Haunted Places in New Hampshire: 24 of the Most Haunted to Visit
A pirate legend that turned out to be a hoax, a staircase to nowhere in the woods, a gravestone with a pointing finger, and a seaport where the ghost walks start in a 1600s burial ground. These are New Hampshire’s most haunted places, with what is history, what is legend and how you can visit.
New Hampshire is easy to overlook next to Salem and Maine’s lighthouses, but its ghost stories run deep: colonial Portsmouth, where a schoolteacher was hanged in 1768 and an orphanage became a museum; the only woman ever convicted of witchcraft in the state; White Mountain notches where whole families vanished in storms; and grand hotels with resident ghosts. We have checked every place below against current sources, so you know which are open, which you can only see from the road, and where the records contradict a story. Several famous New Hampshire tales, Ocean-Born Mary’s above all, turn out to be much younger than they sound, and we say so. Six haunted hotels and inns on this list have full hotel guides, and Portsmouth now has its own guide to haunted places in Portsmouth.
Address 310 Mount Washington Hotel Road, Bretton Woods, NH 03575
Where to look Room 314, the Princess Room, the main staircase, the tower rooms, the dining room
Reported ghosts Princess Carolyn Stickney, the hotel's first lady, often seen in Victorian dress
Visiting A working hotel: stay the night or stop in to dine
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
The Mount Washington Hotel opened in July 1902 at the foot of the Presidential Range, a white Spanish Renaissance palace with red roofs built for coal and railroad magnate Joseph Stickney. He died within about a year, and his widow Carolyn ran and summered at the hotel for three decades. In July 1944 it hosted the Bretton Woods Conference, where 44 nations created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. It is a National Historic Landmark and has been an Omni resort since 2009.
The hotel’s ghost is Carolyn herself, known to staff as the Princess after her second marriage to a French prince. Guests in Room 314, which still holds her four-poster bed, report a woman sitting at the end of the bed brushing her hair. Others describe a lady in Victorian dress on the stairs and in the halls, light taps on doors and objects that vanish and return. Ghost Hunters investigated here twice.
What investigators report
On Ghost Hunters, investigators focused on Room 314, where thermal imaging picked up a heat signature on the bed and calling out was followed by a loud bang and a faint female voice. The team also reported a real-time EVP recorder response in the South Tower and a dark mass in the basement.
Address Mechanic Street, opposite Prescott Park, Portsmouth, NH 03801
Where to look The Vaughan family tomb and the children's graves
Reported ghosts Presences that touch visitors, and figures said to walk from the Vaughan tomb
Visiting A small open burial ground on Mechanic Street; visit respectfully
Tours Portsmouth ghost walks (New England Curiosities, Ghost City Tours) stop here, mainly September to early November
Ghost hunting Ghost walks only; no investigations inside the burial ground
Point of Graves sits on half an acre beside the Piscataqua River, on land Captain John Pickering agreed to give the town for a burying place. The first burial was in 1669, the earliest readable stone is dated 1682, and about 125 gravestones survive, many carved with skulls and crossbones. Members of the Wentworth, Vaughan and Lear families lie here. It is usually called the oldest burial ground in New Hampshire.
Guide Roxie Zwicker of New England Curiosities, who has led Portsmouth ghost walks for about 20 years, says visitors often feel someone standing beside them, or start crying at certain graves without knowing why. The best story belongs to the Vaughan tomb: in the 1800s, family members found a staircase under the old stone leading to a crypt with 28 skeletons on shelves, and figures have been reported walking from it since.
Haunted Rooms tip: Walk over from Prescott Park in the late afternoon, then join one of the autumn ghost walks that stop here.
Address About 6 miles off Portsmouth; boats leave 315 Market Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801
Where to look Smuttynose Island, the Oceanic Hotel's fourth floor on Star Island, and White Island
Reported ghosts Louis Wagner on Smuttynose, a woman waiting on the rocks, and Old Bab on Appledore
Visiting Summer only: boats from Portsmouth; Star Island takes day visitors and overnight guests
Tours Isles of Shoals Steamship Company harbor and island cruises from Portsmouth in season
Ghost hunting Smuttynose and the other islands are not open for ghost hunts
Nine rocky islands sit about six miles off the coast, split between Maine and New Hampshire; Star, White, Seavey and Lunging are on the New Hampshire side. On Smuttynose, in Maine waters, two Norwegian immigrant women, Karen and Anethe Christensen, were murdered with an axe on the night of March 6, 1873. Maren Hontvet escaped and named fisherman Louis Wagner, who was hanged in 1875 still claiming innocence. Poet Celia Thaxter, who grew up on White Island, wrote about the case.
