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What haunts near you?
The field guide to the world’s most haunted places — 234 hauntings across 43 states and 52 countries, with the ghost stories, the real history, how to visit and original field reports.
- 234 hauntings
- 43 states
- 52 countries
- 8 field reports
Original reporting · the field desk
Field reports
RESEARCH · USA · Oct 17, 2026
Who believes in ghosts in 2026? What two new surveys really show
A study links ghost belief to churchgoers who trust science; a YouGov poll finds 45% of Americans think ghosts exist. What the numbers do and don’t mean.
ANNIVERSARY · KENTUCKY · Oct 18, 2026
Waverly Hills turns 100: the hospital behind the haunted legend
Louisville’s Waverly Hills Sanatorium opened its Tudor Gothic hospital in October 1926. A century on, its ghost stories often outshine its real history.
NEWS · MISSOURI · Oct 16, 2026
The Lemp Mansion is for sale, but its ghost tours carry on
St. Louis’s most famous haunted house is on the market for the first time in 51 years, but its Halloween ghost hunts go on. A look at the history.
NEWS · HALLOWEEN 2026 · Oct 14, 2026
Halloween 2026 at three of America’s famous haunted landmarks
Eastern State Penitentiary, the Queen Mary and the Stanley Hotel are deep in Halloween season. What’s on, what’s new and where the ghost stories come from.
FIELD REPORT · LOUISIANA · Oct 12, 2026
HBO’s ‘Pet Cemetery Murders’ and the ghost said to reopen a case
HBO revisits a 1985 killing in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, where witnesses said the victim’s ghost urged them to talk. Here is what the record shows.
INVESTIGATION · LOUISIANA · Oct 11, 2026
The Myrtles Plantation’s ‘Chloe’: the legend against the record
Louisiana’s Myrtles owes much of its haunted fame to the ghost of an enslaved woman named Chloe. The historical record tells a very different story.
EXPLAINER · SCIENCE · Oct 8, 2026
Infrasound, carbon monoxide and the science of feeling haunted
A faulty furnace in 1921, a humming fan in a Coventry lab, volunteers at Hampton Court: what a century of research says about why some places feel haunted.Your region · United States
Haunted places near you
Tap your state to see its haunted places, hotspots and local news. The brighter the state, the more there is to explore.
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The USA’s most famous
Apparition · 1920s, when the house opened to tourists
Winchester Mystery House
Sarah Winchester’s sprawling San Jose mansion, famous for stairs to nowhere and a ghost legend that historians say was largely invented after her death. Widely reported
Residual haunting · 1940s
Eastern State Penitentiary
Philadelphia’s Gothic prison pioneered solitary confinement in 1829. Staff, guards and visitors tell of faces, footsteps and whispers in its cellblocks. Widely reported
Demonic case · 1976
The Amityville Horror House
A real 1974 family murder, then the Lutz family’s claims of a demonic haunting – a story that became a bestseller, a film franchise and a famous hoax. Hoax / debunked
Apparition · 1970s, after the ship became a hotel
RMS Queen Mary
The retired Cunard liner moored at Long Beach since 1967, now a hotel whose paranormal tours tell of a drowned girl, a crushed crewman and wartime dead. Widely reported
Apparition · Late 20th century, after The Shining
The Stanley Hotel
The 1909 Rocky Mountain resort that inspired Stephen King’s The Shining, where guests report a phantom pianist, a tidy maid and children’s laughter. Widely reported
Poltergeist · 1817
The Bell Witch
From 1817 a talking, invisible “witch” was said to torment the Bell family of Robertson County. America’s best-known ghost story still draws crowds. Widely reported
Shadow figure · 1980s
Waverly Hills Sanatorium
Louisville’s vast 1926 tuberculosis hospital is one of America’s most famous haunted buildings – and its real history is more moving than the myths. Widely reported
Apparition · 1950s
Myrtles Plantation
Billed as America’s most haunted house, this plantation is famous for “Chloe,” an enslaved woman the records show never lived there. One murder is real. Widely reportedNews desk · updated daily
Today’s paranormal headlines
Stories from newspapers and TV stations, collected every morning. Each opens on its publisher’s site.
