RICK HALE takes us on a tour of North Yorkshire’s famous haunted mansion, The Gisborough Hall Hotel
Where is Gisborough Hall Hotel?
Whitby Road, Gisborough TS14 6PT
Our last stop on our tour of haunted Yorkshire hotels is Gisborough Hall Hotel.
A Grade II listed manor house believed to be haunted by three very active ghosts that will make your stay truly memorable.
History Of Gisborough Hall Hotel
Gisborough Hall Hotel was designed and built in 1865 as a quiet country manor house for Thomas Chaloner.
A few years after his death, Lord Gisborough, Richard Chaloner took possession of the house giving it it’s distinctive name.
During the tense years of World War II in the 1940s, the house was leased to the council as a home for the elderly.
Lord Gisborough had just gotten married and attempted to reclaim the house for him and his new bride.
Nevertheless, the lease on his ancestral home was rock solid and it remained a home for the elderly until the 1970s, when it was turned into a hotel.
In 2002, the MacDonald chain of hotels took over the hotel, and invested a large sum of money to refurbish it. Changing it into the luxury hotel it is today.
Shortly following the improvements is when staff and guests began reporting encounters with the hotel’s resident ghosts.
The Hauntings Of Gisborough Hall Hotel
It would seem the improvements made by the hotel chain awoke paranormal phenomena that had never been experienced before.
Three ghosts are said to inhabit the hotel and known to be are extraordinarily active.
So much so, that two of the hotel’s ghosts have been mistaken for flesh and blood people on more than one occasion.
The Faithful Butler
Throughout its history as a manor house, several butlers were known to have worked and lived at the house.
Apparently, one of these butlers that served the Gisborough family still feels he has work to do.
The ghost of the faithful butler has been witnessed standing in the lobby of the hotel.
He is said to stand at attention near the front desk and has been mistaken for a living employee.
Unsuspecting guests have walked up to him to make requests, only to be stunned when he suddenly vanishes before their eyes.
The butler has been known to engage in conversation with the living on a few occasions.
The Elderly Woman
An elderly woman who appears to be confused has been encountered wandering the corridors of the hotel.
A number of times both guests and staff have approached her inquiring if she needs assistance.
Without responding, she merely walks away and disappears around the corner.
The Jolly Jokester
The third and final ghost that purportedly haunts the hotel has only been experienced rather than seen.
By all accounts, he is considered quite friendly, but seems to delight in playing innocent pranks.
Whomever this spirit is has been known to move personal belongings of guests, only to have them turn up in unexpected places.
One guests, and her husband, were awakened in the middle of the night by strange noises that came from everywhere, and oddly nowhere.
Each time they would get up to investigate, the noises ceased.
But, when they attempted to go back to sleep the noises would start up again.
When they called the front desk to report the strange goings-on, they were told their room was home to a noisy, but friendly, ghost.
What The Gisborough Hall Hotel Offers
The Gisborough Hall Hotel offers 71 en-suite rooms, exquisitely decorated with traditional English antiques.
The hotel’s award winning restaurant is known for its well planned menu, as well as an extensive list of fine wines.
If you’re the sporting sort, the hotel has an archery range, professional tennis courts and croquet.
And if you’re looking to relax, you can be pampered in the Revival Zone, the hotel’s spa.
The staff at the Gisborough Hall Hotel are known for their hospitality and will do all they can to make your stay memorable. They will even tell you tales of the hotel’s ghosts.
Tell us in the comments section below if you ever have a supernatural experience at the Gisborough Hall Hotel!
Four of us visited Gisborough Hall in October and enjoyed a really pleasant break. The hospitality there really is as good as people say. When we arrived we checked in at the lobby and, as it was a deal for which we had already paid, the formalities took no time at all. I asked a smart looking, middle-aged man if we were in the annexe and he confirmed that we were. It was only afterwards that I remembered the incident; during the night I could not sleep so I started reading some of the literature about the hotel and read about the butler who haunts the lobby. I recalled that I had conversed with someone there and, in hindsight, I thought it might have been someone akin to a butler. Describing him – he was neatly groomed with slicked-back grey hair and was clad in an old-fashioned tailcoat and a shirt with a butterfly collar. He may have had on a bow tie but this detail I can’t call to mind for some reason – and I also seem to remember a waistcoat with red on it too. It did not occur to me at the time that the man was anything but flesh and blood but I never saw him again during our stay. I am usually quite the skeptic and not usually prone to witnessing phenomena I can’t explain, but the more I thought about this the more I was inclined to convince myself that I had actually communicated with a phantom. Of course, this may all be malarkey and someone will write to say it was just Fred the smart Major-D and, in some ways, I hope they do. In the middle of the night it made me feel a little uncomfortable but I consoled myself with the thought that I was in the modern part of the hotel and probably less likely to experience anything there.
Hi Alan, thanks for telling us – it sounds like you have an amazing time!