Phantom monks and priests
17 places
A cowled figure among ruins is a familiar image in English ghost lore, and our list has several: chanting at Beaulieu, a headless rider at Furness, a little brown monk at Burford. At St Bartholomew-the-Great in London, the founder Rahere is said to leave the vestry every July 1, according to one guidebook.
California has its own versions: Mission San Juan Capistrano has a faceless monk, and the nearby El Adobe a headless friar. In England, some of this imagery has a literary debt: historians link Furness Abbey's eerie image to Gothic writers such as Ann Radcliffe, who imagined white-robed monks among the ruins.
Where they are reported
Pluckley
England, United Kingdom
The ghostly monk
A Kent village listed by Guinness in 1989 as Britain's most haunted, with a Red Lady in its churchyard, a phantom highwayman and the so-called Screaming Woods.
Leap Castle
Birr, Offaly, Ireland
The murdered priest of the Bloody Chapel
An O'Carroll tower in County Offaly with a Bloody Chapel, an oubliette and the 'Elemental' made famous by Mildred Darby's seances. Now a private home.
Charleville Forest Castle
Tullamore, Offaly, Ireland
Ghostly monks
A Gothic Revival castle at Tullamore, County Offaly, where Lady Harriet Bury died in a fall on the stairs in 1861 and is said to sing and laugh at night.
Burford
England, United Kingdom
The little brown monk of Burford Priory
Cotswold wool town where the hated Tanfields' fiery ghost coach is said to ride, a spirit sealed in a bottle under the bridge, and a monk haunts the priory.
Furness Abbey
England, United Kingdom
The headless monk on horseback · The monk on the staircase
Cistercian ruins near Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, said to host a headless monk on horseback and a grieving lady; historians trace the ghosts to Gothic writers.
Appuldurcombe House
England, United Kingdom
Monks in brown habits
Roofless Baroque shell of the Worsley family's mansion near Wroxall, Isle of Wight, where monks in brown habits and a phantom carriage are reported.
St Bartholomew-the-Great
England, United Kingdom
Rahere's ghost · Rahere, the cowled founder
A 12th-century priory church in Smithfield, London, where founder Rahere's cowled ghost reputedly leaves the vestry every July 1, per one guidebook.
Beaulieu Abbey
England, United Kingdom
The phantom monks of Beaulieu
King John's Cistercian abbey in Hampshire's New Forest, where ghostly monks, phantom chanting and a Lady in Blue at Palace House are reported.
Beaulieu Palace House
England, United Kingdom
The monks of Beaulieu Abbey
Beaulieu Palace House, a former abbey gatehouse in Hampshire's New Forest, linked to chanting monks, a Lady in Blue and a 2003 Most Haunted Live special.
Leicester Guildhall
England, United Kingdom
The grey monk of the library
Leicester's timber-framed Guildhall, built c.1390, is called the city's most haunted building, with a White Lady in its library and a ghostly policeman.
Mission San Juan Capistrano
California, United States
Faceless monk
Mission San Juan Capistrano (1776), Orange County: the 1812 church collapse, Magdalena's candlelit face, the faceless monk and a 2013 Ghost Hunters visit.
The Flask, Highgate
England, United Kingdom
The figure on the Old Monk's Bench
A historic Highgate pub in north London, on this site since at least 1663, said to be haunted by a heartbroken Spanish barmaid and a vanishing Cavalier.
El Adobe de Capistrano
California, United States
Headless friar
A San Juan Capistrano restaurant in two Spanish-era adobes, including an 1812 jail whose cell, now a wine cellar, is said to be haunted, plus a headless friar.
Mortemer Abbey
Eure, France
The four monks
Ruined Cistercian abbey near Lyons-la-Forêt, Normandy, billed as France's most haunted. Its ghosts may date only from a museum opened in 1985.
Houska Castle
Libereck , Czechia
Faceless figure in a black hood
Gothic castle in northern Bohemia, open for guided tours, said to guard a pit to hell; a 1541 chronicle has a spirit-filled hole nearby but no hell.
Netley Abbey
England, United Kingdom
Monk who warned the carpenter Taylor
Ruined Cistercian abbey near Southampton, free to visit; its oldest ghost story is an omen about a monk and a carpenter printed in 1718, then Gothic fiction.
Castello della Rotta
Turin, Italy
Walled-up monk
Medieval Templar-Hospitaller site at La Rotta, near Turin, billed as very haunted; when the legends began is unsettled: 1980s per skeptics, a 1978 book cited.
