In countless tales of terror and other stories we tell to scare ourselves, ghosts usually haunt abandoned buildings or float through cemeteries—but why wouldn’t they linger in everyday places too? From a post office to a margarita bar, spirits don’t discriminate what they populate.
Here are some of our favorite stories of ghosts taking up residence in surprising spots, from lighthouses and grocery stores to dollhouses and town halls. These hauntings aren’t always about apparitions, however. Sure, some accounts suggest supernatural activity, but other “ghosts” are actually human pranksters, or manifestations of an artist’s imagination.
by Kate Golembiewski
A small village hidden deep in the forest on Norway’s eastern border is home to some strange, supernatural happenings. What’s even more peculiar than the haunting itself is the location: the grocery store. Tucked inside an old white farmhouse on the main drag, locals have come to expect the odd hauntings at their market. Flying potatoes, smashed flower pots, and reports of looming shadowy figures have all occurred here. But sociologist Lars Birger Davan is less interested in the source of the reported paranormal activity and more concerned with understanding the impact unexplainable events can have on people and their view of the world. “I’m not a ghostbuster—it’s more like catch-and-release,” he jokes.
by Roxanne Hoorn
When looking at the green-tinged sink full of rotting food or the layers of dust and sand that have accumulated in this home, one might expect the place to be abandoned. Despite the chipping paint and tangle of cobwebs, the house is actually freshly decorated, and is being added to everyday. There’s no need to step inside the spooky house to explore it, as you can see every room—in all their gory glory—from outside. The three-foot-tall dollhouse is a passion project of artist Lauren Bank, who uses the home to tell a visual ghost story set in 20th-century Mississippi. Like a horror novel and a diorama colliding, Banks’s fascinating art tells the tales of Southern Gothic ghosts through teeny-tiny taxidermy, finger-nail-sized newspaper clippings, and other extravagant miniatures.
by Joseph Hayes
From the late 19th century to World War I, pranksters disguised as ghosts wreaked havoc across Australia in a phenomenon known as “ghost hoaxing.” These “ghosts” often scared folks in locations already known for paranormal activity—and the most surprising element was who hid beneath the sheets. Despite the ghost pranks being associated with the working class, once the ghosts were apprehended, “many if not most of those arrested” were in fact “school teachers and clerks and the like and a small number of middle-class women,” says David Waldron, author of the article “Playing the Ghost: Ghost Hoaxing and Supernaturalism in Late Nineteenth-Century Victoria,” writes Joseph Hayes.
The pranks ended with the outbreak of the war, which eventually took the lives of over 60,000 Australian soldiers and showed, says Waldron, that there were “far bigger issues at stake. The symbolism of death [became] less amusing.”
by Sarah Durn
Lighthouses were designed to be beacons of hope, guiding the way for lost sailors. But in some cases, they do quite the opposite. Lighthouses are full of stories about death, isolation, madness, and in some cases actual murder, writes Sarah Durn. They’re frequently reported to be inhabited by ghosts, perhaps a product of the insanity the monotonous and lonely job can bring. Dick Moehl, former president of the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association, told Dianna Stampfler in her book, Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses, “every lighthouse worth a grain of salt has a good ghost story.”
by Cara Giaimo
Late one night in the town hall of Vegas del Genil—a small town outside of Granada, Spain— a council member heard a strange sound. Fearing a burglar, he crept into the hallway and took a cell phone picture of what initially seemed to be an empty space. Back in his office, the council member took another look at the photo. This time, he saw “what appeared to be a ghostly apparition of a child,” The Local reports. He quickly sent the photo to his fellow council members, seeking an explanation—and a ride home. The photo soon circulated to the public, leading citizens to call mayor Leandro Martín’s office incessantly, demanding answers—if not an exorcism.
by Tom Mutch
It should come as no surprise that the country known as the “Graveyard of Empires” should have its share of ghost stories. Over just the last couple of centuries, countless local fighters and civilians, as well as soldiers from the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the U.S./NATO–led coalition have died on the battlefields of Afghanistan, writes Tom Mutch. But one small outpost in the country’s deep south has become known as a hot spot for spirits. Locals and foreign soldiers have reported sightings of ghosts, along with other inexplicable events and curses.
by Shoshi Parks
Quirpon Island, just off the northern tip of Newfoundland, stands cold and desolate, except for one lonely lighthouse warning sailors away from the jagged shore. The lighthouse’s caretaker and any occasional visitor to the adjoining inn are the island’s only human inhabitants. For the most part, no one stays for long. For close to 500 years, there have been rumors about what lies in this frigid, inhospitable corridor between Newfoundland and Labrador, writes Shoshi Parks. Early Europeans believed that there was another mass of land off the island, which was home to evil spirits, leading mariners to dub it the Isle of Demons. The name remained on maps for more than a century until the mid-1600s, when cartographers determined that there was no Isle of Demons—but the legends persist.
