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The Woman Waiting and Haunting Struten Lighthouse

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After being stranded on their little island at Struten Lighthouse in stormy weather with the waves crashing in, a woman succumbed to her illness and has since then been haunting it, still waiting for the help that never came. 

Far out at sea beyond Hvaler, Østfold, where the Skagerrak turns unforgiving and the horizon feels endless, lies a small volcanic island called Struten. The island is crowned by an abandoned lighthouse that should, by all logic, be dark and silent. At night, its light still shines across the water, guiding ships away from hidden reefs.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Norway

Today, the lighthouse is part of the coastal trail in the Oslofjord, with options for overnight stays. And when darkness deepens, the island reveals something else.

Struten Lighthouse: A historic beacon on a remote volcanic island, stands amidst scenic greenery, symbolizing maritime heritage and haunting stories. // Source: Kyrre

An island born of shipwrecks

The waters between Hankø and Hvaler have long been feared by sailors. Storms rise quickly, currents shift without warning, and countless ships once met their end on unseen rocks. So many lives were lost that public pressure eventually forced authorities to act.

In the autumn of 1904, the barque “Sir John Lawrence” went down at Struten, and the entire crew of 13 perished. The wreck was located in 1997 and is considered a marine archaeological find of great interest. A proposal has been made to leave the wreck untouched as an “underwater museum”. The tragic sinking led to the demand from the seamen’s associations being made again. Now the matter gained momentum and a lighthouse station was built at Struten during 1906/07. In the autumn of 1907, Struten Lighthouse was completed and put into service.

Fyrvokter Fredrik Nannestad arrived from Kristiania with his wife Albertine Marie and their two sons, Fredrik and Arthur. Together, they were entrusted with keeping the paraffin lamps burning so that no more vessels would be claimed by the sea.

A life of isolation

Life on Struten was harsh and lonely. The family worked in shifts through the night, seven days a week. There was no telephone. No motorboat. No school for the children. Their only regular contact with the outside world was the mail boat, which arrived every other week if weather allowed.

In case of emergency, they were given one lifeline. If help was needed, a black balloon was to be raised on the flagpole. Someone on the mainland would see it. Help would come.

The winter of 1910 was unusually brutal. Storm after storm battered the island throughout February, cutting the family off completely. Waves smashed against the rocks. Wind screamed around the lighthouse tower.

Albertine fell gravely ill. She burned with fever, coughing blood and mucus as her strength faded. Fredrik did everything he could. As the storm howled, he tried again and again to raise the emergency balloon. Each time, the wind tore it loose.

At last, he managed to secure the black balloon to the flagpole. It fluttered wildly in the storm, a silent cry for help. But no one on land saw it, or they did, but it was a week until they could get a boat out to see what was going on. 

For days, Albertine lay dying while the lighthouse continued its duty. When the weather finally calmed a full week later, a rescue party was sent. They arrived too late. Albertine Marie Nannestad had been dead for several days. The doctor later determined she had suffered from tuberculosis, a deadly and contagious lung disease.

A tragedy that echoed

Albertine was buried in the city. The very next day, Fredrik and his sons were required to return to Struten and resume their duties.

The story shook the entire region. Locals began calling the lighthouse Djævleø-Fyre, the Devil Island Lighthouse. Newspapers wrote of the tragedy for days.

That same autumn, the eldest son died from a heart condition. The youngest left for America as soon as he was old enough. Fredrik remained alone on Struten until retirement, watching the light burn where his family had once lived.

A presence that never left

Struten Lighthouse was automated in 1985. Since then, no one has lived on the island.

Many report hearing footsteps in the steep spiral staircase leading up the lighthouse, even when they are completely alone. Others have seen the shadow of a woman moving silently across the island, her figure fading before they can approach.

Every night, as the old wall clock in the keeper’s residence nears quarter to eleven, she is said to begin her rounds. She is often seen near the flagpole. It is also said that the boulder on the north side turns every Thursday at midnight.

Since Struten Lighthouse was opened to tourists, witnesses claim she appears every single evening. In the fading light, a woman stands by the flagpole, scanning the horizon. At Struten, the lighthouse still does its job. And beside it, a keeper’s wife still waits for help that is more than a century too late.

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References:

DEN FORTVILTE FYRVOKTERKONA på Struten fyr på Hvaler – Issuu

https://laguide.no/utstillinglindesnesfyr/norgesfyr/struten/dynamic-no.htm

Fredrikstad-spøkelser: andre spøkesteder

l

Struten – Historikk

Struten fyr – Wikipedia 

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The Womanizer of Room 315 Haunting at Sauda Fjordhotel

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The once stately Sauda Fjordhotel is said to be haunted by a remorseful colonel, who took his own life when his womanizing ways lost him the love of his life. 

At Sauda Fjordhotell in Rogaland, the fjord lies calm and dark beneath the mountains, reflecting a building that has witnessed more than a century of guests, celebrations, and quiet departures. Sauda Fjord Hotel is a manor hotel that was built in 1914 as a recreation center for the wealthy. Until 1931, Sauda had no road connection with the outside world. All traffic was by boat, which caused problems when the winters were cold and the ice was thick on the fjord.

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In more modern times, the hotel has gone bankrupt time and time again, and the reviews tells of a tired place in need of renovations. Most guests check out and leave with memories. Some never do though. On the third floor, behind the closed door of room 315, something restless is said to remain.

Sauda Fjordhotell: Neitakk at Norwegian Wikipedia

Sounds in the Night at Sauda Fjordhotel

Guests assigned to room 315 often report disturbances that begin after nightfall. 

Heavy knocks echo through the room, slow and deliberate, like the rhythm of a walking stick striking the floor. Furniture is found moved from its place by morning. Lights flicker on and off without explanation. Glasses slide across tabletops as if nudged by an unseen hand.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from haunted hotels

Some speak of a shadowy figure standing at the edge of the room. Others describe the sensation of being watched, studied, appraised. The air grows colder without warning, and sleep becomes difficult to hold onto.

The Colonel Who Loved Too Much

According to local legend, the presence belongs to a colonel who stayed at the hotel in the early years of the twentieth century. He was a man of rank and charm, accustomed to attention and admiration. Engaged to be married, he could not resist flirting with other women, even as his wedding day approached.

His fiancée, humiliated and enraged, called off the marriage entirely. Only then did the colonel realize what he had lost. In despair and shame, he took his own life in room 315, hanging himself where he had once prepared for a future that would never come. He was only 28 years old. 

