The Most Haunted Pubs With Rooms in Britain
For Halloween — the pubs with a real ghost story attached, not just an old building and a rumour.
Last reviewed September 2026.
A ghost story isn’t the kind of thing we can check the way we check a dog policy — there’s no phone call that confirms a haunting. So here’s what we actually did: we only included a pub where a specific, named story exists, one you can actually find written down somewhere, not “it’s old, so it’s probably haunted,” which is basically every other haunted-pub list you’ll read this Halloween. If a pub’s own marketing says “the odd ghost or two” and nothing else, it isn’t on this list.
Even within that bar, some stories stand up better than others. Five of these have actually made the local paper, or been investigated on TV, rather than just being repeated from one ghost-story website to the next — those get the fuller write-up below, with a photo. The rest are real, long-told local stories, but we’ve usually only found them in one place online, and sometimes a detail doesn’t quite line up with what’s actually known about the building — we’ve said so plainly wherever that’s the case.
All fourteen are real pubs with rooms you can actually book — a bed and a pint, whether or not the story bothers you, or especially if it’s exactly why you’re going.
The five strongest stories
Photo: Keith Ramsden, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sidney Godolphin, the Royalist poet known as "the Chagford Cavalier," was fatally wounded in a Civil War skirmish in the town in 1643 and carried dying into the inn, where he died in an upstairs room. His ghost is said to still walk the corridors in uniform. This is about as solid as pub ghost stories get in Britain — the same story turns up again and again from different people telling it, including the Chagford Local History Society itself, rather than just one ghost-story website copying another.
ClitheroePhoto: Phil and Juliette Platt, CC BY-SA 2.0
A named ghost, Anne Druce — reportedly a 17-year-old servant said to have taken her own life at the inn after being abandoned pregnant by a soldier who later died in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. Reported activity includes taps turning on by themselves and soap moving on its own. This one actually made the local paper when the pub changed hands, not just ghost-story blogs — a genuinely stronger story than most on this list.
Photo: Mike White, CC BY-SA 2.0
A phantom coach-and-horses is said to draw up outside at night, tied to a local legend that Mary — later Queen Mary II — arrived here by coach in 1688 while a storm delayed her husband William's own crossing. Guests and staff report hoofbeats, a carriage door, and figures in period dress on the staircase. Several different ghost-story websites tell the same version of this one, though none of them are newspapers or a heritage body — treat the historical detail as legend, not confirmed fact.
KeswickPhoto: habiloid, CC BY-SA 2.0
The site has reportedly served the town for over a thousand years, as a courthouse and a soldiers' hospital among other past uses, and its named apparitions — "Jack Stevens" and family members "Lizzy" and "Mary," plus a blacksmith figure — were investigated on the TV series Paranormal Lockdown. That's more outside attention than most pub ghost stories get, though who "Jack Stevens" actually was hasn't been confirmed anywhere beyond what the ghost-hunting shows themselves say.
KeswickPhoto: habiloid, CC BY-SA 2.0
Not an old legend but a recent, specific incident — CCTV footage from the pub's own beer garden, viewed over 35,000 times online, reportedly shows a shadowy figure crossing the yard, and staff separately report a recurring figure near the pool room and cellar. Genuinely reported by local newspapers, not just ghost-story websites — the most recent and most solidly witnessed story on this list.
The rest — real stories, less certain
Said to be haunted by "Alice," a 17th-century chambermaid reputed to have healing powers, accused of witchcraft after a patient died, and drowned during a swimming "trial." Reported hauntings are water-themed — taps running, wet towels. This comes from the same local history society as the Three Crowns story up the road, though the society's own page notes the current building dates to around 1833, decades after the supposed events — treat this one as folklore rather than a dated historical account.
Reputedly England's oldest inn, with Saxon-era origins claimed for the building. Reported figures include two Victorian children, a man in "high boots and a bandolier," and — most persistently — a Victorian woman in a specific described outfit who allegedly opens doors and flicks lights. Well-known enough that the TV show Ghost Adventures filmed an episode here in 2023 — a real sign people take the story seriously, even if the show itself is entertainment rather than proper investigation.
Claimed to have three ghosts: a tall, blonde-curly-haired man seen in the main bar, a silent elderly man in a chair in the back bar (mistaken more than once for a living guest by new staff), and a crying girl heard in the laundry. The building's cellars genuinely date to the 1180s. This one's weaker than the five above — we only found it on a single haunted-hotel listing website, not in the local press — so treat the details as a story that gets told, not one that's been checked.
Said to be haunted by "Clara," a chambermaid who reportedly died of a broken heart after her soldier lover went missing. The building has genuine 15th-century history and a real Brontë connection — Charlotte Brontë stayed in Hathersage while writing Jane Eyre. We could only find the ghost story itself on one website, with no date or name attached to back it up, so this one leans more on atmosphere than evidence.
A reported "woman in a flowing dress," with guests in one particular room finding bedsheets pulled back overnight. Loosely tied to an older, vaguer story about a death on Sheep Street itself. We only found this repeated on one website, and it's a fairly generic story as these go — included because people genuinely do tell it locally, not because it's well evidenced.
A single reported figure said to appear at the top of the stairwell. The building's own history — as both a former funeral director's and, per some accounts, a brothel — gives the claim some colour, even though the ghost detail itself stays vague everywhere it's repeated. It does turn up consistently across several "top haunted pubs" round-ups, though, which is a real sign it's a known local story rather than one website's invention.
Reported sightings of a Victorian-dressed woman, plus a specific and slightly stranger claim: a "phantom piano" heard playing in the restaurant with no instrument present. We only found this on one website, so treat it as a story that gets repeated locally rather than something anyone wrote down at the time it happened.
A general reputation as haunted by "fishermen and smugglers," given the building's genuine origins around 1312, plus a more specific claim of a Victorian-era woman who reportedly appears in the Fisherman's Bar and may sit at the window with you. A couple of Cornwall folklore websites tell the same version — a real local claim, though without a named individual or dated incident behind it.
A ghost nicknamed "Alice" is reported to switch a kettle on and off, and once reportedly swung a guest's bag around unprompted. The building itself is genuinely Fowey's oldest pub, parts dating to 1435. This one seems to come from guest stories rather than any real local history record, so it's the weakest claim on this list — included so we're not quietly leaving it out, not because we believe it.