Belcourt Castle

Belcourt was built between 1891 and 1894 as a Newport summer cottage for Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont. Designed by Richard Morris Hunt, it cost some $3 million and was modelled on a Louis XIII hunting lodge; Belmont, an avid horseman, kept his horses and carriages on the ground floor. In 1896 he married Alva Vanderbilt, who remodelled the interior, and in 1899 the house hosted what is described as the first automobile parade in the country. Oliver died in 1908 and Alva in 1933, and the estate was sold in 1940.

After that the house passed through several hands and fell into decay, at one point standing empty for years. In 1956 Donald and Harle Tinney bought the neglected mansion, renamed it Belcourt Castle and filled it with their antique collection. It opened for guided tours on 28 July 1957. Harle Tinney became its storyteller and guide, and in 2012 the property was sold to Carolyn Rafaelian, founder of the Alex and Ani jewellery company, who reopened it as Belcourt of Newport.

The ghost stories are the Tinneys’ own, and they were later collected in Harle Tinney’s book The Ghosts of Belcourt Castle. She described waking to find a man in a long brown robe and a hat covering his face beside her bed; he walked through the wall, and later remodelling reportedly revealed a former doorway there. The same hooded figure is said to appear near a carved statue of a monk, and when the statue was moved to the chapel a visitor reportedly saw him preparing for a service. A suit of armour in the ballroom was said to let out a scream whenever the lights were turned off, and a young guide in the ballroom claimed to hear a man’s voice telling her to get out.

Other reports add a knight said to relive his death each March, a woman in a ball gown on the second-floor gallery, and an elderly woman in pink who is thought to be Donald Tinney’s mother. Many of these accounts are tied to antiques the family collected from European houses, a common theme in haunted-object stories. Belcourt’s current owners offer regular and candlelit tours, and the house is one of several Newport mansions with ghost stories, alongside Seaview Terrace and the White Horse Tavern.

A hooded figure in a brown robe, a monk linked with his statue, a screaming suit of armour, a male voice saying “Get out” in the ballroom, a woman in a ball gown on the gallery, an older woman in pink, mirrors that move, and screams from dark corners.

The French Gothic ballroom, the chapel, the bedroom of the Tinney family, the second-floor gallery and the armour on display.

Belcourt is featured in Newport ghost tours, in Harle Tinney’s The Ghosts of Belcourt Castle and in regional collections such as Haunted Newport. The house is also used for weddings, galas and Halloween events.