A Ghost That Never Changed

Death, it seems, did not temper his nature. The colonel is said to have remained a womanizer even beyond the grave. Female guests have reported the unsettling feeling of cold hands brushing against them in the darkness. A touch on the arm. A presence too close to ignore. Always brief. Always chilling.

One of the hotel’s managers has stated that many guests in room 315 have asked to change rooms because they feel that someone is lying next to them.

Room 315 at Sauda Fjordhotell is still in use. The door still opens. The lights still work. But when night falls and the sounds begin, some guests come to understand that not every check in is followed by a check out.

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– Har skjedd ting me ikkje kan forklare 

FLERE GJENFERD SOM OGSÅ VILLE VÆRE MED – Issuu 

Sauda Fjordhotell 

Sauda Fjordhotell

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The Ghost of the Captain Smith from the Titanic

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After the Titanic sank in 1912, people started talking about seeing the ghost of Captain Smith around the world. Even after all these years, his death and afterlife have an air of mystery surrounding it and he has become one of the most well known ghosts from the Titanic tragedy.

Captain Edward Smith, a man once regarded as unsinkable as his ship, was among those lost to the icy depths. Throughout his life, he had never been involved in accidents, until he was in the midst of one of the biggest tragedies at sea. 

RMS Titanic: The largest ocean liner in service at the time, Titanic was four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. on 15 April 1912 in the North Atlantic Ocean, she hit an iceberg and sank. Out of the 2,224 people onboard, 1,635 died. Many of them are now believed to haunt different parts of the world. //Image: 1912 illustration by Willy Stöwer.

Straight after the tragedy of the Titanic, people started to tell stories about seeing his ghosts, and those stories have evolved, travelled across the world and even today, new stories emerge from those claiming to have met the ghost of the Captain. 

The Life of Captain Smith

Edward John Smith was a British sea captain and naval officer, born in 1850 in Stoke-on-Trent in England. At the age of 13, he left his childhood home and went to sea. In 1880, he joined the White Star Line as an officer, beginning a long career in the British Merchant Navy.

There were many witnesses that came forward with different stories about him. Some of the earliest accounts of the captain’s demise turned out to be people that wasn’t even on the passenger list. So what really happened that night? Most witnesses said he appeared on the bridge of the Titanic just moments after impact, asking what happened. .

“An iceberg, sir,” First Officer William Murdoch told him. The rest is history, and also a bit of mystery. Some say that he went into shock, and that he became quite passive when the work of getting people into the lifeboats started. 

Captain Edward John Smith at the Titanic bridge on the morning of April 10th, 1912

Some say that he shot himself with a pistol, wireless operator Harold Bride, said he’d seen Smith “dive from the bridge into the sea.” Some say that he was swept off by a wave. Titanic fireman Harry Senior, Smith jumped off the ship with “an infant clutched tenderly in his arms,” swam to a nearby lifeboat, handed off the child and swam back toward the Titanic, saying, “I will follow the ship.”

“[Smith] took one of the children standing by him on the bridge and jumped into the sea,” fireman James McGann recounted. “He endeavored to reach the overturned boat but did not succeed. That was the last I saw of Captain Smith … He held the little girl under one arm as he jumped into the sea and endeavored to reach the nearest lifeboat with the child.”

Thomas Whiteley, a first class steward, also described seeing the captain trying to help a baby into a lifeboat.

“Some women tried to drag him on the boat, but he pulled away from them and said: ‘Save yourselves,’” Whiteley recalled. “I saw him go under, and he never came up.”

Author Wyn Craig Wade wrote in The Titanic: End of a Dream, “Captain Smith had at least five different deaths, from heroic to ignominious.” His final moments remain shrouded in uncertainty, inspiring stories that he either took his own life or was swept away by a wave only to return to his doomed vessel. 

Though his body was never found, his spirit may not have stayed at sea. 

The Ghost of Captain Smith and his Final Goodbye

One of the strange phenomena that happened after the Titanic sank, was the widows of sailors and crew members waking in the nights, hearing their names called out by their loved ones, or seeing their ghosts, long before they knew about the ship sinking. 

According to one eerie legend, his wife, Sarah Eleanor Smith, saw his ghost appear in their home before the world had even learned of the Titanic’s fate. This must have been in their home in a red brick, twin-gabled house named “Woodhead” on Winn Road in Highfield, Southampton, Hampshire.

She claimed he stood before her in her drawing room, dripping wet and silent, as if to say his final goodbye. He walked across the carpet to the window, not saying a word before vanishing into thin air as he reached the window. According to Mrs. Smith, this is when she learned about her husband’s death. 

The Haunted Britannia Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool

This was not the last time people claimed to have witnessed his ghost roaming though. Another place he is said to have haunted is the Adelphy Hotel in Liverpool, a hotel often dubbed, the most haunted hotel in the UK.

Read More: The Ghosts of the Britannia Adelphi Hotel: Shadows in Liverpool 

It is said that The Sefton Suite in the hotel is an exact replica of the first-class smoking room on the ship. A paranormal researcher claims to have witnessed three men haunting the room, saying it was Smith together with two other naval officers who also went down with the ship. It is however disputed that the Sefton Suite is a replica or built by the same craftsmen that the myth claims. 

From left to right: First Officer William M Murdoch, Chief Engineer Joseph Evans, Fourth Officer David Alexander and Capt. Edward J. Smith seen on the Olympic.

His Ghost Haunting Baltimore

One of the strangest stories though, is how a mariner claims to have seen the captain in different places in Baltimore, Maryland over a 17-year period and that he hadn’t died at all. Peter Pryal was a businessman who claimed to have been a Quartermaster on the steamship Majestic for the White Star liner over 30 years ago when Captain Smith was his captain..

Mr. Pryal said that he saw the Captain on a Wednesday morning, and to confirm it was him, he went to the same spot that Friday and saw the Captain again. At 9 o’clock the following Friday or Saturday morning, he went to the corner of St. Paul and Baltimore Streets where he had seen him last and stood on the corner for almost an hour. To his astonishment, he saw the same man approaching him, he said, ‘Captain Smith, how are you?‘ The mystery man replied, ‘Very well, but please don’t detain me, I am on business.’

Mr. Pryal  followed the man to St. Paul and Fayette Streets. Several times the supposed Captain turned to see Mr. Pryal followed him, and he ducked into the Calvert Building to try to lose him in the crowd. He caught up with the Captain as he was boarding a car or a train to Washington  and the Captain said:

‘Be good, shipmate, until we meet again.’

