take a journey through the haunted legends and myths surrounding Paris’ Eiffel Tower, thought to be haunted by the ghosts of a romance gone wrong in the city of love. 

Step into the world of mysticism and supernatural entities surrounding the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris locally nicknamed La dame de fer, or Iron Lady. This popular sign of romance has many urban legends and tall tales surrounding it, everything from secret rooms, the meaning behind its shape and the history of its construction. It also has a ghost story or two.  

The rumored ghostly sightings, mysterious events, and local folklore paint an intriguing picture of this famous landmark. To this day, visitors swear they’ve encountered spirits surrounding the Eiffel Tower, perpetuating its reputation as one of Paris’ most haunted sites and a full stop on the ghost tours.

The Origin of the Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower was built from 1887 to 1889 as the centerpiece to the 1889 World’s Fair to showcase a certain level of grandness and modernity. Because of its design and size it saw a lot of criticism by writers and artists in France for the design at the time and for a long time it was seen as an eyesore to the critics. But after the construction, people were amazed at the sight of the enormous tower. 

For 41 years it was the tallest human made structure in the world until 1930 when the Chrysler Building in New York was made. It was only meant to stay up a few years and it was designed to be dismantled after 20 years, but it is still standing today.   

Paris, the City of Love

“City of swarming, city full of dreams
Where ghosts in daylight tug the stroller’s sleeve!”
– Charles Baudelaire, ‘The Seven Old Men’, Part: ‘Parisian Scenes’, ‘The Flowers Of Evil

As the most visited city in the world, Paris has a mysterious air all around it. With its cobbled-stone streets and magical architecture, the city evokes romance and intrigue despite the very same picturesque cobbled stone streets that have been drenched in blood over wars, revolution and dark times. 

It’s no wonder that it’s considered to be one of the most haunted cities in Europe, complete with stories and legends abounding regarding unexplained activities occurring around iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower.

At the Eiffel Tower’s restaurants it is said they get at least two proposals a day from people that seek out the romance of the place. But it is not only romance and happy proposals at the Eiffel Tower as it is also a place where many people choose to take their own lives. And sometimes there are stories about how pure love turned dark pretty quick:

The Jilted Lover at the Eiffel Tower

Of course the ghost story at the Eiffel Tower must contain romance, passion and heartache. And contrary to the dreamy and whimsical notion of the romantic city where love is true and everlasting, it tells what happens when love goes wrong and not returned. When the color red turns to eternal black. 

According to local legend of the ghost story in the tower, a jilted lover who was heartbroken years ago still wanders around on the upper floors. In some versions, it is the heartbroken man who haunts the place. In other versions it is the woman who went to the tower with him to break up that is now trapped at this romantic landmark forever. 

The story goes that a couple agreed to meet at the top of the Eiffel Tower sometimes in the 1920s, when the tower was younger, but already the symbol of love and Paris. The man went down on his knees and asked his beloved to marry him in front of the famous monument, but she refused. 

She was there to break up with him and the shock of her rejection broke his heart and sent him into a fit of rage. He pushed his girlfriend over the railing and she fell to her death. In some versions she backed away, either in shock or pure disgust and fell over herself. 

The man was never seen alive again afterward, leading some people to believe that his spirit remains behind and continues to wander the grounds of where his hopes for love perished. What happened to him? Did he also end his life then at the tower? Or did the spirit return to the place long after as he never forgot?

The story has turned into an urban legend of both the Eiffel Tower and Paris and it is hard to track down a specific time or person. Some believe that this story can be traced back to the 1920s, and many claim to have seen a woman in clothes from that area wandering up in the tower before she suddenly vanishes. Some even say you can hear her nervous giggles as she is rejecting the proposal before her horrified screams at the anniversary of her death. 

The Haunted love

So there you have it, the dark side of romance and love in the heart of Paris. A reminder that not every love story has a happy ending and not all types of love are true love. And with that said, Happy Valentine. 

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Hauntingly Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital

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The abandoned sanatorium in Germany is said to be haunted by all those souls that died inside of it because of its dark history. And in the Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital, it wasn’t just sick people who ended up dying, but several murders took place in it or around it as well. 

Some buildings are just thought to be haunted by the look of them. Especially these old abandoned buildings with a dark and sinister history attached to them. One of these buildings with long ominous corridors and peeling paint is the Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital not far from Berlin in Germany. 

The sanatorium was first built in 1898 as a response to the rapid increase in tuberculosis patients at the time as it was the number one cause of death in Germany at the time for people between 15 to 40. 

The Abandoned Sanatorium: The Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital was originally built in 1898 as a treatment place for tuberculosis. Today it is abandoned with a haunted reputation over it.//source//wikimedia//qbanez

One of the treatments for this was fresh air, so the sanatorium was built in a remote pine forest. The Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital was a complex of around 60 buildings that in the end, almost served as a small town of itself, with its own bakery, shop, apartments, post office, stables, butcher shop and laundry houses. At the time it was the largest treatment center in the world for lung diseases with at its peak beds for over 1200 patients. 

During the first world war Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital served as a field hospital, and it got famous for treating Adolf Hitler who was wounded in his leg as well as being blinded by a gas attack by the British forces in the Battle of Somme. 

