My night in Britain’s most haunted building, where I slept in a room said to be inhabited by a witch – and took photos that captured ‘glowing spiritual energy’

If you want to get a little scared this Halloween, book a night at the Old Ram Innreputedly the most haunted building in Britain.

This run-down inn in south Gloucestershire has attracted the paranormal investigators of Most Haunted and the US series Ghost Adventures. Among the poltergeists you might share a bed with are a witch, a monk and a succubus (a female demon).

The Grade II listed inn is located in the historic town of Wotton-under-Edge, on a former pagan cemetery and at the intersection of two ley lines, ancient invisible lines believed to have high spiritual energy. More than 800 years of history and ghostly happenings are locked within its walls. Some literally: a mummified cat was found in the cavity in the wall and the skeletal remains of children with broken daggers inside were dug up under the stairs, evidence of satanic rituals.

The bishop’s room is considered the most haunted. When it was a working inn, guests were regularly seen fleeing in the middle of the night, claiming to have been grabbed and even pulled out of bed by a sinister entity.

I joined a group of paranormal enthusiasts who had paid for the pleasure of being scared half to death at Ghost Experience Agency Haunted rooms.

This is the Bishop’s Room, said to be the most haunted room in the inn, with guests claiming to have been grabbed and pulled out of bed

The monumental inn is located on a former pagan cemetery. More than 800 years of history and ghostly happenings are locked within its walls

“You have to be willing to believe the unbelievable,” warned our guide, Jim Nutbrown. But incredibly, he said it wasn’t an Amityville Horror type activity. “There will be subtle signs and some nights you won’t get anything.”

But we were lucky.

Darker than dark

Is the message on the window a joke? Or a plea from beyond the grave…

Laura’s group used a Ouija board in three of the rooms, including the creepy attic (upstairs)

With the lights off and the doors locked, the group joined forces in a séance. Two women across the street noticed that the dark corner behind me was getting even darker. The top of my head tingled under my woolen hat and I felt very uncomfortable. After a minute the corner cleared up again.

Sleeping in the back of my car looked all the more tempting.

Ghouls on film

Laura visited the inn with a group of paranormal enthusiasts, ‘who had paid for the pleasure of being scared half to death at haunted experience agency Haunted Rooms’

Some will find logical explanations for the sounds, temperature drops and electromagnetic field spikes (EMF) we witnessed that night. But even the biggest skeptic might have trouble explaining the bright lights I caught on camera. On two separate occasions I flashed my camera in the pitch darkness near where the children’s skeletons were being dug up, and one minute a flash of light appeared and the next it didn’t. My guide suspected orbs, manifestations of spiritual energy.

Another member of the group captured a face behind his wife’s head with his night vision camera. It was like finding shapes in the clouds. It could have been something, it could have been nothing.

In the barn, some of us felt physically ill. We saw the thermometer drop by three degrees Celsius within ten minutes and had absolutely no feeling that we were alone.

Soft knocks came from beneath the solid floor, and soon after, the ghost of the previous owner, John Humphreys, who lived there until his death in 2017, made contact through an EVP recording. After asking, “Is John Humphries here?” a tired voice whispered, “It’s me.”

The sleepover

Pictured here is the witch’s room, where Laura spent the night with her traveling companion

Laura’s guide said that this streak of light may have been a “manifestation of spiritual energy.”

A streak of light can be seen to the left of this image near the wall. Was this spiritual energy?

3 hours. Six of us stayed while the others returned to their warm, spooky hotels. My plus one and I hunkered down in the witches’ room, named after a woman who hid there after being accused of witchcraft in the 16th century.

We pulled our sleeping bags up to our eyes. ‘At least a succubus can’t pull my feet out of a sleeping bag,’ I thought to myself. We fell asleep with squinted eyes. We woke up at 7 am. The house was quiet, but just as eerie at dawn.

We did not feel alone there, but to the disappointment of many, we slept undisturbed.

Skeptic or believer, you can’t deny that the Ancient Ram Inn has a gripping backstory and that’s enough to give even the biggest skeptic the creeps.

For more information visit www.hauntedrooms.co.uk.

The previous owner, John Humphries, spoke to the group via an EVP recording (electronic voice phenomena).