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The spooky 16: Top haunted locations to visit on your next locums assignment

In the mood to get spooked? Whether you’re looking for a haunted site to celebrate Halloween, or enjoy checking out haunted houses on your travels, you’ll want to add these scary places to your bucket list. This “spooky 16” includes some of the most haunted locations in countries where we place locums physicians.

Australia

1. Picton, New South Wales: Eight kilometers (5 miles) southwest of Sydney, the town of Picton is known for its historic buildings, railway tunnels, and gardens. It was also the scene of tragedy because of various accidents over the years. Locals and tourists alike now claim that the railroad tunnels; Wollondilly Shire Council; the Imperial Hotel where unplugged jukeboxes play tunes; and the George IV Inn, one of the oldest hotel buildings in Australia, where the cellar once served as a prison and which still contains bars and shackles, are all haunted.

2. Ararat Lunatic Asylum, Victoria: Located 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Melbourne, the 64-building facility housed numerous people over the years, and about 13,000 people are believed to have died there during its 130-year tragic history as an asylum. Supposedly, many of their ghosts now roam the buildings and grounds.

3. Port Arthur, Tasmania: This world heritage site was built in 1830 as a timber station. During its history, it housed convicts, who lived hard lives of manual labor, with many dying young. Later, it was the scene of a mass murder. Today, the Port Arthur Penitentiary, especially Reverend George Eastman’s house, is considered some of the most-haunted sites in Tasmania.

New Zealand

4. Larnach Castle, Dunedin: The stunning castle is where all the Larnach family members died early in the prime of their lives. Later, the castle became an asylum. Today, locals and visitors claim it’s haunted, and that they see apparitions in the house and feel as though they’re being watched by malevolent beings.

5. Spirits Bay: This gorgeous area in the far north of New Zealand has great significance to the area’s indigenous people, the Māori. According to Māori mythology, it’s where the dead gather before going back to their ancestral home, and locals say they can see ghost canoes paddling across the bay.

6. Otira Tunnel in the Southern Alps: The 8.5-kilometer (5-mile) tunnel took many lives when it was being built, and locals believe that many of the ghosts still haunt the area today.

Canada

7. The Old Spaghetti Factory in Vancouver, BC: Locals say that four ghosts, including the trolley conductor, haunt the trolley station-turned restaurant.

8. The Fairmont Banff Springs in Banff, Alberta: This mammoth castle is said to host numerous ghosts who love to roam its halls and freak out guests.

9. HI-Ottawa Jail Hostel in Ottawa, Ontario: This jail-turned-hostel is among Lonely Planet’s top 10 spookiest buildings in the world because of its angry ghosts.

United States

10. Lemp Mansion, St Louis, Missouri: The mansion made Lonely’s Planet’s top 10 spookiest buildings in the world because guests and employees of the restaurant/hotel report that doors swing open spontaneously and glasses leap off tables.

11. Sloss Furnaces, Birmingham, Alabama: In the past, it kept the iron industry going. Today, it’s a National Historic Landmark, and is supposedly haunted by the many laborers who died there.

12. Hotel San Carlos, Phoenix, Arizona: Guests claim to see a ghost on the roof and children ghosts walking around, as well as hear children’s laughter peeling through the rooms.

Virgin Islands

13. St. Thomas shipwrecks: To get to know some pirate ghosts, you can join a kayak tour to hear legends of Blackbeard, Mary Read, and other pirates, along with stories of shipwrecks and ghosts.

Guam

14. Talofofo FallsLocal legend has it that three boys were startled and fell to their deaths at these gorgeous falls, and that their ghosts now haunt the area in the late night mists.

China

15. Dongyue Temple, Beijing: This also made Lonely Planet’s top 10 spookiest buildings in the world. Each hall serves a different purpose, like the “Life and Death Department” for pondering your death, the “Department for Wandering Ghosts,” the “Department for Implementing 15 Kinds of Violent Death,” and many more. The temple is considered a must-see for any sight-seeker.

16. Qiu Mansion, Shanghai: The Qiu brothers moved to Shanghai determined to make a fortune, and after WWI, they found a former German-occupied warehouse filled with buckets of paint, and became rich as the price of the commodity soared. However, people around them starved as they flaunted their wealth, and soon the brothers disappeared. Today, people claim that ghosts, including from the brothers’ exotic wild animals, roam the mansion and grounds, sometimes even biting people.

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