Exeter: Britain’s Fourth Most Haunted City?

You know York as the queen of ghostly goings-on, but Exeter gets an honourable mention in the league table of haunted Britain. It’s often ranked in the top five, and considering our history, it’s not hard to see why. Exeter has all the ingredients: monks and monasteries, witch trials and executions, medieval streets and secret underground passages — the perfect recipe for spirits, whether sinister or friendly. These aren’t vague urban legends but hauntings with dates, names and places that persist.

Ghosts aren’t confined to a single night of the year. They move with the seasons. Some whisper at Candlemas, others stir at the Winter Solstice; some return faithfully on the anniversaries of their deaths. Exeter’s spectral calendar is as real as its civic one.

Monks in the Shadows

Exeter once bristled with monastic life. St Nicholas Priory, founded in 1087, was a thriving Benedictine house until Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s. Like many former monastic sites, it quickly attracted stories of restless brothers.

Locals still report hooded figures gliding through the priory’s Tudor merchant rooms — especially around Candlemas (2 February), when tradition says spirits cross boundaries of darkness and light. On cold February nights, candles flicker in empty chambers, and some swear they hear the faint rustle of habits against old oak panels.

At Cowick Barton, once part of the priory estate mentioned in Domesday, diners talk of being watched by a spectral monk. Monks make ideal ghosts: instantly recognisable silhouettes, their hood and robe feeding the imagination when shadows fall. Each winter, when the nights are longest, Exeter’s monastic past seems to lean a little closer.

Witches at the Castle Gates

The darker side of Exeter’s haunting rests on solid history. In August 1682, three women from Bideford — Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles and Susanna Edwards — were tried at Rougemont Castle (14 August) and hanged at Heavitree Gallows (25 August). They were the last confirmed witch executions in England.

A few years later, in 1685, Alice Molland was condemned for witchcraft at the same court. A plaque on the castle wall still bears her name, though her fate remains uncertain. Today, Rougemont is said to be most restless in mid-August, when the air thickens and the echo of judgement seems to replay itself through the old courtrooms.

Visitors speak of sudden draughts, whispers on the walls, and a heaviness that lingers where justice faltered. Each year, those dates pass quietly — yet guides say if you stand by the castle gate at dusk on the 25th, you might hear the rumble of the watching crowd from the Heavitree direction (the name Heavitree, in itself, a modern reminder of the gallows).

Down in the Depths

Beneath Exeter’s High Street lies a labyrinth of medieval passages, built in the 14th century to carry spring water into the walled city. They’re open to the public today, but few can walk those tunnels without a shiver. Footsteps echo where none should; a chill breath grazes the neck.

Locals call it the Candlemas Draught — said to rise in early February, the same night monks are seen above ground in the priory cloisters. Some visitors claim that if you pause under the High Street near St Stephen’s, you can hear murmured Latin, or the drag of chains over stone. Perhaps the ghosts of the Dissolution found a way underground.

Not All Doom and Gloom: Friendly Spirits

Exeter’s ghosts aren’t all grim. At the 17th-century Custom House on the Quay, guides tell of a cheerful phantom wagoner who rattles past at dusk. He’s especially active around Valentine’s week, when lovers stroll the waterfront. Some say he’s searching for a long-lost sweetheart drowned in the Exe; others that he simply likes the company.

At St Nicholas Priory, staff whisper about a playful presence who rearranges chairs or moves keys — a “house ghost” more companion than menace. Even in midwinter, when the city feels half-asleep, there’s laughter in these stories.

Christmas at the Prospect Inn

Every Christmas Eve, the Prospect Inn by the Quay hosts its own visitation. Patrons have seen a small girl clutching a rag doll, wandering the stairs before fading at the landing. The fire crackles, carols drift from the bar, and someone feels a cold little hand slip into theirs. The landlords leave a candle burning for her each year — a quiet nod to the city’s most tender haunting.

So while Exeter may sit behind York, Edinburgh and Derby in the “most haunted” rankings, don’t underestimate its spectral pull. Walk the cobbled lanes on a misty January night, when the clock strikes twelve and the candle flames tremble, and you might decide Exeter’s ghosts are every bit as compelling — and perhaps just a little friendlier.

Finally, a safe 'House'?

Back at SH, we toast our history - literally - and celebrate the past inhabitants of the building. There's no need to fear friendly (or not so...) ghosts here. All of our corridors, rooms and outbuildings have been thoroughly inspected by our intuitive staff......or have they?