TOP 7 MOST HAUNTED FORESTS AND WOODS

7- Screaming Woods

Pluckley, Kent, UK

Dering Woods a.k.a. Screaming Woods sit just south of what is said to be the most haunted village in Britain, Pluckley. The woods get their name because of the blood curdling screams people sometimes hear coming from the forest late at night. Described as the most haunted woodland in Kent, Screaming Woods is said to be haunted by a highwayman who was captured by villagers, brought to the woods, pinned to a tree and killed with a sword, and a screaming man who is said to have fallen to his death. Here's a post from an interesting message board thread where people are discussing Screaming Woods and sharing experiences. ▼

I was in pluckley and a group of friends and i deicided to go to deering woods (screaming woods) when we got there ther were birds singing and the atmosphear seemed quite happy we pulled up the other car in the car park left we got out the car and my friend noticed that the birds had stopped singing as we went into the woods you could have heard a pin drop we walked in up to half way towards the cross roads and us girls decided to come out so we went in to the car and the boys went bac in about 20 min later the boys came running out they got in the car started the car and turned it head on to the woods were my friends brand new car stalled head on and we saw this dark black mist coming towards us as if it was walking down the path (there was definatly something) we then went down to the black horse pub were we discussed the days ghost hunt a we always did and the boys said that it was only when they started getting close to the crossroads that it apperead so they ran out. we have talked to a few of the local people who have said that early in the morning you can here screaming coming from the woods.

- Read the entire thread here --> Source

6- Epping Forest

Essex, England, UK

©Diliff

The birth of Epping Forest goes back to 8000 BC and its history is rich.▼

Most of the history of the forest may have been lost with time. However, there is still evidence of “Iron Age” forts; stories of Iceni Warriors; Roman battles; Saxon saints; Norman invaders; Tudor hunting grounds; notorious highwaymen; a place to escape war and plague, and a retreat for famous artists and writers.

- Source

Epping Forest is also notorious for its link with crime. The famous highwayman Dick Turpin had a hideout there, he lived for many years in a cave at High Beach. He and his partner Tom King would rob most people who would pass by. The Most Haunted show did an investigation in Epping Forest looking for the spirit of Dick Turpin and apparently they found him there. Because of its proximity to the city of London, the forest is also a notorious burial area for murder victims. Another reason why this forest is notorious is because of its ghost stories. People have reported apparitions, lights and there's even a spot called the Hangman’s Hill at High Beach where some claims that when put in neutral, your car is going to be pulled uphill.▼

Legend has it that if you park on the hill the car will roll up it instead of down as you reach the top and look straight ahead you will see a bare field with just a tree in it which is apparently where a man was hung, supposedly you are being pulled up the hill by the hangman.

- Source

Some claim that it is an optical illusion and that the road doesn't go uphill while others swears that they tested the hill with balls which they say proves it is not an illusion. Here's below a post from an interesting thread discussing Epping Forest as well as Hangman’s Hill.▼

if you get the correct hill, its got a big oak tree at the top, which branch spreads across the road, and there is a ditch with a 30mph sign with graphitti on it stuck in the ground. And it is freaky, cos i've been there a few times, and we got out of the car, and actually watched our car roll up hill towards the tree, then it rolls back down again. We even tested with a ball, and it stood by the tree at the top and the ball rolled down, so it does go up hill.

- Read the entire thread here --> LINK

5- Pembrey Woods

Carmarthenshire, Wales, UK

©forestry.gov.uk

Human activities in Pembrey Woods dates back to at least 400 B.C. when a fort was established there. The area is better known for what the locals call the "little hatchet men of Pembrey" who would lure ships with their lanterns close to a coast line that was filled with dangerous rocks, ultimately wrecking the ships. The little hatchet men would then slauther the survivors and rob everything they could. From the 19th century, gun powder and dynamite was produced in the forest. Close by, was a RAF air field and during the second world war, many damaged planes crashed in the area trying to make it home. Many ghosts are seen roaming in the forest as well as on the shores, from the little hatchet men to the ghost of a second world war air man, people have also seen ghost ships with dead sailors onboard. The Most Haunted show did an investigation there and here's a post from a message board thread where people are describing what was seen on the show as well as sharing a few personal stories. ▼

"Went camping in them woods with some friends last year,and I must say omg,I have mediumship but not trained,call it a gift,anyway we set up camp in the woods and made a fire,when night fell I had this strange feeling of we wasn't alone there and it was far from suggestive thinking!anyway I could see shadows moving across the trees and so did the rest of my friends,I also sensed a cavalier type man greeting me at the fire,now the funny thing is I told one of my friends this who was with us and she turned around and said omg I just saw the outline of a man standing by a tree looking over and he had the outline of a cavalier type person,she told me this after I had told her,we also saw strange lights in the distance inside the woods from our camp site,also got mouning in my ear not very nice let me tell you and the last thing I would like to add is when one of my friends went walking around the woods at night he said that it felt like some had gripped the bottom of his leg,hence the reason why he went flying to the ground!! all in all a very nice place to visit but also very creepy and you just know there's something there !!!"

