10 Locations Around The World Where The Dead Roam At Night

What if there was a ghost sitting next to you right now, staring at you while you’re reading a novel on the couch, binging the latest Netflix series, or reading this list? Or maybe it’s rummaging around next to you in the passenger seat while you’re driving or glaring at you in the cinema while you’re watching the latest Marvel movie. Sometimes, you might feel a strange sensation that makes your hair stand on end; other times, you might be completely oblivious to the spirit world around you.

There are many social media platforms, such as Reddit, where people can relate their ghostly, unexplained, and supernatural experiences. On this list are more ghostly incidents experienced by people around the world.

10 Odeon Cinema

In 1946, 2,000 people were seated in the Odeon Cinema in Bristol to watch The Light That Failed. Early on in the film, the main character was blinded after being shot. What people didn’t know at the time was that that cinema manager Robert Parrington Jackson was being murdered in his office right then. The 33-year-old father of four was shot in the head and discovered by the cinema cafe supervisor at around 6:45 PM. He died in the hospital later that evening. Despite a confession in 1989 by a Welsh robber on his deathbed, the murder remains officially unsolved.^[1]

These days, you can still watch movies at the Odeon. In cinema three, the temperature is said to drop for no good reason while films are screened. It is said that this happens because Jackson’s spirit haunts the cinema, appearing only to women.

9 Xinhai Tunnel

Built to connect Central Taipei to Muja, the Xinhai Tunnel is also constructed right on top of a hill that holds a cemetery. This naturally gives way to many reports of supernatural activity. Drivers who make use of the tunnel have reported experiencing gue dong chiang, which means they feel like they are driving through the tunnel without ever reaching the end of it, leaving them feeling trapped. They can see the end of the tunnel but cannot reach it.^[2]

Others have reported seeing the ghost of an old woman cleaning the road in the middle of the tunnel. Drivers honk at her, but she refuses to get out of the road and just keeps sweeping and cleaning. Eventually, when an angry driver stops their car close to her to confront her, she vanishes into thin air.

8 University Of Texas At Brownsville

The sheer amount of ghost stories floating around the UT Brownsville campus is enough to make up two volumes of a book called The Ghosts of Fort Brown. The campus used to be a fort, and one of the dormitories was built on the grounds of a 19th-century cemetery. Not everyone is scared of the ghosts, however; nursing student Olivia De La Garza says that there is a little boy of about three years old who loves visiting her dorm room just to pull the bedding off her in the middle of the night.^[3]

Other ghostly inhabitants of the campus include cavalrymen who walk in formation, people who dance the waltz and sing old war songs, and women and children dressed in Victorian clothing. It is also claimed that jukeboxes play by themselves and that books are thrown off shelves in the library.

7 Ballyboley Forest

Ballyboley Forest in Northern Ireland is rumored to be an ancient druidic site and is also the location where many unfortunate people disappeared without a trace during the Middle Ages. This history led to Ballyboley becoming known as one of the most haunted forests in the world.^[4]

In 1997, two brave men ventured into the forest, and it wasn’t long before they heard a woman crying out in pain. They tried to find the woman, but all they came across were trees smeared with blood. Frightened, they decided to get out of the woods. One of them glanced back as they were leaving and saw four hooded figures standing behind them, silently watching.

Others have reported feeling like they were being watched as well as seeing dark shadows and strange lights. Some even believe that the forest might be a portal to another dimension.

6 Guantanamo Bay

The Bayview complex in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba is known for much more than just being part of a US Navy base. The building was constructed in 1943 as a club for military officers and has since become renowned for its ghosts. One of these is an elderly woman seen sitting on the second floor of the club looking out the window. It is said that she used to live in the club until she was found dead in the bath years ago.^[5]

There have also been reports of a man dressed in khaki clothing, roaming the club from one of the residences to the bathroom. Since the building stands on the site of old Marine camps, it is believed the khaki-clad ghost might have been a Marine when he was alive.