When the second world war started it would again be a treatment hospital for the Nazi forces until they lost and ended up being occupied by the Russians from 1945. Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital stayed like that until 1995 before closing its door for good. At least for treating patients. 

The Abandoned Buildings as a Murder Place

Many murders have taken place in this remote area and around it. After the Soviet left, it became a hotspot for satanic and occult people to gather to drink and keep seances. And it was also those with an even more sinister idea. 

In March 1991, a mother and her newborn child of three months were brutally murdered right outside the old sanatorium. It was the Beast of Beelitz  who had struck again, a notorious serial killer that had started on 24 of October in 1989. 

The serial killer Wolfgang Schimdt used to be called Beast of Beelitz or Pink Giant because of his choice of weapon. The killer who legally changed name to Beate and underwent gender reassignment had terrorized the local women for years and his modus operandi was to strangle the victims with pink womens underwear. The Beast of Beelitz is in prison to this day after killing 6 people. 

But it wasn’t the only murderer who used this place for his crimes. A photographer and sadist named Michael K brought a 20 year old model named Anja P. to Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital for pictures, and as he explained it, an erotic photo session that ended with her accidental death. 

During the photo session he ended up killing her, but the police found clear evidence that this was not an accident, but a premeditated murder. He beat her with a frying pan and had sex with her corpse after she died.  

Dark Tourism of Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital

Like many of these mysterious and abandoned places there are many people attracted to the eerie beauty of the macabre building and its history. Many visit the place to get a closer look at the building itself or just explore the paranormal rumors that are created by just the haunted atmosphere of the place. 

Dark Tourism: Most of the buildings of Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital are left to decay and a number of visitors come to experience the eery atmosphere of the abandoned building. But one of the reasons it is fenced off and off limits is because it is dangerous. Several people have had accidents in the unsecured and abandoned building who is falling apart. //source:Wendelin Jacober

Before 2015 it was mostly left to its own devices and people would come and go as they pleased. It was used as a movie location for the 2002 movie “The Pianist”, as well as being the place for horrific crimes. 

Today it is more closed off and taken back by the public to renovate and made into a tourist attraction rather than an urbex location for exploration. 

A Haunted Hospital

So is Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital really a haunted place? Considering all the dark stuff that have happened inside of the building complex it is easy to think why people would call this place haunted. But rather than a specific story or encounter that made the place famous, it seems to be the other way around. 

There are however those who enter the place that exit it with tales of something paranormal happening to them. It is the usual stuff of seeing apparition where there are suppose to be none as well as hearing strange sounds and having the feeling of being watched as the room gets colder. 

So what do we think? Is Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital haunted or just plain spooky?

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Ghosts of Mary King’s Close

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Scratching sounds from the chimney, plague victims left for dead and floating heads, the haunted underground of alleyways known as Mary King’s Close haunts under the city. 

Today much of what you see of Edinburgh is an old town built on top of an even older town. Right opposite St Giles Cathedral you will find The Mary King’s Close or alleyways which are said to be haunted.

It used to be a normal street in the old town by the Royal Mile with narrow alleyways and cobbled streets. It was named after a successful business woman named Mary King working as a fabric merchant in the 1630s. 

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So first off, what is a close? A close was a private area that got locked up at night to keep unwelcomed out. The richer lived on the top floors, away from the stench of the sewer and where most light came through the claustrophobic streets. 

The Plague

During the 1645 plague the city became overrun with rodents carrying diseases and it hit the Mary King’s Close pretty hard. They would hang out white sheets to show they were infected and in need of food and a plague doctor. Only the bravest plague doctors, one named Dr George Rae dared to venture into the close filled with plague ridden people.

Victims of the disease were quarantined and left for dead to die in the streets. One by one the residents either died or left the Close and were relocated to Burgh Muir, and they didn’t return until almost 40 years after the plague hit its peak. When they returned however, everything seemed to have changed. Since then there have been reports about strange things going on in the underground narrow streets. 

Plague Doctor: On the 13th of June 1645, Dr George Rae was appointed as Edinburgh’s second Plague Doctor. During the plague he went around to treat the plague victims. He cut open and cleaned out the puss from the swellings caused by the bubonic plague. He would then burn the wound to catheterize it. He was considered to be one of the more successful doctors during the plague.

What was it that made people see ghosts during this time? Was it the plague victims that were left behind? Or could it be the methane gas from the polluted march right by that caused everyone to see things?

Many tell the tale that it was to cover up the corpses of the plague victims that they built another street on top of it. The true story though is that they built the new street on top of the decaying old one in the 17th century to make a place where tradesmen could be. 

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Life continued to go on underneath the surface though as not everyone wanted to leave. The last residents didn’t leave Mary King’s Close until 1902. And if we believe the legends, the last resident named Andrew Chesney never truly left as he is said to be one of the ghosts that haunts the place.

The Hauntings of The Colthearts

Back to the aftermath of the plague. Decades had passed since the plague had reached its peak and people started to return to the Mary King’s Close. But as mentioned earlier, the place had started gaining a notorious rumour of being haunted. And that was according to the residents themselves.

