25 Credible Accounts of Real Ghost Sightings

The bone lined catacombs of Paris are famous for the macabre place in history it holds. Thousands visit these catacombs every year. But only parts of it, and for good reason. The catacombs are so vast that if one were to venture deeper they would get lost and join the other bones themselves. It’s said that after midnight, voices can be heard from the skulls placed in the walls, convincing you to venture deeper. This phenomenon was made all the more real when officials found a camera with footage of a man talking to no one and going mad, lost in the tunnels.

The Winchester house is said to be haunted by every person who has ever been killed using a Winchester rifle. This isn’t just some rumor either, Sarah Winchester who inherited the house had frequent seances and had constant construction on the house for 38 years to appease the spirits. There are doors that open to blank walls, staircases that lead nowhere, and convoluted hallways that turn around guests.

While there are dozens of reported sightings of Ghosts of presidents past in The White House there haven’t been nearly as many consistent sightings outside of Honest Abe himself. Over the years many people on numerous white house staffs, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, foreign dignitaries including Winston Churchhill and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands have all said they have had encounters with the top hat wearing president. It’s said he’s seen and heard pacing around multiple rooms and pensively staring out windows. 

This active military base is open to the public due to its storied history in Norway. It also has been host to a number of ghost sightings the most famous of which is the Malcnisen, Norwegian for Vicious Dog). This ghostly dog guarded the main gate to the castle in life and it appears as it does the same in death. It’s said that anyone that sees the dog is doomed to die in three months.

This former prison is best known for being one of the first prisons to use solitary confinement. The severity of which drove many inmates insane. Paranormal activity has been reported all over the prison since the 1940’s including disembodied sounds, shadowy figures in guard towers, figures that turn away when approached and a particular evil cackling can often be heard in cell block 12.

A spirit so old and famed the entire site has been named after it. Many report a woman dressed all in white with fiery red eyes descending the stairs of this Mayan ruin. While there have been numerous sightings over the years no one really knows who this spirit is or why they still linger.

The sighting of Olimpia’s ghost driving a carriage said to be filled with the pope’s gold, fleeing the city is a common occurrence surrounding a bridge in Ponte Sisto. Olimpia was an advisor of Pope Innocent X and allegedly fled Rome with a large sum of the church’s gold following the pope’s mysterious death in 1655.

Okiku was a servant at the Himeji Castle who was responsible for checking on ten very expensive golden dutch plates that were housed there. When she refused the advances of a samurai, he stole one of the plates and threatened to blame Okiku for the theft. With a brutal punishment on the horizon, she instead drowned herself in a well outside the castle. Now her ghost is seen climbing from the well, walking into the castle, counting the plates and screaming just after nine plates are counted. 

After Agnes Eltz rejected the advances made by a night that she was betrothed to, the knight assaulted the castle with his army and killed everyone in the castle. The axe and armor that Agnes died in still reside in the very room she was killed, right alongside her spirit. It’s said she wanders the halls of the castle whispering, locking and unlocking doors overnight. 

This is the oldest existing building in South Africa and has been host to many powerful and important people over its storied history. Some of which still linger around the grounds of the castle. From legends about a soldier’s spirit, the spirit of a vicious black dog roaming the grounds, the cursed governor Pieter Gijsbert van Noodt, to Lady Anne Barnard who still lingers through the halls when important dignitaries are on sight. There are plenty of happy haunts here.

Chloe was a slave on Myrtle Plantation who had her ear cut off because she was eavesdropping on the owner’s conversations. Chloe poisoned the owners of the plantation and they’re children and was then hanged to death as punishment. Since then the plantation has been a hotbed of paranormal activity including the sighting of Chloe’s ghost roaming the grounds.

A group of four sisters rode a railway cart used during the renovation effort on the St. Augustine Lighthouse in 1871. One day while riding the railway cart it flew off the track and landed in the ocean. When an onlooking worker rushed to the water and uncovered the cart only one of the sisters survived. It’s now said that workers and tourists at the lighthouse will often hear a young girl giggling or have small pranks played on them by an unknown source. Some have even seen a little girl in Victorian clothes near the lighthouse and on tours. 