The islands gather stories: moans near the old cottage site on Smuttynose, Wagner’s ghost searching for Maren, a tall woman on the rocks said to be waiting for Blackbeard, rummaging on the fourth floor of Star Island’s Oceanic Hotel, and Old Bab, a ghost Thaxter said haunted Appledore. These are legends. Our older guide put Boon Island and its lighthouse here; Boon Island is off York, Maine, not part of the Shoals.
What investigators report
On Ghost Hunters, investigators on Star Island reported banging and scratching from the vault in the Vaughn Cottage museum, then saw the vault door close on its own. They judged the museum area the most active spot on the island.
Haunted Rooms tip: Star Island is the only island with a public boat; Isles of Shoals Steamship Company cruises leave Portsmouth in summer, and Star Island welcomes day visitors.
Address Fort Constitution Historic Site, 25 Wentworth Road, New Castle, NH 03854
Where to look The lighthouse stairs and watch room, the keeper's quarters and the fort's sally ports
Reported ghosts Keeper Joshua Card, and victims of the 1809 powder explosion
Visiting Fort Constitution is closed for repairs and the lighthouse has no public access until a new footbridge is built
Tours Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouses tours will resume after the footbridge is rebuilt; summer sunset cruises from Rye Harbor
Ghost hunting No public access at present
A light has guided ships into Portsmouth Harbor from this point on New Castle island since 1771, and the present 48-foot cast-iron tower was lit in 1878. It stands inside Fort Constitution, the old Fort William and Mary rebuilt with higher walls by 1808, beside an active Coast Guard station. Joshua Card kept the light for 35 years, from 1874 until he retired at 86 in 1909.
Coast Guard crews have described a shadowy figure on the grounds at night, and many believe Card still watches over his light. Ghost Hunters investigated in its fourth season, at the Friends group’s invitation, after reports of voices in the watch room and a man in a pea coat and hat. At the fort, people link a heavy feeling in the sally ports to an 1809 gunpowder explosion that killed 14 people. Guide Roxie Zwicker says this is where she became sure ghosts are real.
Haunted Rooms tip: Both are closed for now: a 2022 storm destroyed the lighthouse footbridge and the state park is shut for repairs. See the tower from the shore or on a Portsmouth harbor cruise.
Where to look The Chase House hallway and upstairs rooms
Reported ghosts A girl from the Chase Home for Children years
Visiting Self-guided season May 1 to October; special tours and events in November and December
Tours Ghosts on the Banke, a family Halloween evening with ghost stories, on October weekends
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; Halloween events only
Strawbery Banke is a nearly ten-acre living history museum in Portsmouth’s old Puddle Dock neighborhood, with more than 37 buildings from the 1600s to the 1900s saved from urban renewal and opened as a museum in 1965. One of them is the Chase House, built in 1762 for merchant Stephen Chase. After the last Chase died in 1881 it became the Chase Home for Children, an orphanage, until the home moved to a bigger site on Middle Road in 1916.
The house’s ghost story says an orphan girl hanged herself in her room and now haunts the hallway, screaming and locking doors. The New England Legends podcast went looking and found no record of a hanging. What they did find was an 1893 diphtheria outbreak at the home in which a young girl died, and the home later said two children died. The museum now interprets the house as it was in 1818.
Haunted Rooms tip: Go in October for Ghosts on the Banke, the museum’s evening Halloween walk through the lantern-lit houses.
Where to look The attic stairs and the upstairs rooms
Reported ghosts A figure in 19th-century clothes who walks out of the attic and vanishes
Visiting Open Memorial Day weekend to October 31, 10 am to 4 pm, closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays
Tours Self-guided with an audio tour; private guided tours by appointment; ghost walks pass outside
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts
This yellow gambrel-roofed house was built in 1758 for sea captain Gregory Purcell by master housewright Hopestill Cheswell, a celebrated Black builder. After Purcell died in 1776 his widow Sarah took in boarders, and naval hero John Paul Jones rented a room while his ships were fitted out in Portsmouth. The Portsmouth Historical Society has owned it since 1919, and it is a National Historic Landmark.
