The is les of fright
SCARY SCARFACE: Former inmate Al Capone is one of the ghosts reckoned to still haunt the island prison of Alcatraz, right, in San Francisco Bay.
The sounds of the mobster – nicknamed Scarface – playing his beloved banjo can be heard drifting along its abandoned corridors.
The strangest part of the jail, also known as The Rock, appears to be Cell 14-D where an inmate once died screaming a creature was going to kill him.
It’s known for being oddly colder than the other cells. Over the years visitors have regularly reported sensing unseen spirits and feeling icy fingers wrap themselves around their necks.
WIGHT AS A SHEET: The Isle of Wight, off the south coast of Britain, has been dubbed the world’s “most haunted island”.
Among its many locations reporting supernatural activity is Arreton Manor, where young Annabelle Leigh – murdered there in 1560 – can still be heard crying “Mama” in one of the rooms.
The ghost of a grey lady gives visitors to Carisbrooke Castle the chills, as does the alarming face of a woman floating in its well.
At Downend, the ghost of Michael Morey, hanged for killing his own grandson in 1737, is said to appear at night on Gallows Hill – where his body was gibbeted – wielding a grisly axe.
WAILING WALLS: It’s said lonely
Duntulm Castle was built by fairies
5,000 years ago.
Lying on the craggy north coast of Scotland’s Isle of Skye, its dark, crumbling ruins now boast several supernatural stories.
From its dungeon come disembodied cries, said to be from the ghost of former owner Hugh MacDonald who was imprisoned there by the local chieftain – with salty beef to eat, but no water to drink – until he died.
A woman is also heard wailing on the wind, believed to be the spirit of a nursemaid who accidentally dropped a baby out of one of the fortress windows on to the rocks beneath.
HAUNTED DOLLS: In Lake Teshuilo, near Mexico City, is the freaky “Isla de las Munecas” or Island of Dolls covered in terrifying toys hanging off trees – some with decapitated bodies or with eyes missing.
Legend has it, in the 1950s sole resident Julian Santana Barrera was haunted by a drowned young girl washed up on the island many years before.
To appease her ghost, he began hanging up more dolls. Then one day he died too – at the same spot where her body had been found.
Visitors swear they have seen the dolls move and even whisper at night.
PARANORMAL PARADISE: It’s reckoned half the 1,300-strong population of Australia’s Norfolk Island – located hundreds of miles off the mainland out in the Pacific Ocean – have seen a ghost.
The remote spot, measuring just 13 square miles, was once used as a penal colony and became infamous for torture and executions.
Clanking of chains has been heard in the old convict buildings and ghosts of soldiers in red uniforms have also been spotted.
CREEPY ASYLUM: The romantic city of Venice in Italy, famous for its canals, hides a dark secret.
Away from the crowds, across its lagoon, lies Poveglia island where the bodies of Black Death sufferers were once burned.
It’s also home to a derelict 19th century asylum, plagued by rumours of illicit experiments and a suicidal doctor who jumped from its tower.
Technically off limits to tourists, those brave enough to have ventured on to the island in recent times report hearing the tormented screams of former patients and seeing unnerving, fleeting shadows.
SAINTS ALIVE! Often shrouded in mist and once raided by the Vikings, Lindisfarne is a tidal isle off Northumberland, also known as Holy Island, with a priory dating back to the 7th century.
Its most famous resident was St Cuthbert and locals say on a full moon his figure can sometimes be seen drifting through the ruins of the priory.
The spirts of cowled monks have also been seen there as well as the phantom of an unexplained white dog. A ghoulish Civil War era soldier is said to lurk around the island’s castle too.