HGB Ep. 635 - Haunted Whiskey Row

This Month in History - 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

In the month of April, on the 18th, in 1906, a massive magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck San Francisco, California, at 5:12am. What followed the 42-60 second earthquake was widespread devastation and destruction. The tremor emanated from a rupture of the San Andreas Fault line and traveled a spanse of roughly 275-296 miles. Broken gas lines and overturned stoves ignited fires that became known as, 'Ham and Egg Fires' which burned uncontrollably for three days. Broken water mains made fire fighting nearly impossible. Approximately 28,000 buildings were destroyed, affecting roughly 500 blocks in the city's center. Property damage  was said to be around $350 million in 1906 dollars. Over 80% of San Francisco was destroyed with nearby Santa Rosa and San Jose impacted as well. Although early reports cited lower numbers, it is now believed that over 3,000 people perished due to the earthquake and resulting fires and 250,000 people were left homeless. This natural disaster led to major developments in seismology and motivated the city to rebuild with better earthquake-resistant structures. 

Haunted Whiskey Row

Over the years, HGB has featured several Millionaire Rows from various historic city downtowns, and this is where the millionaires of old built their stone palaces. In Prescott, Arizona, there is a block that has been named Whiskey Row. Listeners won't be surprised to learn that this patch of rough and tumble was dotted with saloons and other forms of entertainment. Today, it is dotted with haunted locations. Join us for the history and hauntings of Whiskey Row.

The future Prescott was inhabited by the Yavapai (yah-vah-PIE) tribe living in their wickiups, which were small round or cone-shaped houses made of a willow frame covered with brush and dirt. Yavapai means "people of the sun" and they lived here for hundreds of years and still do on reservations. Their allies were the nearby Apache. When gold was found near the Prescott area, Ohio railroad magnates partnered to establish the Arizona Territory in 1863. Fort Whipple would be founded to be the territorial capital and settlers started moving to the new settlement. John NOble Goodwin was the Arizona Territorial Governor in 1864 and he initiated a tour of the territory. Fort Whipple was moved 20 miles away to a higher area and Goodwin decided to establish a new territorial capital on the east side of Granite Creek. A public meeting was held and it was decided to name it Prescott for historian William H. Prescott. Lots were sold and the new community began to flourish. Mining for silver and gold enriched it. This would remain the capital until November of 1867. Prescott would be the capital again from 1877 to 1889. Virgil Earp became the constable in 1878. Fires burned down the downtown in 1900, so it was rebuilt with brick. One of the places that was devastated with fire was Whiskey Row. 

The history of this area is a bit murky, but it is believed it started with a bar opened up by Isaac Goldberg. Other accounts say that this area was established closer to Granite Creek, but was moved because drunk people kept falling into the creek and drowning. Whatever the case, Goldberg got things started in 1864. 

Goldberg had been born in the late 1830s in Piotrkow, Poland. He followed his brother to the United States and started his new life in California. When gold was struck in Arizona, Isaac headed there and ended up in Prescott. People called him Lomo de Oro, which means "Gold Lion" because he spent all his free time prospecting. For work, he opened up that bar. And this bar wasn't much to look at. He set up a plank of wood and put a bunch of whisky bottles on it and then he added a little shanty over the top and he was ready for business. Isaac had this tin cup and for 50 cents, he would give a customer a dram of whiskey. Miners could pay in absolute gold. He needed help eventually and so he hires this Confederate deserter who was missing part of his nose to be a bartender. Goldberg made a $100 a month with his bar. Eventually, Goldberg opened a saloon on Montezuma Street. This street would be Whiskey Row. Whiskey Row would cover the block on Montezuma Street between Goodwin and Gurley Streets. Many other saloons would follow and attract the likes of the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday. In 1897, Whiskey Row became the first section of Prescott to have exterior public lighting installed. Whiskey Row is still home to many bars and restaurants today and many of the historic buildings that were built after the Great Fire of 1900 still stand. Several of them have ghost stories.

Woman in White

Whiskey Row is anchored by the Courthouse Plaza. The first or original courthouse was built in 1867 and housed the jail and Sheriff ’s Office on the ground floor and a community meeting hall and courtroom on the second floor. Executions took place in the fenced yard behind the courthouse. Our first two spirits are found here. There is a woman in white seen along Whiskey Row where it is believed she died in the Great Fire. She is seen most often near Courthouse Plaza and she is seen in a long white period dress. People claim she remains because she is looking for a lost love who died in the fire as well. 

Mike the Ghost Dog

Next we have a ghost dog. This four-legged spook is named Mike and nobody knows how he ended up in town, but the city adopted him and everybody loved him. Patrons on Whiskey Row would order two steaks, one for them and the other for Mike. He was frequently running around the courthouse plaza. Mike lived from 1946 to 1960 and when he died in 1960, a plaque was put up in the square's northwest corner to memorialize him that reads, "In memory of our community dog, Mike. Self-appointed guardian of the plaza, official welcomer of visitors and general ambassador of good will. Mike was known and loved by all. Regardless of race, color, creed or station in life, he was a silent, tolerant, loyal friend. Take heed if you will: a moral life herein." A paranormal investigator and author Darlene Wilson claims that she has recorded a dog barking in the square when no dogs were present and also the voice of a male calling out, "Here, Mike!" 

Whiskey River Tavern

Whiskey River Tavern is the current business at 214 South Montezuma Street. This building has seen a lot of different iterations. There has been Rickety Cricket Brewing Company, Far From Folsom, Coyote Joe's, Annie's Attic, Cantina, County Seat Restaurant, Brick and Bones and Arizona Hotel. 

That last one was the original. The Arizona Hotel was a two-story brothel. There is a supernatural story going back to the time when Coyote Joe's was here. The owner's cousin told him that she had a visit from a young female ghost that told her that there was going to be a fire in Joe’s and two weeks later, indeed, there was a fire in the dining room. So the owner opened a separate nightclub upstairs and named it in honor of the name the ghost went by, Annie. So this became Annie's Attic. Spirits in the building like to gather in the kitchen and they play with burners and ovens, making it hard to get food cooked completely. Parker Anderson reports in Haunted Prescott, "One of the new bartenders was closing early one morning when the pans and utensils started flying across the room. He took off running, called the manager and said, 'I’m out of here, and by the way, someone needs to go close the front door and lock up.'" Anderson was also told by the owner of Rickety Cricket, Terry Thomson, "that during the renovations of the new restaurant many strange things happened to him and his staff. One night he was in the kitchen working when one of the spice containers went flying across the room. On another night, he and another employee were the only ones there. There were three raps on the wall, and Terry thought it was the employee trying to scare him. Terry was telling his employee to stop when he saw him outside, waiting for Terry. Then Terry heard the three raps again, only louder. Another employee is very familiar with the building; as a child, he used to play with Annie, not knowing that she was a ghost. Terry and his staff all believed some of the ghostly activity came from Annie."

The Grumpy Sicilian 

The Grumpy Sicilian is located at 126 S. Montezuma Street. This is another location that has rotating restaurants in it for the last 100 years. This has also been the Devil's Pantry and Adirondack (A der ron dak) Cafe. 

A previous owner had some patrons ask him what was above the restaurant, an apartment? The owner answered no, that it was his office. They asked if he had a secretary who worked in the office with red hair. When he said no, they told him that they had seen a red-haired woman come down the stairs. The owner checked upstairs, but there was no one up there. He later found out who this mysterious woman might be. A customer told him a few weeks later that she used to come into the restaurant as a little girl all the time with her grandparents. One day, they stopped taking her there and when she asked why, they told her a woman had been murdered there. This was apparently an Irish woman who was shot. The owner was stunned. He didn't believe in ghosts, but now he wondered if that murder victim was haunting his restaurant.

The Grand Highland Hotel

The Grand Highland Hotel is located at 154 S. Montezuma Street. This boutique hotel offers 12 historically themed rooms and they offer a wedding setting. This started as the Grand Saloon & Hotel, which opened in 1903. This two-story hotel was more than likely a brothel. 

In 1949, a curio shop opened on the first floor of the hotel. This was the Holiday Shop and it was run by Howard Hinson Sr. who moved from the east. Hinson saved up his money and he was able to purchase the building. The hotel at that time had 16 guest rooms, 3 shared bathrooms and an apartment for the manager. Hinson added to the hotel in 1971 by purchasing the building next door. A fire destroyed parts of the buildings in May 2012 and the empty space created the inspiration for the Holiday Courtyard. In 2021, Nick & Sara Medina, purchased the hotel from the Hinsons making it part of the Medina Hospitality brand. Kelly Bartholomew wrote on Facebook, "My husband and I stayed in the Big Nose Kate room July 4th weekend of 2020 and experienced a presence. First, I had my drink on the counter in the bathroom. It had been sitting there for awhile but when my husband and I started arguing the glass flew off the sink and shattered! We thought maybe it was just a fluke (but immediately stopped arguing!). Then, around 3:30 am, I was awoken by a strong sense of a presence, my heart was racing and I was frightened. When we woke up that morning, I shared the experience with my husband and he revealed the same thing had happened to him at the same time! We were both a little shaken and told the front desk attendant who confirmed others had similar experiences in that room. When returning home and looking at pictures from our visit, we noticed the outline of a woman in the tub in this photo. Perhaps Kate was there all along?" Adrienne Dillmore wrote on Facebook, "My husband and I stayed in room 201, Jan 23 2021. On the first night I suddenly fell sick and fell asleep early. The second night, I was awaken by the sound of someone walking by my side of the bed. (Closest to the bathroom) it sounded like boards cricking. Then I felt something sit on the bed next to me. My heart was pounding and I couldn’t breathe. I slowly tapped my husband to wake up, and told him what happened. He said that prior to him falling asleep he heard the handles on the dresser moving. As well as sounds coming from the wall behind our headboard. But there is no building there. I did ask the front desk if anyone ever reported anything in that room and he said no. I know what happened and it still freaks me out to this day." 

Hotel St. Michael

Hotel St. Michael is now a part of the Best Western family of hotels. Hotel St. Michael is directly across from the Courthouse Plaza. This started as Hotel Burke, which was opened in 1890 by businessman Dennis Burke and lawman Michael J. Hickey, who assisted in the hangings of two murderers, Dennis W. Dilda and Frank Wilson, in the late 1880s. Burke was also a military veteran and was a mayor of Prescott. He wanted to make his hotel more enticing than other hotels in town, so he advertised it as being fireproof. Only, it wasn't. So in the Great Fire of 1900, the Hotel Burke burned to the ground. 

