State file · VA
Haunted places in Virginia
What are the most haunted places in Virginia? The best-known are Ferry Plantation House, Grace Sherwood, the Witch of Pungo and The Richmond Vampire and the Church Hill Tunnel.
Virginia has been telling ghost stories for as long as there has been an English-speaking Virginia. Jamestown was founded in 1607 on land long inhabited by the Powhatan peoples, and four centuries of colonial plantations, Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields and the long history of slavery have left the Commonwealth with more historic houses – and more ghost tours – than almost anywhere in the country. Towns such as Williamsburg, Fredericksburg and Richmond offer lantern-lit ghost walks through their historic districts.
- 3 hauntings
- 12 recorded sightings
- 1 news story
Haunted places in Virginia
Ferry Plantation House
An 1830 brick house on the Lynnhaven River, on a site used since a 1642 ferry, is said to hold 11 spirits – from an enslaved man to a family’s children. Regional legendGrace Sherwood, the Witch of Pungo
In 1706 Grace Sherwood, a Virginia healer accused of witchcraft, was “ducked” in the Lynnhaven River. Locals say a light returns each July to the spot. Local legendThe Richmond Vampire and the Church Hill Tunnel
When a Richmond rail tunnel collapsed on a work train in 1925, men died and were never recovered. Legend turned a burned survivor into a vampire. Local legendThe ghost lore of Virginia
Some of the most compelling Virginia stories are about injustice as much as the supernatural. In 1706 Grace Sherwood, a Princess Anne County healer, was “ducked” as a witch in the Lynnhaven River; three centuries later the governor restored her good name, and locals still say a light returns to Witch Duck Bay each July. Nearby, the volunteer-run Ferry Plantation House tells of eleven spirits alongside the real lives of the families and enslaved people who lived there.
In Richmond, the 1925 collapse of the Church Hill Tunnel – which entombed a locomotive and at least two laborers who were never recovered – gave rise to the legend of the Richmond Vampire and a mausoleum in Hollywood Cemetery. Civil War sites from Manassas to Petersburg, Fredericksburg and Fort Monroe add soldiers’ ghosts to the map, though the battlefields themselves are first of all places of remembrance.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- Colonial Williamsburg
The restored 18th-century capital, with houses such as the Peyton Randolph House, hosts long-running evening ghost walks.
- Church Hill and Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond
The tunnel disaster, the Pool mausoleum and the city’s oldest neighbourhoods anchor Richmond’s ghost tours.
- Old Donation and Witchduck, Virginia Beach
Ferry Plantation, Witch Duck Point and Grace Sherwood’s statue form the heart of the city’s witch and ghost lore.
- Fredericksburg
The Civil War city and its battlefields have a busy tradition of ghost walks through the historic downtown.
- Hampton and Fort Monroe
The moated 19th-century fort at Old Point Comfort, where enslaved people first sought freedom as “contraband” in 1861, has a long store of garrison ghost stories.
Timeline
- 1828The manor house burns Ferry Plantation House
Fire destroys the Walke manor; its bricks are reused to build the present house in 1830.
- May 13, 1862A death in the war Ferry Plantation House
Captain Charles F. McIntosh of the ironclad CSS Louisiana dies of wounds, leaving his pregnant wife at Ferry; the house’s lore links a sad woman in blue to her.
- 1873The tunnel opens The Richmond Vampire and the Church Hill Tunnel
The C&O completes its tunnel under Church Hill after a deadly construction period marked by cave-ins.
- October 2, 1925The collapse The Richmond Vampire and the Church Hill Tunnel
Part of the tunnel caves in on a work train. Engineer Thomas Mason is killed, fireman Benjamin Mosby dies of burns, and laborers Richard Lewis and H. Smith are never recovered.
- 1926The tunnel is sealed The Richmond Vampire and the Church Hill Tunnel
On state orders the western end is closed, leaving locomotive No. 231 and its flatcars entombed.
- 1980sThe caretakers’ sightings Ferry Plantation House
Caretakers hired by the last owner, Mrs. Howren, report a recurring figure of an elderly man rising from the basement and kneeling at a wall.
- 1996The volunteers take charge Ferry Plantation House
The Friends of the Ferry Plantation House begin restoring the building and opening it as a museum, later adding paranormal tours.
- November 2002Her farmhouse is lost Grace Sherwood, the Witch of Pungo
After repeated arson by vandals, the last chimneys of her Muddy Creek home are bulldozed.
- 2006An attempt to reach the train The Richmond Vampire and the Church Hill Tunnel
The Virginia Historical Society drills a camera into the tunnel and finds silt and water; plans to excavate are put on hold.
- July 10, 2006An informal pardon Grace Sherwood, the Witch of Pungo
On the 300th anniversary of the ducking, Governor Tim Kaine restores her good name, recognising that she was wrongfully convicted.
- April 21, 2007A statue for the Witch of Pungo Grace Sherwood, the Witch of Pungo
Robert Cunningham’s bronze of Sherwood with a raccoon and herbs is unveiled near the colonial courthouse and ducking sites.
- October 31, 2013The legend on local TV The Richmond Vampire and the Church Hill Tunnel
WTVR’s Mark Holmberg traces how the tunnel disaster became the story of a vampire in Hollywood Cemetery.
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