Roxie Zwicker told NHPR that visitors have watched a figure in 19th-century clothes come out of the attic and walk into a room. Assuming it is a costumed guide, they follow, and find the room empty. Zwicker notes that it is the historical society’s own staff who tell the story. Nobody claims it is John Paul Jones.
Haunted Rooms tip: Open Memorial Day weekend to October 31, closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays; the first Friday of each month is free.
Visiting a haunted place by day is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through a historic building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and vigils, and gives you time to explore on your own. These are the nearest ones we run.
Grounds open to visitorsGhost toursNo ghost hunting
Address Corner of South Street and Sagamore Avenue, Portsmouth, NH 03801
Where to look The foot of Gallows Hill north of the pond, where Ruth Blay lies in an unmarked grave
Reported ghosts Ruth Blay, the last woman executed in New Hampshire
Visiting City cemetery open in daylight
Tours Ghost City Tours tells her story on its Portsmouth walk
Ghost hunting No night visits
Ruth Blay was a 31-year-old schoolteacher from Haverhill working in South Hampton when, in June 1768, the body of her newborn was found under the floor of a barn used as a schoolhouse. She said the baby was stillborn. Convicted not of murder but of concealing an illegitimate birth, then a capital crime, she was given four reprieves and hanged on December 30, 1768, before a crowd of hundreds. She was the last woman executed in New Hampshire.
She was buried in an unmarked grave at the foot of the hill, a pasture that later became four graveyards now known together as South Cemetery. Many locals believe the hill is haunted by her, though no specific sightings are recorded. The legend that the sheriff refused to wait for a final reprieve because his dinner was ready is just that. A 2021 mural at 165 Court Street remembers her.
Haunted Rooms tip: Visit in daylight, walk down toward the pond, then see the Ruth Blay mural at 165 Court Street downtown.
Address Mary Wallace's grave: Center Burying Ground behind Henniker Town Hall, 18 Depot Hill Road, Henniker, NH 03242 (the house is private)
Where to look The upstairs window and main staircase of the house (private), and Mary's grave behind the town hall
Reported ghosts A tall, red-haired woman said to be Ocean-Born Mary
Visiting The house is a private residence with no public access; the grave in the Center Burying Ground is in a public cemetery
Ghost hunting Please do not visit the house or knock on the door
Mary Wilson was born at sea in July 1720, on an emigrant ship from Ulster to Boston that was stopped by pirates. The story goes that the pirate captain spared everyone on condition that the baby was named Mary, and left a bolt of green silk for her wedding dress. She married James Wallace, outlived him, moved to Henniker to live with her son William in 1798, and died in 1814 at 93. She is buried behind Henniker Town Hall, and pieces of the silk survive in local collections.
The haunted house is another matter. In the 1910s and 1930s the Roy family, who owned the old Robert Wallace homestead outside town, claimed Mary had lived there with the pirate, that he was buried under the hearthstone with his treasure, and that her red-haired ghost watched from an upstairs window. They charged for tours and rented shovels to treasure hunters. Historians agree Mary never lived in the house, and no treasure or remains were ever found.
Haunted Rooms tip: The house is a private home. Visit Mary’s grave behind Henniker Town Hall instead, where a small plaque reads Ocean-Born Mary.
Where to look The grand staircase over the stone arches, the fireplace and the foundation
Reported ghosts Madame Antoinette Sherri on her stairway, and faint music and laughter from her parties
Visiting Free, open woodland reached from a small parking lot on Gulf Road; no camping or fires, and winter access is not guaranteed
Ghost hunting A public conservation forest: respect the ruins, which are fragile and roped off
In the woods of West Chesterfield, a granite staircase curls up over three stone arches and stops in mid-air. It is all that is left of the summer chateau built around 1930 by Antoinette Sherri, a Paris-born costume designer who had worked on Broadway shows such as the Ziegfeld Follies. She threw famous parties for her theater friends here until the money ran out, left after finding the house vandalized in 1959, and died poor in Brattleboro in 1965. The empty house burned in 1962.