Burke and Hickey rebuilt, constructing an even bigger hotel and adding a dining hall. They reopened in 1901. This new hotel had these new elements that were these types of grotesques but they were thought to represent local politicians, kinda like caricatures. In 1907, Hickey bought out Burke and renamed the hotel, Hotel St. Michael. He sold to Ed Shumate who sold to John Duke. Duke made several upgrades like telephones in the rooms and installing an elevator, the first in Prescott. Famous people who stayed here include Tex Ritter, Teddy Roosevelt and Barry Goldwater. Today, the hotel has added Fire & Sword, a new iteration of the hotel's original speakeasy on Whiskey Row. The speakeasy has a copper ceiling and original bricks and serves up craft cocktails. There is also the Bistro St. Michael that serves up comfort food and refreshing drinks. Guests claim to hear whispers and strange knocks, especially on the third floor. Lights also go on and off on their own. 

A guest staying in Room 325 was visited by a ghost named Mary. Mary was dressed in a period dress with a bustle skirt and corset. Other guests have seen her too and people have taken to calling her the "Lady of the Night." There have also been reports of the scent of cigars and perfume in rooms. At least 3 females have died here and 29 males. One of those males was John Opie who was shot and killed with a rifle. Another man unalived himself in 1935 by drinking cyanide.

Parker Anderson and Darlene Wilson write in their book Haunted Prescott, "Another story is about a couple who went for a weekend trip to Prescott, where they stayed at the Hotel St. Michael. They sat on the bed to watch TV. The man had his feet dangling off the end of the bed, and all of a sudden, he sat right up. He said that something cold had passed by his foot, and his foot was still tingling. Later that night, they were heading out, walking down the empty hallway, and they could smell the strong odor of a woman’s perfume. It was an old type of perfume, something the lady’s grandmother would have worn, like powdery lilac. In the middle of the night, the man woke up and said that, as clear as day, he heard a woman say, 'Show your face.' It sounded like it came from the end of his bed. He said that it wasn’t scary—almost playful, actually. Another couple reported that they stayed in room 228. They checked in at 6:00 p.m., and around 7:00 p.m., there was a knock on their door. He got up to open the door, but before he got there, a young lady opened it instead. She asked if there was a certain person in their room. They said that this person was not in their room. At that point, she closed the door. Jeff opened it immediately and looked down the hall, but she was gone. When they went downstairs shortly after that, they notified the lobby clerk that someone had tried to come in their room. The clerk in the lobby said that it was not possible since they had the only key. When they went back up to their room, the window was wide open, and the air conditioner was set at fifty-five degrees. It was the middle of January and freezing outside." 

Matt's Saloon

Matt's Longhorn Saloon is one of Prescott's last true Honky Tonks. The saloon is located at 112 South Montezuma and the building is officially known as the D. Levy Building. The name is in honor of the D. Levy & Company General Merchandise store that opened here in 1901 after the Great Fire destroyed a previous structure. 

This remained a mercantile until 1934. By this time, Prohibition had ended, so the building reopened as a saloon. Matt's Longhorn Saloon would open in the 1960s and has provided live music from country artists like Buck Owens and Waylon Jennings. There is dancing and the decor is mostly mounted game and skulls and there is a twenty-foot bar. Live bands play from the balcony to leave plenty of room for dancing. Steve McQueen hung out here when he was filming a movie in 1971. People claim to see shadow figures here and the apparitions of a Native American spirit and a duster wearing cowboy. An elderly male ghost likes to hang out in the basement and a little girl ghost has been seen in the women's restroom a few times asking for her mommy. Employees have thought she was a real little girl until she disappeared.

The Palace Saloon

The Palace Saloon is probably the most famous historic place in Prescott. This is located at 120 S. Montezuma Street. Historians claim it opened in 1883, but according to D.C. Thorne, his father, D.C. Thorne Sr. opened it in 1868. He wrote, "My father had the distinction of opening in l868, the famous Palace Bar, where the present Palace now stands on Whiskey Row (Montezuma Street)." Thorne did buy Lot 19, on Block 13 in 1867 and he owned it until 1883. 

The truth, however, is that it was opened by Nathan Ellis and Al Whitney. The original palace was burned down by a fire in 1883. The owner at the time, Robert Brow, built the new Palace, determined to make it fire proof by having a stone foundation and brick walls. The roof was made from iron. The interior featured a 20-foot bar with a beautiful back-bar. There were two club rooms and three gaming tables, crowned with three heavy chandeliers. Regular customers were Doc Holliday and the Earps and Prescott's own Buckey O'Neill. Buckey got his nickname because he liked to go up against the odds or buck the tiger in the game of faro. He was born in Missouri and came to Prescott in 1881 to work as a court reporter. He would later become a probate judge, sheriff and owner of the stockman's paper "Hoof and Hor." He was also mayor of Prescott in 1898 and helped sign up men to fight in Cuba during the Spanish American War. Buckey himself  was the captain of A Troop of the United States Volunteer Cavalry in Cuba. He lost his life there at the foot of Kettle Hill on July 1, 1898. O'Neill was the only regimental officer killed from among the Arizona volunteers.
 
The Palace Saloon was refurbished in 1897 and expensive fixtures were added. The owner, Bob Brow, wanted this to be a first-class restaurant and saloon. Just three years later, the Great Fire of 1900 destroyed it. Many of the interior fixtures and the alcohol were saved by residents. The oak bar was carried across the street to the Courthouse Plaza. The liquor made it over there too. The local barber saved his chair and implements and brought them to the plaza. The locals drank as the town burned down and the following day, the barber was doing haircuts in the plaza and gaming and drinking was happening there too. Soon, tin buildings and tents were erected to keep business going while the town was rebuilt. 

Bob Brow was committed to rebuilding, but it would be tough. Ben Belcher and Barney Smith had owned the saloon next door, Cabinet Saloon, and they were in the same predicament. The three men decided to pool their interests and they put up a new building that was second to none. This would be the new Palace Saloon. The Arizona State Inventory of Historic Places says of the saloon, "The Palace Hotel is a two story masonry structure 75 feet wide and 125 feet deep. Construction materials included native grey granite, iron, and pressed ornamental bricks.  An interesting feature of the front facade is the central pediment.  It carries the great seal of the Territory of Arizona and on either side figures of a mountain lion and a bear.  One of each animal had been given to each of the Arizona contingency in the Spanish American War by Robert Brow for use as their mascots." The entrance was made up of massive double doors of solid oak with beautiful frosted plate glass having the words "Palace" lettered in them. The interior was carved oak everywhere, much of it golden oak. The front bar was 24 feet long, made of solid oak with polished cherry top and has the finest French plate glass oval top mirrors. Electric fixtures were added to it. There were women who worked the bar singing and dancing and probably some other things. A glass of beer was five cents. A law passed by Arizona put the kabosh on hostesses and gambling. World War I made things tough and then there was Prohibition. But the Palace managed to survive. The food was great, as was the entertainment, but eventually the place fell into disrepair. Dave and Marilyn Michelson saved it in 1996 when they leased it and restored it. They matched it back to the 1901 look.  

This also happens to be the most haunted location on Whiskey Row. The reason why is that there were murders here. A working girl named Jennie Clark was beaten to death by Fred Glover, her lover, inside the saloon. After beating her, he stomped her as well and this was in front of a bar full of people who did nothing to stop him, including a candidate for sheriff. Glover was sentenced to death but the Governor commuted his sentence to life in prison and he was eventually released in 1890 and disappeared. Bar employees claim that they’ve had the stays pulled out of their corset uniforms and the female workers have been attacked in the bathroom. People believe that both Jennie and Glover haunt the Palace.

Parker Anderson and Darlene Wilson share in Haunted Prescott, "The owner had a beautiful porcelain mannequin dressed in period clothing at the top of the stairs. Located upstairs are the offices of the owner and partner now, but this used to be where two 'ladies of the night' had their rooms. One day, the owner came into work and found the porcelain mannequin shattered on the floor below the stairs, having fallen over the railing. So he went out and bought “Annie,” the mannequin seen now at the top of the stairs. Time passes, and the owner came to work to find that Annie had been turned completely around; he thought people were playing a joke on him, so he installed cameras. Time went by, and he came to work and noticed that Annie had been moved again, but this time her head was turned, as if watching the patrons below. The owner went through his surveillance video and saw Annie moving and her head turning, but no one is there moving her—at least no one he can see." 

Ghost Adventures investigated in 2016. The crew captured an EVP saying "Get back." They heard disembodied bootsteps, unexplained bangs and children screaming. Zak felt something touch his hand. The Ovilus gave the following words: "INCLUDE", "ALICE", "MASTER", "PREACH", "JACKIE." The SLS Camera picked up a figure standing next to the bar. Jay felt like something stabbed him in the leg and he also felt pulled back when he went into the crawl space in the basement. 

Closers have had glasses jump off shelves and land on the floor, not breaking. The owner was once nearly hit by a falling brass planter. The apparition of a former mortuary owner named Frank Nevin is seen and it is thought he sticks around here because he lost that mortuary in a poker game to the Sheriff at the time. Bottles and chairs have gone flying across rooms. A group of teachers was waiting on their lunch one day when they suddenly jumped up screaming and ran for the front entrance. Their waiter asked what was wrong and they said the condiments on the buffet had come flying out and were thrown at them. And like so many other places, the women's bathroom is haunted. Stall doors bang on their own and will get rattled when occupied and the person comes out to see they are alone in the bathroom. An employee who had a job that kept her in the basement most of the time, was moved to an upstairs position. She had to go down into the basement for merchandise a couple weeks later and as she climbed the stairs, she felt pain on her chest and stomach. Something had scratched her. This happened another time as well. Employees figured that a spirit in the basement had missed her not being down there and had possibly grabbed her to get her to stay downstairs. 

Whiskey Row has a very interesting history since this was definitely the seedy side of town. Is it possible that some of that previous history has carried over into the present era? Is Whiskey Row haunted? That is for you to decide! 

