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Rosie<\/p>\n
A Neolithic burial chamber in PembrokeshirePentre Ifan. Photograph: Louise France\/Alamy<\/p>\n
My dad and I reached Pentre Ifan<\/a> on a November evening, just before dark. The burial chamber defies explanation: 16 tons of weathered capstone, barely touching three sharp stone points, as though something unseen was holding it up. There was a low hum from somewhere; I hoped it was the wind spilling over the Preseli hills. As the daylight crept away, the chamber beneath grew darker than the settling dusk around us. My dad, who has an explanation for everything, stood silent. I think we walked back to the car a little faster than we had come. Haunted by criminals in SomersetShepton Mallet prison. Photograph: Keith Stuart\/The Guardian<\/p>\n My recommendation is Shepton Mallet prison<\/a>, or \u201cthe Mallet\u201d as it used to be called, back when it was used as a military prison. It opened in 1625, and you can still crawl through a wall into an original cell. The prison has three Victorian blocks and umpteen stories of past prisoners, including the Kray twins. You can have a daytime tour, or a night-time ghost tour, where you\u2019ll hear stories of spooks and ghouls witnessed by many visitors and staff over the years. You can even stay the night in a real, cold, grim prison cell. The staff are friendly and all great characters, I can\u2019t recommend it enough! Hollowed out tower in West YorkshireSt Thomas \u00e0 Becket church, Heptonstall. Photograph: Philip Silverman\/Alamy<\/p>\n Perched high above Hebden Bridge in the historic hilltop village of Heptonstall lies the roofless shell of St Thomas \u00e0 Becket church. Raked into ruin by a storm in 1847, this 13th-century structure was left to decay alongside its 19th-century successor<\/a>, creating a rare site where two parish churches share a single churchyard. Gaunt, towering arches frame open skies, and the hollowed-out stone tower feels like the Tower tarot card made real. Expect goosebumps! A pub night you won\u2019t forget in Staffordshire<\/p>\n The Four Crosses Inn. Photograph: Alex Telfer\/The Observer<\/p>\n The Four Crosses Inn<\/a> is the most haunted pub in England \u2013 and I should know: it was in my mother\u2019s family for many generations! I grew up hearing about all the ghostly goings on. It was also one of the oldest pubs (it\u2019s only open for tours<\/a> now), and family lore has it Dr Johnson stayed there. On the edge of creepy Cannock Chase moor in Staffordshire, the scene of many murders, it has dank cellars and creaking attics for you to get really scared in. Poltergeist stories in County FermanaghFivemiletown, Northern Ireland. Photograph: Bonzo\/Alamy<\/p>\n Cooneen Ghost House, near Fivemiletown, is one of Northern Ireland\u2019s eeriest places. The abandoned farmhouse is private, but it can be glimpsed from the road, which somehow makes its old poltergeist stories feel even more unsettling. Nearby Crocknagrally Forest<\/a> is perfect for a cold-weather ramble to make a day of it, especially on a misty winter afternoon when the tracks are wonderfully secluded and it all feels very remote and spooky. The kind of walk where folklore seems woven into the landscape: dark trees, lonely roads and an old haunted house just out of reach. There are loads of stories around this place that locals will share. skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Inside Saturday<\/p>\n The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Romantic tragedy on Ll\u0177n peninsulaAbandoned works at the Cae\u2019r Nant quarry above Nant Gwrtheyrn. Photograph: Peter Martin Rhind\/Alamy<\/p>\n The once abandoned quarrying village of Nant Gwrtheyrn<\/a>, on Ll\u0177n peninsula, lies at the foot of Yr Eifl, down a terrifyingly steep and winding road. On a misty autumn day, with the crashing waves below you and the unsettling presence of a wild goat peering down at you from the cliffs above, it can be truly eerie. The woods in the valley are home to the tale of Rhys and Meinir<\/a> \u2013 a traditional prenuptial game of hide and seek gone awry, with the skeletal remains of a bride-to-be revealed by a bolt of lightning. The site is free to visit. Crashing waves and call of rooks in AberdeenshireSlains Castle. Photograph: Alamy<\/p>\n On a cold grey day Slains Castle<\/a> on the east coast of Scotland, north of Aberdeen, certainly has a spooky air. Although rumours about the castle inspiring Bram Stoker when writing Dracula are apparently untrue, the castle ruins bring to mind bats pouring out of windows and unsavoury aristocrats lurking around corners. It is precariously located on cliffs above the North Sea and the crashing waves and calls of rooks and jackdaws provide an evocatively eerie soundtrack to your visit. Unexplained screams on the South DownsChanctonbury Ring. Photograph: Veronique Stone\/Alamy<\/p>\n Chanctonbury Ring is an iron age hill fort ringed by beech trees, on the South Downs in West Sussex. Folklore claims that by walking or running around the ring seven times you\u2019ll see the devil. Writer Robert Macfarlane certainly had an unnerving experience there while camping, as recounted in his 2012 book The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot<\/a>, when awakened in the dead of night by terrifying human-sounding screams high above him in the tree canopy, which seemed to divide and converge before swooping down upon him. Accessible only on foot, who dares follow in Macfarlane\u2019s footsteps to check out the myth? Gothic atmosphere in WhitbyWhitby Abbey. Photograph: Peter Lopeman\/Alamy<\/p>\n
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