The local story is that Madame Sherri never really left. Visitors say they have seen a woman at the top of the staircase, and some tell of faint music and laughter drifting through the trees on quiet evenings. No record backs any of it, and the Chesterfield Historical Society notes that her theatrical life has probably colored the tales. The ruins sit inside the 513-acre Madame Sherri Forest, owned by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
Haunted Rooms tip: The ruins are only about 100 feet from the Gulf Road parking lot. Stay off the stairs: the top section collapsed in July 2021 and the area is roped off.
Where to look Suite 204, the ice machine, the elevator
Reported ghosts Several playful spirits, including a cheeky man
Visiting A working hotel: stay the night or stop in to dine
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
The Hotel Portsmouth is an 1881 Queen Anne mansion in downtown Portsmouth, a short walk from Market Square. It was long known as the Sise Inn, was renamed after a renovation in 2014 and was renovated again in 2024 as part of Lark Hotels. Local ghost writers say it has also been offices, a beauty salon and a halfway house.
Activity centers on Suite 204. Guests and staff say something plays with ice from the nearby ice machine, leaving it in trails or heaps on the floor, and locks and unlocks the door to 204. Older accounts add an elevator that moves without being called, a rocking chair that rocks on its own and a male presence said to grab at women from behind.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request Suite 204; dogs are welcome in the Garden Suite for a nightly fee.
Address 66 Route 119, on the common, Fitzwilliam, NH 03447
Where to look The living room, the basement, the toy room and the old law office
Reported ghosts A young boy, a phantom cat and, by the caretaker's count, eleven spirits
Visiting Open Saturdays 1 to 4 pm, Memorial Day to Labor Day; free
Ghost hunting Ask the Fitzwilliam Historical Society about any paranormal events
Built in 1837 on the Fitzwilliam common as a store and home, this house was bought about 30 years later by Amos J. Blake, who used it as his home and law office. Blake descendants gave it to the Fitzwilliam Historical Society in 1966, and it is now the society’s museum, with rooms of toys, costumes, military pieces, medical equipment and the old law office.
Caretaker Terri Harlow has said the house holds eleven ghosts, twelve if you count a cat she saw vanish, and that antique toys move when her back is turned. Ghost Hunters investigated in its fifth season after reports of a boy and a cat; the team said a door claim could be explained by a loose floorboard, but filmed chains moving in the tool room. Investigator Joni Mayhan says she recorded a voice saying “behind you.”
What investigators report
Ghost Hunters reported a K2 meter surge and a thermal hot spot in the living room where a little boy had been seen, and caught chains moving on camera in the empty kitchen tool room.
Where to look The oldest part of the house, the tavern
Reported ghosts Hannah Hill, the builder's daughter
Visiting A working hotel: stay the night or stop in to dine
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
The oldest part of the Three Chimneys Inn was built in 1649 by Valentine Hill, who ran a sawmill and gristmill on the Oyster River below. It is now a 23-room inn with the Ffrost Sawyer Tavern, a short walk from the University of New Hampshire campus in Durham.
Hill’s daughter Hannah is said to haunt it. Records show she married at 20, and then she vanishes from the documents; local tradition says she drowned in the Oyster River. Staff have told the UNH student paper about muddy bare footprints under the dining room rugs, drawers found opened an inch and a wine glass that floated off a tavern table.
Haunted Rooms tip: Have a drink in the Ffrost Sawyer Tavern, in the old part of the house.
Where to look The empty stage, the staircase and the seats
Reported ghosts Audience members in old-fashioned clothes, and music from an empty stage
Visiting Open for performances and occasional historic tours
Tours Portsmouth ghost walks pass the theater
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts inside
The Music Hall opened in 1878 as a vaudeville house, built after an 1876 fire destroyed an earlier theater on the site. Brewer and politician Frank Jones remodeled it in 1901, it showed films as The Civic from 1945, and after a brief closure in the 1980s a citizens’ group saved it as a nonprofit arts center. The Interior Department named it an American Treasure in 2003, and the restored 895-seat theater is busy year round.