HGB Ep. 634 - Haunted Edmonton

Moment in Oddity - Silver Wraith (Suggested by: Michael Rogers)

The status of owning a luxury car can signify that one 'has arrived'. Rolls Royce cars have been considered a luxury car since their inception. The Rolls Royce Silver Ghost (and you know we love that name), was dubbed "the best car in the world" for its quiet and reliable performance. This cemented the brand's reputation for luxury in 1907 with the company only having begun in 1904. After WWII, Rolls Royce began manufacturing the Silver Wraith. And in 1954, there was a very unique Silver Wraith which was one-of-a-kind. This vehicle was built for a lover of luxury and it literally was a 'throne on wheels'. However, it may not be the type of throne that you are thinking of. This Silver Wraith had some very different 'bells and whistles' for the time. A coachwork company, Vignale (vin-YAH-lay) transformed this particular Silver Wraith into quite the conversation piece! This car had a TV in the back, sofa-like bench seats, fold-out desks, a car phone and even a throne built for a king! **cough cough, well, not really. This unique Silver Wraith was built with a concealed toilet under the right-side rear (no pun intended, well, maybe) passenger seat. The investor that purchased the custom commode, dumped a load of cash into this restroom equipped ride. In today's dollars the $65,000 custom car would equate to about $800,000. This one of a kind car was decked out to the hilt. However, there was something it was lacking..... no water tank, flusher or receptacle on the toilet. We have all been on the road where we could call the traffic and such a 'shizzle show'. Well, this particular Silver Wraith would create one, literally, because if the call of nature came, the by-product would be left all over the road. The owner of the vehicle, Joseph J. Mascuch (MASS-kuck) was an industrialist and inventor, and he sold everything from missile launchers to giant cranes. The missiles launched from his Rolls Royce were to be avoided at all costs. Dumping human waste onto the road, obviously, is illegal. However, it is said that the commode was used far more often as a hidden compartment to chill champagne. Ewww! So if one is flush with cash, a vehicle like this Silver Wraith is one way to thumb your nose at the masses and let them know you don't have to take their shizzle! Regardless of its purported use, having a hidden toilet installed in a mid century luxury car, certainly is odd. 

Haunted Edmonton (Suggested by: Brodi Tallman)

The city of Edmonton got its start as a place of trade like so many other Canadian cities. It eventually would be the Gateway to the North. Edmonton has come up on the podcast before when we covered Fort Edmonton. While the fort is one of the most haunted locations in the town, there are several other places with ghost stories. These include theaters, schools, hospitals, restaurants and a cemetery. Join us for the history and hauntings of Canada's Edmonton!

The area that is now known as Alberta, Canada was first settled by the Cree, Blackfoot and Blood. These semi-nomadic tribes followed the buffalo herds and traveled in groups of lodges, which was a term for the family group that shared a teepee. The Blackfoot traveled as 10 to 30 lodges, which could equal up to 240 members. In 1670, King Charles II of England granted trading rights to the Hudson Bay Company for Alberta, which was called Rupert's Land at the time, having been named for the King's cousin Rupert. He was the one who received the Royal Charter and land grants for “the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson Bay.” The Hudson Bay Company named itself for this sea and they made it a practice early on to build their forts near the water and they endeavored to trade with the native people there. Another company called the North West Company came into the territory and there was a rivalry for a time until the Hudson Bay Company absorbed the North West Company in 1821. Alberta eventually became a province in 1905 and the town of Edmonton was selected as her capital. The city of Edmonton was an area bought by the Canadian government from the Hudson Bay Company in 1870 and is almost in the center of the province. In 1892, Edmonton would formally be incorporated as a town. Not many called the place home until the Klondike Gold Rush started in 1896 and Edmonton became a hub for supplies. In 1930, Edmonton became the "Gateway to the North" and when oil was discovered there in 1947, its economy changed forever. Today, it is the petrochemical center for western Canada. It also, clearly, a very haunted area of Canada. 

Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Mount Pleasant Cemetery is located at 5420 – 106 Street, which is one of the highest land points in Edmonton. The Strathcona Cemetery Company officially established the cemetery in 1900 when it bought nearly 7 acres for a burial ground. The City of Edmonton took over operation of the cemetery in 1942. The cemetery grew to almost 19 acres and is known for its scenic, park-like, and quiet setting. The south side of the cemetery is where most of the haunting activity takes place. People have reported seeing shadow figures, camera batteries dying, orbs and strange lights that are hazy. 

Walterdale Theater

Walterdale Theatre is located at 10322 83 Ave. in Edmonton’s Old Strathcona area. This building is a really cool piece of architecture and the reason why is that this was originally a fire station. This had been Strathcona Firehall No. 1 when it was built in 1909 and was designed by architects Wilson and Herrald and built by J. M. Eaton. The two-story building was made from brick and featured space for nine horses and three fire wagons on the ground floor and the second floor had the chief's office, general hall, bedrooms, band room, and bathroom. In 1912, it became Edmonton No. 6. This was the oldest fire hall in Alberta. From 1954 to 1974, the building was used as a storage facility. The Walterdale Playhouse was founded in 1959 by the Walterdale Theatre Associates and this makes it one of Western Canada's oldest amateur theater groups. The theater group moved into the fire hall in 1974. This is a small and intimate theater with only 145 seats. The building is said to be haunted by a former volunteer firefighter named Walt who died on the second floor of the firehall. This room is now a make-up room and people have reported seeing Walt walking up and down the stairs and items like wigs, make-up and costumes get moved around or disappear and reappear. It's not just Walt though. Patrons and performers claim to hear phantom hoofbeats, they smell horses and a bell rings from somewhere unseen. 

Princess Theater 

The Princess Theatre, located at 10337 Whyte Avenue, became Alberta's preeminent theater when it opened in 1915. John W. McKernan financed the building, so this is called the McKernan Block. The building was designed by prominent Edmonton architects Wilson and Herrald with an exterior of marble. The interior had frescoes, brass mirrors, gold leaf embellishments, a freight elevator that was unusual for the time and the lighting was gentle on theatergoers' eyes. There was also a forced air ventilation system and ahead of its time, there was an electric ticketing machine and electric time-projecting clock. 

The theater offered 660 seats and the largest stage in western Canada with the second and third floors of the building hosting small apartments. There were vaudeville performances, concerts and movies. The basement featured a billiards parlor. The theater closed in 1958 and reopened as various retail stores, but in the 1970s, it became a theater again and was renamed the Klondyke Theatre. There were regular movies for a while, but eventually "blue movies" found their way to the screen. In 1978, the name was changed back to the Princess Theatre and this became a repertory theater. Live acts also took to the stage. For awhile in the 1990s, it fell into disrepair. Then it became a first run movie theater and was quite successful until Covid-19 in 2020 forced the theater to shut down and it remains closed today. There is a young female spirit in white that is seen in various parts of the theater. She sometimes hovers above the projection room. Since she is seen in what seems to be a wedding dress, a legend formed around her that claims that she was a scorned bride who hanged herself inside the building in the 1920s.  

Fairmont Hotel MacDonald 

The Chateauesque-styled Fairmont Hotel MacDonald sits perched over the North Saskatchewan River at 10065 100 Street. This grand hotel opened in July of 1915 and served luxury rail passengers. It was designed by architects Ross and MacFarlane for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and it was built from Indiana limestone with a copper roof. 

The hotel was named after Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. The hotel was a masterpiece and cost $2.25 million to complete. The hotel features turreted towers, majestic archways, detailed balustrades, cornices, and hood moldings and a main portico with two pilasters that are detailed with gargoyles, as well as the provincial crest of the four provinces that comprise Western Canada. The interior had the Confederation Lounge with a replica of Robert Harris’ Confederation at Québec in 1864 and the Empire Ballroom was adorned with amazing bas relief carvings and the Wedgwood Room had Wedgwood detailing. For those who don't know, these are intricate designs found on Wedgwood china.Some notable people who visited the hotel were King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. They came in 1939 and apparently caused quite the traffic jam. The hotel named the grandest suite in honor of The Queen Mother. Queen Elizabeth II also visited. In 1953, the hotel added an addition, which was 16-stories and had 292 rooms. It's style was very different from the original hotel and so it eventually was demolished. In 1983, the hotel closed because it had fallen into disrepair and it was set to be demolished, but in 1985, the City of Edmonton declared the hotel a Municipal Heritage Resource and they saved it. Canadian Pacific Hotels bought the structure in 1988 and spent millions restoring it back to its former glory. They added specialty suites to the attic and reopened in 1991.

The hotel is said to be haunted by a horse, a sailor and 1950s music from an old CBC broadcast. The story behind the horse is that it died from exhaustion during the construction in 1914. Guests have reported hearing phantom galloping on the eighth floor and in the basement. Some people have seen a horse-drawn carriage in the hallways. The spirit of a man has been seen smoking a pipe while sitting in a wingback chair on the eighth floor. People call him the "boatman" and believe he is the ghost of a sailor from 1913. Employees had repeatedly taking calls from an empty sixth floor room. Also on the sixth floor, some engineers were doing work and found that room had been dead-bolted, but no one was in the room.

Charles Camsell Hospital (Suggested by: Tania Turner)

The former Charles Camsell Hospital has been converted into apartments today, but it has a very dark past, which is probably why people claim it is one of Alberta's most haunted locations. This place comes up in a eugenics archive if that tells you anything. The hospital started as a Jesuit college and opened in 1913. The Alaska highway was being built in the 1940s and the US Army took over the building in 1942 to house personnel who were working on the highway. That highway was completed in 1944 and the Army left, so the building was reopened as the Edmonton Military Hospital and it remained that for two years. And then came the Department of Indian and Eskimo Affairs, which was seeking a place to treat tuberculosis in First Nation patients. They opened the building as the Charles Camsell Hospital for that purpose. Most people just called it the "Indian Hospital." The official name was for Canadian geologist and Deputy Minister of Mines and Resources, Dr. Charles Camsell. A new building was constructed in 1964 and the college building was demolished in 1967. In the 1970s, the hospital opened as a regular hospital for general treatment and in 1992, the hospital merged with the Royal Alexandra Hospital. The hospital closed in 1996. The building sat vacant for years and in 2004 a developer bought it with plans of refurbishing the building into apartments, but the plan was rejected by the public. By the summer of 2008 outbuildings on the property had been razed. The City Council of Edmonton finally okayed a plan for apartments in 2008, but the developer had a hard time financing this so the building just sat some more. The Taproot Edmonton newspaper reported here in March of 2026, "The developer and architect behind the Inglewood Lofts at the former Charles Camsell Hospital has sold the development for $60.5 million now that an art restoration project is complete. 'When this project was rezoned, this mural was recognized as sort of a masterpiece, but it was in pretty rough shape,' said Gene Dub, the owner of Five Oaks and a principal at Dub Architects. 'The mural, I think, is one of the most interesting things about the hospital.'" So perhaps the building will finally have its new purpose. In 2025, a lawsuit was settled that addressed allegations of widespread abuse, medical experimentation, and forced confinement, with the settlement providing individual compensation, a $150 million healing fund, and over $235 million for commemoration, education, and locating unmarked burial sites. 

