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Are you planning a spooky getaway to Northumberland? Dive into our latest guide and create your own Northumberland Ghost Tour, thanks to the paranormal author and host of “How Haunted?” podcast, ROB KIRKUP
Plan your own ghost tour of Northumberland
Many people log on to Spooky Isles when deciding which places to visit for a spooky vacation. To make it easier, we’ve created Plan Your Own Ghost Tour guides and put all the spooky things you want to visit in one place.
Today we all start thanks to the Northumberland-based author, ghost hunter and host of the series “How Haunted?” podcast Rob Kirukp with his recommendations for your own ghost tour through England’s northernmost county.
Northumberland has been shaped by its rich and turbulent history, from the Romans and Vikings to the bloody Border Wars. As you can imagine, this makes Northumberland the perfect hunting ground for anyone looking for ghosts and spirits.
History of Northumberland
The Romans were here while Emperor Hadrian was in 122 AD. built a famous wall 75 miles long, from east to west, running straight through Northumberland.
The Vikings arrived on the Northumberland coast on June 8, 793 AD and launched a bloody attack on Lindisfarne. This was the first major Viking attack on Britain.
The Norman Conquest in 1066 would leave its mark on the county, and the Anglo-Scottish Wars during the 14th to 16th centuries would hit Northumberland particularly hard, as it was the northernmost county in England.
Given its bloody history, it is not surprising that Northumberland has more castles than any other county in England, and the largest number of battlefields.
Its turbulent past has left its mark on the landscape, not only in the form of the ruined castles, Pele towers and manor houses scattered across the county, but also in the form of the phantoms and ghosts that haunt every corner of Northumberland.
In Northumberland awaits a castle considered by many to be the most haunted in all of Britain, a hotel that is home to more than 60 individual ghosts, and even a country park believed to be home to the country’s very own bigfoot northeast.
A part of the world that is as beautiful as it is terrifying, let’s take a look at some of the scarier places found in Northumberland.
Spooky places to visit in Northumberland
Here are just some of the spooky places you can visit in Northumberland.
- Floddenveld is the site of the bloodiest battle in England’s history. On September 9, 1513, approximately 14,000 men were killed here in just three hours, including King James IV of Scotland. The ghostly replay of the battle has since been reported, with the sights and sounds of clashing swords and men breathing their last.
- Winter gallows stands high on the moors of Elsdon and is a monument to murder. William Winter and two sisters, Jane and Eleanor Clark, brutally murdered an old lady on the night of August 29, 1791. They were hanged and Winter’s body was hung in a gallows cage. His ghost covered in rusty chains, with rotting green flesh and hollow eye sockets has been seen in the area ever since.
- Bolam Lake Country park is a delight in daylight, but made headlines in early 2002 when reports were made on a number of occasions of an 8-foot-tall creature, covered from head to toe in thick dark hair, with glowing red eyes and enormous sharp teeth.
- Dunstanburgh Castle is a spectacular ruin set against a rugged seascape in the heart of Northumberland. The phantoms encountered here include the decapitated ghost of the creator Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI, and most famously, the knight, Sir Guy the Seeker.
- Chillingham Castle is widely considered one of, if not the, most haunted places in the country, a place of torture and death. The cast of ghostly characters lurking in the darkness here includes the torturer John Sage.
Spooky places to stay in Northumberland
- The Schooner Hotelin Alnmouth, a small village at the mouth of the River Aln, claims to have one of the most haunted hotels in Britain, with more than sixty individual ghosts.
- Haggerston Castle holiday park is a caravan park that surrounds a castle built “some time before 1311”, and is the haunt of a young girl in Victorian dress, a young boy, and the man who once owned the estate and designed the Italianate gardens.
Spooky places to eat and drink
- The Lord Crewe Arms in Blanchland dates back to 1165, the famous ghost to haunt these ancient walls ever since is Dorothy Forster. In 1715, her brother Tom was captured in Newgate, London, for his part in the Jacobite rebellion. Dorothy bravely devised a plan to save him from certain execution.
- The dirty bottles in Alnwick. More than 200 years ago, the innkeeper died while putting bottles in the window. His widow claimed shortly afterwards that whoever tried to move the bottles would be cursed with bad luck and die. They have never been touched since, they are sealed between two panes of glass, and the old bottles are full of dust and cobwebs.
Ghost excursions nearby
- The historic border town Berwick-upon-Tweed is the most northerly city in England. Few cities in Britain have experienced such a turbulent past. Between 1018 and 1482, Berwick was besieged more times than any other city in the world, with the exception of Jerusalem, changing hands between England and Scotland thirteen times. The walled city is home to a number of ghosts, including a bagpiper and a soldier, and has been terrorized twice by a vampire.
- Holy island is the birthplace of Christianity in Northumberland. It is a small island a few hundred meters off the coast and is separated from the mainland by a five kilometer long dike that is flooded twice a day. The island was called Lindisfarne, the Celtic name, until the 11the century and the name is still commonly used by locals. It has a number of ghosts, including monks slaughtered during Viking raids, Saint Cuthbert, and the coastguard station is the residence of a man with a skeletal face, partially covered in shriveled leathery green skin. He has no eyeballs, just holes where the eyes once were.
Recommended Haunted Northumberland books
Rob Kirkup has written many books about the paranormal in the North of England. Here are some things about haunted Northumberland that you may want to use when planning your Northumberland Ghost Tour! You can also read other articles about Northumberland on Spooky Isles!
Enjoy your trip!
As spooky as it is wild and beautiful, Northumberland is the perfect location for anyone interested in dark history and the paranormal to visit.
A number of gruesome stories of torture, death and tragedy have played out here throughout the county’s long history, lending themselves to the numerous creepy places found here that are worth your time.
Have you visited Northumberland for a ghost tour or created your own ghost tour route? Tell us about it in the comments below!
And please tell us if we’ve missed anything that you think we should add to this Northumberland Ghost Tour Guide.
