Scary spirits
Enjoy a post-walk drink in one of our most haunted pubs...
Post-walk pint and a scare?
The Drovers Inn INVERARNAN, Argyll & Bute
Ghosts in residence: 6 A staging post on the main road from the Highlands to the Lowlands, and landmark on the West Highland Way, The Drovers Inn has welcomed many a weary traveller in its 300year history – but not all arrived here alive. Evicted from their croft by a greedy landlord, one such family left their Highland home in the winter of 1792, looking for a new life down south. Losing their way in a whiteout, they perished from the bitter cold while desperately searching for the inn. Since that tragic night, some claim to have seen the family wandering the hills, and even standing at the foot of a bed in a guestroom, relieved to find shelter. Also home to vengeful Angus the cattle drover, the inn is the customary start point for an outand-back expedition up the craggy peak of Beinn Chabhair.
WALK HERE: Download Beinn Chabhair at www.livefortheoutdoors.com/bonusroutes
The Skirrid Inn
LLANVIHANGEL, Monmouthshire Ghosts in residence: 6+ When pub décor gives you the shivers, paranormal activity is a given. A noose hanging in the stairwell of the Skirrid Inn is a nod to its macabre past. Claiming to be Wales’ oldest pub, it reputedly served as a courthouse, where it’s said 180 criminals were hanged. A few still haunt the place where they died, including the spectral sheep rustler John Crowther. Upstairs, the ‘Hanging Judge’ stalks the corridors, where other ghostly residents include a local clergyman and a barmaid who died here in the 18th century. They usually make their presence known with flying glasses, strange smells and sensations of strangling. If ghastly goings-on send you fleeing for the hills, the nearest at hand is the shapely fin of Ysgyryd Fawr – the ‘Holy Mountain’ – which lends its anglicised name to the inn. WALK HERE: Turn to Walk 22 for a 7-mile walk up Skirrid Fawr from Llanvihangel.
The Kirkstone Pass Inn NEAR AMBLESIDE, Cumbria
Ghosts in residence: 6 In fair weather, the Kirkstone Pass provides a lung-saving leg up onto the craggy slopes of Red Screes. But if you’re foolhardy enough to cross it in a blizzard, you might meet the icy apparition of Ruth Ray. Legend recalls how she set out from Patterdale with her infant child, but was caught out by a freak snowstorm. Come the morning, her husband discovered her frozen body still clutching their unharmed baby. Now Ruth warns walkers to wait out hazardous weather by the fireside at the Lake District’s highest inn (1500 feet above sea level). Joining her from the spirit world are others who met a gruesome fate here, including a 17th-century coachman, an infanticidal mother hanged nearby and a fellwalking poltergeist making mischief for guests.
WALK HERE: Download Red Screes at www.livefortheoutdoors.com/bonusroutes
The Red Lion AVEBURY, Wiltshire
Ghosts in residence: 5 If there’s a sure-fire way to upset otherworldly spirits, it’s to set up a merrymaking pub in the middle of a 3500-year-old stone henge. And that’s just what an Avebury resident did in 1802, when he acquired a licence for his 17th-century farmhouse. Ever since, dark forces have congregated under its thatched roof. Bearded patrons beware, as you’re likely to draw the spectral attentions of adulterous Florrie. During the English Civil War, her soldier husband slit her throat and sealed her body down the well after finding her with another man. The Red Lion is also frequented by two cowering children, often accompanied by a coldly indifferent lady. When a ghostly coach and horses are seen to cross the courtyard, tragedy will soon befall the landlord’s family.
WALK HERE: Download Avebury at www.livefortheoutdoors.com/bonusroutes
The Mermaid Inn RYE, East Sussex
Ghosts in residence: 7 Supernatural guests could be behind centuries of fishy goings-on at Rye’s oldest inn, dating back to the Middle Ages. Among the timber-framed tavern’s retinue of ghouls is a bathroom intruder and two duelling men in Elizabethan clothing. In the mid 1700s, the Mermaid Inn was used as a hideout by the notoriously violent band of smugglers known as the Hawkhurst Gang, whose founder’s wife still haunts its oak-panelled rooms. She’s supposedly joined by a babble-mouth barmaid murdered by the gang. It’s also said a secret tunnel provided them with an escape route under Rye’s cobbled streets. Rye’s medieval harbour is another ghost of sorts. Gradually silting up, this sheltered lagoon was largely absorbed into Romney Marsh, choking the town’s sea trade.
WALK HERE: Download Rye & Winchelsea at www.livefortheoutdoors.com/bonusroutes
Jamaica Inn BOLVENTOR, Cornwall
Ghosts in residence: ? Stuck out in the haunting wilds of Bodmin Moor, Jamaica Inn is a remote start point for the lonely trek out to the county’s highest point – the granite outcrop of Brown Willy. After a nerve-quaking experience losing her way, Daphne du Maurier took refuge here in 1930. Over the next few days, an idea crystallised for a novel drawing upon this Georgian hostelry’s dark past. A hotbed of smuggling in years gone by, its legends inspired her tale of murderous wreckers published six years later. Yet mysterious happenings at Jamaica Inn occurred before it gained literary notoriety. The footsteps of an unseen person pace the corridors after dark, while chatter in a foreign tongue drifts up from the empty bar. On moonlit nights, a phantom carriage is heard in the courtyard.
WALK HERE: Download Bodmin Moor at www.livefortheoutdoors.com/bonusroutes