64 haunted destinations cataloged across South Carolina, spanning 34 counties. The collection features outdoor, cemetery, and haunted hotel — every listing verified with family ratings, accessibility info, and practical visit logistics.
Ridgeland, SC
The Battle of Honey Hill, fought November 30, 1864, in present-day Jasper County, South Carolina, was the third engagement of the Savannah Campaign. A Union expedition under Brig. Gen. John P. Hatch attempted to sever the Charleston and Savannah Railroad in support of Sherman's advance and was repulsed by entrenched Confederates under Col. Charles J. Colcock.
Charleston, SC
Magnolia Cemetery was dedicated in 1850 on the grounds of the former Magnolia Umbra Plantation on the Cooper River, becoming Charleston's first rural-style cemetery. Architect Edward C. Jones designed both the landscape plan and a Gothic Revival chapel. The cemetery's Soldiers Ground became the principal Confederate burial location for Charleston during the Civil War.
Charleston, SC
The Old Charleston Jail at 21 Magazine Street operated as the Charleston city jail from 1802 to 1939. The building held debtors, enslaved people accused of resistance, Civil War prisoners of war, and criminals awaiting execution, including Lavinia and John Fisher, who were hanged in 1820. The jail is on the National Register of Historic Places and is operated for tours by Bulldog Tours.
Plantersville, SC
Prince Frederick's Chapel Ruins in Plantersville, South Carolina are the surviving wall and tower of a Gothic Revival church begun in 1859, interrupted by the Civil War, and completed in 1876. The chapel served Pee Dee River rice planters until the decline of the rice economy and was demolished in 1966. The ruins were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Beech Island, SC
Redcliffe was built between 1857 and 1859 for South Carolina governor and U.S. senator James Henry Hammond. The transitional Greek Revival mansion served as the residence of three generations of the Hammond family before being donated to the state in 1973 by Hammond's great-grandson, John Shaw Billings, the managing editor of Time and Life magazines.
McCormick, SC
Badwell Cemetery in McCormick County holds the remains of the Petigru family and other French Huguenot settlers who established Badwell Plantation in the mid-to-late 18th century. The site is tied to New Bordeaux, the last of seven French Huguenot colonies in South Carolina, founded in 1764 by the Reverend Jean Louis Gibert. The Sumter National Forest acquired the property in the 1970s and has collaborated with local historical organizations to restore the site since 2009.
Charleston, SC
The Battery Carriage House Inn at 20 South Battery in Charleston, South Carolina occupies an 1845 antebellum mansion steps from White Point Garden. The property survived the Civil War, duels fought nearby, and Charleston's 20th-century preservation battles. Dr. Jack Schaeffer's restoration returned the mansion to its 1800s appearance, preserving its original marble staircase and Italian mosaic floors.
Charleston, SC
Drayton Hall is an unrestored Palladian plantation house on the Ashley River outside Charleston, South Carolina, built beginning in 1738 by John Drayton Sr. It is the only Ashley River plantation house to survive intact through both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars and is preserved by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Charleston, SC
Magnolia Plantation was established in 1676 by Thomas and Ann Drayton, English settlers from Barbados, and remains under the control of the Drayton family after fifteen generations. The plantation's wealth derived from Carolina Gold rice cultivated by enslaved Africans. Magnolia opened its gardens to the public in 1871, making it one of the oldest public gardens in the United States.
Charleston, SC
St. Philip's Episcopal Church is one of the oldest religious congregations in the southern United States, founded in 1681. The present 1838 Greek Revival church on Church Street replaced an earlier 1723 building destroyed by fire. The two graveyards across Church Street contain burials from the early 18th century through the present, including signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Charleston, SC
The Rutledge Victorian Bed & Breakfast is a downtown Charleston painted-lady inn on Rutledge Avenue. The building is described in inn directories and traveler reviews as having been rebuilt in the 1980s following an earlier fire, and operated as a guest house since at least 2004.
Charleston, SC
The congregation was established in 1681 with the founding of Charles Towne by English Congregationalists, Scots Presbyterians, and French Huguenots. The adjoining graveyard is the oldest English burial ground in Charleston, with some stones dating to 1695. A British cannonball burst in the graveyard during Sunday services in the 1780 siege. The earlier 1804 sanctuary was destroyed by fire in 1861; the current Romanesque Revival building was constructed 1890-1892 using salvaged brick from the predecessor.
