Burghley House

This magnificent Elizabethan mansion, built by William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I, is home to numerous ghosts, including servants who refuse to cease their duties even in death.

The Phantom Servants

Burghley’s most distinctive ghosts are the spectral staff who continue to work centuries after their deaths:

Manifestations:

• Figures in period servant livery
• Carrying invisible trays and objects
• Walking servant passages and back stairs
• Going about duties as if still alive
• Most active in the service areas
• Appear unaware of modern observers

Staff members report encountering these ghosts regularly, particularly:

• In the old kitchen areas
• On the back staircases
• In corridors between rooms
• Early in the morning and late at night

The Grey Lady

A classic Grey Lady haunts the grander sections:

• Seen in the State Rooms
• Gliding through the Great Hall
• Identity unknown, possibly from the Cecil family
• Brings intense cold
• Most often seen by candlelight or lamplight
• Disappears when electric lights are switched on

The Monk

From the monastery that stood here before the house:

• A hooded figure in brown robes
• Walks the oldest parts of the building
• Silent and solemn
• Follows ancient paths
• Most active in the chapel area
• Sometimes seen in the gardens

The Phantom Footman

A specific servant ghost, more active than the others:

• Young man in 18th-century livery
• Opens doors for people
• Heard but rarely seen
• Footsteps on staircases
• The sound of doors being opened and closed
• Believed to have died in service to the house

The Lady in White

Contrasting with the Grey Lady:

• A woman in white Elizabethan dress
• Seen in the Long Gallery
• Possibly connected to the Cecil family
• Appears on moonlit nights
• Looking out of windows
• An air of waiting and watching

Supernatural Activity

Beyond apparitions, Burghley experiences:

• Objects moved overnight
• Unexplained cold spots
• The scent of old cooking fires
• Doors that open by themselves
• Footsteps in empty rooms
• A sense of being watched

The house has been home to the Cecil family for over 400 years, and its current occupants acknowledge the ghostly residents as part of Burghley’s heritage. The sheer number and variety of ghosts suggest that the house’s centuries of continuous occupation have created multiple layers of paranormal activity.

Visitors to this tourist attraction occasionally report their own encounters, particularly in the more atmospheric older sections of the house.