Nottingham's most haunted secrets revealed: Cursed rooms, castle deaths and coffin scratches

The nights are getting longer, the wind is biting harder and pumpkins are everywhere. That can only mean one thing, it’s Halloween. Though dressing up, trick or treating and parties are perfect ways to celebrate Halloween, nothing quite beats a classic ghost story.

One way to truly immerse yourself in a ghost story is a ghost walk.

Not everyone knows the truly haunted spots of Nottingham so a great way to find them is taking a trip with The Original Nottingham Ghost Walk (they also do tours for kids, if you didn’t want to get too spooked).

I had the pleasure of getting a snippet of the tour for Eerie Excursions, the podcast all about the UK’s spooky stories, as told by local tour guides and experts. To help you get into the spooky mood, here are three insights as to what’s on your door step.

1. Cursed objects at Ye Old Trip to Jerusalem

It’s a popular destination with tourists thanks to its age (it’s said to be one of the oldest pubs in England) but mostly because of its unique design of being built into the rocks of Nottingham Castle - you can even look up into the castle from the rock room upstairs.

In fact it’s in the rock room that we find the first cursed object. The Cursed Galleon.

Legend has it that this cursed ship was left by a sailor one night as a method of payment for his drinks. Unfortunate souls who have handled the ship have met a grizzly end within a year of touching it. It’s kept in the glass case to protect others from meeting the same fate.

The second is much less harmful - that is if you desire children. It’s the pregnancy chair and there are many stories of people sitting on said chair and falling pregnant not soon after.

Guides at The Original Nottingham Ghost Walk, Simon and Jess, believe that it used to be a nursing chair. Nowadays the pub staff ask that you don’t sit on it to preserve the chair, it’s believed to be from the 16th century, so it’s quite old!

2. The hanging bodies of Nottingham Castle

Those who know Nottingham’s history may be familiar with the capture of 28 Welsh Princes in 1212 by King John. Soon after their capture Welsh Prince Llewellyn revolted again against King John. The history books say after he found out John flew into a fit of rage and rode hard to Nottingham castle, where he had the Princes, ranging from 12 to 14 years, hung over the castle walls.

The dark deeds are said to linger on to this day. Simon from The Original Nottingham Ghost walk has had people on his tour have all kinds of reactions when walking past the walls. From feeling out of breath, as if being choked, to smelling the bodies (which were left up for quite some time), to hearing the sounds of the Prince’s cries.

3. The scratches on the coffin

During the Georgia era when laying out streets around St Nicholas's church and the Broad Marsh area workers of the time dug up mass graves. These were 12th century plague pits.

They reported seeing some particularly eerie things. From grey shadows, often in family groups moving around, to feeling as if their tools and pick axes were getting stuck in the mud. Overall they reported a very sad and hostile feeling when working.

But the eeriest tale came after workers dug up a led coffin. The led would indicate that this was the grave of a rich person from the 12th century, so the Georgian workers believed they had struck gold. As they prized open the coffin however, they realised that the lid had some very long scratch marks. It was as if the dead were trying to escape.

Is there anything truly more haunting than finding out someone was accidentally buried alive?

These are just a few of the tales from The Original Nottingham Ghost Walk to hear more, book on their tour here.

They have multiple walks during Halloween, including walks for children, but make sure you book fast.

If you’re unable to make a walk (they do run all year round - the nights are still dark in November) or you want to hear a taster, have a listen to Nottingham: The Hanging Bodies episode of Eerie Excursions. The YouTube episode is below or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts here - linktr.ee/eeriexcursions.