Charleston, SC
The original Dock Street Theatre opened on February 12, 1736 on this site — the first building in America constructed purposely for theatrical performances — and was probably lost to Charleston's 1740 fire. In 1809 Alexander Calder built the Planters Hotel here; in 1936 a WPA project transformed the hotel into the present theater. The City of Charleston owns the building and leases it to Charleston Stage.
Charleston, SC
Construction of Fort Sumter began in 1829 on a man-made island at the mouth of Charleston Harbor. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces opened a 34-hour bombardment that began the Civil War, and the fort's surrender on April 14 produced the war's first fatality - Private Daniel Hough of County Tipperary, Ireland.
Charleston, SC
Local grain merchant Otis Mills opened the Mills House on November 3, 1853 at the corner of Meeting and Queen streets as a 180-room luxury hotel. It hosted Robert E. Lee during the Great Fire of December 11, 1861. The building survived the Civil War but declined by the mid-20th century. It was demolished in late 1968; a 1970 replica preserved the original ironwork and reinstalled the historic facade. The hotel now operates as Mills House Charleston, Curio Collection by Hilton.
Charleston, SC
Built 1767-1771 as Charleston's Royal Exchange and Customs House, the Old Exchange anchored the colonial port's commerce. Its basement, the Provost Dungeon, became a British military prison after Charleston's 1780 fall, holding patriots including three signers of the Declaration of Independence. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973.
Charleston, SC
The Victorian house was built in 1888 on Queen Street as a private residence. It served as a home into the mid-20th century — including for the St. Amand sisters, schoolteachers — and in 1976 Bobbie Ball converted it into Poogan's Porch, named for a scruffy neighborhood dog who befriended the new owners.
Charleston, SC
St. Michael's is the oldest surviving religious structure in Charleston. Royal governor James Glenn laid the cornerstone in February 1752, the church opened for services in 1761, and it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.
Charleston, SC
Authorized by the Province of Carolina in 1703 and completed in 1713, the Powder Magazine is the oldest surviving public building in what was once the Province of Carolina. It stored gunpowder for Charleston's defense from 1713 to 1748 and again during the American Revolution. After military retirement around 1780 it served variously as a print shop, livery stable, and the Manigault family wine cellar; in 1902 the Colonial Dames acquired it and opened it as a museum.
Charleston, SC
The congregation organized in 1772 as an overflow from Charleston's Congregational Church; construction began that year, was interrupted by the Revolutionary War (the building used as a barracks and stable), and was completed in 1787. The current church building was reconstructed in Gothic Revival style in the 1850s. The adjoining cemetery, established in 1772, was deliberately landscaped from the 1830s by Caroline Howard Gilman as a wildflower garden in the Mount Auburn (Massachusetts) tradition.
Charleston, SC
Established as a city park in 1837 on the southern tip of the Charleston peninsula, White Point Garden sits where Charleston Harbor receives the Ashley and Cooper rivers. The site is historically known as the execution ground for 49 pirates hanged between November and December 1718.
Blacksburg, SC
Kings Mountain State Park in York County, South Carolina preserves the landscape adjoining the October 7, 1780 battlefield where Patriot militia defeated Major Patrick Ferguson's Loyalist force — the only British officer on the field. Thomas Jefferson described the outcome as 'the turn of the tide of success' in the Revolution. The park itself was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.
Blacksburg, SC
Rock House Road runs along the western edge of Kings Mountain National Military Park in Cherokee County, South Carolina, near Blacksburg. The road takes its name from an early nineteenth-century stone house that still stands on private property and is opened to the public only one day per year.
Hilton Head Island, SC
The Stoney-Baynard Plantation ruins on Hilton Head Island are the surviving tabby walls of a 1793 main house built by Revolutionary War captain Jack Stoney as part of the Braddock's Point Plantation. The Bank of Charleston sold the property to William E. Baynard in 1845; the plantation was raided and used as a Union headquarters during the Civil War before being burned.