Mr. Pryal was shocked as he believed him to be dead. He had a nervous breakdown in public and got himself home, but his doctor attested that he was: “absolutely sane and not given to hallucinations.” But what really happened here? Did he see his ghosts? Did he uncover the truth that the Captain had in fact survived? Or was it all just a big misunderstanding?

The Haunting of the SS Winterhaven

In the 70s, another ghost story emerged connected to the Titanic and the ghost of the captain. Although there aren’t many sources for this story online before 2008. In 1977, Second Officer Leonard Bishop gave a tour of the SS Winterhaven. A soft-spoken brit was among the passengers, and something about this particular passenger felt different, although Bishop couldn’t explain why. He turned away for a minute, and when he looked back at the passenger, he was gone. 

This would all fall into place years later, when Bishop stumbled across a photo of Captain Smith and saw that it was the passenger that he had taken on a tour. 

Haunting his Childhood home in Stoke on Trent

Another place Smith is said to be haunting, is his childhood home in Stoke on Trent in Staffordshire. The home was built in the early 19th century and was used as a corner shop by Captain Smith’s mother. He lived there until he was thirteen and he went to sea. 

Most of the ghost stories come from the house owners, Neil and Louise Bronner who rented the house out to many tenants for a decade before they sold it in 2012. Many came back with a ghost story or two. 

Source

There have been those who claimed to have seen his ghost in the bedroom. A man was alone in his bed one day and saw the apparition in the captain. The man in the house had apparently been at sea himself. Neil also got a phone call about a uniformed man walking around in the kitchen. 

On a side note, there used to be a story circling around that a mirror from his home was haunted by him as well. According to the story, he put it on his dressing table before setting sail on Titanic. According to the story, his maid kept seeing his face in the mirror on the anniversary of the sinking. 

According to the story, her name was Ethelwynne, and was offered to take one item from his home when he went down with the ship after the vessel hit an iceberg on April 14, 1912 as a keepsake and in lieu of wages. She chose this and had it in her and her family’s possession until it was found in an estate sale.

Eventually the mirror ended up in auction houses with the story attached to it, and landed in ghost hunter Zac Bagan’s collection. But how true is this story though? Coincidentally, the auction started a couple of months or so in 2018, when a couple in Belfast snapped a picture in a bar they claimed was his ghost. How much of a coincidence is it that the two different hauntings of the same ghost appeared so close together? Kenny Biddle for the Skeptical Inquirer did a longer piece about why the mirror and its haunted story was most likely not true at all. 

His Ghost in a Pub in Belfast

Talking about the picture snapped in Belfast, this is perhaps the lates sighting and big story about the ghost of the Captain. 

Cheryl and Luke Arkless were in Robinsons bar in Belfast one evening in 2018. The couple, both 34 at the time, were visiting from Devon and sat down for a drink on July 29th. Cheryl’s mother in law took, in a matter of seconds, three pictures of them. According to themselves, they felt a cold wind on their backs, but didn’t think much of it until they were back in England and saw something strange in the photos. As Cheryl herself stated:

‘I called my husband and he said it was probably a person walking behind us very fast. But the thing is, everything around us is crystal clear apart from that blur. I was very skeptical at first but now I really think it looks like a man. There is a strong ‘Titanic’ background in the bar, and the more you look at the more he resembles the captain. On the right-hand side behind us, a band was playing, so he looks as if he is watching the band.’

According to ghost hunters Paranormal Investigations UK, they analyzed the photo and tested it for manipulation. According to Cheryl, they told her the photo was untampered and unexplainable. Now, why this bar? According to Cheryl, the pub had not experienced anything like it when she called and let them know about the picture. 

 It’s important to note that the pub is filled with original memorabilia from the Titanic like letters and post cards written on board, first and second class China from the White Star Line vessels. Could it have been Captain Smith haunting the bar close to where the Titanic first set sail? 

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References:

How Did the ‘Titanic’ Captain Die? New Book Reveals Conflicting Accounts of Tragic Last Moments

Baltimore Mystery Man

What Was the Titanic’s Captain Doing While the Ship Sank? | HISTORY

Captain Smith of the RMS Titanic Seen After His Death: 1912 | Mrs Daffodil Digresses

SS Winterhaven

HMS Titanic

Robinson Bar in Belfast

Couple shocked after ‘ghost of Titanic’s captain photobombs them’ in Belfast pub – Irish Mirror 

Childhood home

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2125619/My-haunting-goes-Couple-sell-house-haunted-ghost-Titanic-captain-born—hauntings-include-flooded-kitchen.html

Haunted Mirror

Haunted mirror ‘possessed by the ghost of the Titanic captain’ up for auction

The Provenance of Captain Smith’s ‘Haunted’ Mirror | Skeptical Inquirer

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Fredriksten Fortress and the White Lady of Halden

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In the border town of Sweden of Norway, Fredriksten Fortress has seen more bloodshed than many places. But who is the White Lady said to be haunting it, soaring around the clock tower in the night?

High above the town of Halden, a border town in Norway toward Sweden, where stone walls overlook the fjord and the borderlands beyond, Fredriksten Fortress rises with quiet authority. Built to defend Norway from invasion, it has stood through sieges, cannon fire, and centuries of uneasy peace. Today it is a place of museums, concerts, and summer crowds. But when night settles over the ramparts, the fortress is said to remember its dead.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Norway

Among the many legends bound to these walls, none is as enduring as that of Den Hvite Dame, the White Lady of Fredriksten.

Fredriksten Festning: The haunted fortress in Halden, Norway is said to be haunted by the ghost of a woman in white, said to have been behind mysterious disappearances and strange occurrences, leaving some soldiers defeated. // Source: Kjetil Bjørnsrud

A Fortress Shaped by War

Fredriksten Fortress is one of Norway’s most important military strongholds. From the seventeenth century onward, it played a crucial role in defending the border against Swedish forces. The fortress is perhaps best known for the death of King Charles XII of Sweden, who was killed during the siege of 1718. 

There is still a debate about if it was a Norwegian who killed him, or one of his own country men who was behind the shot. Long after the final shots were fired, the weight of conflict still seems to cling to the stone.

The Woman in White

According to legend, the White Lady was once the secret mistress of the fortress commander. Some say that she was the maid of commander Johan Hubner von Holst, or some say that it was actually one of the soldiers. 

