High Royds Hospital

High Royds Hospital opened in 1888 as the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, a self-contained Victorian psychiatric institution housing up to 1,500 patients. The sprawling complex featured its own church, ballroom, farm, and railway, designed so patients would never need to leave the grounds. After closing in 2003, the abandoned buildings became infamous for paranormal activity concentrated in the elaborate underground tunnel system that connected the various wards and service areas. These tunnels, once used to transport patients, supplies, and bodies away from public view, are now considered among Yorkshire’s most haunted locations.

The tunnel network beneath High Royds has produced some of the most compelling paranormal evidence in Britain. Investigators report full-bodied apparitions of patients in hospital gowns wandering the passages, the sound of gurneys being wheeled through darkness, and phantom voices echoing off tile walls. The former mortuary tunnel is particularly active, with witnesses describing the sensation of being followed, touched by invisible hands, and experiencing sudden panic attacks that force them to flee. EVP recordings from the tunnels have captured anguished screaming, pleading, and incomprehensible muttering.

Above ground, the abandoned wards display equally disturbing activity. The ballroom, where patients once gathered for supervised recreation, echoes with phantom music and the sound of shuffling feet. The former electroshock therapy rooms trigger equipment malfunctions and intense feelings of dread. Security guards employed during the hospital’s demolition phase reported numerous incidents: doors slamming shut, shadowy figures in windows of locked buildings, and one guard who claimed to see an entire ward of patients staring at him from darkened windows. Though much of High Royds has been converted to residential housing, the tunnel system that remains sealed reportedly continues to harbor its troubled spirits.