Hilton Head Island, SC
The Hilton Head Rear Range Light, also called the Leamington Lighthouse, is a skeletal-framed lighthouse on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. It is the island's only true working-era lighthouse and is preserved at Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort, distinct from the better-known faux Harbour Town Lighthouse.
Mount Pleasant, SC
Boone Hall Plantation was founded in 1681 by Major John Boone and developed into America's oldest continuously operating plantation. The 738-acre estate originally produced rice using enslaved labor. In the 19th century, the plantation shifted to producing bricks and clay products through dangerous kiln operations that claimed many lives. The property has remained active through the present day.
Mount Pleasant, SC
USS Yorktown (CV-10) is an Essex-class aircraft carrier commissioned in April 1943. The carrier earned eleven battle stars in the Pacific campaign of World War II and an additional five battle stars during the Vietnam War. Yorktown was decommissioned in 1970 and donated to South Carolina in 1974; she opened to the public at Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant in 1975.
Pawleys Island, SC
All Saints Waccamaw Parish was established in 1737 as the Anglican parish for the Waccamaw Neck rice planters of coastal South Carolina. The cemetery contains burials from prominent antebellum planting families, including the Flagg family — whose youngest daughter Alice, died of fever in 1849, has become the subject of South Carolina's most-visited folklore gravesite.
Pawleys Island, SC
The Pelican Inn on Pawleys Island, South Carolina, was built in the 1840s as the summer residence of Plowden Charles Jenrette Weston, owner of the Hagley Plantation on the Waccamaw River. Constructed of cypress lumber with wooden pegs and hand-cut nails, the structure has survived Hurricane Hazel (1954) and Hurricane Hugo (1989) intact, aided by its position behind the highest dune on the island. Current owners Corinne and Bruce purchased it in 2009. The inn operates as an eight-room beachfront bed and breakfast.
Sumter, SC
Martinville Church Road (County Road 9) runs through the Martin Town community in rural Sumter County, South Carolina. The road passes at least two documented historic cemeteries — St. Paul Church Cemetery and New Covenant Presbyterian Church Cemetery (formerly Bethlehem Second Presbyterian Church). The road is also known as Martin Town Road, and the surrounding area is sometimes called the Martin Town Community.
Sumter, SC
The bridge carries U.S. Highway 378 (concurrent with U.S. 76 along this stretch) across the Wateree River and its swamp between Sumter County and Richland County in the South Carolina Midlands, on the route toward Columbia. The crossing dates in legend to the 1930s, 'when the bridge was new.' The South Carolina DOT has more recently undertaken replacement of the westbound Wateree River bridge, so the physical structure has changed over time.
Abbeville, SC
The Abbeville Opera House opened in 1908 as part of a combined Opera House and City Hall complex on Court Square. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the venue once hosted touring vaudeville circuits and silent films and continues to operate as a working community theater in upstate South Carolina.
Aiken, SC
The hotel at the corner of Richland Avenue and Laurens Street in Aiken was built in 1898 by Henry Hahn as the Commercial Hotel. It was bought by Leonard R. Holley in 1929 and operated as the Holley House for over 70 years before becoming Hotel Aiken in 2001.
Beaufort, SC
The Castle, also known as the Joseph Johnson House, is a Greek Revival mansion in Beaufort's Point neighborhood. Construction was substantially complete in 1861 when Union troops occupied the city; the unfinished building served as a Union military hospital before the Johnson family reclaimed it after the war. The Verdier-Marshall House name in the discovery context appears to conflate The Castle with the separate John Mark Verdier House on Bay Street.
Cayce, SC
Cyril B. Busbee Middle School (now Cyril B. Busbee Creative Arts Academy) is a public magnet school in Cayce, South Carolina, serving grades 6-8 as part of the Lexington County School District Two. The school specializes in arts-based education while maintaining traditional academic curriculum. The facility includes multiple instructional pods, including E-pod where the alleged accident occurred.
Clinton, SC
Lydia Mill operated as a cotton mill in Clinton, South Carolina, with origins in the early 20th century. The mill, like many in the upstate Piedmont, supported a small village of worker housing on its grounds. The mill is no longer in operation and the surviving ruins sit adjacent to active railroad tracks.