Their relationship was hidden within the walls, known only to a few, and carried out in the shadow of constant danger. During a Swedish attack on the fortress, the commander or soldier was struck and killed by a cannonball or shot by a pistol. His body was never recovered, lost to the chaos of battle.

In some versions, her grief was simply that her love was never reciprocated. Either way, overcome with grief and despair, the woman is said to have climbed the fortress white clock tower and flung herself from it. Her death bound her to the place where her life and love had ended.

Since then, her spirit has never truly left Fredriksten.

Midnight on the White Tower

The White Lady is most often reported near the clock tower now known as the White Tower, appearing close to midnight and the full moon. She is also said to be seen around the commander’s building and down in the dungeons. 

Witnesses describe a pale female figure dressed in white, silent and still, never touching the ground as she glides past. Some say she waves gently toward those who see her. Others claim she stands motionless, gazing out over the city of Halden and the dark waters of the fjord beyond.

One of the strangest details repeated in many retellings is the behavior of the fortress lights. Several people have claimed that the spotlights illuminating the walls suddenly switch off moments before the apparition appears, plunging the area into darkness just before the White Lady reveals herself.

She is not said to be violent, but her presence carries a deep sense of sorrow, as if the grief that ended her life continues to echo through the stone.

The Missing Lieutenant and The Mad Soldiers

One of the most famed stories about the ghost comes from two soldiers placed on watch by the tower in 1820. When a soldier was taking over the shift of a soldier named Tobias, he noticed how strangely he beheaved, but didn’t find out what happened. Tobias was pale and shaken, staggering down the stairs, unable to put into words what he had seen. 

When a lieutenant came to free this next soldier, he too was pale and shaken. Wanting to investigate, the lieutenant grabbed his pistol and ventured up to the clock tower. Not long after, shots were fired, and all of them went to the scene. But no one found the lieutenant, who had vanished into thin air, and was never seen again. 

Tobias turned mute after the incident, and never talked about anything after, dying a year after he was sent home. The other soldier turned mad and died at the mad house the year after as well, and no one found out what really happened that night. 

Some speculate that it was actually the woman herself who killed her lover, and that she ever since has hated men, and they should be careful walking around the clock tower at night. In 1926, a human skeleton was found under the tower, and many claim that this had to be the missing lieutenant. But what really happened that night, was never cleared. Even how true the story was, is rather uncertain. 

Eyewitnesses After the Incident

After that tragic vanishing supposedly happened, many more soldiers came forward with their own stories about those who had seen the White Lady. In a newspaper, it was published when an old soldier who used to work there told about his own encounter an August night in the 19th century: 

“Her hair was covered with a grayish, veiled fabric that fell in folds downwards and blended in with the rest of her dress. I did not notice her body, but she must have been tall and slender. Her face was very beautiful. But because of her mournful eyes it seemed ravaged and pale. For a moment she stared intently at me, then the image was blurred, and she disappeared,” Source

Another soldier saw the white lady when he returned to Fredriksten on leave. He saw a beautiful lady as she “stepped out of nowhere” and came through the heavy gates towards Place d’Armes. She followed him on the way to the house he lived in. In front of the door he turned and looked five minutes later. She was still there.

In the 1930s and around World War II, there were a number of incidents surrounding the white lady although it had perhaps not been reported so much in the 1900s. But there are cases in modern times where sightings of the ghost happen. 

In the early 2000s, two German campers visited the fortress and claimed to have seen a smiling female figure in the middle of the night, dressed in a thin, white cloth. The Germans had never heard the story of the white lady and wondered if someone was filming it. NRK Radio and several newspapers interviewed the couple. 

Some psychics visiting claim to have felt a thing or two, and paranormal researchers coming from all around the world, claim to have found evidence of something supernatural inside of the fortress. Although the definite truth of it all will perhaps never be revealed. 

Julius Runge: Fortress Frederiksten at Halden-Norway

The King’s Bastion

There are also those claiming that the cafe is also one of the places where supernatural occurrences happens. Those working there say that the table cloths has been ripped off the tables and sounds from the kitchen on second floor makes sounds when no one is supposed to be there. 

From the top of the King’s Bastion, the view stretches across Halden, the fjord, and into Sweden. By day, it is a place of beauty and perspective. By night, it is one of the most commonly mentioned locations in reports of unexplained sightings and sensations.

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Magic Magasin – Sommernattens hvite dame 

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The Haunted Shelbourne Hotel and the Ghost of Mary Masters

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According to staff members and guests, paranormal investigators and even celebrities, the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin is haunted. Legend has it that a young cholera victim called Mary Masters has been haunting the place for centuries. 

On the grand curve of St. Stephen’s Green stands The Shelbourne Hotel, a place of elegance, history, and lingering whispers of a ghostly presence. Beneath its crystal chandeliers and polished marble lies nearly two centuries of a mystery. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Ireland

Since opening its doors in 1824, the Shelbourne has welcomed royalty, revolutionaries, poets, and presidents. Among its most enduring guests is one who never left, a little ghost known as Mary Masters.

Shelbourne Hotel: Joseph Mischyshyn / Dublin – Shellbourne Hotel / CC BY-SA 2.0

A Hotel of Grandeur and Ghosts

The Shelbourne Hotel was designed to embody luxury and sophistication, its Georgian façade a testament to Dublin’s golden age. Inside, generations of visitors have come seeking comfort and refinement. Martin Burke from Tupperary bought three of the townhouses on St. Stephen’s Green, wanting to make the grand hotel. 

The Haunted Hotel: Image from 1885 of Shelbourne Hotel.

It is said that one room, in particular, has a reputation that chills even the most skeptical guests: Room 526. Staff and visitors alike have spoken of eerie occurrences like lights flickering, taps turning on by themselves, and the distinct feeling of being watched. The culprit, they say, is a child.

The Haunted Shelbourne Hotel

The story of the haunting came to prominence in 1965 when famed American paranormal investigator Hans Holzer and British psychic Sybil Leek visited The Shelbourne. They were on a tour to explore some of the most haunted places in Dublin. The hotel had already become notorious among staff for unexplainable events, and Holzer was invited to investigate. And if the haunting was a well known thing before they arrived, it certainly became notorious after.

Paranormal Investigators: Sybil Leek (née Fawcett; 22 February 1917 – 26 October 1982) was an English witch, astrologer, occult author and self-proclaimed psychic. She was called Britain’s most famous witch by the BBC. Hans Holzer (26 January 1920 – 26 April 2009) wrote more than 120 books on supernatural and occult and hosted a television show, Ghost Hunter.