Claustrophobic: The narrow streets of Mary King’s close.

In 1685 a well respected lawyer named Thomas Coltheart moved into the close together with his wife. But their stay was not a happy one at all times.

The maidservant ran off claiming the house was haunted. And it was not long until Coltheart and his wife also noticed strange things. According to them when the Mrs. Coltheart sat reading her bible, she saw a head without a body float in the house, causing the wife to faint. 

First, Thomas Coltheart didn’t believe her when she tried to explain. But It returned later that night with the spirit of a child and a floating severed hand beckoning them to come towards them. They tried to pray the spirits away, but to no avail.  

Lastly they saw the spirit of a dog running after a ghost cat, creating a chaos of spectres and noises that night. And according to them, that was not the only time they were bothered by the spirits.

Apparently they claimed that the dog returned again and again, not leaving them in peace,

Surprisingly, the couple chose to never leave the Close and stayed there until their death. Needless to say, it turned them mad according to some sources. Or did the madness create the visions?

Abandoned Annie

One of the ghosts that are suppose to haunt the place is that of Abandoned Annie. She is the ghost of a little girl that is allegedly reaching out to grab your hand in the darkness.

She was named that by the Japanese psychic Aiko Gibo who visited the Mary King’s Close in 1992 and found the child ghost crying in a corner of a room. Aiko claimed that Annie was a plague victim who was abandoned by her parents. According to the psychic Annie wanted a doll to not feel so lonely. 

Today she has her little altar in what is now known as Annie’s Room with thousands of dolls, toys and money left by her visitors. They are all collected by the city council to donate to and help sick children. 

Visit the Underground

The Close was mostly forgotten after the last residents moved out and they didn’t really remember the old place until they once knocked through the walls during construction. 

The place was not opened for the public until 2003, but is now perhaps more busy than it was before they closed it up. Today you can access the underground alleyways from the Royal Mile as a tourist attraction. You can now experience the uniquely preserved cobbled streets as it would have been before the 1800s. 

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References

The Most Haunted Places in Edinburgh’s Old Town – Dickins

The Story Behind Edinburgh’s Mary King’s Close

Mary King’s Close: Underground Edinburgh’s buried street

The Ghosts of Mary King’s Close, Edinburgh | Haunted Rooms®

Mary Kings Close – Dark Hauntings

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The Cemetery for the Nameless

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In an old cemetery in Vienna for the victims of the Donau river, these nameless dead ones rest in one of the most haunted places in Friedhof der Namenlosen. 

Tourism in graveyards is not an uncommon thing. Most people seek out the gravestones of famous names we still remember. And in Vienna, tourists seek out names like Beethoven, Brahm and Strauss. But there is a place to visit for those who bear no name on their black iron crosses. The inscription says only Namenlos (nameless). Because in the Friedhof Der Namenlosen, the cemetery of the nameless, the people put in the ground there have no names. 

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It is frequently cited as one of the more haunted places in Europe, which is saying a lot and several paranormal investigators insist that the place is indeed haunted. However, the story behind the cemetery is more than not a sad one rather than a scary one. 

The Drowned in Danube

Namenlos: The crosses in this cemetery bare no names and the graves are marked with ‘Nameless’.//Photo: Rokun

Hidden away from the classy and timeless city of Vienna, an industrial site with Silos and warehouses surrounding the place, there is a graveyard of the victims claimed by the Danube river that bares no name, and those killed by their own hand and therefore turned away from the catholic burial grounds like the Vienna’s Central Cemetery, Zentralfriedhof. 

The cemetery opened in 1840 to be a place for the dead that had no family claiming their bodies to give them a final resting place. Before building around the river changed its current, drowned people used to wash ashore near this cemetery. Up until 1900, no less than 478 nameless bodies were buried in this place. Most drowned in the Danube or by suicide. 

Today, the nameless are buried together with the people in the Central Cemetery, but the graves that are already there are taken care of and remembered. Tourists and passersby leave small gifts and flowers for the graves that would otherwise be left alone with no family and friends  to visit them. 

Remembering the Nameless

Every year on All Saint’s Day there is a small ceremony by the local fishermen to the unknown dead. They float a raft down the Danube, decorated with flowers, wreaths and with a commemorative writing both in German, Hungarian and Slovak. 

The raft drifts down the river to bands playing and follows the current of the river, just like the nameless first came to the place. And on the raft it is written with a request to gently push the raft onwards if it gets stuck on the riverbank.

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Featured Image: Wikimedia/HeinzLW (Cropped)

Friedhof der Namenlosen: Die Toten, die die Donau freigab

Cemetery of the Nameless – Vienna, Austria – Atlas Obscura

Cemetery of the Nameless

der friedhof der namenlosen | story.one

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The Headless Ghost Woman of Bern

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Number 54 in Junkerngasse, Bern in Switzerland might be hiding more than just old history and dust. The legends of this long abandoned house just won’t let go with the tale of the Headless Ghost Woman.

Taking a stroll down the eye catching Junkerngasse is like taking a stroll through time. The old architecture of old Bern, Switzerland is all around as the best preserved street in the city. The street was once called Edle Gasse (Noble Lane), and it gives a hint of who used to live here.

