Here’s the spookiest places in Newcastle you should visit

With Halloween rearing its frightening head, you may be figuring out which spots to visit during the spooky season. Luckily for you, Newcastle is rife with sinister, spine-chilling places to make your Halloween a little more terrifying.

Town Moor

Town Moor is 1,000 acres of open land, stretching towards the city centre, and just so happens to be the location of 16 public executions that took place on August 21st, 1650.

A pin-pricking test was administered to prove the accused guilty. The accused were also stripped down and searched for any moles or extra nipples, just in case the devil had branded them.

This horrifying event is one of the largest single-day executions for witchcraft in English history, making Town Moor the ideal place if you’re looking for something sinister.

Who knows whether it’s still haunted by those poor, wrongly executed souls?

If you ever do dare to visit, it provides an interesting story to tell your friends, especially the part about devil-branded nipples.

St Andrew’s Church

St Andrew’s Churchyard holds one of Newcastle’s darkest secrets: a mass grave containing 16 tragic victims of the 1650 witch trials. Buried without headstones or ceremony, these condemned souls were left to spend eternity in the shadows of an unmarked plot. 

If a few ominous gravestones fail to provide some more scare into your Halloween season, St Andrew’s Church holds far more unsettling secrets beneath its soil. Landscaping and construction work have repeatedly disturbed the ground over the years, uncovering human remains. It turns out that resting in peace isn’t always guaranteed around here. 

If the restless dead beneath the grass aren’t enough to unsettle you, the church’s connection to real-life horrors surely will. Notorious Victorian serial killer Mary Ann Cotton married her fourth and final husband at this church, before being convicted of arsenic poisoning and later executed for her crimes.

Whether you want to stand over the final resting place of executed witches and wizards or dive deeper into the unsettling history of female serial killers, St Andrew’s Church is a darkly fascinating stop to add to your itinerary.

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Newcastle Castle

While Newcastle Castle is a popular tourist stop year-round, those chasing a genuine Halloween thrill will find that the Toon’s namesake fortress delivers on the spooky front.  With almost 2,000 years of dark history, what was once a Roman fort guarding the River Tyne later evolved into one of medieval England’s most brutal prisons.  

In 1247, a dark, windowless medieval dungeon was built underneath the castle’s gatehouse where its prisoners were dropped through a trapdoor into a terrifying pit of darkness. Forced to endure the waste leaking from the overhead toilet sewage, prisoners waited for a ransom which, for some, never came. 

The castle also has a grim pedigree for executions, including the mass hanging of 10 men for treason in 1649.  So, to answer the question you are no doubt asking of whether it’s haunted – of course it is.

Ghosts like the “Poppy Girl” – an abused young girl who haunts the castle with the sweet smell of flowers – and the spirit of the castle’s old minister, Chaplain Perice, wait inside, alongside many more, if you’re looking to ghost hunt this Halloween.

Tynemouth Priory

Tynemouth Priory is home to an even darker legacy, from brutal Viking raids and bloody conflicts to more ghost stories to horrify you this spooky season.

A series of famous legends claim that these windswept ruins are haunted by many tormented ghosts. One is a Spanish woman clad in a white gown – the absolute epitome of an unsettling phantom – who, according to tragic lore, was buried alive after having an illicit affair with a monk. Her cries are rumoured to echo across the cliffs on stormy nights.

She shares the grounds with the spirit of Prior Olaf, a wounded Viking raider taken in by Christian monks and ultimately died of a broken heart. He is said to be forever fated to wander the headland and gaze mournfully out to sea. 

That is not all. Below the cliffs of the priory is a cave known to locals as Jingling Geordie’s Hole, which is said to be haunted by infernal spirits and ancient witches. It is a perfect spot to explore if you’re drawn to being haunted by the souls of the wretched.

Wherever you dare to wander this Halloween, remember that Newcastle is full of exciting, eerie spots, bursting with a sinister history that promise to spook you out. The only question: Are you brave enough?

Featured images via Pixabay

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