Room with a boo? From haunted castles to 19th-century axe-murder sites... the world's spookiest hotels revealed

As the name suggests, this 12th century building boasts a serious back catalogue of doom, with a torture chamber displaying horrific tools that hark back to its former days and a 'haunted' bedroom, the infamous Pink Room

Once a hideous crime scene and now a shrine, this was the spot where spinster Lizzie Borden allegedly hacked her father and stepmother to death with an axe in 1892 - photos from the massacre now line this B&B's walls

Now a swanky hotel and spa, this establishment has a history that doesn't get much darker: in 1937, it was a 'cancer hospital' run by a fake doctor, 'Dr' Normal Baker, who used it as a front for his experiments on humans, both dead and alive

This centuries-old coaching inn, pictured (left) in 1901 and (right) today, has apparently been the setting of creepy chairs which rock on their own and clothes that turn wet when hung by the fire - yours for £80 a night

It is believed that this former hospital still plays host to spirits from the Civil War which the owners say are 'friendly', with guests reporting ghosts in the hallways and foyers, children running down the halls and taps turning on by themselves

Located in Salem, a town notorious for hanging 20 women during the witch trials of 1692, this hotel has been reported to have housed the ghost of a weeping child, and an invisible force which 'strokes' guests

This charming old hotel in California's Big Sur is right near the Point Sur Lighthouse, which runs moonlight ghost tours, and is said to haunted by the inn's founder 'Grandpa Deetjen', who has been heard slamming doors there

Notorious as once being home to infamous serial killer Richard Ramirez, it's also the location of the strange and unexplained death of tourist Elisa Lam, who was found decomposing inside the rooftop water tanks in 2013

Host to countless stars and writers in the past - Dylan Thomas lived and died here - it is thought to be haunted as a result of the Sex Pistols' guitarist Sid Vicious, who was accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death here

It bills itself as 'Charleston’s most romantic inn,' but bizarrely also claims to be the most haunted. Guest sightings - most of them in rooms eight or ten, have included the apparition of a headless torso and a conversely civilised 'gentleman ghost'

This former country home is said to be roamed by the ghost of a peasant who hanged himself on the day of his beloved's wedding because she didn't return his love - not the most romantic of stories but a pretty setting nonetheless

The setting of (literally) hair-raising stories including the guest who insists a ghost once dragged across her room by her locks, while others have reported lights flicking on and off by themselves and odd shapes emerging from the air vents

During this former castle's renovation in the 1930s, a skeleton clad in a white dress was found within its crumbling walls, allegedly the daughter of a former nobleman known as 'the white lady' whose spirit still mopes around today

Tales from this upmarket hotel's room 703 suggest a very busy resident poltergeist is at play - with complaints over the years of hovering suitcases, strangling sheets, moving furniture and other such horrors