Read Also: Check out all of our ghost stories about Haunted Houses

Stately houses with Baroque façades and big garden terraces still give off these noble vibes as you walk along the old street, feeling the fresh air of the Swizz cities in your lungs as well as the old history of the city on your shoulders.  

The Haunted Street: Junkerngasse street in the old part of Bern in Switzerland and was once a place were the rich lived. Today many of the old houses still remains, including the abandoned ones.//Photo by: Tony Badwy/wikimedia

The Haunted House on Junkerngasse

Along the noble houses there are prominent families and old money that can be smelled just as well as the wild gardens and decaying houses fight amongst themselves to be noticed. Inside Junkerngasse 54 though, it is said even the old ghosts of a headless ghost woman of the house who still lingers and suddenly makes an appearance.

Read Also: Check out all of the ghost stories from Switzerland

Junkerngasse 54 is an abandoned house and has been unoccupied for decades and therefore the legends and rumours of the house are old and plentiful like how it goes with many of the abandoned buildings. Most likely it was always used as a stable for nearby houses like the Von-Wattenwyl-House, but from the outside it looks like a normal residential building. Check out the picture from inside here.

Read Also: Check out ghost stories from abandoned places like Yongma Land Abandoned Theme Park, Minxiong Ghost Mansion and Monts d’Arree Nuclear Reactor and the Gate to Hell

The Headless Ghost Woman

Who started the story of the headless ghost woman originally is still a mystery as the house was built in the middle ages but left empty since the 1800s. Therefore names and faces, facts and dates are muddled.

Headless: The headless ghost woman seems to still lingers in the old parts of Bern.

According to the story however, around twelve and one in the morning the windows of the house opens and the ghost of a headless woman appears, laughing, creeping out anyone that catches a glimpse of her and is walking past.

Read Also: Unveiling the Dark History of the Tower of London and its Ghosts , Edinburgh Castle Ghosts and Legends and A Royal Haunting at Christmas for more ghost stories about headless ghosts.

There are also tales of a woman in black that seems to be walking through the rooms of the house. If this is suppose to be the same ghost as the headless ghost woman, or another additional ghost is unsure.

Das Gespensterhaus The Movie

Das Gespensterhaus (The Haunted House) is a film directed by Franz Schnyder . The horror comedy was filmed in Bern and Zurich in the spring of 1942 and premiered in Bern on August 28. One of the location of filming the movie was in Junkerngasse 54. It was based on Uli Wichelegger’s novel The Ghost House: A Story from the City of Bern.

The movie was set in the old town of Bern there is an abandoned house that is said to be haunted by deceased residents. The new journalist Rico Häberli receives the order from the editor Oppliger to scout out the house. He spends a night in the building and discovers a ghost. Together with the young owner of the house, he tries to get to the bottom of the matter.

Watch the entire movie on Youtube.

Could this have inspired the legend of the headless ghost woman in Junkerngasse 54? Or perhaps it was the legend that inspired the literature?

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References

Das Gespensterhaus – Wikipedia

Junkerngasse – Wikipedia 

List of reportedly haunted locations

The spookiest places in Switzerland – The LocalJunkerngasse

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Minxiong Ghost Mansion

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Minxiong haunted house, otherwise known as the Liu Mansion is located In the Taiwanese countryside and the old baroque mansion left abandoned and decayed by weather and time. And after being abandoned by the owners, rumours of ghosts started to be told and the mansion is one of the well known haunted places around.

On the serene countryside of Taiwan, amidst rice fields and forest, a mansion is left abandoned between the Banyan trees that have soon claimed the mansion as its own. The majestic red brick building must have been beautiful when first built, but now, it only holds the mysterious charm that old ruins have with its secrets and signs of the passing of time. 

The Baroque styled house, also known as the old Lui Family Mansion (劉家古宅民雄鬼屋) is located in Chiayi, southwestern Taiwan. It’s a hot and humid climate, but the story surrounding this house is a chilling one. The Minxiong Mansion is an eerie place, so forlorn, but famous as it is considered Taiwan’s most famous haunted place. A fact especially seen during ghost month were visitors flock to the site to catch a glimt of something paranormal going on in the quiet countryside.

Read More: Check out the rest of our ghost stories in haunted houses and mansions here.

The Haunted Minxiong Mansion

So what is it about the house that make people claim it is haunted one? A lot of factors have contributed to its rumour of Minxiong Mansion being haunted. Firstly, It’s located along a road with a graveyard close on either side. This has made drivers vary about driving pass for a long time.

The house is also today in a constant state of decay as no one is really paying any attention to it, and the old and dangerous ruins of the house turns out to be a perfect setting one. Then finally, there is the local legend about the house being haunted and cursed from the start. According to this one legend, the one who built it placed some sort of a charm or spell in the house in secret, making everyone living there hear strange noises, footsteps and unexplainable sounds.  Who built it though and why it was cursed never really makes it into this particular legend though.

Read Also: Check out more haunted abandoned places like Yongma Land Abandoned Theme Park and Hauntingly Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital

So who used to live there when it was first built? The three storey house was built in 1929 by Liu Rongyu (劉溶裕), a local businessman and landowner. The baroque architecture the house was built in was very in style with the wealthy merchants in Taiwan at that time.

