Country file · Central America & the Caribbean
Haunted places in Barbados
What are the most haunted places in Barbados? The best-known is Chase Vault.
Barbados gave the world one of its classic 19th-century mysteries: the Chase Vault at Christ Church, where heavy lead coffins were said to be found scattered every time the sealed tomb was opened between 1812 and 1820. The story was first published in 1833, and later researchers – from the folklorist Andrew Lang to modern sceptics who have inspected the empty vault – have found no contemporary record that the coffins ever moved.
- 1 haunting
- 6 recorded sightings
Haunted places in Barbados
The ghost lore of Barbados
Like the rest of the Caribbean, Barbados has deep traditions about the dead with African roots, including beliefs about duppies, the spirits of the departed. Its plantation houses, churches and garrison buildings – many dating from the 17th and 18th centuries – carry the history of a sugar economy built on slavery, which shapes many of the stories told about them.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- Oistins and Christ Church
The hilltop parish church and its churchyard, home of the empty Chase Vault, overlook the south-coast fishing town.
- Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison
The UNESCO-listed capital and its old British garrison preserve some of the oldest colonial buildings in the Caribbean.
- St Philip’s south-east coast
The ruins of Sam Lord’s Castle – gutted by fire in 2010 and kept within a resort that opened on the site in 2023 – are tied to the unproven legend that the planter Samuel Hall Lord (died 1844) lured ships onto the reef with lanterns.
Timeline
- 1807The first burial Chase Vault
Thomasina Goddard was buried in the vault, which was then acquired by Thomas Chase.
- 1812Two Chase funerals Chase Vault
Dorcas Chase and then her father Thomas Chase were interred. According to the legend, the coffins were first found in disarray at Thomas Chase’s funeral.
- 1820The sealed vault is opened Chase Vault
In the classic telling, the seals and sand placed under Lord Combermere’s supervision were intact but the coffins were scattered. The coffins were removed and buried elsewhere.
- 1833The story is published Chase Vault
James Alexander’s Transatlantic Sketches printed the first known account, citing no source.
- December 1907Andrew Lang investigates Chase Vault
Writing in Folk-Lore, Lang confirmed the burials in the parish register but found no contemporary evidence of the coffins moving.
- 2019Inspection of the vault Chase Vault
Benjamin Radford examined the vault and found no damage consistent with heavy coffins striking the walls, publishing his findings in Skeptical Inquirer in 2020.
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