Now about the dark history here. Stories about this place include doing weird experiments on the native population here, many of who were hospitalized against their wishes. Patients would disappear, never to be seen again. And since we mentioned that eugenics archive, you've probably already guessed that the First Nation patients were forcibly sterilized. There are reputedly unmarked graves on the property that have never been found, despite $200,000 being paid by the developer to try to find the graves.  

Historical-Ocelot-95 wrote on Reddit, "For a little back story, this took place in Edmonton, Alberta in Canada. A city near where I grew up. This would have taken place in the Spring of 2016. There was an abandoned hospital called the Charles Camsell hospital that my friends and I would explore quite often. I’d been at the hospital multiple times, you’d have to sneak inside as the place was in the process of being torn down at the time and there was constantly security patrolling the perimeter. Each time i had been there, my group of friends & I had weird experiences, like odd sounds (not unusual for a big abandon building, also probably housing homeless people) and sometimes an odd melody that faintly played, almost like elevator music. Multiple people have similar experiences to an odd melody playing. But this one time in particular was more chilling than any time before and just thinking about it creeps me out even after all these years. In late spring of 2016, my 3 friends and I went to explore the hospital late at night. The Hospital had a large perimeter fence that you had to hop and walk through the field behind the hospital to get to. We wanted to go inside but the usual small access window had been Re-Bared up again by the city to prevent access. Distraught, we decided to leave as we couldn’t get in. We began making our way back through the field behind the hospital (where apparently there is a large unmarked native American burial grave) back to the fence to leave. As we were walking (4 of us side by side) we all stopped dead in our tracks as we all heard an elderly, frail sounding male voice say (mind you this voice sounded like it was directly behind us and in our ears, as if he was no less than a foot away from us). “You know you shouldn’t be here”. My 3 friends all took off running after hearing this voice but i stood there completely still as it just froze me and chilled me to the bone. As i stood there for maybe 2-3 seconds after my friends ran off The same old frail man voice, but this time in a much deeper, serious tone said, “If I were you, I’d run too." This made me bolt and take off running for the fence and I actually blew by my friends and got there before they did, I was that scared. The only logical explanation I can chalk it up as, is it was a homeless person laying in the field but this theory doesn’t sit right with me because it wasn’t pitch black in the field. The hospital is located in the middle of a neighborhood, so there were homes not to far away with front lights on and street lights, lighting up the streets around the perimeter of the field. It was dark but you could make out where you were walking, the odds of the 4 of us walking side by side and not seeing him or stepping on him seems unlikely. And 2. The voice sounded like he was directly over our shoulders, behind us, especially the 2nd time when it was just myself who heard his reply. I could swear it sounded like he was no less than 1 foot from me, almost speaking directly in my ear. We got the hell out of there and made it back to my car. All of us totally freaked out, but the rest of them even more freaked out after i told them what i had heard after they took off running. I cant logically make sense of it either than it was a paranormal encounter. With the history of this place and the location we were walking in supposedly being a mass grave, it all makes too much chilling sense." 

People claim to feel an intense, heavy, and negative atmosphere in the hospital. There are the unexplained sounds of wheelchairs moving and crying and also many people have heard screams. Elevators without power would move on their own. A paranormal group that visited in 2005 said that their walkie-talkies said strange things .

shortsweet2 wrote on Reddit, " My friends and I enjoyed exploring the abandoned hospital near my home when we were teenagers. We weren’t the only ones who liked to do so, and would frequently run into other teens around our age who were likewise exploring it’s halls. There were also the tell tale signs of the homeless, sleeping mats and little portable toilets. One night we ran into a rather well dressed man on the third floor. He didn’t seem like the regular “urban exploring” type. He was cordial enough and said that he didn’t mind us exploring as long as we respected the place. I thought maybe he was the property owner, or something to that effect. We explored a little while longer, but the encounter had kind of soured the evening for us. We made up our minds to leave, and my friends headed toward the stairwell. I stayed behind momentarily, my eye drawn to a wall of photographs, covered in dust and cobwebs, probably dating back to the hospitals founding nearly a hundred years earlier. My breath caught in my throat as I recognized a grainy black and white image of the man I had spoken to on the third floor. He was cutting the ribbon at the hospitals grand opening. I ran to rejoin my friends, and have not been back to the hospital since." 

Alberta Block 

The building referred to as the Alberta Block is located at 10526 Jasper Avenue. This building was the home of CKUA Radio Network from 1955 to 2012. That's a long run! The structure itself was built in 1909. 

DJ Lark Clark - great name - was spinning some tunes late one night just before Christmas in 1997, when she had a strange experience. Clark recalled to Tanara McLean in her an article from 2021, "I heard footsteps coming down the narrow hallway to the broadcast booth, and I thought, 'Who would be here in the building late … on a Saturday night?'" Her back was turned to the door leading to the hallway and she was facing a glass wall. The microphone and broadcast control board were directly in front of her. She was mid-sentence on live radio when a silvery glow reflected off the glass wall, hovering over her shoulder. She said, "In that silvery light was a profile of a man's face [and] head passing by the window behind me. I actually thought that maybe I would call out to the audience and ask one of them to call 911. And then I thought, What am I going to ask them to do? Call Ghostbusters?" This figure is thought to be a former caretaker named Sam. A former DJ named Chris Martin told McLean, "Not long after I started, people started asking, 'Have you seen the ghost?'" Ken Regan worked as a journalist at CKUA and later, as its CEO and he shared, "According to the story, Sam had been lobotomized because at some point in his life he threatened the Premier. The story goes that Sam died on the job one night at CKUA and that months, years, decades after this incident, people working late at CKUA or working in the building from time to time would hear someone singing opera or they would smell cigar smoke in the building or in an area of the building where there were no other people. People who I have great respect for and whom I trust and who I know are not the kind of people that would invent these kinds of stories, told me of things that had happened to them." These things include playing pranks like turning on the taps in the bathrooms when people are walking out and taking keys, so that people think they are lost and then they find them a little later, exactly where they left them. Regan invited The Alberta Paranormal Investigators Society to come investigate in 2009 and they spent a night in the basement. Many of the sounds they captured they could explain, but they couldn't explain away an EVP that featured the voices of two little girls singing, "Go back, go all the way back." There are no public records of this Sam, but it does seem that someone in ghostly form is here. 

McKay Avenue School (Suggested by: Tania Turner)

The McKay Avenue School is located at 10425 99 Avenue and was named for Dr. William McKay, a physician for the Hudson’s Bay Company. Architect Henry Denny Johnson was contracted to design the building, which is a three-story, eight-room school built in the Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style. This replaced a former school that had been on the site starting in 1881. 

The new school was  built by RJ Mason and was completed in 1905 and took in its first students in September of that year. The province of Alberta also needed a new Legislature building at that time and this wouldn't be finished until 1913, so the Legislative Assembly of Alberta used the McKay Avenue School for its first two sessions in 1906 and 1907. Edmonton was confirmed as the provincial capital during that time and the assembly also founded the University of Alberta. Attendance at the school dwindled after several decades and the school eventually closed in June of 1983. The building now houses the Edmonton Public Schools Archives and Museum. This is a public research facility. A recreation of the 1881 schoolhouse is behind the museum. Fun Fact: Leslie Nielsen was an alumni of the school. 

Ghostly activity here includes the sounds of children running around getting into mischief. That mischief includes flushing toilets, banging on the piano keys and they love to pull the blinds in this building and also the little schoolhouse. There might also be the spirit of a construction worker who died during renovations. He likes to move chairs, bang a hammer and turn the lights on and off. 

La Boheme (La Bo-EM) Restaurant and Bed and Breakfast

La Boheme Bed and Breakfast is no longer opened, but the building it occupied at 6425 112 Avenue still stands on the historic Gibbard Block. The location was originally financed by furniture merchant William T. Gibbard under developer Magrath-Holgate Company in 1912 as luxury apartments that featured running water and electricity. A streetcar running up the Avenue made this really attractive as well. The building was constructed in the Edwardian-style from pressed bricks. There were three stores on the ground floor and eleven suites on the upper two levels. There were big plans and dreams poured into this, but it eventually went bust with the market crashing. The Gibbard Block was foreclosed on and the title went to the Kingston's Queen's University and they had it until 1945. What followed was a low-rent boarding house for transients that fell into disrepair. And then Austrian immigrant Ernest Ender opened a French restaurant on the first floor that he named La Boheme in 1979. He saved up his money and within six years, he had bought the building. The upper floors were turned into a bed and breakfast and ran as such for nearly forty years. Mike and Connie Comeau (Coe mue) took over the bed and breakfast in 2006, but they closed it down in 2016. The Comeaus hosted their wedding here and regular guests included Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier. They sold to Antoine Palmer of Sparrow Capital who planned to restore the building to its former glory and make the place energy efficient. The building reopened with two restaurants and a boutique liquor shop on the first floor, office space on the second floor and rooms on the third floor as long term rentals. 

The story behind the haunting here claims that the building caretaker during the Depression-era became jealous of his wife and so he killed her in their third-floor bedroom. He then half-carried, half-dragged her body to the basement where he dismembered it. Then he used the coal-fired boiler to burn up the body. Eventually, some employees in the building noticed that there were bone fragments in the boiler and reported this to the police. The caretaker was arrested as his wife had mysteriously disappeared. The legend goes on to say he was convicted. No newspapers carry any stories backing any of this up. But it is possible that someone could've died in the building through the years. Whatever the case, an upper room is said to be haunted by a female ghost, seen wearing white, so they sometimes call her "The Bride." A strange thud, thud, thud is also heard on the stairs sometimes. 

