Spook yourself out at Dorset's most haunted locations

In Dorset there is an abundance of petrifying paranormal locations to visit if you're looking for a good old fright. 

Here are our top five spooky places to visit:

Nothe Fort, Weymouth

Nothe Fort has a reputation as one of the most haunted places on the south coast, with a 2007 National Lottery survey discovering that people voted it one of the spookiest locations in the UK. 

The Fort was built to provide protection against hostile advances from France and was also manned during WW2. 

Legend has it that there is a ghostly whistling young gunner boy who was crushed by a cannon. Many people claim to have heard his eerie whistling in the Fort's extensive underground passageways. 

The Nothe Fort is particularly popular with paranormal activity groups and that have been a range of ghost tours held at the location.

On the tours guests are given a workshop teaching them how to carry out paranormal experiments, using things such as recording devices to ascertain 'electronic voice phenomena'. 
Corfe Castle, Corfe

During the Civil War, Corfe Castle was the home of the Royalist Bankes family, who managed to repel repeated attempts to take the castle by Cromwell’s roundheads.

But an act of betrayal in 1645 allowed the Roundheads to smuggle in their own soldiers inside the walls. They then attacked from within and without at the same time and finally seized control.

Later that year they blew up parts of the castle to stop it becoming an opposition stronghold again.  

Ever since, the ghostly figure of a headless woman in white – said to be the woman who betrayed the Bankes – has been seen stalking the walls and battlements.

Portland Castle, Portland

Image - Graham Hunt HG9068

Built by Henry VII in the 1540s to protect against French and Spanish invasion stands the iconic Portland Castle. 

Visitors of the site have said they have experienced members of the Tudor army whilst others have felt themselves 'barged by inexplicable forces' in empty rooms. 

Odd smells from the Tudor kitchen where open surgery was carried out during the civil war can still be sniffed today. 

Lulworth Castle, Lulworth

The Grey Lady of Lulworth is a phantom that has been haunting the castle for centuries.

During futile attempts to put out the fire that gutted the property in 1929 one of the firefighters heard cries from the top of the castle and saw a lady in distress in one of the windows. 

When trying to rescue her, he discovered that the floor of the room in which she was standing in had collapsed hours before. He soon realised that he had seen the ghost of the Grey Lady.

Athelhampton House, Puddletown

Image BNPS

Regarded as one of the top ten haunted houses in England, Athelhampton House is home to eleven ghouls. 

Presence of paranormal beings have been recorded for centuries in the 15th Century Manor. 

One of the strangest phenomena is Nicholas Martyn's trapped ape in a secret staircase.

The ape is said to be heard by both the residents of the house and visitors, scratching on the wooden panels that line the library walls, 'desperate to be released from its eternal prison'.

Do you know any more haunted spots in Dorset? Let us know in the comments.