Local historian Roxie Zwicker calls the building a living, breathing entity. Stories she and other guides tell include cold spots, twinkling lights, music from an empty stage, footsteps on the stairs, and audience members glimpsed in clothes from another century. Ghost City Tours adds a painting in the lobby nicknamed The Phantom. The Music Hall itself does not mention ghosts.
Haunted Rooms tip: Catch a show or one of the historic tours the theater lists in its special events.
Address Meeting House Green, 40 Park Avenue, Hampton, NH 03842
Where to look The memorial boulder on the green, and Island Path Road
Reported ghosts Eunice Goody Cole, the Witch of Hampton
Visiting The memorial stone stands on the open town green; the Tuck Museum opens limited hours
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts
Eunice Cole was the only woman convicted of witchcraft in New Hampshire. Neighbors accused her of killing livestock and familiarity with the devil; she was tried in 1656, whipped and jailed for years, arraigned again in 1671 and acquitted in 1673, then lived on town charity until she died around 1680. Where she was buried is unknown, and lore says her grave was staked. In 1938 Hampton’s town meeting voted, without opposition, to restore her citizenship.
In a 1938 ceremony copies of her court records were burned and the ashes mixed with soil from her home site; the urn is in the Tuck Museum. A memorial boulder went up on Meeting House Green in 1963, with a plaque added in 2013. After 1938 people began to tell of an old woman seen around town, and a figure in the fog on Island Path Road. Those are stories; the injustice is documented.
Haunted Rooms tip: The stone is outdoors and always visible; check the Hampton Historical Society for Tuck Museum hours to see the urn.
Address Pine Hill Cemetery, northeast Hollis near the Nashua line, NH
Where to look The Blood family plot and the spot where Abel Blood's stone stood
Reported ghosts Abel Blood, and the legend of his headstone's pointing finger
Visiting A town cemetery: visit respectfully in daylight and obey posted hours
Ghost hunting No night visits; police patrol around Halloween
Locals call this old Hollis burial ground Blood Cemetery, and the nickname has nothing to do with violence. It comes from the Blood family, who have a large plot here, including Abel Blood, buried in 1867 beside his wife Betsy. His headstone was carved with a hand pointing to heaven, and that carving is where the legend starts.
The story is that after dark the finger turned to point down, and that Abel’s angry spirit chases off visitors. People also report tapping sounds, cold spots and lights. Local historians have found no link between Abel Blood and any crime, and the tale that he murdered his family has no record behind it. Sadly the real headstone is gone: vandals broke it and the town removed it.
Haunted Rooms tip: Go in daylight, follow posted hours, and leave the stones alone; police watch the cemetery closely around Halloween.
Where to look Bathroom mirrors, the front parlor with Nancy's stone
Reported ghosts Nancy Barton, who died in a snowstorm in 1778
Visiting A working hotel: stay the night or stop in to dine
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
The Notchland Inn is a granite mansion from the 1860s on a 100-acre estate in Crawford Notch, with 15 rooms, suites and cottages, every one with a wood-burning fireplace, and a four-course dinner served Wednesday through Sunday. In its front parlor is a memorial stone to Nancy Barton, who “died in a snowstorm in pursuit of her faithless lover” in 1778.
Nancy’s fiance ran off with her dowry before their wedding. She set out after him on foot, was caught by a snowstorm and was found frozen beside the brook that now bears her name, along with Nancy Pond and Nancy Mountain. Guests at Notchland say they find words written in the steam on their bathroom mirrors, sometimes even in lipstick, when nobody has run the shower.
Haunted Rooms tip: Look for Nancy’s memorial stone in the front parlor, then hike to Nancy Cascades.
Where to look Backstage, the balcony and the stage
Reported ghosts A woman in white staff call Mary, and a man heard on recordings
Visiting Open for performances; buy a ticket to go inside
Ghost hunting The theater does not run ghost tours
Greek immigrant Victor Charas built the Palace on Hanover Street in under a year, and it opened on April 9, 1915, with Harry Houdini and Jimmy Durante among the later vaudeville acts. It became a cinema, then college classrooms, then a warehouse, before a 1974 restoration brought it back. In 1984 a fire tore through the block and the theater’s firewall held. Today it seats about 880 and still hosts touring shows, comedy and the city’s film festival.