Concordia University

Concordia University Edmonton is located at 7128 Ada Blvd. NW. The University was founded in 1921 by the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. I'm very familiar with Concordia Colleges as was raised Missouri Synod Lutheran. There are seven of these still active in the US and Canada has two. Initially, the school was opened to prepare young men for preaching and teaching in the Christian church and was more of a high school level. Women were invited to enroll in 1939. Concordia affiliated itself with the University of Alberta in 1967 and offered first-year university courses. Second-year courses began in 1975. In the 1980s, it expanded to four-year programs. It officially became Concordia University of Edmonton (CUE) in 2015 and broke from its religious focus into a secular institution. The Lutheran Church had stopped funding it years before that. The school bought the historic Magrath Mansion in 2021, which hosts a haunted house experience at Halloween. Some claim it is haunted by its former owner, William Magrath. There are other haunts her too. The Comstock Theater at the school is haunted by a spirit that likes to erase names from playbills and signs his own obsessively, which is Al Gersbach. In the library, students claim to see a skeleton roaming between the shelves. They hear the creaking of a jaw and rattling of bones. The men's dorms is haunted by a ghostly choir that is heard singing. Schwarmann Hall has a teacher's spirit dating back to the 1960s who likes to follow students and is seen in the halls. There are extreme temperature drops when he is around and doors slam on their own. Some students even reported feeling someone grab their shoulders when there was no one there. 

Athletes practicing on the soccer field in front of the Ralph King Building give a tree planted by a rival team wide berth because a legend claims that any player who encounters the tree at any point will experience an injury shortly after. And there are several documented injuries that back this up. One girl was injured so bad a few years back that she was out for the season. In one of the class buildings, a young girl haunts the third floor and it is said that someone had pushed her over the banister when she was leaning against it. She joins students as they walk up the stairwell.

University of Alberta 

The University of Alberta was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, the university's first president. It started as a single, public provincial university and was modelled after American state universities. The university started in the city of Strathcona and became a part of Edmonton when the two cities combined in 1912. Forty-five students were in the first class, seven of them were women. Those women formed a sorority called Seven Independent Spinsters. It became the Wuaneita Society in 1901. That word is a Cree word meaning "kind-hearted." The group ended in 1973. Percy Erskine Nobbs & Frank Darling designed the master plan for the university. During World War I, 82 staff and students from the University of Alberta died during their service and hundreds more were wounded. Degrees were offered in traditional fields like law, medicine and theology. We mentioned eugenics earlier and in 1928, the university's senate was granted the power to oversee and appoint half of the Alberta Eugenics Board. Today, there are nearly 40,000 students pursuing degrees in every possible field spread over five campuses. The Spanish Flu of 1918 hit hard here. Pembina Hall had just been built and it was decided to turn this into a makeshift hospital for awhile. A nurse from the era seems to have lingered and she is seen hurrying through the halls sometimes. A legend claims her fiancé died from the flu and she is searching from him. We think its more likely that this is something residual. A student said, "I'd walk this path once a week, every week, after my class and nothing weird had happened, but this night I was walking down the hall and out of the corner of my eye something catches my attention. I turn to see what it is and I see what I can only describe as an apparition of a woman and it looks like she's wearing a nursing outfit from like the 1950s. She has the cap and everything and I freaked out. I didn't know what to do. I ran out of the building and I haven't been back to Pembina Hall since."

The North Power Plant Building has tales of disembodied footsteps and things falling to the floor on their own. There is a pub here called Dewey's and an employee from there said, "After an event one evening, I was cleaning up the bar near the pool tables. I went to bring some things to the kitchen. When I got back to the bar, there was a little girl standing in front of the bar. When I went to go talk to her, she disappeared." A ghost named Emily has been seen drifting across the stage at Corbett Hall.

Athabasca Hall was built in 1910 and construction workers and their families set up camp along the river. One of the families had a little boy who liked to play along the river bank and he remembered one night that he had left his jacket by the river. His parents were asleep, so he decided to go retrieve it himself. His parents found his frozen body on the side of the river. His parents couldn't bare the grief and they left Edmonton. Perhaps that is why the boy continues to haunt the Hall - he might be seeking his parents. Students describe him as wearing wool pants and a button-up shirt. His lips appear to be blue. A woman hosting a video about the ghost stories shared, "In my first year of University, I was taking Linguistics 101 and how they do the lab participation portion is they lock you into this little room in Athabasca Hall and they make you sit down. You put these big clunky headphones on, so you're totally immersed in the project. Anyway, so I was sitting there and I was just going through the project and it was fine and then all a sudden I started to feel like a shiver, like a chill and so I took the headphones off. I looked behind me and I thought I saw a little boy, but it was like he disappeared really fast." 

Edmonton is said to be an underrated city with a thriving culinary scene. It is nicknamed the "Festival City" because it hosts so many festivals. Does the city possibly host ghosts? Are these locations in Edmonton haunted? That is for you to decide!  

HGB Ep. 633 - Chistlehurst Caves

This Month in History - The Black Monday of 1360

In the month of April, on the 13th, in 1360, a Black Monday occurred. Although historically better known to describe stock market crashes, this Black Monday was different. This particular Black Monday took place on Easter Monday during the Hundred Years' War between England and France. King Edward III had led his army of 10,000 men to the gates of Paris on April 5th where he was unsuccessful in engaging the French who refused battle. The English were unable to breach the French's defenses, so over the next week, the English moved on to the gates of Chartres (SHAR-truh). The French defenders at this location again refused battle and took shelter behind the Chartres walls. On the night of April 13th, 1360, the English soldiers made camp outside the walls of Chartres and an unexpected storm materialized. Lightning struck killing many soldiers, the temperatures dropped and huge hailstones and freezing rain fell down upon the English. Two English leaders were killed, and hysteria set in amongst the remaining soldiers. Approximately 1,000 English soldiers and 6,000 horses were killed during the storm. The freak storm had produced more casualties than any previous battles of the Hundred Years' War. The sudden intense storm ultimately forced King Edward III to stop his siege of Chartres and led to peace negotiations. The culmination of the negotiations became the Treaty of Bretigny (BREE-teen-yee) which ended the first phase of the Hundred Years' War.

Chistlehurst Caves (Suggested by: Alana Ashby)

The name Chistlehurst Caves is a bit deceiving because this system of tunnels and caverns near London is not natural. These are man-made. They started off as chalk and flint mines and later were used for ammunition storage and then as a bomb shelter and this was even a music venue for a time, hosting the likes of Hendrix and Bowie. An entire underground city was once here. There are legends connected to the caves that include tales of Druid ceremonies and there are claims of ghosts. Join us for the history and hauntings of Chistlehurst Caves.

Chistlehurst Caves is a 22-mile labyrinth of dark and mysterious passageways. The caves claim to have a history stretching back 8,00 years to the Neolithic period, meaning that these were first dug out by an ancient people. The town of Chistlehurst has a long history too, being mentioned for the first time in a charter from 973. The name is Saxon with cisel meaning "gravel" and hyrst meaning "wooded hill," so this is a wooded hill on stony ground. That ground wasn't suitable to agriculture. This became a royal manor starting in medieval times and was held by the Walsingham family, which included in its members Queen Elizabeth I's spymaster, Francis Walsingham. Francis attended Cambridge University and became a lawyer, eventually working his way up to overseeing foreign, domestic and religious policy during the Elizabethan era. He began his life in espionage around 1580 and as a Protestant, did much of his work against Catholics, torturing priests. He managed to find out about a conspiracy among the Catholic powers to invade England and place Mary, Queen of Scots, on the throne. He was behind the beheading of Mary. Walsingham had intercepted a letter that indicated that Mary was encouraging in a plot to kill Elizabeth. Walsingham was at her trial and she broke down and said, "All of this is the work of Monsieur de Walsingham for my destruction", to which he replied, "God is my witness that as a private person I have done nothing unworthy of an honest man, and as Secretary of State, nothing unbefitting my duty." Walsingham pressured Queen Elizabeth to sign the warrant of execution, but she hesitated for awhile, but eventually signed it.

Londoners liked Chistlehurst because it was out of the city and they would buy property out in the country here. In 1870, the exiled Emperor Napoleon came to Camden Place here. The Victorian era would bring its greatest development and many of the homes here still date to this time. 

No one is sure when the caves were first mined for chalk and flint, but the earliest record dates to a 9th-century Saxon charter. The next mention came in 1232 AD. Mining continued in the caves until the 1840s and the production of lime took place between 1830 and the 1860s. Lime was used in brick making and flint was for firing guns and lighting tinder boxes. While the British Archaeological Association's Vice President in 1903, William Nichols, claimed that the caves were first dug out by Druids, Romans and Saxons, there is no verification for that claim. Tours of the caves claim that there are Druid altars and some Roman elements. These claims are hard to validate because the Druids were a very secretive order. They trained for up to 20 years and shared their knowledge exclusively through oral, memorized verses to keep their lore hidden. They only shared their secrets within the group. But it makes the lore here juicy, so we would be willing to believe it. The general public started visiting the caves starting in 1900.

After World War I started, Britain saw value in keeping their ammunition in the caves. Before this, mushroom cultivation was begun. Mushrooms need darkness and a constant humidity and temperature in order to thrive. Underground urban farms are perfect for this. An old parking garage in Paris has become a mushroom farm. And the Chistelhurst Caves were also perfect. The cultivation here started in 1900 and lasted until the 1950s.

As we learned with out haunted Air Force Bases a few weeks ago, aerial fighting started to get its feet during World War I, but during World War II, it would really come into its own. Major cities in Europe faced bombardment. The aerial bombardment of London began in September 1940 and the caves made the perfect spot for an air-raid shelter. As the war continued on, an underground city was built in the caves and it hosted up to 15,000 people. They each paid a penny to enter. To make this a city, it needed utilities and so the tunnels were fitted with electric lighting and running water for toilets and showers. There was even a hospital and a chapel. And a cross from that chapel still exists today and even though most of the things made from wood that date to that time no longer exist or have fallen apart, the cross appears to be almost new and untouched by time. 

A little fun fact, there was one baby born in the shelter during the war and she was baptised in the chapel. At that christening, she was given the name Cavena Wakeman. When she hit 18, she decided she didn't care for that and so she changed her name legally to Rosa. She did keep Cavena as her middle name. 

The shelter was closed shortly after VE Day and pretty much focused on the mushrooms until the 1950s. And then music came to the space and some really big names played concerts here. This became a popular skiffle and rock music venue. British rockers Lonnie Donegan, Adam Faith, and Marty Wilde all played there in the 1960s. American rockers Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran also played here during the early 1960s. And there were many bigger names like The Animals, The Yardbirds, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and David Bowie played in the caves twice. 

Apparently in regards to Led Zeppelin, they threw a party on Halloween in 1974 to celebrate the launching of their own label called Swan Song Records. Stories claim that Groucho Marx attended the party at the age of 86 and that there was a huge food fight and entertainment by stripping nuns. 

