Guy Fawkes Inn Hotel

25 High Petergate, York, YO1 7HP

3-star historic inn with 13 individually styled guest rooms across the main building and a 16th-century cottage

The Guy Fawkes Inn hosts several distinct supernatural presences, the most frequently reported being two child spirits known as the Cholera Children. These young ghosts are attributed to victims of a cholera outbreak in the 1700s, and their presence centres on the Belfry Suite. Guests and staff have reported seeing the apparitions of two children in this room, their forms appearing with enough clarity to be identified as young figures before fading from view. The children do not appear malevolent. Their manifestations occur without warning, leaving witnesses startled but unharmed. The visual nature of these encounters distinguishes the Belfry Suite as the inn's most actively haunted location. Down in the bar area, a different kind of spirit makes itself known through more mischievous behaviour. Staff have documented repeated incidents involving a specific bottle of Courvoisier brandy. As reported in the York Press newspaper, the bottle wriggles to the front of the shelf late at night. Morning shifts frequently discover the bottle sitting on the bar counter, removed from its position among the other spirits. This phenomenon occurs with such regularity that staff have attributed it to a friendly gentleman ghost with a particular taste for brandy. The consistency of this activity, always involving the same brand, suggests an entity with specific preferences carried over from life. Additional spirits mentioned in connection with the inn include a Grey Lady and a figure known as The Priest, though detailed accounts of these apparitions remain scarce compared to the well-documented child spirits and the brandy-loving gentleman. The layering of multiple hauntings across different areas of the building reflects the centuries of human activity within these walls.

Spirits: The Cholera Children (two child spirits), Courvoisier Loving Gentleman Ghost...