The best-known ghost is a woman in white called Mary, said to linger backstage. Former Palace president Peter Ramsey told the Ghost Hunters team, who filmed here in 2008, about a woman who died in an adjoining apartment in the 1984 fire, and some tie Mary to her. Others report a man’s voice on recordings and equipment that misbehaves. None of it is proven, and the theater itself does not promote the stories.
Haunted Rooms tip: See a show and look up at the balcony; the best ghost stories come from ushers and crew, so ask politely at the end of the night.
Reported ghosts Laura, a 12-year-old girl said to have died in a fire
Visiting A working hotel: stay the night or stop in to dine
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
The Tilton Inn, also known as the 1875 Inn, is a white three-story village hotel with two tiers of porches on Main Street in downtown Tilton, a few minutes from the Lakes Region. It has nine themed guest rooms above Onions Pub and Restaurant, and the inn says the building has burned three times in its history.
According to the story told at the inn, one of those 19th-century fires killed a 12-year-old girl named Laura, whose family lived in what is now the Sanborn room. Guests report a young girl in the rooms and hallways and hair being stroked, and Ghost Hunters investigated here in 2010. We could not find a record of Laura’s death, so her story is best treated as the inn’s legend.
What investigators report
When TAPS investigated on Ghost Hunters in 2010, a flashlight challenge reportedly saw a flashlight switch on and off by itself. The Tilton and Sanborn rooms are described as the main haunts of the resident ghost, Laura.
Where to look The upper floor by the old courtroom, the stairs and the basement
Reported ghosts An unseen furniture mover, a girl at an upper window, and a janitor in the basement
Visiting Open for town business on weekdays during office hours
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts: town offices
Alton’s brick town hall was dedicated in May 1894, designed by A. T. Ramsdell of Dover in the Romanesque Revival style, with a four-story corner tower and a clock with hands over three feet long. Over the years it has held the fire and police departments, a jail cell in the basement, the library, a bank, a school and an auditorium used for plays, films and graduations. Today it holds the town offices.
Staff and late-night workers have long told of footsteps in empty rooms, voices in the corridors and furniture moving upstairs. In the best-known story, someone alone in the building heard scraping overhead and found the courtroom chairs lined up single file in the hallway. Others mention a girl in old-fashioned clothes at an upper window and a janitor in the basement. No names or dates are attached to any of these.
Haunted Rooms tip: It is a working town hall: admire the tower from Monument Square, or go in on town business during office hours.
Address Thompson Hall, 105 Main Street, Durham, NH 03824
Where to look Smith Hall's attic and fourth floor, and Thompson Hall
Reported ghosts A woman in white in Smith Hall, sometimes called Mary
Visiting The campus grounds are open; residence halls are for students only
Ghost hunting No public access to dorms
UNH’s campus ghost lives in Smith Hall, the oldest dorm, opened in 1908 for women students and paid for in part by the widow of mining engineer Hamilton Smith Jr., who drowned boating on the Oyster River in 1900. For generations students have reported footsteps in the attic and a young woman in white who appears in rooms at night and vanishes. One version names her Mary and says she hanged herself on the fourth floor in the 1920s.
University archivist Mylinda Woodward told The New Hampshire that Smith Hall is the most plausible haunting on campus, but that there is no proof of Mary. A similar tale about Thompson Hall, the 1893 clock-towered main building, says it was once a nunnery where a girl hanged herself; Woodward says it was never a nunnery and no suicide happened there. Psychology instructor Mark Henn has even run a ghost walk to test how such stories spread.
Haunted Rooms tip: Thompson Hall’s tower is the classic photo; dorms are for residents only, so stay outside.
Address Willey House Historical Site, Route 302, Crawford Notch State Park, NH
Where to look The site of the house below Mount Willey and the slide scars above it
Reported ghosts No ghost story on record; the haunting here is the 1826 tragedy itself
Visiting A roadside historic site within Crawford Notch State Park on Route 302
Ghost hunting A state park: follow park rules and hours
On the night of August 28, 1826, a violent storm ended a long drought and sent a landslide down the mountain above the Willey family’s house in Crawford Notch. The slide split around a ledge and left the house untouched, but Samuel and Polly Willey, their five children and two hired men had fled outside. Searchers found the beds unmade and a Bible open; they recovered six bodies, and three of the children were never found.