Radio Caroline, a British pirate radio station, broadcast performances on Saturday nights with DJs. Young people would come to the caves for concerts and dancing. Performances in the caves continued into the 2000s and there are still some even today. There had once been a challenge at the caves. Anyone who could spend the entire night, alone, next to the pool, would win five pounds as a prize. No one ever won the prize. And that's because these caves are rumored to be incredibly haunted. Supernatural activity in the caves has been reported for decades and paranormal investigators have been coming for years. Everything from Romans to Victorians to Shamans have been seen and chalk has been thrown at people. Stories claim that the mischievous spirits throwing things belong to children who were killed during a partial cave collapse in 1939. Many people have said they have seen the ghost of a young girl. A tour guide once saw the apparition of a man in full cavalier uniform standing in the caves. There is a White Lady here and the story behind here is that her husband murdered her. The bones of a woman were found in the 1940s. Her ghost rises from a pool and floats down the tunnels.TV shows and movies have been filmed in the caves. One of these movies was Insemenoid from 1981 that starred Robert Pugh, Victoria Tennant,  Stephanie Beacham and Judy Geeson. Yeah, it's exactly what you think it is based on the title. A really bad Science Fiction movie about a member of an Interplanetary archaeologist crew getting impregnated by an alien creature in a cave. She turns homicidal. What we are interested in is that actress Judy Geeson claimed that she saw an apparition by the Roman Well when filming in the caves. The show Most Haunted featured the caves in a two episode series during Season 10 in 2008. 

A tour guide was once taking a group through and came to the former hospital area. He was using his flashlight to point out certain points of interest and all of a sudden someone in his group asked, "Who is that man." The guide managed to get his beam on this man who was bald, wearing a sweater and what appeared to be jeans. He assumed that this is someone who wandered off from a previous tour group, so he started walking over to him to "invite" him to join his tour so he could get him out of the caves. He looked down for a moment to watch his step and heard his tour group gasp. He soon figured out that they had gasped because the man had disappeared. Around 15 people had all witnessed this. Workers believe this was a man who built the brick walls were he was seen. He has been seen since by other tour groups.

AlmostButNotQuote wrote on Reddit, "I want to talk about what happened to me and literally no one else noticed. We walked through a few rooms and I walked through the threshold into the next one and it was like a sheath of mist went across the top of my face/eyes just for a split second like I walked through a smoke machine that just puffed. That’s what I thought it was so I reacted and waved my hands in front of my face but no one else had any reaction and I looked into the electric lights above and there was no mist/smoke in the air. Yes, it could have been a reaction to a drop in air temperature or change in humidity but I’m just interested as no one else seemed to experience this, even my partner who was literally holding my hand as we walked through the archway. Despite that we had an amazing time £7 an adult, the tour guide Darren was amazing and informative, it was the right mix of spooky and interesting and if you’re nearby I HIGHLY recommend you go!"

Vansan871 shared on Reddit, "There was a radio show that dared two listeners to spend the night in a cave, I don't know if it was this particular cave. It was supposed to be haunted. When it became time to bed down they had to sleep in different areas. One slept a bit closer to the pool. Later that night the other man was awakened by his friend screaming. He ran towards the pool and found his friend laying on the ground, unconscious with injuries about his head and face and a dislocated arm. After regaining consciousness in hospital he could not remember anything about his attack." 

ktowl wrote on Reddit, "My family and I visited Chislehurst Caves, maybe about 10 years ago or so. Me (15y/o at the time) and my younger brother (10y/o at the time) were very creeped out by the caves, especially as the guides had warned us not to stray from the party as people had got lost in there before due to how dark it is. My parents are really into the paranormal, (but not so much that they’ll believe anything, they’re pretty reasonable and realistic when it comes to paranormal activity) and decided to hang right at the back of the tour party, which again, was starting to freak my brother and I out. We keep looking behind us towards my parents, asking them to hurry it up, and then my parents just stop dead in their tracks and look each other. My mum looks at my dad and says “Did you hear that?” Dad replies “that whistle?” Something had literally whistled in between my mum and dad. Not loud enough for my brother and I to hear, and we were probably about 6 feet away from them when it happened. Understandably, my parents waited until after we left the caves to tell us about the whistle seeing as they didn’t want to freak my brother and I out any more than we already were." 

Someone who did a lot of research for many years on the caves and gathered paranormal experiences was James Wilkinson. He wrote "Ghosts of Chistlehurst Caves" in 2011. James touched on a couple of unusuals things about two areas of the caves. In all areas of the caves, there is an echo, but in the chapel area and where the haunted pool is located, there is no acoustical echo.

Derek Hopkins was a manager at the caves for years and he only stopped working there in 1987 because he died. He told people he didn't think the caves were haunted, but he himself had heard some strange things he couldn't explain and saw some stuff that he was resistant to sharing. He loved a good cup of tea and always drank from a mug that never seemed to be cleaned. James shared the following in his book, "Bob Baxter told us that Derek had a theory that his tea always tasted better in his cup if it wasn't washed. 'We joked that he had an inch of tanning around the edge with a hole in the middle for his tea. Just after he died, his mug turned up several times on tours just sitting in the middle of a passageway.' The guides would casually pick it up and return it to its place in the hut with the rest of Derek's gear, but it would reappear shortly after on another guide's tour. This has happened about four times." 

Michelle Baxter was an employee who also saw the spirit of a man dressed as a cavalier. She told James, "Late in 1990, along the cavalier’s passageway, I saw a man standing with his arms folded watching the party leave the area. It was probably the clearest thing I have seen in the caves and again I thought I was imagining it. After looking away and looking back twice I knew I was not. I must have been twenty feet away from the apparition and I could see it clearly standing there for about 1 minute. It was not a rock formation. I always feel a little worried when I walk away from the cavalier’s passageway as I get the feeling somebody is following me." 

Dave Duker was a guide in the caves during the 1970s and he told James about an experience he had while guiding a group fo schoolchildren one day, "During the weekdays the caves were used by a lot of school parties usually from the age of seven and upwards, and the party sizes ranged from ten to twenty. I was taking a party of about eleven eight-year old schoolchildren and their teacher around the caves and we were approaching the 'Roman Well' area, I was walking backwards as we approached the well so that I could talk to them. As I spoke, I saw one of them run off from the back of the party. I did not think for one minute that anything untoward was happening as the figure was most definitely solid, not blurred or an outline, it was a definite solid shape. I know it was not a shadow caused by the lanterns, absolutely not. I felt a bit annoyed with the teacher for letting the child run off and asked her not to let the kids run about in the caves as it was dangerous, and remember feeling a bit annoyed that one of them had run off not just because there was an eight-year old child alone in the caves but because whoever it was, had walked off while I was talking. I went around the corner to retrieve the child and return him/her to the rest of the pupils but found that the child had run into a dead-end area and that their was no-one there. There was nowhere for anyone to hide and it dawned on me that what I had seen was not human. The teacher looked worried when I returned alone and after counting the children and finding they were all there she looked even more worried, I finished that tour a lot quicker than I would normally have done." 

Desmond Tyler told James, "The last thing we do at night, when the last guide is doing the four-oclock tour, you wait until about four thirty and then you go down there and you put all the lanterns out so that you are opposite the map room and you line them up with the filler caps forward so the first guide in the morning can come along and fill them easily. It had been a quiet day and there hadn’t been a four-o-clock tour and I had just gone down there to sort the lamps out about and I saw somebody come out of the church and I said “Oh Hello” and they went into the map room. So I followed them, I must have only been five seconds behind them and I walked into the map room and there was no-one there and the gate at the back of the room was shut which was weird. Apart from the fact that I know it was a man, it happened so quickly I didn’t really take in any other details and when I went upstairs Chris was in the office and Paul was out the front having a cigarette. They were the only other two people there at the time. “That was the first time I realized there was something unusual about the caves.”  The next time, I was coming round past the fan near the end of a tour and near the modern church where you feel you should turn left but the path is to the right, I was standing there and as I moved my torch around in the dark I saw a man crouching down against the wall. He had very ragged hair and his hand up like he was protecting himself he looked very scared. I only saw him for a second and by the time my torch passed over that spot again to look, he’d gone. This was all in a second. It was very weird. This happened to me about three times over a period of two or three months I saw the same person. It was by the isolation ward. I know the story of the priest now, but the first time I saw him, I was completely unaware, nobody had told me that story." Other guides have also seen this and the claim is that some priest came down here to do penance back in the 1950s and was scared to death. Some stories claim that he had clothes on, while others say he was naked. His nails were ragged like he had tried to dig himself out by hand. 

Several of the employees shared stories of hearing what sounded like a woman speaking and the voices of several children with her. One person detailed that it sounded like a child was reciting something and getting correction from a woman. Could this be something going back to the war and it got locked into the stone of this space? Or had something happened to a woman and children here? We didn't find any stories to corroborate that. 

Pete Lovett had what seemed to be a residual experience. He was working with another employee to replace the locks on a door. He told James, "We were on one side of the rock wall that had been put up about five or six years ago. I was standing about ten feet away from this wall when a figure just walked out in front of me. It was a man. There was nothing unusual or mystical about him at all because he was wearing a black pair of trousers and a shirt. He walked straight in front of us about ten feet away and my first reaction was 'What the hell's a tourist doing down here on a Monday morning?' The trouble was that he walked through a brick wall going towards the cinema. Then I remember thinking 'Why would a tourist do that?' These thoughts were going through my head in a millisecond and then I just collapsed. I was a total mess as my brain tried to come to terms with what I had just seen. It really screwed me up. He literally crossed our passageway. Originally, you would have been able to walk through the passageway the way he had gone, but like I said, the passage was bricked up five or six years ago and it is impossible to get to the cinema that way now. The apparition looked middle aged and wore clothes that could have been worn anytime from the 1940s to today." 

During the war, a group of gypsies moved in and they were pushed back into a more isolated part of the caves that dated back to the Roman times and they nicknamed the area the pug-end area. Nobody knows why they gave their space that nickname, but pug means small demon or imp. Did they see something there? 

Chistlehurst Caves have served multiple uses, the most important being a place of protection. But even with that history of protection, this location has proven to be a very creepy place. There seems to be several spirits here. Is Chistlehurst Caves haunted? That is for you to decide! 