Liu Rongyu had seven children and wanted somewhere peaceful and quiet to enjoy the countryside and the grandchildren that would follow. But not long after the building was complete, the mansion was completely abandoned, and the owners never came back in the 1950s. And so, the legends about it being haunted started creeping into the once beautiful family mansion.

The Maid in the Haunted Well

Local legends have a lot to say about the reasons the family left Minxiong haunted house. Was it just because of the remote location? The building was so far from everything and an inconvenient place to commute back and forth from work that maybe the family would rather relocate to the city? Or is it something about the story that has been told about the maid? 

The Haunted Well: The allegedly haunted well that can still be found on the property of Minxiong haunted house. It reminds a lot of the ghost story of Okiku who was also a maid that drowned herself in the well on the estate.// Photo: Koala0090, source.

One of the legends about the place, we find a more disturbing reason for the abrupt escape from the mansion. In the surrounding garden from the house there is an old well sealed shut that no longer is filled with water. And from this particular well, the legends of this house seeps through the cracks of the dried up well.

It is said one of the maids of the house had an affair with the man of the Minxiong Mansion. When the story came out, she ended up jumping to her death in the well that can be found outside.

Some versions of the story tell that the wife found out about the affair and tormented the maid, both mentally and in some accounts even physically, until she couldn’t take it anymore and ended her life by drowning herself in the well. But the story didn’t end with the tragic death of the young maid though, and the maid came back for revenge against the masters of the house. As a spirit she returned to torment the family who had tormented her. Every night her ghost terrorized the family until they packed up their things and left to never return. 

In the following years the visitors coming at night to the abandoned building were also haunted. And so many have been rumoured to be struck by bad luck or even illness, taking their life as the vengeful ghost still haunts the grounds. Especially the soldiers of more than one army have been allegedly chased away by the ghost. 

For more ghosts haunting the wells, check out some of our other stories in the MoonMausoleum:

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Banchō Sarayashiki — the Ghost of Okiku

The tale of Banchō Sarayashiki (番町皿屋敷, The Dish Mansion at Banchō) is a well known Japanese ghost story (kaidan). It was popularized in the kabuki theater tradition, and lives on in popular culture and folklore alike.

Keep reading

The Japanese Army Massacre in Minxiong

The story of the maid has been said to be nothing but gossip and false lies several times, and the Liu family themselves are tired to hear about the strange stories surrounding their old family home. But the following strange happenings after the family left the Minxiong Mansion helps keep the story of the alleged curse of the house. 

During the time the Minxiong haunted house was built and the family lived there, the island of Taiwan was under Japanese rule (1895-1945) that could factor into the story. During this time business flourished after the Japanese built up the city of Chiayi after a devastating earthquake in 1906. At the time, this was the fourth biggest city in all of Taiwan. Perhaps that was not the case after the Japanese left and could that be some of the reasons that the Liu family eventually left the Chiayi countryside?

The more rational explanation would perhaps be that the Liu family simply relocated themselves for business reasons by moving downtown in Chiayi City, something that the family itself have expressed on multiple occasions although it doesn’t fit well with the rumours of the Minxiong Mansion being haunted.  

There also has been stories about the Japanese army opening gunfire around Minxiong haunted house for no apparent reason when the Japanese army temporarily stayed there, ending in killing innocent soldiers in the crossfires. Who or what did they think they saw in the dark and remote old mansion? The story about the killed soldiers in the mansion have not been verified as a historical fact, and is more told as an anecdote. Verified or not, several holes in the walls from what appears to be from gunfire can be seen still to this day, making one wonder who and why they were fired. 

The Strange Deaths of KMT Soldiers

A few years later after the Japanese army also left the mansion was occupied by the KMT (Kuomintang of China) the Chinese nationalist party of Taiwan, which in fact is officially known as Republic of China (ROC) came into power in 1949. By this time, parts of the Minxiong haunted house had already been damaged during bomb raids by the American army during the second world war and the interior of the house had been stripped away to build the nearby schools. You could say that the place already looked a little haunted.

Some soldiers from the KMT were stationed at the house in 1949. At this time there was no electricity and the Minxiong Mansion and the grounds around were completely left in darkness during night time, something the soldiers themselves refused to endure. There were several complaints from the KMT soldiers about seeing a ghost floating outside their window, demanding they had to put up electricity to fight the darkness they thought surrounded them in the house. 

Minxiong Haunted Mansion: Entrance to the Old Liu Family Mansion still have visitors, although no one have lived there for ages. Now, it seems to belong to nature and the wild. It is now mainly visitors that are in search for the paranormal and to try to spook each other that visits.// Source/Flickr

Here, a string of deaths started to give fire to the haunted house rumours. According to the rumours of the deaths it was either that the KMT soldiers residing there got sick and died or on other accounts, thought to be suicides. All of this made the mansion get a reputation as haunted.

But also here, we have some counter intelligence that tells another story and although not haunted it is a tragic one. According to the other version many of the soldiers stationed there suffered badly from homesickness to their mainland China that in turn drove them to kill themselves on this foreign land so far from home. 