The empty house drew crowds, inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story The Ambitious Guest and Thomas Cole’s painting of the slide, and later became an inn until it burned in 1898. We could find no reliable ghost story attached to the site; it earns its place for the tragedy and the mystery of what the family did that night. A 1925 DAR marker stands on the spot.
Haunted Rooms tip: Pair it with the Notchland Inn just down the notch, where the gravestone of Nancy Barton, who froze to death in 1778, stands in the parlor.
Address Gilson Road at Tanglewood Drive, Nashua, NH 03062
Where to look The back wall and the small Gilson family stones
Reported ghosts The Gilson Boy, a woman in white, and lights near the back wall
Visiting A small cemetery on a residential road: visit quietly in daylight
Ghost hunting Please do not visit at night
This tiny roadside graveyard, under an acre, sits across from a housing development on Gilson Road in south Nashua. The oldest stone belongs to Hannah Robbins, who died in 1796 at 20, and the Gilson, Fisk, Searles, Lawrence and Newton families are buried here, with older graves marked only by dips in the ground. Three small stones mark unnamed Gilson infants, and five-year-old Walter Gilson died in 1811.
Investigator Fiona Broome made it famous as one of the most active cemeteries in the state. The stories that grew up since include a boy who runs across the road and vanishes, a woman in white along the wall, lights, whispers and a feeling of wading through water. Older tales of a battle and a banished medicine man on the site are folklore with no record behind them.
Haunted Rooms tip: Park legally and visit in daylight: it is easy to miss, and neighbors live right across the road.
Where to look Mary Ritter Spaulding's lichen-covered stone in the back corner
Reported ghosts The Blue Lady, said to be Mary Ritter Spaulding
Visiting Closed after dark; police patrol around Halloween
Ghost hunting Night visits are not allowed
Vale End is a quiet hilltop graveyard under tall pines, one of the oldest in Wilton. In a back corner lies Mary Ritter Spaulding, who died in 1808. The town history of 1888 remembered her as a skilled tailor of superior intellect; she had seven children in about ten years, and local historians think she was simply worn out. Her husband later remarried.
The Blue Lady story says Mary rises over her grave as a column of blue light, mostly on misty October nights. Wilton Historical Society members told the Cabinet newspaper that the tale only seems to date from about the 1970s, and that a woman who grew up beside the cemetery in the 1940s never heard it. Visitors have since broken and moved stones, so police now close the cemetery after dark.
Haunted Rooms tip: Visit in daylight only. The cemetery is closed after dark and patrolled in October.
Where to look The Teaberry room, the entryway and the old farmhouse
Reported ghosts Charlie, a friendly prankster
Visiting A working hotel: stay the night or stop in to dine
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
The Nutmeg Inn is a white farmhouse on seven acres outside Meredith, near Lake Winnipesaukee, that traces its origins to 1763 as the Eliphalet Rawlings Homestead and is on the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places. It is now a bed and breakfast with spice-named rooms, a seasonal saltwater pool and a full breakfast. The inn’s own history says it was likely a safe house for people escaping slavery, though that is not documented.
Staff speak fondly of a ghost they call Charlie. He is said to be a prankster who moves things and plays small tricks, but also oddly helpful: the best-known story says an electrical outlet the owners could not afford appeared in the Teaberry room over a winter, with no electrician admitting to the job and no bill. There is nothing frightening about the Nutmeg Inn, which is part of its charm.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for one of the rooms in the original 1763 house.
These places appear in older lists of haunted spots. We keep them here so you know the facts before you go, but you cannot (or should not) visit them.
Kimball Castle, Gilford
The 1890s granite castle built by railroad man Benjamin Ames Kimball above Lake Winnipesaukee had stories of lights in empty rooms and long-dead clocks starting up. It sat on private land behind No Trespassing signs for years, and on August 27, 2025, a fire gutted it; officials declared it a total loss and the owner was ordered to take it down. The town’s Kimball Castle conservation land and Lockes Hill trails next door remain open, but the castle parcel is private: do not go onto it.