HGB Ep. 632 - Haunted Inveraray, Scotland

Moment in Oddity - The Dancing Plague of 1518

In July of 1518, there was a strange plague outbreak in Strasbourg, Holy Roman Empire, which is now modern day France. The plague has become historically known as the 'Dancing Plague' and although not the first of its kind, it has been the most thoroughly documented. This 'dancing plague' saw more than 400 people uncontrollably dancing for weeks, ultimately leading to deaths from exhaustion, heart attacks and stroke. The epicenter of the 1518 'dancing plague' was Frau Troffea in mid July of that year, who danced, twisted and shook in the streets for days on end. History has differing theories as to the cause of this dancing plague. One theory was that Saint Vitus, a Catholic saint cursed those who were sinners with a plague of uncontrollable dancing. This caused local leaders to organize pilgrimages to St. Vitus shrines. Another theory was ergot poisoning, which is caused by the ingestion of ergot fungi, a hallucinogenic mold found on damp rye. The medical doctors of the age believed that the dancers had 'overheated blood' which caused a misunderstanding by the city officials who hired musicians to play music, worsening the frenzy. But today's modern day theory, attributed to historian John Waller, is that the event was a case of mass psychogenic illness, also known as mass hysteria. The sufferers were driven by extreme psychological stress, famine and superstitious fears of the times. The victims of the dancing plague of 1518 did not exhibit dance moves of their current time, but danced with flailing limbs and scared expressions. Regardless of the cause, 400 people dancing themselves to death, certainly is odd.

Haunted Inveraray, (In vah rare ee) Scotland (Suggested by: James McKenna)

The town of Inveraray in Scotland holds one of the most famous castles in Scotland and a jail from the 1800s that was one of the most modern jails for its time, making this the perfect spot for those seeking history with haunts. Nearby Loch Fyne attracted a long history of clans and people with its rich fishing of herring and oysters and is the longest sea loch in the country. The waters also harbor dolphins, seals, otters and even basking sharks. Stories claim that a phantom galleon occasionally appears on the loch and it seems to signal death is coming. What are some other haunts around this village? Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Inveraray, Scotland.  

Argyll is located in western Scotland and is a region of dramatic coastlines with a mountainous terrain. It is known as Earra-Ghàidheal (Err-uh-GAA-ul or EH-ruh-GHAAL) in Scottish Gaelic and means "coastland of the Gaels." This area is said to be the birthhplace of the Scottish nation, where Irish Gaels established the kingdom of Dál Riata (dahl REE-uh-tuh ) around 500 A.D. There were conflicts with Vikings and this became a stronghold of Clan Campbell, whose Dukes resided at Inveraray after it was established as the seat of the Campbells in the 15th century. The quaint town of Inveraray sits on Loch Fyne and has a main street full of shops and restaurants. For centuries, country people carried wool, cheese, feathers, eggs, broom, salmon, and skins to the market and the main industries were in fishing, hunting, agriculture, cattle and sheep rearing, curing of hides and iron working. A castle was built in the 1400s, but was later replaced with the current Gothic Revival castle that is absolutely stunning. The entire town was rebuilt in the mid-18th century as a planned Georgian town by the Duke of Argyll who hoped to make this a base for herring fishing. And it did become that for a little while, but when the herring were gone, the town turned to tourism. There are many wonderful sites to see here like the Inveraray Castle. 

Inveraray Castle 

The Inveraray Castle was preceded by another castle that eventually became uninhabitable. It was demolished in 1745 to make way for the castle that stands today. That first castle was built by Sir Colin Campbell in 1432 and became the main residence of the Earls of Argyll in 1457. 

The current castle was designed in the Gothic Revival style with the foundation stone being laid in 1746. The design was inspired by a sketch drawn by the architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, Vanbrugh. Architects Roger Morris and William Adam came up with the final design said to be architecturally before its time because it mixed modern, baroque, Palladian and Gothic-style. The construction took 43 years to complete. The castle was only two floors at first, but a third floor was added after a major fire in 1877. At this time, the conical roofs were also added to the four corner towers. The interior rooms were neoclassical and the castle was heated by open fires. The basement had the Old Kitchen, which was last used by Duchess Louise in the 1950s. There were seven fireplaces that featured different cooking methods like two ovens for baking, two stewing stoves, a boiling stove, a hot plate and a roasting fire that had a spit. copper utensils were used for cooking. Today, there is now a tearoom serving light lunches and teas and the castle's gift shop in the basement. 

The main floor's entrance is fairly modest, but does contain a 1600 German decorated strong box commonly known as an 'Armada Chest' that holds cannon balls recovered from Tobermory Bay on the Isle of Mull. 

The entrance hall leads to the French-influenced Tapestry Drawing Room that still contains original Beauvais tapestries. The room also has painted shutters by Girard and he also painted the ceiling, which was designed by Robert Adam. A painting of Lady Charlotte Campbell, daughter of the 5th Duke, by John Hoppner hangs on the wall and there are a pair of confidantes with matching armchairs and a circular giltwood palm tree table with a specimen marble top inlaid with the 7th Duke of Argyll's coat of arms. There is also the Armoury Hall that has a high ceiling - said to be the highest ceiling in Scotland - and this room holds a large collection of weapons that include 1,300 pikes, Brown Bess muskets, Lochaber axes, Broadswords and other weapons. Pikes are those very long, two-handed thrusting spears. A highlight of the collection is the dirk and sporran belonging to Rob Roy MacGregor. The upper parts of this room contain the Campbell family c rest and the various cadet branches of the Campbells. The Saloon has a collection of portraits and furniture. The State Dining Room is extravagantly decorated and features a 1784 painting by two French artists, Girard and Guinand. We aren't art experts, but we've heard that the quality of this painting is unparalleled in Britain for that time. The dining chairs were specifically commissioned by the 5th Duke from France and feature coverings of tapestries dating to the 1780s. The dining table is from 1800 and was made by Gillow of Lancaster. There is a Waterord chandelier, which is part of a trio and it is the largest. The other two are in the Tapestry Drawing Room. 

The China Turret is entered through a secret set of doors concealed with tapestry panels integrated into the design of the drawing room. Its ceiling is made of papier-mâché and was designed by Robert Mylne in 1773. This was originally a library, but today has a collection of Oriental and European porcelain, including Japanese Imari-ware (known for its vibrant designs of cobalt blue, red and gold) of the early 18th century. 

The Saloon was a room for music and billiards, so there is a grand piano in the corner. But not just any piano. This one was where the songwriters Lerner and Loewe composed some of the songs for their musical My Fair Lady when they stayed at the castle. The North West Hall has a collection of clothing from the Campbells including Coronation robes and the present Duke's uniform of the Royal Company of Archers. A more recent addition is the stunning cream gown designed by Bruce Oldfield and worn by the current Duchess at her wedding to the 13th Duke in June 2002. The next level has the Victorian Room that is aptly named because there is a Maplewood writing desk in here that was given to Princess Louise by her mother, Queen Victoria, as a wedding gift in 1871. There is also a piece of art that the Princess created from porcelain that is of her mother, Queen Victoria, at her spinning wheel. There are also two intriguing pieces of furniture converted from an old coach presented by the Duke of Sutherland to the 8th Duke of Argyll. The MacArthur Room features the state bed of the MacArthurs of Loch Awe. This is a four poster bed with elaborate carvings and is very old and was moved here from the original castle. Remember this bed, it will come up again. The Picture Turret has a bunch of photographs with one featuring HMS Argyll, named for the county. Three Royal Navy ships have had the name, the first dating back to 1715, which was a 50 gun fourth rate frigate. The second was a Devonshire Class armoured cruiser from 1904 and the third is a 1991 high-tech duke class frigate. 

The Gallery has a bunch of portraits. One of which is of Lt. Col Duncan Campbell of Lochnell who raised the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders Regiment of Foot. This was painted by Sir Henry Raeburn. Queen Victoria made her first visit to Inveraray Castle in 1847, but obviously came several times to see her daughter. A visit in 1875 lasted for a week.

There are several spirits haunting the castle. The bed in the MacArthur Room has a young ghost attached to it. There was a civil war in Scotland in 1644. Archibald Campbell was the 1st Marquess (Mar kwiss) of Argyll when the 1st Marquess of Montrose marched in with his regiment. The Marquess of Argyll didn't remove his castle staff with him though and left behind was a young harpist whom the family thought very highly of. When the enemy troops arrived, they stormed the castle and found the harpist and brutally killed the boy, dismembering him and leaving the parts on the Marquess' bed. That bed eventually made its way into the new castle and it was after that that the Campbell family claimed to hear the faint sound of harp music. This mainly came from the MacArthur Room, but the ghost seems to be able to move. Family members spoke of a sudden stillness in multiple rooms and then the faint sound of harp music echoing along the corridors. Tradition holds that the soft strains of harp music drifting through the halls are a sign, a solemn reminder of loyalty, history, and the deep ties that bind Inveraray to its past. But another legend claims that the music is heard when a member of the family is about to die.

Lynelle Hayes claimed on Facebook that she toured the castle in 2017 and that her tour guide Kenny told her, "The daughter of the Duke's line will hear the harp." She also said, "I more than heard the harp. I saw the Irish lass playing, along with the horrific murder of the young boy. I also saw another lady in a long white nightgown walking carrying a candle in a holder. She was watching over the young boy." Now our understanding is that the harpist was the young boy, so we're not sure what she saw her. Kelly Nicholls wrote on Facebook, "I saw a face in that bedroom's mirror. Took a picture of it. I was the only person in the room at the time."

A strange story told about the castle is dated to 1758. On July 10, 1758, a physician named William Hart was walking along the castle grounds with two other men. The trio all witnessed what they described as "a battle taking place in the sky, between Highland soldiers and French soldiers." They saw the Highlanders retreating, leaving behind many of their dead soldiers. Two women later came forward claiming to have witnessed the same ethereal conflict. Weeks passed and chilling news reached the castle that a Highland regiment from a British Force had indeed suffered heavy casualties during an ill-fated attempt to capture the French held fort in Canada. Could this have been a vision of a battle taking place thousands of miles away? The castle has two libraries, one decorated in green and the other in brown. The Green Library has a strange story to go with it. Several times, people have heard inexplicable loud bangs echoing from the library's walls. These sounds are so forceful that they shake the very foundations of the room. A former owner said that one evening, a tremendous commotion shattered the peace and that it sounded like dozens of books being thrown to the floor inside the locked library. When the owner went to investigate, the library was completely put together with all the books sitting neatly on the shelves. The mystery sounds persisted. Every time, the room was empty and securely locked. And strangely, it seems that only members of the Campbell Clan hear the noises. If there are non family members around, they don't hear the noises when a Campbell claims to hear them.