Minxiong Haunted House Movie From 2022

In 2022, it was even made a movie about the place and based on the urban legends surrounding the mansion called Minxiong Haunted House (民雄鬼屋). It didn’t really do so well in the box office, but it certainly renewed the interest for the old haunted ghost mansion.

The story is set to the Minxiong Mansion where a mother goes looking for her daughter who goes missing inside the old mansion. They go there during the Qingming Festival to visits the tomb at Chiayi Minxiong Cemetery when her daughter disappears. And on her search for her daughter, she ends up encountering the ghosts within the mansion and has to deal with a haunting past as well.

Minxiong Haunted House: Poster from the 2022 movie called Minxiong Haunted House about the Liu Mansion. The movie is based on the many legends and myths that the ghost mansion has acquired over the years it has been left abandoned. Photo: Disney+

Hauntings During Ghost Month

The story of the Minxiong Mansion continues to inspire and attract visitors, especially during ghost month when people flock to try to see a ghost or two at the old Lui Family Mansion that never seems to rid itself of its haunted reputation.

Read more: The Obon Celebration – The Ghost Festival is around the same time and is also based on the traditions during ghost month.

Ghost Month: Traditionally, that ghosts haunt the island of Taiwan for the entire seventh lunar month, known as Ghost Month. The first day is marked by opening the gate of a temple, symbolizing the gates of hell. On the twelfth day, lamps on the main altar are lit. On the thirteenth day, a procession of lanterns is held. On the fourteenth day, a parade is held for releasing water lanterns. Incense, food and spirit paper money are offered to the spirits to deter them from visiting homes. During the month, people avoid surgery, buying cars, swimming, moving house, marrying, whistling and going out or taking pictures after dark. It is also important that addresses are not revealed to the ghosts.//Photo: mahe haroutinian on Pexels.com

Every year, especially in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, or Ghost Month, the Minxiong haunted house gets plenty of visitors. The floors of the house have long collapsed, and the red bricked walls has started to crumble, soon it will perhaps disappear completely.

Any plans to restore the haunted and decaying house have long been rejected by the Liu family as they want nothing to do with it anymore. The Minxiong Mansion will soon be taken by the forest and swallowed whole, unable to reveal the truth of what actually happened at the manor.

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References

18 Creepy Haunted House Stories – True Ghost Stories 

Abandoned Taiwan: The Old Liu Family Mansion at Minxiong 

Liu mansion in Chiayi voted top haunted house 

Minxiong Haunted House | A Thrill Seeking Adventure

興中村 

Minxiong Haunted House 民雄鬼屋

民雄鬼屋 

【古蹟探索】台灣四大鬼屋之首–民雄鬼屋名列亞洲十大鬼屋的民雄劉家古宅追追追| 貓大爺| 鳴人堂

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Loftus Hall – Ireland’s most haunted

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Loftus Hall is said to be one of Ireland’s most haunted mansions. It is thought that the place is haunted by one of the daughters that had an encounter with the devil himself in disguise and never recovered from the shock after she found out the truth.

A magnificent and stately manor to look at is Loftus Hall, one of Ireland’s finer ones of the Hook peninsula of County Wexford. This area is a famous site in Irish history, known as the place “where Ireland was lost and won”. The coastline offers a beach a day for a fortnight and is one of the special attractions of this area. Pretty fishing villages and bird watching on the mudflats of Bannow Estuary.

Read More: Have a look at all of our ghost stories from Ireland.

A little aside from the shore, from the village and from people, a Hall stands. Weathered, sure, but still in all its glory a moldy, ancient place inhabits. It stands alone in the austere and rather bleak landscape. But a dark legends hangs over the old house, and it has done so, for quite some time. Rumors about the devil that roams the ground as well as the ghost of a woman haunting the place.

A Windy Place: The Loftus Hall has been withstanding the test of times, even in a weathered place like it was built on the coast of Ireland.

The Loftus Hall was built in the 1350’s, also known for being the time of the Black Death Plague, taking the lives of so many in Ireland. It was built by the Redmond family to replace their castle. Back then it was known as Redmond Hall.

The Loftus Hall has always attracted the eyes of the darker and more sinister stories, especially since the legends started to cross the sea that lies so dark and rough just ahead. It even featured as the plays were they shot the horror movie, The Lodgers.

Read the movie review:

The Lodgers

The Lodgers from 2017 is an Irish Gothic horror film by David Turpin and Brian O’Malley. It stars Charlotte Vega, Bill Milner and Eugene Simon. If you like eerily dark and hauntingly beautiful movies like The Others or newer one like Crimson Peak, The Lodgers will be an obvious next escape to a haunted house…

The Legend Behind Loftus Hall

In the mid 1700s, Charles Tottenham became Lord of the manor by marrying Anne Loftus. They had six children, one of their daughters, was also called Anne and this is her story. About her and the devil himself that knocked on her door and entered her heart.

Inside Loftus Hall: The movie, The Lodgers is worth watching just to catch glimpse of the interior of the Loftus Hall inside the three-storey, 22-bedroom Palladian mansion.