- Read the entire thread here --> LINK

4- Old House Woods

Mathews County, Virginia, USA

Photo courtesy of www.lifeinmathews.blogspot.com

Mathews is a small county that still doesn't have traffic signal lights but in the 1600s, it was a very important place. It was the home of a very active port during the pre- Revolutionary, Revolutionary and Civil War eras. With so much history, it is no wonder that the woods and the nearby beach are said to be so haunted. Stories involving pirates, Spanish soldiers, treasures, British Redcoats, a burial ground, slaves and Native Americans are told. Some of the paranormal sightings reported are quite fantastic, skeletons in knight’s armor wielding threatening swords, a ghost ship hovering over the woods, ghost horses and cows, floating lights, ghost diggers, headless dogs as well as ghostly British soldiers, Spanish soldiers and pirates. But what about the name you ask? There was a colonial homestead in the center of those woods. The house caught fire but put itself out. A few years later however, another fire burned it down for good. The house is no more. Here's below a story from an interesting web page describing Old House Woods along with many stories submitted by users. ▼

I grew up in the area and have driven by it several times but always during the day. As a local I was always told by the adults not to venture into the Old House Woods, but as a college student I really wanted to. I brought some friends back to Tidewater Va to show them around. One of my friends asked if I knew of any haunted places and so I took them here. Upon entering the woods I noticed an immediate drop in temperature. After an hour of trampling around we decided to head back to the car. As we made our approach we heard someone trampling through the woods. Up ahead a figure started to appear walking toward us, as it came near we realized it wasn't on the ground but about a foot over. It was a man it military regalia, 18th Century British, who looked lost, he walked right between us. One of my friends began to cry he was scared so badly, I myself was truly believing what I had just seen. The Middle Peninsula is a haunted place steeped in a rich history.

- Read the other stories here --> LINK

Here's below another interesting story taking place in Old House Woods. ▼

In the summer of 2006, I went to Old House Woods. I have a friend who has a house very close to the woods itself. My friend (Dylan), my sister (Brandy) and her husband (David), another friend (Mike), and I had heard of all of the stories of ghosts and we wanted to see if they where true. A little while past midnight, we walked down Old House Woods Rd armed with cameras to see if we could find anything. As soon as we stepped onto the road, we felt an angry presence that we couldn't shake. We saw nothing with the cameras and nothing with our own eyes, but something much creepier happened. ... (continue reading by click the link below)

- Read the rest of the story here --> LINK

Photo courtesy of http://lifeinmathews.blogspot.com/

[Note that Old House Woods is apparently privately owned and the owner, or a person living close to it will call the cops if you trespass.]

3- Freetown State Forest

Southeastern Massachusetts, USA

Photo from www.masscrossroads.com

Freetown was purchased in 1659 from the Wampanoag Tribe and became a town in 1683. It is part of what paranormal investigators call the "Bridgewater Triangle".▼

The Bridgewater Triangle is an area of about 200 square miles (520 km2) within southeastern Massachusetts in the United States.[1] Since colonial times the area has been a site of alleged paranormal phenomena, ranging from UFO and "black helicopter" sightings (including many with multiple points of corroboration including police and a local news team), to poltergeists and orbs, balls of fire and other spectral phenomena, various "bigfoot" sightings, giant snakes and "thunderbirds", as well as the mutilation of cattle and other livestock.

Although known for centuries[2] as an area of unusual and unexplained activity, the specific boundaries of the Bridgewater Triangle were first defined by paranormal researcher Loren Coleman in his book Mysterious America.[3] The Triangle encompasses the towns of Abington, Brockton, Rehoboth and Freetown at the points of the triangle, and Norton, Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, Middleboro, Dighton, Berkley, Raynham, Easton, Lakeville, Seekonk, and Taunton inside the triangle. A similar but lesser-known area exists in neighboring Vermont called the Bennington Triangle.

- Wikipedia.org, Source

But it is the Freetown State Forest that hosts the bulk of the paranormal activities. Not very surprising when you look at the history of this forest. The Native Americans believed the land the be highly sacred and when it was sold by Wamitta, the Wampanoag Tribe might not have backed the deal. Because of it, it is believed that the forest is cursed. On top of containing several Indian burial grounds, the forest has also been the location of several murders, crimes and satanic rituals.

Perhaps the most famous case involving the forest revolved around a local pimp and the killing of several local prostitutes. In the late seventies and early eighties Carl Drew ran his business out of Fall River and was implicated in the murder of at least three women under him. One of the victims was dumped in the forest and the initial investigation pointed to more cult activity. Several witness stepped forward saying Drew was the leader of a satanic cult and that the killings had been part of his need for human sacrifice.

