Feel like adding that extra spine-tingling touch to your next holiday? Then this guide to some of the most haunted locations in the UK should be right up your alley for your next holiday destination – perhaps for a Hallowe’en break?

Blickling Hall, Norfolk

This stately home is said to be the haunt of multiple phantoms, most famously that of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife, who was executed after falling out of his favour. Blickling Hall is said to be the location of her birthplace, and her headless ghost is purported to return there on the day of her execution, the 19th of May, every year, in a grisly coach drawn by four headless horses and driven by a headless horseman.

But it’s not merely this former queen who is said to appear from beyond the grave. Other apparitions at Blickling Hall include the ghost of Anne Boleyn’s father, Sir Thomas, as well as Sir John Falstof, the inspiration for Shakespeare’s character Falstaff, and Sir Henry Hobart.

The imposing Blickling Hall in Norfolk

Pluckley, Kent

Pluckley in Kent has a reputation, whether deserved or not, as the most haunted village in England. Granted the title by the Guinness Book of Records in 1989, this spooky settlement is purported to have as many as 15 ghosts.

There are no less than three haunted pubs – the Blacksmith’s Arms, the Black Horse, and the Derring Arms – boasting phantom denizens which include a Cavalier, a bonnet-clad woman, and some mischievous spirits who only make themselves known by stealing and later returning items.
Other notable hauntings include a ghostly monk which wanders a former rector’s home, a spectral re-enactment of a highwayman’s final swordfight, and the unexplained shrieks in the aptly named Screaming Woods.

A misty forest

Ancient Ram Inn, Wotton-under-Edge

It’s hard to say why pubs are so often the sites of hauntings, but the Ancient Ram Inn, a Grade II* listed building in Wotton-under-Edge, has such a lengthy history it would be more surprising if it weren’t the home of a ghost or two.

This former pub is said to sit upon the meeting point of two ley lines, one of which is connected to Stonehenge, and also rumoured to be built upon an ancient pagan burial ground (never a good idea).

Reportedly home to many spirits, including that of a monk as well as a witch who was burnt at the stake, there’s also evidence of strange forms of worship having taken place at the Ancient Ram Inn in the past. Regular ghost hunts and spooky tours take place there if you’d like to see it for yourself.

For a place to lay your head while exploring both the spine-tingling and the scenic settings to be found in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, you can book a comfortable room at the Cotswolds Holiday Apartments in the town of Stroud.

Whether you believe in these tales of hauntings or not, these destinations are still worth the journey just for the historical interest – and who knows, maybe you’ll see something you can’t explain.