5 of the World's Most Haunted Universities

Psych yourself up for Halloween this year with a spooky rundown of the world’s most haunted universities… In pictures!

1. University of St Andrews

Dating back almost six centuries, the University of St Andrews is incredibly historic. As well as being Scotland’s oldest university, it’s also one of the most haunted universities in the world – purportedly home to about half a dozen Scottish-accented ghosts…

St Rule’s Tower in St Andrews Cathedral is frequented by a ‘ghostly monk’, who ensures the safety of visitors venturing forth into the tower. The ‘white lady of St Andrews’ is another regular visitor whose youthful beauty, white frock and nocturnal strolls across the cathedral grounds, particularly in the months of October and November, continue to inspire much awe and gossip in the eerie corridors of the university.

2. Gettysburg College

Spaces that once bore witness to terrible acts of violence can exude an uncanny malaise – a sense that something’s not quite right… Such is the case of Gettysburg College, America’s most haunted college and also the site of the bloody Battle of Gettysburg.

As Jon, a 2004 graduate of the college, comments in the The Gettysburgian, “Everyone here has their own ghost story […] Students or teachers, they have some kind of experience with a ghost or weird occurrence like that.”

The spectral energies at the site are perhaps unsurprising, given its history as a war hospital during the Battle of Gettysburg, part of the American Civil War. Famous ghosts who continue to stalk the passages of Penn Hall include the armed lone sentinel and the ‘blue boy’, an orphan tragically frozen to death.

3. University of Toronto

While the University of Toronto is widely known for its strong academic reputation, it’s also another of the most haunted universities around – at least according to its student publication, the UofT Magazine.

Christie Mansion, a building on the university campus, was apparently the site of an illicit love affair and untimely death, circa 1870. The mansion’s owner, Robert Christie, was a rich businessman who kept his mistress hidden in a secret chamber behind his library: the infamous room 29.

After much despair, Christie’s mistress hung herself from the rafters with her bedsheets. The subject of many books, including John Robert Colombo’s ghost map of the Canadian city titled Haunted Toronto, the poor captive’s fate continues to inspire tales of hauntings and mysteriously locked doors…

4. Ateneo de Manila University      

Based in the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University is one of the oldest colleges in the country. Once run by Jesuit priests, the university was converted into a military camp at the time of the Japanese occupation during the Second World War.

Reports of unnatural phenomena include nocturnal sightings of mythical creatures resting by the mango tree at the high school oval and mysterious apparitions of Japanese soldiers smoking rolled up cigarettes in the Cervini Dormitory.

5. University of Alabama

The University of Alabama became a military academy in 1860 to train Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War. A few buildings dating back from the period have survived, and harbor, according to some, much paranormal activity.

Alleged ghosts of the University of Alabama include a tall confederate soldier lurking by the Roundhouse, or ‘Jason’s Shrine’, which was used as a cadet guardhouse during the war.

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