One-Eyed Jack

The Legend

In the bottom bar of Guy Fawkes Inn on High Petergate, a figure from another century refuses to leave his local. Known as One-Eyed Jack, he appears dressed in a red frock coat from the 1600s or 1700s, wearing a powdered wig beneath a tri-cornered hat. An old-fashioned pistol sits in his hand. He paces up and down the bar area, and whether his name comes from a missing eye or an eye patch worn across his face, nobody can quite agree. But the details of his appearance remain remarkably consistent across independent witness accounts.

The History

The Guy Fawkes Inn occupies a prime position on York’s High Petergate, directly opposite St Michael le Belfrey, the church where the infamous gunpowder plotter was baptised in 1570. A 16th-century cottage stands in the beer garden, long associated with Fawkes himself. City of York historic records note this building was formerly incorrectly identified as his birthplace, though the connection persists in local folklore and on plaques throughout the property.

The red frock coat and tri-cornered hat place One-Eyed Jack firmly in the 17th or 18th century, a period when High Petergate served as a busy commercial thoroughfare leading to York Minster. The inn would have been a gathering place for tradesmen, travellers, and soldiers. The pistol suggests either a military background or a more colourful one. Red coats were standard military dress during this period, but highwaymen and men of dubious reputation also frequented York’s inns. His identity has never been established, and he carries his secrets with him.

The Hauntings

One-Eyed Jack confines himself to the bottom bar. He does not roam the corridors or climb the stairs to the guest rooms above. This is his territory. Witnesses describe him pacing the bar area with purpose, as though keeping watch or waiting for someone who never arrives. His full-bodied apparition appears solid enough to be mistaken momentarily for a costumed visitor before the impossibility of his presence registers.

He is not alone in his vigil. Multiple reports describe a second figure accompanying him, an older man with a sour expression, the two of them occupying the bar as though it were still their regular haunt. The dynamic between the two suggests companions rather than strangers, men who drank together in life and apparently see no reason to stop.

One-Eyed Jack shares the inn with other supernatural residents. Two child spirits, victims of cholera during the 1700s, haunt the Belfry Suite upstairs. A Grey Lady and a figure known as The Priest have been reported elsewhere in the building. A woman has been seen wandering the corridors and staircases at night, moving objects. But Jack remains the bar’s own ghost, as rooted to his spot as the building itself.

Witness Accounts

The consistency of One-Eyed Jack’s described appearance across independent sources gives this haunting particular credibility. Multiple paranormal publications and York haunted pub guides document the same figure, the same red coat, the same hat, the same pistol, without apparent cross-contamination of accounts. The bar’s low ceilings and period features create an environment where a figure from the 17th century would not look entirely out of place, yet witnesses report a clear sense that what they are seeing does not belong to the present.

No one reports feeling threatened by One-Eyed Jack despite the pistol he carries. He appears absorbed in his own time, pacing his circuit of the bar without acknowledging the living patrons around him. The grumpy old man who accompanies him seems equally indifferent to the modern world.

Investigation and Evidence

Guy Fawkes Inn features regularly on York’s ghost walk routes and appears consistently across most haunted pubs in York compilations from Haunted Rooms, SpiritShack, the Yorkshire Post, and other publications. The property is documented in the Paranormal Database. The Dead Air YouTube channel has investigated the inn, referencing the Grey Lady and The Priest among the reported spirits.

Claims of up to 15 different ghosts within the building have been made, though many remain poorly documented. One-Eyed Jack and the cholera children stand as the inn’s best-attested hauntings, with independent corroboration across multiple sources lending weight to reports that might otherwise be dismissed as pub folklore.

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This ghost story is part of the haunted history of Guy Fawkes Inn. Book a stay to experience the paranormal atmosphere for yourself.