- TOP 10: What are the most haunted places in Georgia?
- The best Halloween events in London for 2026 – from Kew to the Tower of London
- Tower of London hosts Halloween from 24 October
- 39+ of Rhode Island’s creepiest ghost stories, legends and hauntings
- Historic Cd'A schoolhouse ranked seventh most haunted place in Idaho
- Dodge County’s haunted history comes alive on this ghost tour
- Colorado’s spookiest town makes America’s top 10 most haunted list
- We Spent The Night At The Most Haunted Castle In Britain, Which Begged The Question: Can Fear Be Fun?
Field guide
Haunted places, by kind
31Haunted Hotels & InnsThe Stanley Hotel · Hotel del Coronado · Crescent Hotel
48Haunted Houses & MansionsWinchester Mystery House · The Amityville Horror House · The Enfield Poltergeist
18Haunted Prisons & JailsEastern State Penitentiary · Alcatraz · Ohio State Reformatory
12Haunted Hospitals & AsylumsWaverly Hills Sanatorium · Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (Weston State Hospital) · Poveglia
11Haunted Battlefields & FortsGettysburg Battlefield · The Alamo · Castillo San Felipe del Morro
26Haunted Castles & PalacesTower of London · Hampton Court Palace · Bhangarh Fort
6Haunted Ships & LighthousesRMS Queen Mary · Gibraltar Point Lighthouse · St. Augustine Lighthouse
17Haunted Cemeteries & ChurchesChase Vault · Mercy Brown, the Exeter “Vampire” · Masakado’s Mound (Masakado-zuka)
20Haunted Theaters, Schools & Public BuildingsRobert the Doll · Edinburgh Vaults · Bobby Mackey’s Music World
27Haunted Roads, Bridges & WoodsIsland of the Dolls · Brown Mountain Lights · Pendle Hill and the Pendle Witches
5Haunted Towns & Ghost TownsKuldhara · Mary King’s Close · Jazirat Al Hamra
What people report
Kinds of haunting
130Apparitions & SpectersWinchester Mystery House · Tower of London · RMS Queen Mary
10PoltergeistsThe Enfield Poltergeist · The Bell Witch · Chase Vault
22Residual HauntingsEastern State Penitentiary · Lizzie Borden House · Gettysburg Battlefield
10Demonic & Possession CasesThe Amityville Horror House · The Conjuring House · Exorcism of Roland Doe
6Shadow People & Dark EntitiesWaverly Hills Sanatorium · Shadow People · Black-Eyed Children
6Phantom Ships, Trains & RoadsThe Flying Dutchman · The Vanishing Hitchhiker · Clinton Road
6Ghost Lights & OrbsBrown Mountain Lights · Will-o’-the-Wisp · The Marfa Lights
5Haunted ObjectsAnnabelle the Doll · Robert the Doll · Island of the Dolls
32Folklore Spirits & LegendsLa Llorona · Poveglia · Bhangarh Fort
7Other Paranormal PhenomenaDoppelgänger · Kuldhara · Skinwalker Ranch
Beyond the USA
Around the world
137North AmericaWinchester Mystery House · Eastern State Penitentiary · The Amityville Horror House
5Central America & the CaribbeanLa Llorona · Chase Vault · Rose Hall Great House
6South AmericaLa Llorona · Shadow People · Will-o’-the-Wisp
58EuropeTower of London · The Enfield Poltergeist · Borley Rectory
24Asia & the Middle EastBhangarh Fort · Shadow People · The Vanishing Hitchhiker
7AfricaThe Flying Dutchman · The Vanishing Hitchhiker · Castle of Good Hope
17OceaniaThe Flying Dutchman · Port Arthur Historic Site · Shadow People
What is a haunting?
A story a place won’t let go of.
A haunting is a place, or a family, where people keep reporting the unexplained: footsteps on an empty stair, a figure in a window, objects that move on their own. Behind almost every one is real history — a prison, a battlefield, a murder, a grieving widow. Science points to drafts, infrasound, carbon monoxide, sleep paralysis and the power of suggestion; the stories endure anyway. We collect the history, the reports and the explanations, so you can decide — and tell you how to visit.