An inn spectre calls

Across the UK there are hundreds of haunted hotels, inns and pubs. Some are keen to shout about their long-term non-paying guests, while others seek to keep their supernatural residents a secret.

 

Sue Hall is manager of the 11-bedroom Old Hall hotel in Sandbach, Cheshire, reputedly one of the most haunted hotels in the UK. Just last month a team of paranormal investigators, Ghost-Haunted North East, visited the hotel and recorded a total of 14 apparitions in just one night. Some of the tales in the group's report are enough to send a shiver down the spine of even the greatest cynic, but its findings are all good news for Hall.

 

"We publicise the fact that we have ghosts. We've had the odd guest who doesn't like it, but it also attracts a lot of bookings," she says. "It works as a very good sales tool and generates a lot of interest."

 

Hall says none of the paranormal activity at the hotel is evil, although she does admit to being scared when alone in the place in the middle of the night.

 

"The ghosts are all a bit mischievous and like to move things about, turning switches on and off and opening and closing fridge doors," says Hall. There is even a ghost who likes to take the odd nap in her bed - "I just tell it to bugger off or move over!"

 

Hall is taking advantage of the hotel's spooky reputation and this year, like last, is holding a special Hallowe'en dinner. The spine-tingling evening is for adults only, and there will be two clairvoyants on hand to give readings to guests. Hall says no electric light will be used on the night, with the eerie glow of candlelight and the hotel's log fire the only source of light in the 17th-century property.

 

Invitation
But, if last year is anything to by, the Old Hall's resident spectres won't be taking up the invitation to join the hotel's paying guests for a little trick-or-treating.

 

Hall isn't the only hotelier who uses ghosts to advantage. Olga Henry, general manager of the Ballygally Castle hotel in Ballygally, County Antrim, says they get a lot of business from people looking for a nail-biting night at a haunted hotel. A "friendly" ghost, the wife of the castle's one-time owner, Lord James Shaw, apparently haunts the hotel tower. "I didn't believe in ghosts before I came here," Henry says. "There's definitely something going on here - but in a nice way."

 

Ballygally Castle is a favourite with Americans and gets a lot of tour business. "Americans love the fact that they can come and stay in a haunted castle," Henry says.

 

The castle's haunting is a bonus when it comes to business, Henry adds. "It definitely helps, but where we're situated and the fact that it's a lovely castle mean we wouldn't really suffer if we didn't have it."

 

The staff at Ballygally Castle also capitalise on its reputation during Hallowe'en. This year they're hosting a murder mystery party and will also be providing a Hallowe'en-themed menu and wearing fancy dress.

 

But the event Henry will be steering well clear of is a "screamathon" organised by two pupils from the local school to raise money for the children's ward at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital. The pupils and two teachers will be spending Hallowe'en night in the infamous ghost room at the top of the tower where Lord Shaw's wife, Isobella, was imprisoned after failing to bear him a son. "I'm glad the teachers will be there," Henry says, "because I'm not going up to that room!"

 

Reputation At Gosforth Hall hotel in Gosforth in the Lake District, proprietors Rod and Barbara Davies don't keep their ghosts a secret but won't actively promote the hotel's haunted reputation. They do, however, see the opportunities and are currently in talks with the neighbouring Muncaster Castle, which is said to be riddled with ghosts, about arranging coach trips.

 

Rod Davies isn't sure how good ghosts are for business. "Some people have told me they would never stay at the hotel again, but I also get people who stay here because of the ghosts, and ask for specific rooms. But in terms of a business plan, we wouldn't promote ourselves as a haunted hotel. Hundreds of people come here and don't see a thing."

 

Davies says he's always been quite cynical about ghosts, but has seen a few things at the hotel that have changed his mind.

 

"I was cashing up one night and the staff were having a winding-down session in the lounge, having a drink, etc. There's a big bookcase in the lounge, and all of a sudden a load of books fell off the shelf. I looked round when I heard the noise and I saw a whole line of books slide away from me and then twist, all at the same time. I couldn't explain it. Books falling I could understand, but the twisting… "

 

Davies isn't the only one to have experienced strange goings-on in the hotel; wife Barbara says she has often felt like she was being watched and turned round to find no one there. And Davies tells of a guest who recounted a spooky nocturnal encounter in one of the hotel's rooms. "He woke in the middle of the night to find two people in his bedroom - a tall man and a short woman or child," Davies says. "His reaction was to throw a pillow at them, but he was so frightened that he waited until it got light, got up and checked out. He was scared even telling the story."

 

Davies says the same story has cropped up a couple of times, but he still isn't convinced that it's all ghosts and ghouls at the hotel. He thinks the atmosphere of the place and guests' overactive imaginations could have added to its reputation.