How they investigated the hotel and got their information, was not necessarily through historical records. During a séance held in Room 526, or 256 by some accounts, Leek made contact with a spirit who identified herself as Mary Masters.

Read More: Check out all haunted hotels around the world

The first night, Sybil invited the ghost child into her room, and felt a small child climb into her bed, although she couldn’t see anything. She also claimed to have felt a woolly material brush against her cheek and right arm. When she woke up the next morning, her arm was numb, almost as someone had laid upon it. 

The next evening, Sybil went into a trance and had a full conversation with the child that she was unable to remember when she came too. According to Leek, the girl said she was seven years old, named Mary Masters and had died in the building in the 18th century, before the hotel as we know it was completed. According to them, the little girl seemed to be ill. She described herself as lonely and frightened, unable to find her mother. She was also looking for her big sister, Sophie. The room grew cold during the session, and witnesses claimed they heard the faint sound of a child crying near the window.

Encounters with the Spirit of Mary

Since that famous investigation, countless guests have claimed to experience something strange in the hotel. Some report hearing soft footsteps padding across the carpet in the dead of night. Others have woken to the sensation of a small hand touching their cheek. Maids have spoken of seeing the shadow of a little girl reflected in mirrors or vanishing behind curtains.

The encounter is not really isolated to this one room though, as hotel staff have reported seeing her around the hotel, like in the basement and wine cellar when they are stocking wine, or doing laundry. 

Even the celebrity and actress Lily Collins shared publicly about her ghostly encounter when she stayed at the Shelbourne Hotel when she was interviewed on Jimmy Fallon. As she was sleeping in room 255 she felt a presence by her bed and a giggle before doors started slamming and a rush of air flew past her. When asking about it, the hotel staff told her about Mary Masters. 

Lily Collins and her Ghost Experience: Worth noting though, is that Lily Collins is a firm believer in ghosts, as she also claimed to have experienced the ghost of Ted Bundy’s victim when she was filming his biopic, “Extremely Wicked”. Here, she started to wake up at 3:05 am every night in preproduction. “I started being woken up by flashes of images, like the aftermath of a struggle,” she said

Documenting the Haunting at Shelbourne Hotel

In an RTÉ documentary about the staff working at the historical hotel, that seems to be from 2014/2015, management at the palatial hotel admitted that on several occasions, terrified guests had run out of the eerie room screaming in panic.

The hotel managers even gave a staff member orders to stay in the room overnight as there were so many reports about activity, at least 2-3 times per week over a period of six months. The staff member didn’t particularly believe it all, but were convinced when the taps in the bathroom turned as the guests had complained about. 

Uncovering the Mystery of Mary Masters

The ground on which the Shelbourne stands has seen centuries of Dublin’s transformation. Before the hotel was built, this area of St. Stephen’s Green was lined with Georgian townhouses, one of which may have been the Masters’ family home. Early tenants in the 1600 and 1700s built simple two-storey houses, with much of it undeveloped on the 1728 map. By the time of John Roque’s map in 1756, the pace of building had accelerated rapidly.

But who was Mary Masters? The little girl said to haunt the hotel? According to most sources, they claim she used to live in one of the three townhouses that was before the hotel.

According to the paranormal researches in 65, Mary Masters had died in 1846, and was one of the children growing up in the houses that stood on the ground before they were made into the hotel. This is strange to say though, as the hotel was founded in 1824 by Martin Burke. Apparently, Sybil Leek got the year in one of her trances. 

So, it’s rather unlikely that was the year she died. It did get a new owner and was renovated in 1865 by William Jury, Charles Cotton and Christian Goodman, but the building was used as a hotel all the while. 

And as in the retelling from Lily Collins and the staff, they told that Mary had actually died of cholera in 1791 and that little  Mary must have been around 7 years old. This is the year that has been passed around most perhaps, as it seems to fit more with the narrative of the buildings. Although, there have been no traces of any family named Masters or a girl named Mary who lived in one of the three town houses. 

But was there cholera in Ireland in 1791? It is believed that Cholera were introduced to Ireland from India, probably through British troops. The epidemic in Ireland was in the 1830s, and killed 50 000 people. It is said that the illness started in India in 1817. So this story is also rather improbable. 

While skeptics dismiss the tale as hotel folklore, the stories persist. Modern visitors still ask for Room 526, curious or brave enough to see if the stories are true. Some leave convinced they felt something unseen, while others depart with nothing more than a chill that refuses to fade.

According to investigators, most of the supposed haunting has turned out to be banging noises from plumbing, bad wiring that increases the electromagnetic field that has turned out makes people paranoid and seeing things. There are also scratching noises in the attic that have turned out to be mice and rats. But as always, there are some points that are still left unanswered.

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References:

Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, Ireland | Haunted Rooms®

Actress Lily Collins haunted by Dublin hotel ghost | Irish Independent

Ghost of young girl haunts Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel, claim guests and staff

Epidemics in Ireland – A Short History – The Irish Story 

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Room 407 and the Gentle Ghost of Fleischer’s Hotel

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As the first hostess of the hotel in Voss, Norway, the ghost of Magdalene at the historic and majestic Fleischier’s Hotel is said to linger inside of Room 407. 

Fleischer’s Hotel stands proudly beside the lake at Voss, a grand wooden hotel steeped in family history and tradition right by the train station. The hotel was built in the Swiss style. This style of building was popular in Norway from about 1850-1910 and is inspired by the architecture of the Alps.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Norway

For generations, guests have spoken in hushed tones about one particular room. Room 407 with a grand view over the water Vossvangen is built around, is said to be occupied, even when no name is written in the ledger. According to long held legend, this is where the spirit of the hotel’s very first hostess still resides.

Fleischer’s Hotel: The hotel by Evangervegen road (E16) in Voss, Norway is thought to be haunted by the ghost of one of the founders.// Photo

Magdalene Fleischer’s Unfinished Watch

The ghost is believed to be Magdalene Fleischer herself, the woman who helped shape Fleischer’s the hotel that is still running by her rules it seems. 

Her full name was Magdalene Margrethe von Schlanbusch (1839-1915),  married to Fredrik Lyth Ørum Fleischer (1834-1906) who founded the hotel after they sold the family owned church to Voss.

