I just finished watching season 1 of the ghost hunting show The R.I.P. Files on Prime Video and really enjoyed it. It includes many EVPs captured during creepy investigations. I particularly like that the locations they visit are accompanied by historical facts and stories, and they usually have a tour guide with them who shares stories of having encountered ghosts. I also like that, when a location does not have much ghost activity, they do another type of paranormal exercise like a seance. There are two more seasons on Prime that I look forward to watching all at once!
Category: travel
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Haunted UK: Windsor Castle, Britain
Windsor Castle is perhaps the most haunted of all the royal British residences, with as many as 25 ghosts reported. The ghost of Elizabeth I has been seen by several members of the royal family, including Queen Elizabeth II and her sister Margaret. Often seen in the library, her footsteps can be heard on the bare floorboards, before her striking presence appears. The ghost of George III has been witnessed, looking longingly out of the room beneath the library, where he was confined during his several periods of madness. Henry VIII is said to haunt the deanery cloisters, often heard hobbling around, the sound of his ulcerated leg thudding on the floor as he walks. On the grounds in Windsor Great Park, the ghost of Herne has been reported. He was a huntsman for King Richard III. If you see his ghost anywhere in the park beware, as legend has it that you’ll be struck by misfortune.
Read about other haunted royal British residences at Ghosts of the past: 5 haunted royal residences.
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Haunted USA: Winchester Mystery House’s Immersive 360 Tour
Travel to one of the most mysterious and captivating locations in America from your computer.
The Winchester Mystery House is offering guests unprecedented access to the world’s most bizarre mansion with an all-new tour—The Winchester Mystery House Immersive 360° Tour. This virtual experience allows guests to independently roam each level of the mansion, while exploring many rooms previously inaccessible on standard Estate tours. The Immersive 360° Tour is available now for $8.99 USD. Additionally, guests that purchase this tour during the estate’s closure will receive a complimentary pass for a future Estate tour when it reopens to the public.
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Haunted USA: Zak Bagans’ The Haunted Museum, Las Vegas
Zak Bagans gives ET a tour of his Haunted Museum in Las Vegas, including artifacts from a demonic possession that inspired The Conjuring 3 and objects from Ghostbusters.
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Haunted USA: Queen Anne Hotel, San Francisco
Built in 1980, the Queen Anne Hotel was originally one of the most exclusive girls’ boarding schools in the San Francisco area. The headmistress of the school, Miss Mary Lake, allegedly had an affair with James “Slippery Jim” Fair, the Senator who funded the building of the beautiful Victorian mansion. Mary Lake denied the rumors, but it didn’t do her much good. A local newspaper published an article titled “Cupid and Mr. Fair,” and the nasty rumors of the affair continued circulating until Mary’s death.
Image from the Queen Anne Hotel website Since her death, the Queen Anne Hotel has had many owners, from brothel owners to church caretakers, to mysterious secret societies. With such a curious history, it is no surprise the hotel could be haunted – but by whom?
Read more about the Queen Anne Hotel at Wild SF Walking Tours: Is the Queen Anne Hotel in San Francisco Really Haunted?
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Wang Saen Suk Hell Garden
Wang Saen Suk Hell Garden is a Buddhist temple located in Bang Saen city, Chonburi province, Thailand. A popular tourist attraction, it is meant to describe and depict Naraka (Buddhist hell) [wiki]. Follow the links below to see more images of the Garden and to read about some visitors’ experiences.
Photos above from The No Chill: Wang Saen Suk Buddhist Hell Garden in Thailand
Photos above from The Bohemian Blog: Wang Saen Suk Hell Garden — A Glimpse of the Buddhist Underworld
Photos above from Pattaya Unplugged: Wang Saen Suk – Hell On Earth in Thailand
Photo above from Mark Goes There Travel Tales: Wang Saen Suk Hell Garden (Chonburi, Thailand)
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Dracula = bad blood
“Dracula” is literally translated in Gaelic as Drac Ullah, meaning bad blood. Despite the narrative being inspired by Romania, the author, Bram Stoker, was Irish.
Learn more about the Dracula legend on the Romania Tourism website.
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Irish Mummies
I recently learned that Dublin, Ireland, has some interesting mummies that can be visited. I knew about bog bodies that were discovered around the island, but I didn’t know that Dublin holds creepy bodies from ages past.
One is of a cat and rat that were trapped in an organ pipe in the 1860s at Christ Church Cathedral.
The placard reads:
Possibly our most famous residents, our cat and rat were trapped in an organ pipe in the 1860s and became mummified. They were made famous by James Joyce, when he writes in Finnegan’s Wake, “… as stuck as that cat and mouse in that tube of the Christchurch organ …”Another is a collection of noble families that were found when their coffins naturally broke open over time under St. Michan’s Church.
Bram Stoker is thought to have visited the vaults in the crypt below St. Michan’s and possibly to have found inspiration there for at least a few of the scenes in his classic Dracula.
Sources:
Cat and Rat – Oddities of Christ Church Cathedral
St. Michan Mummies – St. Michan’s Church -
Haunted Canada: Hotel Vancouver’s Lady in Red
“The Hotel Vancouver is haunted by a benevolent and elegantly dressed ‘Lady in Red.’ She’s often spotted on the 14th floor, and is also seen in the ground floor lobby near the guest elevator doors. She sometimes passes through elevator doors on those floors and glides along the hallways. Most intriguing is that the 1st and 14th floors are the only ones with elevator doors that lead to a dummy elevator shaft. The ghost has been seen passing through those disused, locked doors.
“The Lady in Red is also encountered in some of the guest rooms. Once, a Japanese family that checked into a room on the 14th floor called the front desk to ask whether their room had been double-booked. They described seeing the Lady in Red in the room, which had caused their confusion.”
14th floor at the Hotel Vancouver Read the full story as well as other ghost stories from Vancouver, Canada, at Ghosts of Vancouver.
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Haunted Ireland: The Faceless Lady of Belvelly Castle, Cork, Ireland
“Belvelly Castle sits prominently on the shore of Great Island in Cork Harbour. It is said that in the seventeenth century Margaret Hodnett lived there. Mirrors were a status symbol with the wealthy at that time and Margaret was known for her love of these to remind her of her renowned beauty. She had an on-off relationship with a local lord called Clon Rockenby who asked for her hand in marriage many times but was refused.
“Eventually, Rockenby decided that the humiliation was enough and raised a small army and went to the castle to take her by force. He thought the Hodnetts, used to a luxurious life, would not withstand a siege.
“However, they surprised him by holding out for a full year before surrendering. When he entered the castle Rockenby was shocked to see the state of Margaret, skeletal and starved, a shadow of her former self, her beauty gone. Out of rage, Rockenby smashed her favourite mirror to pieces, as he did so one of the Hodnetts killed him with a sword.
“After these events Margaret descended into insanity, she was said to have sought out mirrors constantly to check if her beauty had returned. It never did. She died in old age at the castle. Her troubled ghost appears as a lady in white, sometimes with a veiled face and sometimes with no face at all. Those who have seen her say that she looks at a spot on the wall, then rubs it as if looking at her reflection.
“Apparently, one stone on the castle’s wall has been rubbed smooth over the years, perhaps the spot where her mirror used to hang. Belvelly has largely been unoccupied since the nineteenth century but is currently being renovated.”
The Devil's Muse 