Haunted hiking trails: The world’s most beautiful but terrifying walking tracks

It sounds wonderful: a moderate, 6km hike on an elevated path that offers sprawling lake and mountain views, and winds towards a commanding, stately castle. This is the Camp Rd Track, on the outskirts of Dunedin. Those who follow its route will arrive at the 19th-century Larnach Castle, known as New Zealand’s only castle, which now operates partly as a hotel and partly as a tourist attraction offering guided tours of its interior and manicured gardens.

What isn’t apparent to visitors is that this graceful building is legendarily inhabited by restless souls. Which isn’t that surprising once you learn about its ghastly history. It was built in 1871 for the family of wealthy businessman William Larnach; only for his wife to die in tragic circumstances, his family to be destroyed by controversies, and Larnach to commit suicide.

The castle was later converted into a lunatic asylum, then a hospital for shell-shocked soldiers. It is supposedly haunted by many of these souls, who are responsible for many ghost sightings in the castle and its gardens.

Norton Creek Trail, North Carolina

Beware Spearfinger. This thought bounces around the minds of hikers who follow the Norton Creek Trail through some of the finest scenery in the revered Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The 10km trail hugs the gently flowing Norton Creek, near Bryson City in North Carolina, and winds through verdant forest.

It all appears very relaxing - until you learn the Cherokee legend that this cinematic hiking trail is inhabited by a murderous witch who abducts hikers and uses her knife-like finger to remove their liver. Indigenous people refer to her as U’tlun’ta.

She supposedly has stone skin and a finger on her left hand that is as sharp as a dagger. Spearfinger looks like an elderly woman, with her face covered in the blood of previous victims. Safe to say, then, that she makes few friends.

Phae Muang Phi Forest Park, Phrae Province

Ghosts created Thailand’s scaled-down version of the Grand Canyon, where hikers follow trails through a dramatic gorge decorated by dozens of towering sandstone pillars. Despite its natural beauty, many locals avoid this “haunted” natural wonder, about 7km from the small city of Phrae in northern Thailand.

Tourists to this unique, attractive site can read a sign near its entrance that explains how it was created by the erosion of a sandstone plateau. What isn’t detailed here is why Thai people are so scared of Phae Muang Phi Forest Park.

Legend goes that this gorge was formed after a local woman found treasure in the forest. She stole the box of valuables, but as she tried to sprint away through the trees, she was caught by an angry ghost tasked with protecting the treasure. This spectre clung to the desperate woman, and weighed her down until her heavy footsteps carved out the canyon.

Doolough Valley Famine Trail, County Mayo

Despair echoes through one of Ireland’s most remote and magnificent valleys. Hemmed by jagged peaks and centred around a glassy, salmon-rich lake, the Doolough Valley epitomises the raw, natural majesty for which Ireland is renowned.

Nowadays, this rugged location in County Mayo, about three and a half hours’ drive west of Dublin, attracts a steady stream of tourists. That is because of the popularity of the Wild Atlantic Way, a signposted, 2600km drive that guides visitors to the finest spots along the entirety of Ireland’s western coastline.

Some tourists, meanwhile, are lured to Doolough Valley by its unnerving Famine Trail. This 40km return hiking route pierces extraordinary scenery while following the trail of the so-called “Journey of Horror”. During the peak of Ireland’s famine, which killed 25% of its population in the mid-1800s, about 600 starving people trudged along this route, believing that food and shelter were on offer at its end. They were wrong, and 400 of them collapsed and died along the way, with their spirits now haunting the site.

North Head Circuit, Sydney

Sydney is renowned for its memorable seaside walking routes, which hug the cliffs, bays and beaches of its sparkling coastline. One such trail, however, has long had its beauty shrouded by horrific history. The 10km North Head Circuit begins at Manly Beach, one of Australia’s most popular strips of sand, lined by parks, bars and cafes.

The trail, which is suitable for most ages, curls through forest and past the unnerving Quarantine Station. Now a tourist attraction that hosts restaurants and accommodation, this 1830s facility long echoed with the screams of sailors.

Those terrified seamen were locked up in horrific conditions here, after arriving on Australian shores with an infectious disease. Countless visitors to the Quarantine Station have reported seeing, hearing or feeling strange and unexplainable things. Which is why it’s widely considered Sydney’s most haunted location, with regular “fright” tours of its preserved buildings.

Hoia-Baciu Forest, Transylvania

Dubbed the “world’s most haunted forest”, Hoia-Baciu is a dark, dense expanse in mountainous Transylvania, a region of Romania popularly linked to Dracula. But locals are also fearful of walking in this serene green space because of UFO sightings, ghost encounters and frequent reports of hikers experiencing eerie, unexplained events.

Hoia-Baciu Forest is in northeast Romania, alongside the small, historic city of Cluj-Napoca. It sits amid the vast region of Transylvania, which is world-famous because it is the setting for easily the most famous vampire story in history. In the novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker, an English lawyer is sent to this mountainous swathe of Romania, where the bloodthirsty Count Dracula keeps him locked in a giant castle.

Dracula is commonly considered to have been partly inspired by 15th century Romanian prince Vlad the Impaler, infamous for using extreme violence. Vlad reputedly left corpses strewn through Hoia-Baciu Forest. Although you won’t see them while following the 12km loop walk through this lush sanctuary.