Yorkshire Museum

The Yorkshire Museum, built on the grounds of the ruined St Mary’s Abbey, has been troubled by paranormal activity since its founding in 1830. The most frequently reported apparition is that of a Benedictine monk in brown robes, believed to be a spirit from the medieval abbey that once occupied the site. This phantom monk has been seen walking through the museum’s galleries and the surrounding Museum Gardens, following what would have been the abbey’s original corridors and cloisters, passing through modern walls as if they don’t exist.

The museum’s extensive Roman collection generates its own supernatural phenomena. Staff members working near the Roman artifacts report seeing figures in Roman military dress and civilian clothing, particularly around the displays of tombstones and burial goods excavated from York’s Roman cemetery. Security guards describe hearing Latin being spoken in hushed tones and the sound of marching footsteps echoing through the Roman galleries. Some witnesses report experiencing vivid visions of Roman York when handling artifacts from that period.

The Victorian geology and natural history galleries experience unexplained phenomena that staff attribute to the building’s location atop centuries of York’s history. Objects move overnight despite locked and alarmed galleries, and staff report feeling unseen presences observing their work. The museum’s basement storage areas, built partially within the medieval abbey’s foundations, are considered particularly active. Employees working alone in these areas describe feeling watched, hearing whispered conversations, and experiencing sudden temperature drops. The layering of Roman, medieval, and Victorian history on this site appears to have created a paranormal palimpsest where spirits from multiple eras share the same space.