 

"After a good dinner and a few drinks you go back to your unfamiliar room and, you know, this is an old place, it creaks and it groans, and that can set the mind racing. Mix it all together and we become a bit more susceptible to other things, whether it's imagination or something else."

 

But Davies will be playing on that mix this Hallowe'en, hosting a spooky fancy-dress party, with added atmosphere coming from dry-ice machines and candlelight.

 

The Langham Hilton in London is possibly the most haunted five-star hotel in the capital. The hotel doesn't advertise the fact that it has up to six ghosts roaming its corridors but will put guests in the infamous Room 333 if they ask. There is, however, no official mention in the annals of the Langham of any murders, or of any ghosts.

 

Terrifying
The ghost stories that come from the hundreds of haunted hotels, inns, restaurants and pubs in the UK range from the comical to the terrifying. For some, the tales of ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night are great for business and are actively promoted; but other times they're kept quiet and told to guests only when they ask, so as not to scare anyone away.

 

Our US cousins are among the greatest fans of haunted British hotels, and in these times when enticing them over here is hard, maybe offering them a good, healthy fright is exactly what they, and we, need…

 

Caterer's top 10 haunted hotels

 

1. Old Hall, Sandbach, Cheshire
2. Castle Stuart, Petty Parish, Inverness-shire
3. The Langham Hilton, London
4. Ballygally Castle, Ballygally, County Antrim
5. Gosforth Hall, Gosforth, Cumbria
6. Weston Manor Hall, Weston-on-the-Green, Oxfordshire
7. Oatlands Park, Weybridge, Surrey
8. The Talbot, Oundle, Northamptonshire
9. The Castle, Castleton, Derbyshire
10. Comlongon Castle, Clarencefield, Dumfriesshire

 

Old Hall

 

The Old Hall hotel dates back to 1656 and so has plenty of history and plenty of ghosts. One of them is a 90-year-old woman who haunts Room 11. The lady died of a heart attack in the room and apparently continues to haunt it because she doesn't like the sexual activity that goes on there.

 

And she isn't the only ghost who has a few problems in that department: Room 2 is haunted by a young man, known as Matthew, who hanged himself there after being told he was sexually inadequate.

 

Downstairs, Sir John Radcliffe, for whom the hall was built, wanders around keeping an eye on the place.

 

Ballygally Castle

 

Lord James Shaw, who owned Ballygally Castle, desperately wanted his wife, Isobella, to bear him a son. Instead, she gave birth to a baby girl.

 

Legend has it that Shaw was so angry that he imprisoned his wife in a small room at the top of the castle's tower. Isobella, desperate to get to her child, tried to escape from the room but, in her bid to break free, is said to have fallen to her death from the window. Many, however, claim her tyrant husband pushed her.

 

Isobella now haunts the hotel, tapping on guests' bedroom doors, turning on showers and flooding rooms. Heavy footsteps - believed to be those of a man, perhaps her husband - are often heard going up the staircase in the tower, and the voices of children playing in the hotel's gardens have also been heard.

 

Staff have reported an eerie green mist over the castle.

 

Langham Hilton

 

For years the BBC used the Langham, opposite Broadcasting House, to put up staff working late or starting early, so most ghost stories about the hotel come from BBC journalists. It's not known whether they're "sexed up".

 

The most famous of the Langham ghosts is that which haunts Room 333. In 1973 Alexander Gordon, a BBC radio announcer, was staying overnight in the room because he had to present an early-morning show. During the night he awoke to see a fluorescent ball that slowly took on the shape of a man wearing Victorian evening wear, complete with cloak and cravat.
Gordon asked the ghost what it wanted, and it began floating towards him with its arms outstretched and eyes staring emptily. At this point, Gordon got up and fled the room. Other BBC staff have reported seeing the same apparition in the same room - but only in October.

 

Other ghosts that have been seen include an 18th-century footman dressed in blue livery, a Germanic-looking military man from the First World War, and a man with a gaping wound on his face who walks through the hotel in broad daylight.

 

Some BBC staff claim to have experienced the antics of a mischievous spirit who tips them out of their beds at night.

 

Gosforth Hall

 

Gosforth Hall was built in 1658 by Robert Copley. He and his wife were both Roman Catholics when it was difficult, if not illegal, to be so. One room of the hotel, Room 11, has a priest's hole - a place for Catholic priests to hide to escape persecution.

 

Guests who have stayed in the room have woken in the middle of the night to see a ghostly figure, which many say looks like a monk or friar, sitting by the hole.

 

Residents have also reported sighting the Copleys, who were murdered because of their faith.

 

There is also a tale that Copley built the upper storeys of the hall from the timbers of ships wrecked in the Irish Sea. Legend has it that the timbers groan with the anguish of the seamen who clung to them as they died in the icy waters.