It’s said that a woman that went by Gunna that lived in the small Icelandic town was a witch. The locals made this accusation based on a large pot she had that always appeared to be brewing something. When Gunna failed to pay rent the man who owned the house she lived in took the pot from her. In retaliation she starved herself to death. The very next day the man who owned the house was found dead. If that wasn’t enough it was reported that everyone in the town was haunted and terrorized by Gunna, until the town employed a priest to get rid of the spirit, which he did by trapping the spirit in the natural hot springs.

During a renovation on the church in 1936 workers found bones, nails, and tattered military clothes underneath the altar. Some believe these to be a trio of soldiers from the alamo. Since this discovery there have been numerous sightings of shadowy figures at the back of the church and photos with ghostly orbs floating in them.

Lizzie Borden was convicted of the axe-murder of her parents despite her reportedly pleading that she didn’t commit the crime. The house is now a bed and breakfast and has been quite a hotbed of paranormal activity. There have been a few occasions of people actually making contact with Lizzie Borden herself but the accounts are quite chilling. Psychics being talked to, Lizzie speaking through a spirit box, and deep efforts to connect with her spirit have been well documented.

With a whole host of ghost sightings and reported paranormal attacks in this inn it’s no wonder that the Ancient Ram Inn is regarded as one of the most investigated places in England. Legends of a Witch’s ghost, the spirit of a monk, and even the ghost of a centurion on horseback have all been seen here and dozens of guests have jumped out of the windows of the rooms just to escape the spirits.

This building saw a lot of action during WWII and the basement was used as a prison during the war. There are many reports of the spirit of a dutch woman, occasionally headless, that haunts the building and many people often feel the most uncomfortable in the basement where her spirit haunts the most. 

This castle in France is most notably known for its haunting of a lady clad in green. Said to be a victim of a double murder in the 15th century. While the family of the current Duke of Brissac are quite accustomed to the lady in green roaming the rooms, she has scared more than a few guests the family has had over. 

These sightings come from a famed theater in Chicago that had a massive fire in 1903 where over 600 burned in the fire. Actors have since reported seeing shadowy figures in the upper balconies during rehearsals. There are many more reported sightings in a back alley to the theater that has been referred to as “Death Alley” where recovered bodies were stacked.

The story goes that a Disney Imagineer died during the construction of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at the Magic Kingdom Park in Florida. Workers on the ride have reportedly seen an apparition walking around the ride on security monitors when no one was there and the ride has been said to turn on in the middle of the night. Workers even wish George a good morning and a goodnight when the ride opens and closes, or else the ride is plagued with technical difficulties throughout the day.

Mary King’s Close is an underground maze of city streets that were used as an isolation area during the plague outbreak. While many report ghost sightings the most frequent is of a little girl named Annie. Annie talked to a famed Japanese medium about a doll she had lost and ever since people have left dolls in the corner of the room where it happened. 

While the presence of Anne Boleyn’s spirit has been felt and seen all around the UK, the instances at the Tower of London (the place of her beheading) are the most common and famed. It’s said that the headless image of Anne Boleyn haunts the Tower. There are multiple sightings including a sighting with multiple witnesses of a soldier attempting to attack the spirit only for his weapon to pass right through her. 

Poveglia Island has an extensive dark and gruesome history. From being used as a “quarantine colony” during the Bubonic Plague to being a mental asylum that had a history of horrible experiments performed on patients. And while there aren’t a great number of reported ghost sightings, no institution, business, or work of any kind can be done without a great number of mysterious incidents. It is now illegal for anyone to set foot on the island and no tours of any kind are done on the island.

The  Forbidden City has well over 600 years of history behind it including, but not limited to assassinations, political plotting, and wars. There are dozens of different spirit sightings including a woman in white running from soldiers, pools of blood appearing on the floor, apparitions of dogs, and sounds of warfare being heard from somewhere nearby. The Forbidden City is even closed at night due to the severity that Chinese culture takes to paranormal happenings. 

Greyfriars Kirkyard is reported as one of if not the most haunted cemetery in the world, but none of the spirits that reside there are more well documented or as famed as the spirit of George Mackenzie. In life, he was responsible for persecuting covenanters in Scotland in 1679. He imprisoned over a thousand covenanters in Greyfriars Kirkyard, many of whom died from maltreatment or execution. When Mackenzie died he was buried right alongside the same people he imprisoned.

His tomb at Greyfriars Kirkyard has numerous reports of ghost sightings, attacks, dead wildlife, and strange noises all around and inside the tomb itself. Oh and let’s not forget the fact that there have been two separate attempts to exercise his spirit, both of which have failed.