The Scariest Vintage Ghost Photos Ever Taken

5. St Mary’s Guildhall Ghost

St Mary’s Guildhall in Warwickshire, England is notorious for eerie happenings and ghost sightings and when this photo surfaced in 1985 people were shocked to see hard evidence of the paranormal.

This photo was taken during a meeting of the Coventry Freemans Guild. The scary thing is no one remembers the tall hooded figure that can be seen at the top left of the table. Over a dozen people that attended the meeting that day said that they didn’t see a robed monk during their opening prayer time. Yet very clearly there is a ghostly presence at the head of the table.

It’s interesting to note that St Mary’s Guildhall once held Mary, Queen of scots prisoner which many say is the reason the hall has such an ominous feeling about it.

Within the enormous medieval complex is an area known as the ‘drapers room’. Visitors often report feelings of extreme sadness, anxiety and depression when they enter the room. Some have been known to burst into tears for no reason at all.

Could this strange, vintage ghost photo prove that this notorious guildhall is really haunted?

4. William Hope

This is another classic example of spirit photography that was employed at the height of the spiritualist movement at the beginning of the 20th century.

Taken by infamous paranormal investigator William Hope, the photograph depicts an elderly couple who have allegedly been visited by a dead relative, seen hovering ominously in the top half of the picture.

Much like William H. Mumler, whom we mentioned earlier, William Hope would advertise to the bereaved that he could contact the dead. He would have his customers pose for a portrait photograph and attempt to summon their lost loved ones into the room. He would then take a series of photos and wait to see if he had made contact. More often than not, supposed spirit beings were seen in the freshly developed images – eerie shadows or disembodied faces.

In February 1922, William Hopes ‘spirit photos’ were put to the test by fellow paranormal investigator Harry Price. Price secretly marked Hope’s photography plates to test the authenticity of them. When the photos were developed the secret markings were nowhere to be found, meaning that Hope had switched the plates with ones he had prepared earlier, plates that already contained superimposed ‘spirits’ on them. This covert experiment outed Hope as a fraud yet somehow he managed to retain a staunch following of believers in his work.

Author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was one such proponent of Hopes work. He went on to threaten Harry Price for outing Hope as a fraud, stating it was a conspiracy to derail the spiritualist movement.

So was Hope a fraud or could he really contact the dead? Whatever the case may be, it’s undeniable that his photos evoke an eerie sense of unease.

3. Ghostly Boy in Cemetery

The origins of this photo are as mysterious as the photo itself. No one seems to know when or where the photo was taken and the photographer has never come forward. Yet the unsettling image has proliferated around ghost investigation forums for decades.

In the photo we can see a small child’s disembodied face hovering next to an old tombstone. It’s pale and translucent. Could it be that this is the grave of a young boy? Perhaps the spirit is somehow attached to the person buried there.

However, it’s possible that the image is a fake and that’s the reason why there is so little information available. Either way though, it still makes for a very creepy photo.

2. The Ghostly Monk of St Mary’s

For decades, this photo of a ghostly monk kneeling at the altar has been the source of much speculation in the paranormal community.

Gordon Carroll took this eerie photograph in 1964 when visiting the church of St Mary’s and All saints in Northamptonshire, England.

At first Carroll didn’t notice anything particularly strange in the church. That was until he had the photos developed, when he noticed the eerie translucent figure kneeling at the altar.

For years people have debated whether the figure looks like a monk or possibly even a medieval knight praying at the foot of the church altar. Others have noted it might be the ghost of an old cleaning lady that once worked in the church. To the right of the figure there looks to be a bucket.

Carroll has alway defended the authenticity of the photograph, claiming that it’s not been altered in any way.

1. Alberta Ghost Train Spirit

On a sunny afternoon in the mid-1960’s the iconic Alberta Steam Train was gearing up for its last ever journey. Locals and journalists gathered round to see the grand old train leave the station once last time. And as they did, they took several photographs, one of which would become famous for something a little more eerie than a retiring train.

In the photo you can see four men including the driver standing in the lead cart of the train. However, if you look in the right window, a face can be seen peering out. It looks to be an old lady wearing some kind of ornamental headdress.

During its operation, many drivers said that the train was haunted. They claimed to have plowed through strange misty figures on the tracks, only to find nothing there. Doors would open and close on their own, latches would lock and unlock, eerie whispers were heard down empty carriages. One driver even said the train itself would behave erratically when passing over a bridge known for suicides. The train would speed up and slow down on its own, once the brakes cut out momentarily right as they passed over the notorious bridge.

Could this photo really have captured the spirit of a restless soul that once haunted the old Alberta Steam Train?

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There’s our look at the scariest vintage ghost photos. What did you think of these creepy photos? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or on any of our socials.