Inveraray Jail

The Inveraray Gaol and Courthouse Act of 1814, commissioned the building of a replacement for the old town house that would not only have a new courthouse, but also three jails: one for males, one for females and one for debtors. The courthouse was designed by James Gillespie Graham in the neoclassical style and was constructed from ashlar stone. Building was completed in 1820. The courthouse had three bays facing Church Square and relatively plain windows. There really is nothing fancy about this building. However, the main courtroom that was at the rear of the building offered great views of Loch Fyne. 

The prison block was two storeys and built from coursed rubble and didn't have a separation of prisoners because funds didn't meet the lofty plans. This eventually was known as the Old Prison Block.  In 1845, a three storey prison block was added and became the New Prison Block. On arrival in Inveraray Jail, all prisoners went through a process of having their weight and height recorded by the Prison Surgeon and they were tested as to their proficiency in reading and writing. They were given a bath and issued with a set of prison clothing, although in the very beginning, prisoners wore their own clothing. There was only one prisoner to a cell. Everything happened in a prisoner's cell. They slept, ate and worked there and were kept from any interaction with each other. Prisoners could leave their cells to go to the bathroom and to exercise once a day. Cells contained a hammock, mattress, blankets, sheets, a pillow, towel, comb, spoon and salt cup, a stool, box and chamber pot with lid. On the wall hung a copy of the prison rules. Religon was encouraged, so Protestant prisoners were given a Bible, Prayer Book and Hymn Book, while Catholic Prisoners were given the Douai (doo ay) Bible, Garden of the Soul and Crown Hymn Book.

After some time, guards noticed that prisoners seemed to have it pretty good, so they decided to make it tougher by requiring new inmates to sleep on less comfortable, wooden "guard beds" with wooden pillows for the first thirty days of their sentence. Inveraray Jail had four of these beds. The prison was run by the governor, the matron - who was the governor's wife - and one warder, who was often a retired soldier or policeman with a pension. The warder slept there seven nights a week. This wasn't a well paying job. In 1874, Archibald Turner, who was the Warder at the time, made 15 shillings a week, while a man who cut wood or made fencing was paid 20 to 25 shillings a week. 

The New Prison was an upgrade from older prisons, which were dark and dank. New regulations required that cells had to be kept warm and well ventilated. The jail here was heated by a coal fired system with pipes passing through all the cells to carry the heat. Hygiene at the jail included a bath every two weeks. The Prison Rules laid out the guidelines for feeding prisoners and a staple of the diet was porridge. A female prisoner considered unfit to work got 1.5 pints of soup and 6 oz of bread, while a male prisoner who could work got 2 pints of soup and 12 oz. of bread. Prisoners who weighed more than 12 stones also got and extra ounce of cheese and 4 oz. of bread daily. Milk for the prison was bought from a passing milk cart, but eventually there were also milking cows on premises. Breakfast was served at 7:30am. A prisoner would receive 5 ounces of oatmeal made into porridge with 3/4 pint of milk. Dinner was served at 1pm and this was just soup and bread. Soup was made from marrow bones or ox head, barley, green peas, leeks, carrots, turnips, onion and other similar vegetables. Supper was served at 6pm and was usually 5 ounces of oatmeal made into porridge and 1/2 pint of milk. Food was prepared in the kitchen, which was located on the ground floor. Prisoners ate in their cells.

The type of work that prisoners did in their cells included manufacturing herring nets for the local industry, sewing prison clothing and doing something called picking Oakum. What is that you ask? This sounds like great fun. Prisoners would pick apart and shred old, tarred ropes into fiber.

As we have found through our years of featuring haunted prisons, they all seem to have their own flair for punishment. These might be techniques or devices. Inveraray Jail had a Whipping Table where the prisoner was laid across it with his arms through these holes. The body was strapped down across the small of the back and a strap across each leg. They were then given striped, not to exceed 12 for each boy under 14-years-old and not exceeding 36 for those over 14-years-old. There was also the Crank Machine, which was a form of useless labor, that wasn't as hard as breaking rocks or moving rocks. The rocks thing was probably more interesting though. The machine was just this big crank on a metal drum in the wall that was attached to a mechanism with a bunch of cups on it that would turn the cups through sand when the crank was turned. The sand gave resistance and this could be adjusted by the Warder by using a screw. Prisoners called Warders a "screw" for this reason. Just a little prison slang there for you. The prisoners had to turn the crank between 6,000 and 14,400 times a day. And there was also the Treadwheel. This was an elongated wheel of a paddle steamer that had 24 steps instead of paddles. Prisoners would hang onto a bar or strap in a compartment above the treadwheel and the wheel would turn under their weight. Prisoners had to keep climbing or they would fall off. This could get very exhausting. Another form of hard labor was called Shot Drill. This entailed stooping down without bending the knees and picking up a heavy cannon-ball, bringing it up slowly until it was on a level with the chest, taking three steps to the right, replacing it on the ground and then stepping back three paces to start the procedure all over again. Warders shouted orders while prisoners, sweating profusely, moved cannon-balls with precision from one pile to another.  

There were some escapes from the jail. Twelve people managed to make a break for it. Most weren't gone for long because villagers were vigilant and the terrain was tough. One of the most impressive escapes involved John Campbell, William Dickson and John Duncan on August 12, 1874. 

These three men made a makeshift crucible from a tin cup that they could melt pieces of lead scrap inside. Over three months, they secretly gathered lead scraps. They then used a gas light to melt the medal and they molded replica keys for their cells. And it worked! They managed to get a hold of their civilian clothing and used a rope to climb down the outside of the jail after exiting through a skylight. Duncan and Dickson were captured a few days later, but Campbell evaded capture and his ultimate fate remains unknown. The prison closed in 1889, but the courthouse remained open for several decades after that. Over 4,000 prisoners had passed through the doors of the jail from 1820 to 1890. Meetings of the Argyll Commissioners of Supply, which was the main administrative body for the county, would meet in the courthouse. The County Council occasionally had meetings here starting in 1890. By the mid-20th century, the courthouse had become dilapidated and it shut down in 1962. The Argyll County Council sold the courthouse and converted into a museum that opened in May of 1989. The museum focuses on recreating 19th-century prison life and also has an escape room. This is now one of Scotland's premier tourist destinations. It also happens to be haunted.  

Visitors and staff feel as though they are being watched, they hear disembodied footsteps and voices and they see shadow figures. The giggling and whispering of children is heard because, yes, children were incarcerated here too. 

An employee named Sam Potts who plays a prisoner in the jail shared this experience on the jail's website, "I often sit in Cell 4 in the Old Prison. When I started working here I used to hear footsteps and see shadows passing the cell. At first I thought it was visitors and I’d call out ‘good afternoon’, but there was never anyone there. After a few months the activity stopped. Perhaps the spirits got used to me being there! Cell 2 in the Old Prison is interesting. A number of times I’ve seen young children crouching in the left-hand side of the cell chatting. When the parents ask who they’re talking to they say ‘the old lady’. I’ve never felt scared in the Old Prison though. It’s the New Prison that gives me the creeps. I was taking a guided tour there one day with a guy who turned out to be a psychic. He told me that there was a man following me who doesn’t like me. The psychic reckoned it was an angry Warder from the past who doesn’t like his routine being disrupted." 

A large man who is thought to be a violent ex-prison guard is regularly seen in the new prison. When he is there, the temperature drops and angry, heavy footsteps can be heard going up and down the corridors. Mournful cries are heard in Cell 1 sometimes apparitions are witnessed huddling in the corner of the room. 

And speaking of a warder, Rob Irons plays a Warder and he shared, "I’ve worked here for over 13 years and I’ve seen stuff that the would make your hair stand on end. I’ll often see someone crossing from the washroom to the dayroom in the Old Prison. It’s always from the corner of my eye. I used to check, but it’s happened so often now I don’t bother. Visitors see the same thing. One Sunday morning I stepped into Mad Archie’s cell. I was on my own in the jail but I heard someone call out ‘Rob’. It was so clear that I remember replying ‘I’ll be there in a minute’. I looked everywhere, but there wasn’t a soul in the building. We’ve held over 60 ghost hunting events here at the jail and they’ve all picked something up. One night I was locking up after an event at 4.30am. There was a light left on in the New Prison, but I couldn’t go through the door to turn it off. I froze at the entrance. I knew someone was waiting for me. I left the light on and hurried home." 

Paranormal investigator Mark Turner of Ghost Events shared what happened during one of the ghost hunts he hosted, "One evening we set up a motion sensor on the top floor. We watched it for about two hours but nothing was happening, so we all trooped downstairs for a cup of tea. Just as we got to the very bottom step, the motion sensor went off." 

Graeme (Gray um) Wilkins has done restoration and maintenance work on the jail and he shares, "To be honest I don’t really believe in ghosts, but I’ve had a few experiences here at Inveraray Jail that I can’t explain. I tend to be the first to arrive and the last to leave. One morning I arrived and I could hear voices. I looked everywhere but there was no-one around. On another morning I arrived and all the corridor gates and doors were shut; I’d left them all open the night before. When I work up in the loft at the top of the building, I always sense something strange. It’s such a spooky space. I was working there the other week and I felt someone standing right behind me. Perhaps it’s just the atmosphere in these old buildings that makes my imagination run wild – who knows! Why not come and visit us this Halloween weekend? Check out our gruesome Torture, Death and Damnation exhibition, where you can see a hangman’s noose, thumbscrews, branding irons and iron masks with tongue holders, supposedly for nagging wives. And if that hasn’t totally terrified you, take a walk through jail – you never know who you might meet!" 

Susan Simpson, SiMBA’s Highland Ambassador, was part of a ghostly lock-in to raise funds for SiMBA and she shared, "Our group was standing in the Courtroom and we heard a babble of voices at the door. We all heard it and thought it was the other group standing outside chatting. We even joked about how rude they were being! It wasn’t until later that we found out that it wasn’t them – they’d never been there. That was my first encounter with something I couldn’t explain...We were in the New Prison and we formed a human pendulum, which is when three people hold hands and the spirit communicates through the person in the middle. I really can’t make sense of what happened next, in fact I can’t quite believe that I’m saying this, but we made contact with a woman called Mary. She told us that she had fallen in love with a prison guard."

Inveraray is a beautiful patch of land and the history locked into this landscape is rich. Could this little Scotland village harbor two of Scotland's most haunted locations? Is Inveraray, Scotland haunted? That is for you to decide!