According to the legend, on a dark and stormy night, a mysterious stranger came to the house on horseback. He went straight to the hall, asking for shelter, claiming that his ship ran ashore in the rough sea. The Tottenham family, who lived there at the time, invited the strange in.

The young daughter, Lady Anne Tottenham met this stranger, and instantly took a liking to him. And he to her. And soon they became very close. In some accounts, they even became lovers.

Whatever they were he stayed for a while and no one really noticed anything strange about the stranger before one fateful evening.

On one particular evening, she played cards with the mysterious visitor in one of the rooms of Loftus Hall. In the game, each player received 3 cards apart from Anne who was only dealt 2 by the mystery man. A butler serving the Tottenham family at the table was just about to question the man when Anne bent down to pick another card from the floor which she must have been dropped.

She bent over to pick them up and that is when she saw it under the table. The man had no feet of that of a man. They were cloven hooves, like a beast and she understood he had to be Beelzebub, the devil himself.

Read more: Check out more ghost stories were the devil himself made an appearance like The Jersey Devil in the Pine Barrens New Jersey or Baron Falkenberg that were Cursed to Sail the Sea for 600 Years.

Anne screamed at the sight of the man she thought she knew. As soon as the man noticed Anne’s look on her face, he knew that he’s been found out and disappeared from the mansion in most extra way possible by shooting himself through the roof of the halls, in a ball of flames.

The Ghost Haunting Loftus Hall

Anne herself never recovered after this traumatic incident and went into some sort of shock people say that she never got out of.

Haunting the Manor: It is said that Anne is still haunting the place.//Source: Loftus Hall Facebook

Some say her family was so ashamed of her and her unladylike behaviour that they locked her away in her favorite room, called the tapestry room. She didn’t want anything to eat or drink after the shock, only staring out her window, across the sea to where Dunmore east is today.

What she was thinking about differs from who you ask. Some say that she was waiting for her mysterious stranger to return, even though she knew who he was. Others say she locked herself in the room, wanting to feel safe from the devil who had invaded her safe space, her home and her heart unknowingly.

Read More: Check out more mansions and castles believed to be haunted from all over the world.

No matter what the reason was and what happened that night at Loftus Hall we will probably never know for sure. What we do know is that Anne died in the very room in 1775. She died sitting and when she died, they could not straighten her body out, and she had to be buried in the same sitting position she died in.

After her death many talked about the place becoming haunted. Some claims she stills walks the corridors in her ghostly form, still in shock after her encounter with the devil, unable to move on, or perhaps even scared for where she would end up.

The Paranormal Reports

Now, that is one hell of a story. And a pretty crazy one at that. But the reports of strange encounters and supposed evidence of the paranormal still keeps coming, even after all this time.

Loftus Hall was after the devil incident the owners of the manor had an exorcism by Father Thomas Broaders whose powers is said to have worked and the evil that lingered went away. Father Broarders went on to become Parish Priest of the parishes of the Hook and Ramsgrange for almost 50 years.

Even the original building was almost leveled to the ground, and the manor we see today is the one they rebuilt in 1865 to 1875 were it went through extensive renovations.

But even though it is said that the exorcism worked, reports about strange paranormal activity has been reported a lot. And a lot more since it was opened to the public in 2012. And this is why some say that Loftus Hall is Ireland’s most haunted place in Ireland.

There are stuff though, that are without a question just very creepy. Like when during a renovation of the house years later in recent times, the skeleton of an infant was discovered in the walls. What the story behind this could be, only the dead knows.

One of the supposed evidence of paranormal happenings in the manor comes from a nice summer of 2014, when Thomas Beavis made a trip to the scenic place to do some sightseeing. When he looked through his pictures from his holiday after he came home he was shocked.

Picture of a ghost: This is the viral photo of the alleged ghost a visitor took when visiting Loftus Hall in 2014. What do we think? Could it be the ghost of Anne who has been rumoured to haunt the place ever since her death?

In the background there is a ghostly outline, most likely of a young girl or woman, looking out the windows of the hall. Could it just be a reflection of the tourist walking outside? Or could it be something more eerie. Could it be Anne who is said to haunt Loftus Hall?

Throughout the years, the hall has been a lot. A castle, a convent, a school and under attack from foreign invaders. Today it remains as a tourist attraction. A dark one at that, embracing its history and people travelling from all over the world to take part in paranormal investigations following Ghost Adventures with Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin and Nick Groff. But know, in the summer of 2020, the Hall will once again close its doors for visitors. And the answers we seek will maybe never be answered.

As of 2023, Loftus Hall is still closed down and not open to the public as it is renovated.

The Haunted House filmed: A Youtube snippet about the house and the hauntings that is rumored to be going on inside of the Loftus Hall.

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Sources:

  1. https://www.irishpost.com/news/netflix-horror-film-the-lodgers-159185
  2. https://www.loftushall.ie/about/
  3. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/haunted-loftus-hall-to-be-laid-to-rest-gdtkv05mh
  4. https://allthatsinteresting.com/loftus-hall
article, Dark Tourism, Ghost

Dead Men Walking in Old Provost in Grahamstown

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In Grahamstown, South Africa there is a ghost story about a convict haunting the place where he was hanged by the Old Provost. His ghost can forever seen walking the last walk he ever did on the way to the gallows, still bitter about receiving the death penalty.

