The top-ten spookiest National Trust sites across the UK

Built shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066, Corfe Castle has long been associated with treachery and treason. The stabbing to death of the teenage King Edward in 978 at the Saxon stronghold that predated today’s Norman castle remains is especially fascinating.

There are many possible suspects for the murder, which took place while King Edward was visiting his half-brother Ethelred, but many believe he was killed on the orders of his stepmother who wanted her own son to take the throne.

Anna Groves says: “Corfe Castle is a beautiful place with history and mystery in abundance, and a chance to nosey around after opening hours was a thrill.”

Commonly known as Dark Peak because in winter the soil becomes saturated and its hollows fill up with bog moss and black peat, stories have been told for centuries about the unfortunate habitants of this wildest and highest part of the Peak District.

Groves recounts the story of Clara and Alan who, in the mid-1700s, eloped and got married at a chapel in Peak Forest. Shortly afterwards, it’s thought they were pulled from their horses by a group of men and pushed off at Winnats Pass. Miners found their bodies a decade later. Clara’s red leather saddle is now at the Speedwell Museum.

Over the next 250 years, locals have reported hearing blood curdling screams and pleas for mercy coming from the pass. Sebastian Chew, Senior Visitor Experience Officer, The High Peak Estate, said: “When working in such a vast landscape it’s quite often that you find yourself on your own. You may not come across a single person all day. It’s epic.”

Tales of colourfully-dressed ghosts are a small part of the appeal of Coughton Court – an imposing Tudor house with links to the Gunpowder Plot. The house has been in the Throckmorton family for 21 generations, coming into the care of the National Trust in 1946.

No one is sure how the remaining members of the Throckmorton family escaped with their lives and property after Robert Catesby, the son of Sir William Catesby and Anne Throckmorton, and the 12 other Gunpowder plotters were put to death.

The identity of the ghosts said to haunt Coughton Court remains a mystery. The so-called Pink Lady haunted the Tapestry Bedroom until she was exorcised in the early 20th century. More recently, a visitor saw a woman with long dark hair wearing a golden-yellow dress in the churchyard of St Peter’s Church next to Coughton Court.

The figure vanished before the visitor saw her again inside the house, staring down from a portrait of Lucy Throckmorton painted in around 1700.

With its rich and varied history, Sutton House was built by 1535 by Sir Ralph Sadleir and started life as a grand stateman’s residence but had many other uses, including as a school, trade union office in the 1950s and a squat in the 1980s.

An architecture student staying in the house during the 1990s woke one night to find a lady dressed in blue floating over his bed. Years later a National Trust steward had a similar encounter. There have also been reports of sudden drops of temperature and objects flying across rooms.

Visiting assistance dogs have been known to stop dead in certain rooms, and a housekeeper reported feeling wiry hair brushing up against her hand when locking up at night. This is thought to be linked to three dogs kept by John Machell, a wool merchant who lived at the house during the 16th century.

With its connections to the English Civil War, Claydon House had a brutal history. Sir Edmund Verney, whose family had owned the property since 1620, lost his life defending King Charles I in the Battle of Edgehill on October 23, 1642.

Sir Edmund was standard bearer to the king and, after his death, the standard was found with his hand still attached, but his body was never recovered from the battlefield. The standard was given back to the Verneys and put into the family vault at Claydon where, over the centuries, there have been many sightings of Edmund’s ghost on the anniversary of his death.

Some report seeing a figure in 17th-century clothing wandering on the first floor.

This Jacobean historic house, built on the ruins of a Tudor hall, is said to be haunted by Anne Boleyn who was beheaded in 1536 on charges of treason and adultery by her husband Henry VIII. It’s widely believed that Anne and her siblings Mary and George were born at Blickling and lived there with their parents, Thomas and Elizabeth Boleyn.

On May 19, the date of her execution, there have been ghostly sightings of her and brother George, who was also beheaded, and their father Thomas. The former Queen of England has been seen arriving at night in a carriage drawn by four headless horses, driven by a headless horseman.

She wears white and clutches her head, blood dripping down her dress. She is said to wander the rooms of Blickling until the sun starts to rise.

The fascination with Sutton Hoo has long superseded the discovery of the burial ship of an Anglo-Saxon king and his treasure in 1939. Visitors to the 255-acre site with far-reaching views over the River Deben, can experience what this magical place must have meant to the Anglo-Saxons who laid their dead to rest here.

It was the former owner of the estate, Edith Pretty, whose interest in both archaeology and spiritualism, helped motivate her to employ amateur archaeologist Basil Brown to excavate the mysterious mounds around the house. One popular story is that Edith had a vision of a warrior standing on the largest mound.

What is clear, however, is that her interest in spiritualism, based on the belief that the dead can communicate with the living, gave her great comfort and is likely to have increased her passion for archaeology.

Brown, who felt somewhat sidelined after his initial discovery, later recorded a meeting he attended at Woodbridge Spiritualist Church in which a medium told him to assert himself and carry on digging.

Less than a year later, archaeologists uncovered the king’s burial chamber full of treasures made of gold, garnet, silver, bronze, enamel and glass.

As a consecrated site, Buckland Abbey is not a traditional Halloween destination. But with a history that can be traced back to its foundation in the 13th century, it’s packed full of stories about mysterious goings on. There have been sightings of monks walking through staircases added long after their time at the abbey. It’s also said the ghostly monks have a strong presence in the Great Hall, which was once at the heart of the abbey.

However, the most well-known ghost connected to Buckland is Sir Francis Drake, who acquired the abbey during the 1500s, and famously helped to defeat the Spanish Armada in 1588. He was a controversial figure, who some believed had made a pact with the devil. In 1596, during raids on Panama, Central America, Drake fell ill with dysentery.

Shortly before he died, he ordered the drum that always accompanied him be taken back to Buckland Abbey and vowed that, if England were ever in danger, someone should beat the drum and he would return. Legend says it was last heard in 1939.

Eleanor Hopkinson, Visitor Operations and Experience Manager at Buckland Abbey, says: “When I first started working here, I felt that the building was apprehensive of me but after I’d been here a while it seemed to accept me. I think it knows we’re here to look after it. There are strange things that happen here but none of it feels malicious.”

This dramatic mountain range, often accessed via the small seaside town of Newcastle in County Down, has seen a lot of tragedy over the years. On January 13, 1843, 14 fishing boats were caught in a storm and only two returned. In total 73 men died, 46 of whom were from Newcastle.

The harbour at Newcastle is also said to be haunted by a banshee, a female spirit who proclaims the death of a family member, according to Irish folklore. A ghostly widow has also been seen at Bogey Hill looking out to sea as though awaiting a loved one who will never return.

Groves also highlights sightings of the Blue Lady at Bryansford House located at the foot of Mourne Mountains before it was demolished in the 1950s.