The two ran the hotel from 1864 to 1906. Magdalene was Fleischer’s savior when the husband thought all was lost when the new building burned down in 1888, only 13 days after it opened. Magdalene had single-handedly insured the existing hotel and the new building during construction, without her husband’s knowledge. The hotel was rebuilt the next year and is still standing. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from haunted hotels

Witnesses describe seeing a female figure dressed in black, moving silently through Room 407 or standing near the bed. Why exactly this room, sources never claim to have an answer to. Others speak of sudden cold drafts that pass through the room without warning, and chandeliers that flicker and glow for no earthly reason.

Despite these unsettling signs, Magdalene is not considered a malevolent presence. Quite the opposite. Staff and guests alike describe her as protective and deeply concerned with the well being of those who stay at the hotel. It is said she refuses to leave because her sense of duty to the guests never truly ended.

A Touch in the Night

One of the most striking accounts comes from a guest who claimed to have awakened during the night to feel a gentle hand patting her cheek. When she opened her eyes, the room was empty, yet the sense of comfort lingered. There was no fear, only the impression of being cared for, as if checked on by a devoted hostess making her rounds.

Hotel staff have their own stories. An employee once claimed that flickering lights appeared when Magdalene seemed displeased, particularly if she felt the service provided to guests was lacking. In these moments, the lights were not threatening but insistent, a quiet reminder that standards must be upheld.

– Guests who have stayed here for several nights have on several occasions come down to the reception and said that they no longer want to stay in room 407. They have had the feeling that someone was watching them, said Butler, Michael Pedersen. He also claimed to have felt or heard someone walking in the hallways. 

Magdalene Fleischer

– I heard lots of women’s voices from inside the toilet, as if they were talking to each other. I got a little scared, and hurried on, but had to go back to take a look. Still, I didn’t dare open the door to look. I was completely in shock. I knew there couldn’t possibly be anyone there, because the door to the hallway was locked. I rushed out and locked it behind me! Source

Also the descendants of the alleged ghosts, comes with a few ghost stories of her own. Asta Maria Fleischer Tønjum, the great granddaughter, worked all her life at the hotel as well. 

– Not so many years ago, a regular male guest stopped by the reception and reported an incident in room 407. This was passed on to me, and I called the man, who told me that a lady had appeared in the room. She had come over to his bed and stood there for a while before she dissolved and disappeared. The lady had a black, unbuttoned blouse and buttoned boots. The man had not been scared, because he felt that the lady was kind-hearted and was there to look after him. When he heard the story about Magdalene, he thought that the woman who appeared to him could well be her, says Asta Marie. Source

A Spirit Bound by Care

Unlike many haunted hotels where spirits are tied to tragedy or unrest, Fleischer’s tells a different kind of ghost story. As her descendants claim, she was a warm and kind lady in life as she seems to have been in her afterlife as well. Magdalene Fleischer is said to remain out of love and responsibility rather than sorrow. 

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Magic Magasin – Det spøker på Fleischers Hotel

Fleischer’s Hotel – Wikipedia

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Teresa Prieto The Witch of Jove and Spain’s First Vampire Case

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Teresa Prieto, known as the Witch of Jove, has captivated the imaginations of many through the centuries as the first recorded case of a vampire in Spain that reached the court. What was she? A witch? A vampire? Or was she one of many innocent women accused of something supernatural.

Long before the vampire became a figure of Gothic fiction, the fear of blood drinking witches already haunted the villages of medieval Spain. One of the earliest recorded cases emerged in the late fifteenth century in the coastal settlements around Gijón in Asturias. There, a woman named Teresa Prieto became the center of one of the strangest accusations in Spanish history. To her neighbors she was not simply a witch. She was believed to be a creature that slipped into homes at night and drank the blood of children.

Read More: Check out all ghostly stories and legends from Spain

The case of Teresa Prieto, later known as “the Witch of Jove” or “the Vampire of Xove,” sits at the crossroads between folklore and historical reality. It reveals how medieval fears of night demons, witchcraft, and vampirism could merge into a single terrifying accusation.

Gijón City: It is the largest city and municipality by population in the autonomous community of Asturias. This is also where the first recorded vampire court case in Spain happened.

Night Visitor of the Village

In the late 1400s the area of Jove, today called Xove, was not the modern district of Gijón known today. It consisted of small scattered villages connected by narrow paths and surrounded by forests and fields. Oral traditions and superstition shaped daily life. Local healers lived on the margins of society, gathering herbs from the woods to make remedies and potions.

The Asturian Guaxa: The Guaxa is said to be an old and thin woman-like entity, ugly and covered in warts. She is said to have a single sharp tooth she stalks her prey with. She sneaks into people’s homes in the middle of the night and feeds on them with her one sharp tooth. Children are preferred, but also young women and handsome men are in danger. She doesn’t kill them at once, nor does she transform her victims to one of her own. She slowly kills them, draining their life, bit by bit. In Asturia, people can say “It looks like the Guaxa has swallowed you,” when people have lost a lot of weight, as the Guaxa slowly over time drained people’s lives. Although this is a very Asturian legend, the case of Teresa Prieto was called a Strix or Estrige.

Within this environment strange rumors began to circulate.

Parents claimed that something entered their homes during the night. The intruder moved silently while families slept and approached the beds of children. When morning came, some children were found dead. According to the stories told by villagers, the bodies bore two small marks on the neck, signs that their blood had been sucked during the night.

Fear quickly turned toward a human suspect. The villagers accused Teresa Prieto.

The Shadow of the Strix

The accusations against Prieto did not arise in isolation. At the end of the fifteenth century European folklore still carried strong beliefs in striges or strigias, monstrous female beings said to prey on infants. These creatures were described as winged women with the claws and beaks of birds of prey who drank the blood of children to use in magical brews.

Such beliefs had deep roots in classical mythology and medieval superstition. The Roman strix and the Greek lamia were both imagined as female night predators who attacked infants. In medieval Europe these creatures slowly merged with the idea of witches. A woman accused of sorcery could easily be accused of vampiric acts as well.

The Strix: The strix (plural striges or strixes), in the mythology of classical antiquity, was a bird of ill omen, the product of metamorphosis, that fed on human flesh and blood. It also referred to witches and related malevolent folkloric beings. The strix is described as a large-headed bird with transfixed eyes, rapacious beak, greyish white wings. In Romanian, strigăt means “scream” and strigoaică is the name of the Romanian feminine vampire while strigoi is the Romanian male vampire. Albanian folklore tells of the shtriga, and Slavic of the strzyga/stryha.

