Royal Hope Hospital, USA


    Yes, we are talking about a real-life example of the infamous horror movie trope. As you might expect, due to its rather gruesome history, and the fact that it was constructed on those sacred grounds, many reports have suggested it is, in fact, one of the most haunted places in all of Florida.


    In the surgeon’s office, there have been reports of the equipment shaking on its own, while in the ward, visitors have said that the beds have actually jumped and knocked at their legs as they passed by. All of this despite the fact that it is not the original building. However, those who believe say the spirits of those who died at the hospital have remained on the grounds through all of these years.


Sai Ying Pun Psychiatry Hospital, Hong Kong

    The Sai Ying Pun Community Complex looks like the archetypal haunted house: eerie yellow lights shine on massive stone arches, casting long shadows on dark, empty verandahs. It has a history to match.

    Once upon a gruesome time, the complex was a place where heads rolled and the demented screamed to their deaths. Fondly, yet fearfully, known as the High Street Haunted House, it was built in 1892 as quarters for European nurses. According to urban myth, the building was seized by WWII Japanese troops and use as an execution hall. It was converted into a mental asylum after the war, abandoned in 1961 and since has been badly scarred by two fires.


    Over the years, there have been repeated sightings of a devilish figure in traditional Chinese costume bursting into flames on the second floor of this haunted place. Headless poltergeists have also reportedly been seen running down the corridors in the dead of the night.

    This hospital which was built in 1892 has a reputation for being haunted so much so that it’s also called ‘High Street Ghost House.’ It’s said that during the second world war the hospital was used by Japanese soldiers as an execution hall.
 
Taunton State Hospital, USA

    While still in operation, staff members told stories that they would descend the stairs only to find something physically blocking them from reaching the bottom step…Only there was nothing there. There are allegedly still unexplained markings on the walls of the basement.

    "The evil does not stay in the basement though. Residents have had their lights turn on and off in the middle of the night. Many have also experienced a shadowy man who appears out of nowhere. At times he is not much more than a shadow having no specific form and moving as if crawling across the wall. Other times he is more solid although somewhat stretched out. Three things remain constant in
the report however; his face can never be seen, he is always described as being male and he appears in the corner of the resident's room in the middle of the night and stands as if watching them.


Satanic rituals carried out in the basement by the doctors using the unwilling patients for the proceedings. The notorious serial killer-Jane Toppan-as an inmate and extreme treatment methodologies used on patients-this once psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts has a history that’s far less than charming. It’s said that a shadow figure comes out of the basement and crawls on to the walls to watch the patients in the hospital.
 
Ararat Lunatic Asylum, Australia

    13,000 people died in Aradale in just 130 years so there’s scope for a large number of ghosts to be living in and around the building complex that was basically the size of a small town. The complex consisted of 63 buildings and employed 500 staff. Among the spirits reportedly wandering its corridors have been seen nurses in white uniforms and dark figures. Crying, moaning and footsteps have been heard, and there’s one room with an overwhelmingly strange atmosphere.


    The fact that throughout its existence since it started functioning in 1867 an astounding 13,000 patients died in the facility is reason enough to feel the chills when you think about the place. Currently the asylum is no more functional but the building houses an educational facility. Ghost sightings are frequently reported and haunted tours around the facility-including the morgue-is quite popular. No prizes for guessing whose ghosts these could be.

Nocton Hall Hospital, England

The main ghost legend attached to Nocton Hall seems to hold a fairly stereotypical type of history. That doesn’t mean I’ve put my ban-hammer on the idea, just that it seems frequent these types come up at large old homes and hospitals.


    Nocton Hall had a sobbing ghost before it burnt down, the listed ruins then housed the RAF Hospital. The ghost of a young woman guests were sometimes awoken at 4.30am to see her stood at the end of the bed. She sobbed and mumbled incoherently about a ‘develish man’ and legend has it she was a servant girl who got pregnant by the owner’s son. This did not sit well with the young man so he disposed of her.

    Legend says that a servant girl was raped and murdered by the son of the owner of the place back when it was a manor house. The place was later turned into a hospital and apparently the ghost of the girl haunts one particular room with many a person claiming to have seen the spectral image appear in the room exactly at 4:30 AM.

Severalls Hospital, England

    There’s something especially terrifying about psychiatric hospitals, which is probably why so many are rolling in rumors and speculation about hauntings. Severalls Hospital in Colchester, England is no different, and it probably doesn’t hurt its haunted reputation that it was once known for conducting psychiatric experiments like full frontal lobotomies and substantial electroshock therapy.


    In a rather terrifying twist, it has been suggested that these treatments, which were deemed cures, were used on people who exhibited moodiness or teenage defiance. Also as frightening is the fact that several of the female patients were committed by their families after birthing bastard children, often the result of being raped.

    Psychiatric treatments including lobotomies and electroshock were the norm in Severalls Hospital. The reputation for being extremely haunted, in this context, shouldn’t come as a surprise. The hospital was closed down in 1997 but ghost-hunters still visit the place in search of encounters of the memorable kind.