Ghouls and ghosts, witches and warlocks, tricks and treats, there's nothing that beats a good scare. Whether you’re a believer or skeptic, there’s no doubt a ghost tour offers quirky insight into the history of a destination.
Spine-chilling and hair-raising, these ghost tours are our picks across the globe that are guaranteed to elicit a few sleepless nights. To borrow from the great, immortal R.L Stine: "Reader beware, you're in for a scare …”
Covenanter’s Prison - Edinburgh, Scotland
A trick or ghostly apparition in Edinburgh? (Image: City of the Dead)
A ghost tour with a warning stating it can cause physical and mental distress is no experience for the faint hearted.
The City of the Dead tours is the only company with access to the infamous Covenanter’s Prison and Black Mausoleum - the unsettling lair of the Mackenzie Poltergeist, regarded as the most widely documented supernatural case on earth.
Awakened by an unsuspecting homeless man and now terrorising all who visit, Mackenzie is one spirit you don’t want to meet - but there’s good chance you will.
The ‘highlight’ of the tour is an ‘encounter’ with the poltergeist in his final resting place where hundreds of people claim to have been attacked by the entity.
One story from the tour tells of a burly lad who was so spooked, he wouldn’t set foot in the Black Mausoleum, only to be strangled and thrown across the prison. Make of that what you will.
Monte Cristo Homestead - Junee, Australia
The infamous homestead (Image: Bidgee)
Perhaps Australia’s most well-known haunting is at the grand Monte Cristo Homestead. The manor has a long, dark history that includes a stable boy dying from injuries sustained in a fire and a maid falling off the balcony.
Owners Christopher William Crawley and his wife are also said to haunt the halls. Today, not a week goes by without some kind of supernatural occurrence, whether visitors faint or witness full apparitions. And be careful of what you wear and your mannerisms; it’s not hard to anger old Mrs Crawley’s ghost!
Monte Cristo’s ghost tour has been running for more than 10 years and includes a bed and breakfast-style arrangement in the servant quarters - though not all visitors make it to sunrise.
We jest; most people simply can’t bear to stay the entire night as they often wake up and see the spirits of the house staring at them.
Missouri State Penitentiary - Missouri, USA
Will you face the souls that still wander its halls? (Image: Missouri State Penitentiary)
The Missouri State Penitentiary is considered America’s ‘bloodiest 47 acres’ and was once the largest prison in the country. However, between the 30s and 80s, 40 inmates were executed in a basement gas chamber and the decrepit ruins of this house of horrors can now name a few criminal spectres. Not to mention a few disgruntled prison wardens.
If you’re the kind of night owl who isn’t afraid of the dark, book a spot on the Public Overnight Investigation, which runs from about 10pm to 6am. We recommend catching up on some shut-eye beforehand, as you certainly won’t be getting any afterwards.
One for the true horror fans, the overnight investigation is an eight-hour marathon of scares, which starts with a history lesson, before an all-out paranormal investigation. BYO EMF (electromagnitic frequency) device. FYI, there’s an app for that.
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In the USA? America's Most Haunted: Savannah's Supernatural Locations
Savannah - Georgia, USA
Statue of Little Gracie in Bonaventure Cemetery
Widely considered the United States’ most haunted city, Savannah has no shortage of paranormal tourist attractions and The Blue Orb Uncensored Zombies Tour is perhaps its creepiest.
But before you envisage The Walking Dead style undead, the word ‘zombie’ was once more broadly used as a general term for ghosts.
This particular tour adds lashings of hoodoo and voodoo folklore to tales of Colonial ghosts and secret cemeteries for a fright night to remember. Uncensored and edgy, this is one tour that’s not for the kids.
Singapore
Asia Paranormal Investigators exploring Bukit Brown Cemetery, another of Singapore's haunted sites (Image: Asia Paranormal Investigators)
Never mind Japan, did you know Singapore is the most haunted place in Asia? Amongst the glittering concrete jungle are a plethora of otherworldly hotspots.
Asia Paranormal Investigators (API) are the experts in the afterlife and Old Changi Hospital is said to be the most active in terms of spirits and spectres.
Formerly a military hospital, ghost sightings date back to the 40s, not long after it was first opened. Rooms to watch your back in? The mortuary and a little room known as the torture chamber.
Duran Sanatorium - Cartago, Costa Rica
The sanatorium has seen much horror and angst within its walls (Image: Rodtico21)
Seen one abandoned, haunted asylum, seen them all, right? Not so.
Just outside of San Jose is the Duran Sanatorium, a hospital which mainly treated tuberculosis patients and of course, the mentally insane. It was then transformed into a prison, before left to ruin.
Visitors today report seeing nuns wandering the hallways and perhaps the scariest of all the spirits: ghosts of little girls.