5 Conn Barracks

During World War II, the Conn Barracks in Schweinfurt, Germany, served as an old Nazi hospital and psych ward and is now a barracks for US soldiers. During their time there, two soldiers used the same room two years apart, and both had the same dream. They dreamed that a Nazi soldier was standing at their bed, looking at them while talking to a nurse standing beside him. The nurse was covered in blood and had a sad expression on her face.^[6] The Nazi soldier told the nurse to do something, and she in turn started choking the US soldier lying in the bed. Both soldiers woke up at this point of the dream.

They only found out later that the room they were sleeping in was built right above a drainage room where bodies were drained before being prepared for burial. Another creepy ghost rumored to haunt the barracks is that of a woman who protested against abortions while she was alive. She now runs through the corridors of the barracks carrying a fetus.

4 Wroclaw

Wroclaw is the largest city in Western Poland and a thriving student community. It is also the site where a grandson murdered his grandmother after being possessed by a demonic dwarf. It is said that her anguished screams can still be heard in the Hansel and Gretel building near St. Elizabeth’s church.^[7]

The House Under the Golden Dog, now a restaurant, used to house Frederick the Great. It is claimed that a mysterious force once pulled a quill from his hand while he was writing a letter. Nowadays, weird sounds can be heard from the cellar below the building. Shadows at the church of St. Mary Magdalene are said to be those of maids unable to escape their eternal prison. The chambers under Partisan Hill are known for screams echoing through the empty corridors. Also, back in the day, when Abram’s Tower (now a bar) was filled with sewing machines, a ghostly visitor would set the pedals and wheels and the machines off so that they would continue running on their own.

3 Central Philippine University

Central Philippine University (CPU) has a ghost story for almost every nook and cranny of the buildings that comprise it. For instance, the Roblee Science Hall (which housed Japanese soldiers during World War II) is rumored to vanish at 3:00 AM. Students have reported seeing a little girl playing in the hallways. She has chains around her wrists and feet and sometimes cries softly.^[8]

The Old Valentine building is said to be the stomping ground of the founder of CPU, Dr. William Valentine. He prefers to scare people at night carrying his severed head in his hand. In Franklin Hall, the spirit of a young man who committed suicide appears to students, while a lady in white watches them from another building. In Johnson Hall, there are rumors of a doppelganger roaming through the classrooms, and in the High School Compound, there is another little girl running around scaring those who happen to run into her.

2 Macquarie Fields Station

Australia is well-known for spooky legends. One of these include the phantom girl that haunts the Wakehurst Parkway on the northern beaches of Sydney. Another, even creepier, tale is that of the girl who haunts the Macquarie Fields train station.^[9]

Once the station is quiet and the last trains have left for the night, faint crying can be heard. It then gets louder and eventually turns into moans. That is when the ghost of a teenage girl appears. She is said to wear dancing clothes and has a bloody stain on her chest. She floats around the station while groaning louder and louder. Other times, she sits in the middle of the station and just cries loudly. Sometimes, her faint crying turns into terrible screams.

Legend has it that a young woman was hit by a train at this station in 1906 and has been haunting it ever since.

1 Gridley Tunnel

Arguably the most terrifying ghost stories hail from Japan. They have tales that include a Marine slashing his wrists with pieces of a mirror, only to remain stuck in another mirror forever. There are stories of floating red eyes, the screams of nuclear bomb victims echoing through the air in Hiroshima, and people being dragged from their beds by an unseen force.^[10]

Gridley Tunnel in Yokosuka has its very own creepy ghost. Drivers who use this narrow one-way tunnel have reported checking their rearview mirror and seeing a man dressed as a samurai standing in the road behind them. Some of the drivers got such a fright that they crashed their cars into the side of the tunnel. Also, most sightings happen when it rains between midnight and 1:00 AM. It is believed that the ghost used to be a samurai who was murdered in the tunnel while on his way to avenge the death of his lord. Because he didn’t complete his mission, he is doomed to stay in the tunnel forever.

Estelle lives in Gauteng, SA.