Today Grahamstown or Makhanda wich it is now officially known as in South-Africa is a city with a well known university town, housing Rhodes University, one of South Africa’s oldest as being a popular place for backpackers. The town on the Eastern Cape also have a big Art festival, the biggest one in the country, and is otherwise for those people that wish to live a quiet life.

The Town Under Military Law

But this wasn’t always the case however as it was founded as a frontier military outpost built after the Fourth Xhosa War in 1812. and has an old prison known as the Old Provost. A long time ago Grahamstown was better known as a place under militant law, public punishments and public hangings, watched by a lot of people. The legend is that the ghost of one of these hanged people are still haunting the place next to the botanical gardens.

Read Also: More ghost stories from Africa like Madam Koi Koi and The School Hauntings in Nigeria

Built in Grahamstown in 1838, the Old Gaol or Old Provost was a military prison when martial law ruled in the old town during colonial times. The fortress was designed as a Panopticon prison, meaning a design that allowed for constant surveillance of the prisoners.

Grahamstown: The Town, officially renamed to Makhanda in 2018 was built as a military frontier, and is today a university city. The town has many haunted ghost stories, like the ghost of the dead man walking from the military prison old provost. Pictured is the view of the city from an old fort.// Source: Wikimedia

During this time the town was seen as rather uncivilized and it was said of it in 1833:  “two or three English merchants of considerable wealth, but scarcely any society in the ordinary sense of the word. The Public Library is a wretched affair”

A few decades after this was said about the town however, Grahamstown was the second biggest town after Cape Town in the English colony.

The Haunted University in Grahamstown

The Old Provost is not the only ghost haunting the university town, as most of the faculty buildings have some sort of history and its local ghosts roaming around on the campus.

There are according to campus rumours, witnessed a young boy and girl in the journalism department haunting the halls. There is also whispers of ghosts that used to live in the small cottages the Institute of Biodiversity is now built on top over.

Read Also: Have a look at our ghost stories from the most Haunted Schools in the world like The Kong Kong Ghost

Even the botanical garden close to Old Provost has a ghost wandering in the green garden, smelling like perfume and feeling like a cold wind passing by. This is the ghost of Lady Jana Maria de los Dolores de Leon Smith.

But who was this ghost from the Old Provost, and why is he still haunting the place?

Dead Men Walking by Old Provost

The Old Provost prison was built for military offenders, and although a small building, ruthless punishments were put in place. Those who were convicted and served their time were put in these cells completely designed that you would never have a private moment inside the walls.

Those even more unfortunate and convicted to death were chained on their feet and hands, humiliated as they were lead from the fortress of the Old Provost to the plaza they were going to be punished in front of the entire population of Grahamstown. “Dead men walking”, as they were called.

The last person we know of that was publicly hung was in these parts were Henry Nicholls and is also known as the ghost that walks this final walk forever as a ghost. He pleaded guilty and was convicted for a rape happening in 1862.

The Old Provost: The military prison in Grahamstown was design for constant surveillance and is now a place were ghosts roams according to local legends.

He had already confessed to the crime, but didn’t really think it was a crime he had to pay with his life. Nicholls spent four months in the Old Provost, hoping to get of with his life as rape was not a capital punishment under English law but only prison time.

Read More: Have a look at all our ghost stories from Haunted Prisons like Ghost Stories of The Haunted Prison Alcatraz or The Ghosts From Security Prison 21 in Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

But since he was a military man, he was under military law. And according to that, the punishment for his crime was death by hanging.

The Last Hanging on the Eastern Cape

Watching a hanging like this was great entertainment for the people of Grahamstown and the rest of the surrounding areas. According to the stories, people rode for as long as seven days to behold the execution of Henry Nicholls by Old Provost. This hanging was the last execution in the Eastern Cape.

On 19 February 1862 was the last day for the convict and it was also his last walk. He was led out from the Old Provost and had to walk past the gathering crowd towards the gallows. He never got a chance for last words or prayers. He was simply strung up and hanged to his death in front of a blood thirsty crowd.

Read More: The ghost of Henry Nicholls is not the only ghosts haunting after being executed. Have a look at The Wizard of West Bow and His House of Horrors or The Pirate Haunting Burgh Island

But why is he still haunting the place? It’s perhaps difficult to answer for a ghost, but one of the theories was that Nicholls was unhappy and bitter about receiving a death punishment some only served prison time for.

The Bitter Ghost Haunting

Rape rarely got the death sentence, even back in that time and you mostly got sent away or served prison time, although being actually convicted for it was a lot harder than today.

A lot retelling the story of the ghost wandering from the Old Provos think that because of this, Nicholls meant that the punishment he received was too hard and the humiliating Nicholls ended his life, his soul can never be free.

Instead of going forward in his afterlife he is convicted of a life sentence, lasting for eternity, and must wander in all the remaining days between the Old Provost, now turned into a cute cafe, and the gallow, passing through the entrance to the now so modern university.

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References:

https://www.grocotts.co.za/2010/05/13/walking-the-dead-mans-walk/