Halloween in Haunted Nottinghamshire

As Halloween creeps closer, we're looking at the ghostly mark left by Nottinghamshire's dark and deadly history on some of the city and county's longstanding landmarks.

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The National Justice Museum is reported to be one of the most haunted locations in England. The building became a court in 1375 and a prison in 1449 and has a gruesome history of torture and executions. Many people over the years have heard ghostly screams, unexplained knocks and doors slamming while touring the museums corridors and dungeons.

The ancient fortress of Newark Castle has a bloody history of war, murder, suicide and even a royal death - King John died in one of it's rooms in the 1200s. Visitors have reported feeling cold shivers, hearing shouts and loud bangs and even seeing the apparition of a swinging body within the castle remains.

Many of the staff at Wollaton Hall have met some of the long dead former residents of the Elizabethan manor. They share their stories of real encounters on tours of the building's haunted rooms - you'll even get a glass of wine to steady your nerves!

Built in 1189, Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem is said to be the oldest pub in England and has collected it's fair share of unearthly visitors over the centuries. There is even rumoured to be a 'cursed galleon' - a small wooden model of a ship in one the upstairs lounge. It is claimed that people who have cleaned it have all met a mysterious death. Landlords have refused to allow anyone to dust the ship over the years and it is now encased in glass.

Carved into the sandstone outcrop beneath the Nottingham Castle is the famous tunnel known as Mortimer's Hole. The eerie passageway is said to haunted by the ghost of Sir Roger Mortimer himself, who was hung, drawn and quartered in 1330 after committing high treason against King Edward II with Queen Isabella  The Castle grounds themselves are also said to be haunted by the Queen's cries of 'Fair son, have pity on the gentle Mortimer.'

Nottingham's cave networks have had many uses throughout the ages and were even used as bomb shelters during the Second World War. People have reported hearing echos from the troubled past while exploring underground.

Lord Byron's ancestral home was a monastery in medieval times and the rooks of Newstead Abbey were believed to be the souls of the 'Black Monks' as they were seen to observe the Sabbath. Washington Irving, the author of the famous American ghost story 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow' stayed at Newstead in the 1800s has a particular interest in the peculiar ritual of the birds.

This year, Halloween falls on Monday October 31 2016 so get ready for a whole weekend pumpkins, poltergeists and the paranormal!  Take a look at the full list of events here.