- Massachusetts Paranormal Crossroad, Source

UFO sightings, bigfoot, ghosts, military activities, animal mutilations, pukwudgies (troll-like creatures), etc.. this is a very active paranormal site. Here's below a post from an interesting message board thread where people are discussing Freetown Forest and sharing experiences.▼

I belong to a paranormal research society. I have had more than my experiences in the Freetown state forest. I have seen spirit/ shadow people, A large white wolf, and a Spirit of a little girl near the sight where they found Mary lou Arruda's body in 1978. I didn't know the history of the forest until after researching the sitings I had. I recently spent the entire night in the forest with my group. We had some people feel like they were pushed. We heard laughter in the woods. occasionally we heard groans, breathing and screams. We walked 2.5 miles in the woods. ending at the top of the Ledge. Many time seeing lights glowing like softball size fireflies at the top of the trees. On from our group swore she saw some one jumping from tree to tree but unverified via film. Still need to go over evp recording and Hi 8 Video.

- Read the entire thread here --> LINK

2- Aokigahara Forest

Mount Fuji, Japan

©ajari

Aokigahara Forest, bordering Mt. Fuji, is also known as "Death Forest", "Suicide Forest" or "Sea of Trees". Every year, around 30 people go there to commit suicide and around 500 have died there since the 1950's. A few Japanese books describing Aokigahara Forest as "The perfect place to die" have contributed greatly to the problem. It is not uncommon if you visit the forest to find bodies hanging from the trees and skeletons on the ground. But Aokigahara Forest has been a place where people go die for much longer than just half a century:

In lean years gone by impoverished local inhabitants would bring those that could not feed themselves to the forest to die. The elderly and infirm, the young and disturbed would die long, drawn-out demises starving to death, their unheeded cries stifled by the notorious denseness of the trees.

- Source

Paranormal phenomena have been reported by many local residents as well as visitors. Many even consider Aokigahara Forest as Japan's most haunted spot:

Aokigahara is considered the most haunted location in all of Japan, a purgatory for yurei, the unsettled ghosts of Japan who have been torn unnaturally soon from their lives and who howl their suffering on the winds. Spiritualists say that the trees themselves are filled with a malevolent energy, accumulated from centuries of suicides. They don't want you to go back out.

- Source

Here's an interesting story told by a man who visited this ancient and haunted forest with his girlfriend:

"anyway I was looking for a thrill and wanted to hike so we went into Aokigahara the day after....and boy oh boy.....it was the CREEPIEST place ever. (...) At this point my girlfriend felt very uncomfortable and wanted to leave so we backtracked....and thats when I stumbled on some bones. I freaked out, it was still wearing decaying jeans and Nikes. I f***ing started running. The more we ran the more the forest seemed to envelop us....I started freaking out some more thinking paranoid thoughts about how we might die in the forst. we ran around desperately I started to see things. No straight up ghostly apparitions....but a few times I could have sworn I saw somebody standing next to a tree but when I looked back there was nothing." ... (continue reading by clicking the link below)

- Read the entire story here --> LINK

1- Hoia-Baciu Forest

Transylvania, Romania

The Hoia-Baciu forest, also known as the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania has become famous since 1968 when biologist Alexandru Sift captured a photo of a disc-shaped UFO flying above it. However, the locals have known all about the forest for much longer. They considered it an evil, cursed place and it was viewed as a taboo subject. The forest is viewed as one of the most haunted spot in the world and over the years, many ghost hunters, paranormal investigators and parapsychologists have been attracted to it. One of those people is Dr. Adrian Patrut, a chemistry professor at the local university and parapsychologist.▼

Dr. Adrian Patrut, a chemistry professor at the local university, claims that though there are many places around the world with unexplained phenomena, the “Hoia-Baciu Forest is one of the best due to the intensity, variety and complexity of its manifestations.”

Patrut is president of the Romanian Society of Parapsychology and since the early ’70s he has been studying occurrences in the forest such as unexplained splotches of light and luminescent orbs hovering in the sky. He says that when you spend too much time in the HBF, you can experience symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, excessive thirst, nausea, vomiting and headaches.

- Metro News, Source

Some researchers have claimed that this forest is a portal to another dimension or spirit world. Locals warn that if you enter the forest, you may never return. Destination Truth, a SyFy channel show decided to go to Hoia-Baciu Forest and investigate. What they found is a place with an abundance of paranormal activities. Here's a blog entry describing very well what happened during that episode.▼

Evan is sent out to do the next isolation session. He hears female voices from the woods behind him. Then he seems to suddenly vanish in a flash of light.

The team rushes to the clearing and finds him lying on the ground several feet from where he had been sitting, somewhat unresponsive and in shock. He has numerous with fresh linear scratches “like clawmarks” up his arms, which had been covered by sturdy sleeves. When he finally recovers he says that “it felt like wind just blew at me,” and suddenly pushed him across the clearing. Replaying the footage frame by frame shows Evan caught in a split second with his arms blown up and out behind him, as though he had just been hit by an invisible force.

- Read the full summary of the show here --> LINK

Hoia-Baciu Forest is truly a mysterious place that may look like something out of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. The trees are spooky, wraped and crooked. Here's what Dr. Adrian Patrut has to say on that subject.▼

Patrut claims that these trees were normal a few years ago. Now they are warped, “A clear sign of an apparition.”

- Metro News, Source