In the isolated communities of Asturias, the old legends were still alive. When children died unexpectedly, the ancient explanation returned. A blood drinking witch must be responsible.

Accusation and Trial

Around 1480, Teresa Prieto was formally denounced by her neighbors. She was accused of being a striga, a night witch who entered homes and drained the blood of children. The case reached the attention of the Spanish Inquisition, which opened proceedings against her.

The accusations described her as a woman who wandered through villages at night and entered houses secretly, harming Christians and sucking blood from children. In essence, the first documented case of vampirism in Spain, although the lore behind the blood sucking entity looked a little bit different than the modern version. 

She was turned in to Juan de Acebal, at the time a prosecutor and litigant who would lead the first Asturian case in the renewed Tribunal of the Inquisition, which had just been re-established in the kingdom of Castile, precisely on All Souls’ Day in 1478.

Prieto was arrested and subjected to interrogation and torture. She was bound hand and foot, twisting and turning on her back, and she was forced to drink liters of water continuously for at least an hour. Despite the ordeal she maintained her innocence and never confessed to the crimes attributed to her.

Torture: Water cure was among the forms of torture used by the Spanish Inquisition. Before pouring the water, torturers often inserted an iron prong (known as the bostezo) into a victim’s mouth to keep it open, as well as a strip of linen (known as the toca) on which the victim would choke and suffocate while swallowing the water.

The tribunal or the Bachelor Brecianos, eventually condemned her to death by hanging. There, it was ordered that she be taken “on horseback, riding a donkey, her hands and feet bound with an esparto rope around her neck,” publicly and shamefully before the townspeople, to the stone gallows where the witch or sorceress of Gijón would be hanged and her flesh burned to ashes.

Yet the case did not end in the way many witch trials did.

Escape From the Gallows

Before the sentence was carried out, Teresa Prieto appealed the verdict. As she stated in her protest, when she was arrested she was not informed of the charges or anything else; she had not been told who had denounced her; the accuser turned out to be the only witness and, aside from contradicting himself, was a personal enemy of hers, which should legally disqualify his testimony; furthermore, she had not been provided with the required legal representation, and the lieutenant corregidor had acted against her unjustly and contrary to the laws of the kingdom. She also emphasized that she had been subjected to torture without cause or reason and was summoned repeatedly without any new evidence or proof appearing. To conclude her plea, she stressed that by appearing before the court she demonstrated her good faith and should be able to atone for any possible crime.

The Court Case Files: (PARES, Portal de Archivos Españoles)

The appeal succeeded. Instead of execution she was imprisoned while the case continued. Her conduct during the proceedings appears to have influenced the authorities, and eventually the sentence was overturned.

In November of 1500 she was released from prison and allowed to return to Asturias as a free woman. Neither party was ordered to pay costs, but Teresa requested a written copy of the sentence and the return of the property and assets that had been confiscated from her.

In the end the supposed vampire of Jove was never proven to be anything more than a victim of fear and rumor.

The Birth of a Spanish Vampire Legend

Even though Teresa Prieto survived the trial, her reputation never disappeared. Folklore continued to describe her as a vampire witch who crept into houses at night to feed on children. Later historians and folklorists such as Julio Caro Baroja and Juan Uría Ríu recorded the story as one of the earliest examples of vampiric belief in Spain.

The witch of Jove belongs to a darker chapter of European folklore. She stands at the boundary between legend and historical record. A woman once accused of slipping through the night to drink the blood of children. A case where ancient fears of witches, demons, and vampires converged in the life of a single unfortunate person.

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References:

Mito y realidad de Teresa Prieto, la bruja de Jove

Un zumbido mortal. Theresa Prieto, la vampira de Jove | El Comercio: Diario de Asturias

https://citaclio.blogspot.com/2022/11/teresa-prieto-la-asturiana-condenada.html

Strix (mythology) – Wikipedia

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Utne Hotel and the Watchful Spirit of “Mor Utne”

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In one of the oldest hotels in Norway in the serene Hardangerfjord, Mother Utne is said to still be running things. After working 70 years at Hotel Utne, management at the hotel claims that she is still the one in charge. 

On the quiet shores of the Hardangerfjord stands Utne Hotel, one of Norway’s oldest wooden hotels and has been in operation since 1722. Here they serve the famed Hardanger cider and the national dish Fårikål, with their ghost stories. Its rooms are filled with antiques, its walls layered with centuries of hospitality and human presence. 

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Among the portraits and heirlooms, one figure holds particular power over the building. Her painted gaze follows guests from the wall, calm yet unyielding. She is known simply as Mor Utne. And many believe she never truly left.

Hotell Utne: The old hotel is said to be haunted by the matroness, called mother Utne. // photo was taken by Jarle Vines. © 2009 Jarle Vines, some rights reserved.

The Woman Who Became the Hotel

Mor Utne was the hotel’s hostess for more than seventy years in the mid-19th century. Generations of travelers passed through under her watchful eye, and the hotel’s routines and traditions became inseparable from her presence. She knew every room, every floorboard, every sound the old building could make. When she finally died, the hotel continued on. But those who live and work there insist that something essential remains behind.

Mother Utne:Torbjørg Johannesdatter Utne (1812-1903) was a well known figure at the hotel, even after she was widowed in 1882, and left the business to her son, Svein Utne. Her portrait was done by Eilif Pettersen.

Her portrait still hangs on the wall, and beneath it stands her favourite rocking chair in the fireplace lounge. It is her chair alone. Guests avoid sitting in it, even when the hotel is full and no other seats remain. During renovations, workers left the chair untouched, some out of respect, others out of an unspoken unease they could not quite explain.

Still, she seems to be a rather helpful ghost, returning objects to what she deems the right place, and the staff claims that she exudes a warmth when her presence enters a room. 

Signs of a Quiet Guardian

Staff and guests alike have reported strange happenings throughout the hotel. Lamps are said to switch on and off without reason. Doors open and close on their own, slow and deliberate, as if guided by an unseen hand. Figures are sensed rather than seen, a presence felt just behind the shoulder or at the edge of a corridor.

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These events are rarely frightening. Instead, they carry a feeling of supervision, as though the hotel is being quietly inspected. Many believe this is Mor Utne, still tending to her duties, ensuring that everything remains as it should be.

The Girl From the Ghost Room

According to local legend though, Mother Utne is not the only one said to be haunting the hotel. Room 15 is often called the Ghost Room, and that strange things keeps happening there. Could it be that Mother Utne is making her presence known in this particular room, or could it be that there is another ghost roaming the hotel as well. 

