Top 10 Scariest Haunted Places You've Never Heard Of

This Italian island is ripped straight from a nightmare. Found in the Venetian Lagoon between Venice and Lido, Poveglia has a heavy history with plague and disease. From the mid-1700s to 1814, the island was used as a quarantine station to house the sick. Suffice to say, death ran rampant on the island, with so many isolated from society and their loved ones. The island would later be converted into a mental hospital which was also eventually closed. It now sits abandoned, and that certainly ups the creepiness. Put simply, Poveglia has housed centuries’ worth of torment, sickness, and death, which has turned it into a hotspot for paranormal activity.

Found in the heart of Mumbai, India is the D’Souza Chawl. A chawl is a type of low-income residence, and the D’Souza location is said to be one of the most haunted areas in the country. The chawl is home to an unguarded well, and legend has it that a resident of the area fell into the well and died a slow, painful death. Locals now report seeing her spirit wandering around the chawl, though most claim that she is harmless. Regardless, many people still avoid the area at night, terrified of the woman’s wandering spirit.

Found in the northeastern tip of the United Arab Emirates is the abandoned ghost town of Al Jazirah Al Hamra. The town was home to hundreds of pearl fishers in the early 1800s, and it grew in size and population throughout the years. However, the pearl market collapsed in the 1920s, and the town was largely abandoned in 1968 when most of the residents agreed to relocate to Abu Dhabi. It remains as such to this day, and the eerie atmosphere has given rise to numerous ghost stories. It is said that the deserted town is populated not by humans, but by spirits known as djinns.

It’s amazing what types of buildings you can find in England. Nestled in the small English market town of Wotton-under-Edge is the Ancient Ram Inn, a building that was constructed all the way back in the 12th century. It was originally built to house the construction company that was building the local church, and it later became an inn and pub. The building is extraordinarily old, and it definitely looks it. Of course, this only lends to the unsettling atmosphere of the area. Those who religiously consume investigative paranormal shows might recognize the Ancient Ram Inn since it has been featured on the likes of “Ghost Adventures” and “Most Haunted.”

Those who wish to experience a genuine Wild West saloon should make their way to…Alaska? Yep! Skagway, to be exact. A small borough of about 1,200 people, Skagway is a hot tourist attraction in the summer, and everybody flocks to the town’s Red Onion Saloon. This saloon was built in 1897, when Skagway was in the midst of a gold rush. Nowadays, tourists report smelling women’s perfume wafting through the halls - perhaps a remembrance of the building’s time as a bordello. Others claim that the building is haunted by the spirit of a former madam named Lydia.

This is an old Gothic castle found in Bavaria, dated to the mid-to-late 13th century. Eventually, the castle tragically fell into disrepair, but it underwent significant renovations throughout the late ‘80s that restored it to its former glory, and it is now open for tourism. Wolfegg castle is said to be haunted by the ghost of Klara von Helfenstein. The rather historically inaccurate legend says that Klara was killed by her husband after he discovered her sleeping with his nemesis. A cave is also located beneath the castle, and people reportedly hear strange noises coming from underneath its floors. Noises from the dark depths of a cave… Anyone else have chills?

Found in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City is Tao Dan Park, a popular destination for residents and tourists alike. The park has a long history with the nearby Reunification Palace, having once been a part of its grounds. Work on the area continued well into the 20th century, complete with major additions like a pool and tennis court. The area was finally given over to Vietnam when French forces withdrew from the country in 1954, and it became known as Tao Dan Park. There are now reports that the area is haunted. It’s said that the ghost of a lovesick man wanders the park at night and frightens the locals.

Lighthouses are just naturally creepy places and they lend themselves very well to ghost stories. The St. Augustine Lighthouse is found on Florida’s Anastasia Island, just to the east of St. Augustine. This is an active lighthouse and was built throughout the early 1870s. It’s a beautiful location, but it also harbors some dark secrets. The lighthouse has long been known for its supernatural activity, and it has been investigated by numerous ghost hunters and paranormal programs. The lighthouse itself also functions as a museum and offers ghost tours to the public. At least they’re capitalizing on their reputation!

Like lighthouses, castles just have a creepy aura about them. They’re cold, old, and expansive, and they often have long histories of violence. Leap Castle is found in central Ireland, and it was significantly destroyed in 1922 in the midst of the Irish Civil War. During renovations, workers discovered a dungeon containing three cartloads worth of human skeletons that had been impaled on wooden spikes. Unsurprisingly, Leap is the self-described “world’s most haunted castle.” It is said to contain a spirit that smells like a decaying corpse, two ghost girls named Charlotte and Emily, and a mysterious Red Lady who walks the castle with a dagger. Put simply, you don’t want to be in here alone.

Derived from the Javanese phrase for “a thousand doors,” Lawang Sewu, located in Java, Indonesia, once served as the headquarters of the Dutch East Indies Railway Company. Construction began in 1904 and was completely finished by 1919. Unfortunately, the building has seen its fair share of death. When Japanese forces invaded Indonesia during World War II, they took over Lawang Sewu and used its basement as a torture dungeon and execution chamber. Unsurprisingly, the building quickly earned a reputation and has long been thought of as a source of paranormal phenomena. Even Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism recognizes it as one of the country’s most haunted locations.