New Hampshire State Hospital, Concord
Opened in 1842 as the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane, it is often described online as an abandoned asylum with footsteps, screams and elevators that run by themselves. In fact the old buildings are still state property: patient care moved to the new New Hampshire Hospital on the same campus in 1989, and the older buildings house Department of Health and Human Services offices. It is a secure working campus, not open to ghost hunters. Our older guide’s claims of torture and experiments had no source behind them, and we have removed them.
Six places on this list take overnight guests. For rooms, booking tips and the full stories, see our guide to haunted hotels in New Hampshire, including the Omni Mount Washington Resort, the Notchland Inn and the Tilton Inn. For nights out with our team, see all Haunted Rooms ghost hunts; the closest to New Hampshire are Fort William Henry in Lake George, New York, Captain Grant’s 1754 in Preston, Connecticut, and the General Stanton Inn in Charlestown, Rhode Island.
Changed from our older guide: we corrected several stories. The Ocean-Born Mary House ghost, pirate treasure and hearthstone burial were invented by the Roy family, who owned the house in the 1910s to 1950s; Mary never lived there. The Chase House is part of Strawbery Banke Museum, and no record of the orphan girl’s suicide has been found, though a girl did die there of diphtheria in 1893. Boon Island and its lighthouse are off York, Maine, not part of the Isles of Shoals. The New Hampshire State Hospital is not abandoned and moved to our off-limits list, as did Kimball Castle, which burned in 2025. Abel Blood’s headstone in Hollis is gone, broken by vandals. New in this update: Madame Sherri’s Castle, Point of Graves, the Music Hall, the John Paul Jones House, the Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse, South Cemetery and Ruth Blay, the Goody Cole memorial, Gilson Road and Vale End cemeteries, the Palace Theatre, the Willey House site, cards for six haunted hotels and inns, a new Portsmouth guide and full guides to Ocean-Born Mary and Madame Sherri’s Castle.
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We collect first-hand accounts from visitors and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your visit. We read every story before it’s published.
The Ocean-Born Mary House in Henniker is the most famous, though its ghost story was invented by owners in the 1910s and 1930s and the house is a private home. For places you can actually visit, Madame Sherri’s Castle ruins in Chesterfield, Point of Graves in Portsmouth and the Omni Mount Washington Resort, where guests ask for Room 314, are the best known.
Where can I go ghost hunting in New Hampshire?
Most New Hampshire haunted places are museums, cemeteries or state sites that do not allow investigations. Portsmouth has guided ghost walks from September to early November, and you can stay overnight at haunted inns such as the Tilton Inn and the Notchland Inn. Haunted Rooms does not run ghost hunts in New Hampshire; our nearest events are at Fort William Henry in Lake George, New York, Captain Grant’s 1754 in Connecticut and the General Stanton Inn in Rhode Island.
Is the Ocean-Born Mary House open to visitors?
No. It is a private home on a country road outside Henniker, and the owners do not give tours. Mary Wallace’s real grave, marked with an Ocean-Born Mary plaque, is in the cemetery behind Henniker Town Hall.
Can you visit Madame Sherri's Castle?
Yes. The ruins stand about 100 feet from a small parking lot on Gulf Road in West Chesterfield, inside the Forest Society’s Madame Sherri Forest. Entry is free. Do not climb the staircase: its top section collapsed in 2021.
Is the New Hampshire State Hospital abandoned?
No. The old asylum campus in Concord is still state property, with Department of Health and Human Services offices and the working New Hampshire Hospital next door. It is not open to visitors, so we list it under places not to go.
What is the most haunted hotel in New Hampshire?
The Omni Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, where staff say the hotel’s first lady, Carolyn Stickney, still appears in Room 314. The Hotel Portsmouth, the Notchland Inn and the Tilton Inn have strong stories too.
Sources and how we research
Every place in this guide is checked against its official website, historic register listings and news coverage, and we confirm whether it is open, closed, private or gone before we list it. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and local historians tell them; we say so where records contradict a story. Each place shows how many independent sources we checked it against; our own Haunted Rooms pages are not counted.
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every place in our guides using official sites, historic registers, local archives and news coverage, and we report ghost stories as the stories they are. We review each guide regularly so you are not sent to a place that has closed, changed hands or banned visitors. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