It is said that an 18 year old girl once jumped from the window and died and there is in fact her, not Mother Utne haunting this part of the hotel. But although we know quite a bit about Mother Utne as an actual figure, this tale seems to be lost in history and is now merely a legend. 

A Presence That Endures

Unlike many haunted places, Utne Hotel is not known for terror or violence. Its haunting is subtle and intimate. Mor Utne is said to watch, not to warn. She is not bound by tragedy but by devotion. After a lifetime spent caring for the hotel and its guests, perhaps she simply could not let go.

Those who stay the night often speak of restful sleep mixed with an odd awareness, as if someone is nearby, listening. Some wake convinced they have been gently checked on, though no one ever enters their room.

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References:

Følte at noen forsøkte å dytte dem ut mens de vasket vinduet

Utne Hotell

Torbjørg Utne – hotelleier – Store norske leksikon

Det uforklarlige

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Brogans Bar: The Secret Passage to the Past

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Said to house both piles of Guinness, the Brogan’s Bar in Dublin is also said to house a few ghosts. Visitors and staff have long talked about the strange things that go down at the pub after the final call has been rung. 

On the busy stretch of Dame Street, tucked beside the historic Olympia Theatre, stands Brogans Bar, a place where Dublin’s laughter mingles with whispers from centuries past and a few ghosts lingering according to the tales. 

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Long before it became known by its present name, it was called Leonards, and even then it held a reputation as one of the city’s oldest and most characterful taverns. It also served like The Viking Inn, one of the first gay bars in Dublin. 

The bar is said to have the largest collection of Guinness memorabilia outside of the brewery. Within its low ceilings and time-worn beams, stories of politics, rebellion, and revelry have soaked into the walls like spilled whiskey. Michael Collins himself is said to have been a regular, plotting the future of Ireland over a quiet pint. Yet not all of Brogans’ visitors have been so easily seen.

The Haunted Brogan’s Bar

Those who close up after the final rounds have long reported strange happenings in the shadows of the bar. Soft footsteps echo across the wooden floors when no one else is there. Being next door from the notoriously haunted Olympia Theatre has also fueled the rumours of this building  having ghost of their own. 

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Like with the theatre, the haunting in this bar is said to be a bit vague, although prominent. Glasses rattle as if disturbed by invisible hands. On one unsettling occasion, a door was smashed open with such force that staff believed an intruder had entered, only to find the pub empty and still. There are also reported about mysterious footsteps after closing time.

So what could be haunting the Brogan’s? Could it have something to do about the alleged secret tunnels underneath the building? The pub lies directly opposite the ancient entrance to Dublin Castle. Beneath Brogans, according to local legend, lies a secret passageway that once ran directly under Dame Street and into the heart of Dublin Castle. No one knows exactly when it was built, or for what purpose, but many believe it was used for discreet meetings, smuggling, or escape during troubled times. 

Today, the entrance is said to be sealed, though some claim to feel cold drafts rising from the cellar floor and hear faint voices murmuring below. Perhaps the passage is not as closed as it seems. When the lights dim and the street outside grows quiet, Brogans Bar stands as a reminder that Dublin’s history is never truly buried. 

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Top 11 Haunted Dublin Pubs Full Of Spirits! | Spooky Isles

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The Watchful Spirits of Bårdshaug Manor

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The old manor house at Bårdshaug in Norway is said to be haunted by some mysterious women that sometimes appear in the house, now operating as a hotel. Who are these female spirits lingering, and what do they want?

It is often said that every respectable manor and old house comes with a ghost of its own, 30 minutes from Trondheim city in Norway. At Bårdshaug Manor in Orkanger, that saying seems to hold true. The elegant estate, built in 1860, once served as the home of Christian Thams, a remarkable figure in Norwegian history known as an architect, minister, landowner, and consul. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Norway

Today the manor house from 1860 operates as a hotel, but many believe it has never truly been left unguarded.

Source

The History of the Manor House

Bårdshaug Gård was originally built in 1860, but it was only after Christian Thams took over the property in 1890 that the farm was transformed into a larger manor house. The architecture at Bårdshaug Herregård is characterized by an interesting interplay of different styles, from Norse to Louis-seize style. The interior design features elements from all over the world.

Christian Marius Thams (1867–1948) was a Norwegian architect and industrial entrepreneur . He was involved in a number of areas within industrial construction and trade, in Norway and abroad. In Africa he was involved in business operations within the harsh colonial government. Towards the workers in Norway he was conservative and patriarchal. Thams rejected all demands from the unions which he tried to break.

Christian Thams, who was an important industrialist and entrepreneur. Thams was not only known for his work with industrial development and export, but also for his connections with princes, royalty, and working people. 

He met his future wife, the Dutch-born Baroness Sarah Sybille Francoise Atoinette Elènore Baronesse de Spengler , while studying in Switzerland. They married in 1886 when he was 19 and she was 18. Baroness de Spengler was an artistic and modern woman with an interest in singing and theatre, and she played a central role in the many cultural events held at Bårdshaug Manor. She was known for her involvement in art and culture, and her presence was an important element in the social life of the estate.

Two Ladies Who Never Left

Strange things happen inside of this hotel. The staff talk about doors locking themselves and seeing the shape of people inside of the old rooms. 

Over the years, guests have shared quiet but persistent reports of two female figures appearing within the manor. Their identities remain unknown, yet they are spoken of with familiarity rather than fear. One of the most intriguing stories comes from children who have claimed to speak with a woman dressed in a red gown in the cellar. These encounters are described as calm and natural, as if the presence was entirely at ease with being seen.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Haunted Hotels

Staff members at Bårdshaug Manor tend to agree that the spirits mean no harm. Instead, they believe the women are bound to the house out of loyalty and care, lingering to watch over the building and those who pass through it. Their appearances are not accompanied by threats or violence, only a sense of being quietly observed.

A Place Acknowledged by the Dead

The manor’s reputation has reached beyond local whispers and many paranormal researchers have tried to find the answers to the legends. The well known Norwegian television series Åndenes Makt (The Power of Spirits) has also paid a visit to Bårdshaug, drawn by the long standing tales of unexplained activity and lingering presences. While no definitive answers were given, the visit only strengthened the belief that something remains behind the walls of the old estate.

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Det uforklarlige

Spøkelser, gjenferd og spesielle energier: Dører som låser seg selv og konturer av folk i rommene – avisa-st.no

Bårdshaug Herregård