Jamaica Inn

This famous haunted inn boasts many phantoms, including a man in a tricorn hat and a tight overcoat who floats through solid doors (it is claimed that he is a "spiteful" highwayman), a man perched on a wall (believed to be that of a gentleman murdered in the early 20th century) who is said to want to "finish his pint" (!), a lady who walks through tables in the bar, a horse and rider in the courtyard on damp and misty mornings, and a green cloaked man who was seen to emerge from the restaurant towards the reception. There are stories of long conversations taking place downstairs during the night (some report say that these seem to be in an unfamiliar language - perhaps an old Cornish dialect), accompanied by the sound of horses and items being unloaded in the courtyard. Rooms 3, 4, 5 and 6 are said to be particularly "badly" haunted; for instance, a lady in one of these rooms woke to find her television on. When she reached for the remote control, and it flew out of her hand. She found the control in the morning - under the bed! This is the same location that a cleaner found the guest's computer hard drive. There is no explanation as to how it got there. In room 5, there is said to be the apparition of "a distressed mother and her crying baby." There are many other reports here too!

Researcher Karin Beasant has spent a large amount of time compiling stories from the Inn. She talks of footsteps being heard along the corridors to the most haunted bedrooms, and of a ghost, possibly the one nicknamed Jack (?) throwing glass jugs off the bar and glasses off shelves; since march 2022 he has, on command, grabbed the buttock of men and a lady while they were in the restaurant or Mary's Bar. One barman saw a bottle jump from a shelf and looking to his left, saw a figure that he likened to "Gandalf"! A man in his 50s and wearing a cape has been seen in both bars and walking through the reception. A new waitress was in a portion of the inn that was of fairly modern construction and she saw a hooded figure staring at her. In the 1980s and 90s, "the most common reports are of a man on horseback in the front of the inn, and the sound of a coach coming into the courtyard." This latter phenomena is of interest as sometimes the sound is of a vehicle on cobbles, and sometimes not ... the cobbles actually came up from Plymouth in the 1950s. The man on the wall was seen by a witness in 1911 but ignored people who talked to him; the next recorded witness was a young girl in a car in 1977 who saw him and pointed him out to her parents who couldn't see him. An American airman from the war is another phantom, going through the door to the extended kitchen. He walked past a witness and made no sound as he did so. A woman in the bar area was with her partner when she saw a servant enter. She was carrying a tray and was wearing a mauve dress up to the collar. She had a dirty apron and a mop cap and approached the witness who thought that she wanted to take her empty glass and lifted it up to the "servant." But when she looked again, the lady had vanished; her partner had not seen the figure. A man in a tricorn hat has been seen walking across room 5 and into the bathroom (a similar figure in a frilly shirt has also been seen outside), while in room 6, a big man has been seen standing in the doorway to the bathroom looking at people on the bed. A lady in this room woke at 2am to find it icy cold and something pressing on the door catch. A dark mass came under the doorway and rose up; at this point it was described as "a blob with coloured lights." It glided up to the bed, then backed up and went back under the door. The male figure described above may be the one seen in the bar area; he was said to have black, curly hair, britches, a white frilly shirt and was resting one arm on the table. He was said to be looking at the witness with an expression of "What are you doing?" - and then he was gone. In the last 30 years or so, there have also been tales of "giggling children" all around the inn; they have been blamed for knockings on doors in both the new and old sections. Karin described how one of the children appeared to her: a Victorian girl, with long blond curly hair and wearing a grey or blue dress under a smock, and kneeling on the floor. Interestingly, Karin described her appearance as being like an old cine film, going in and out of focus. Additionally, Karin also writes, "A large shadow figure was once observed gliding from the Farm shop to the Gift Shop corridor, plus a Victorian lady with her hair in a bun, has been seen in the Gift Shop. This ghostly woman has been seen by a startled guest in room 23, the new block, at 2am. She walked into the bathroom and disappeared."

Link: Ghost Hunters

Link: Cornwall Live

Link: Cornwall Live

Link: Cornwall Live

Link: Cornwall Live

Link: Cornwall Live