a night-time shot of light trails from cars and buses crossing london bridge, with big ben looming in the background
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Thanks to London’s long and storied history, our city is full of haunted spots and eerie locations. But now it turns out that we’re not just full of ghosts – our ghosts are really popular, too! Recent research* has analysed the popularity of some of the country’s most haunted spots, and London came out on top with the country’s most popular haunted attraction.

Creeping into first position on the list was London Bridge. This seemingly innocuous bridge mightn’t look like much, but the area is home to some gruesome history. In fact, it was a former public execution site, and haunting figures have been spotted wandering along the Thames.

The area is also home to The London Bridge Experience – an eerie journey through London Bridge’s history and the London Tombs. Numbers also might have been enhanced simply by the area’s popularity, thanks to nearby Borough Market, notwithstanding its haunted nature.

Coming in hot on London Bridge’s tail was Edinburgh Castle as the UK’s second most popular haunted attraction. But after taking the top spot, our city’s ghosts clearly weren’t content, because the capital is also home to 5 of the UK’s 10 most popular haunted attractions.

a view of edinburgh castle perched atop a hillCredit: Amadeusdavis, via Shutterstock The UK’s most popular haunted attractions

To create the ranking of haunting hot-spots, 53 haunted attractions from around the UK were analysed according to popularity on Instagram using the area’s most popular hashtags. Each haunted spot was then ranked according to the number of posts uploaded – by ghosts or by humans alike. These ten spots were then ranked as the UK’s most popular haunted attractions:

  1. London Bridge, London
  2. Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh
  3. Tower of London, London
  4. Hampton Court Palace, London
  5. Whitechapel, London
  6. Highgate Cemetery, London
  7. York Minster, York
  8. Chislehurst Caves, Kent
  9. The Shambles, York
  10. Warwick Castle, Warwickshire

The ravens at The Tower of London perched atop a cannon.Photo. Unsplash, Andrew Ebrahim

Other London attractions that featured on the list included 50 Berkeley Square (#29), the London Dungeon (#30), The Ten Bells (#38), and the Theatre Royal Drury Lane (#45). Altogether, London had the most attractions on the list, making our city’s ghouls and ghosts quite the popular bunch.

*Research was conducted by the research team at QR Code Generator.