Columbia, SC
Longstreet Theatre was constructed in 1855 as a chapel and auditorium at the University of South Carolina. During the Civil War, when the university suspended operations, the building was converted into a 300-bed Confederate field hospital with a working morgue in its barrel-vaulted basement. The Department of Theatre and Dance has occupied the building since the 1970s after extensive renovation converted it into a 312-seat arena stage.
Conway, SC
The Lucas Bay Light was a documented mystery light phenomenon observed along what is now Gilbert Road in Horry County, South Carolina for decades before approximately 1996. Following SCDOT road construction in the Lucas Bay area around that time, reports of the light ceased. The road was renamed as part of the same infrastructure work — what was Lucas Bay Road is now Gilbert Road, and the name Lucas Bay Road now applies to a different local road.
Cross Hill, SC
Bethabara Baptist Church was founded in 1794 by Elders John Waller, Richard Shackleford, and David Lilly in the rural piedmont region of South Carolina. The accompanying cemetery contains 218 graves spanning generations, including burial sites from the Civil War period when this region saw significant military activity and loss.
Darlington, SC
Montrose Cemetery — also known as Lowther's Hill Cemetery — was established in 1789 on the grounds of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Darlington County, South Carolina. A large entrance stone records the names and dates of burial of those interred. The cemetery was reportedly moved from its original location at some point in its history.
Edisto Island, SC
Parker's Ferry Road on Edisto Island leads to Edisto Island Presbyterian Church and its historic cemetery. The cemetery contains the LeGare family mausoleum, focal point of a regional buried-alive legend dating to the mid-1800s. The mausoleum's stone door, repeatedly resealed, now lies on the ground beside the structure.
Gaffney, SC
Lee Roy Martin, known as the Gaffney Strangler, was a serial killer active in Cherokee County, South Carolina from 1967 to 1968, murdering four women and girls. One victim, Nancy Carol Parris, was found in shallow water near People's Creek bridge in Gaffney — a location that has since become locally known as Leroy's Bridge. Martin was arrested in February 1968, convicted on four counts of murder, and died in prison in 1972.
Greenville, SC
The cemetery off Old Buncombe Road near Furman University and the University Square area in Greenville, South Carolina, is the burial ground of the former Duncan Chapel Methodist Church, which dates to 1847. The church building is gone, but the graves remain, with markers reportedly ranging from the 1700s into the late 1800s. Locals have long called it the 'Children's Graveyard,' though documentation indicates it holds no unusual concentration of children's graves compared with other period cemeteries.
Greenwood, SC
Brewer Middle School serves the Greenwood 50 School District in Greenwood County, South Carolina, educating students in grades 6-8. The school's gymnasium is a standard institutional facility hosting athletics, assemblies, and student activities. The school's documented history as an educational institution spans decades of community service.
Indian Land, SC
The Devil's Stomping Ground is a circular area of barren earth beside Highway 521 in the Indian Land area of Lancaster County, South Carolina. The location sits in territory historically occupied by the Waxhaw and Catawba peoples. The Waxhaw, believed by some historians to be a branch of the larger Catawba nation, were present in this area when European settlers arrived and later became extinct as a distinct tribe. Lancaster County's Indian Land community takes its name from the sustained Indigenous presence here long after surrounding areas were settled by Europeans.
Johns Island, SC
Fenwick Hall is a Georgian plantation house built around 1730 on Johns Island, South Carolina. The property was acquired by the Fenwick family, served as a British headquarters during the 1780 occupation of Charleston, and functioned as a hospital during the Civil War. From 1980 to 1995 it operated as Fenwick Hall Hospital, a private addiction treatment center.
Latta, SC
The Community of Bingham is a small rural settlement in Dillon County, SC, near Latta, centered historically around a railroad line that has since been pulled up. The Bingham's Light phenomenon has been reported in the area since at least the late 19th century. Local tradition associates it with a figure — known variously as John or Bill Bingham — who died on the railroad tracks, though the historical identity of this individual has not been independently documented.
Lockhart, SC
Lockhart, South Carolina is a small mill community in Union County whose founding was tied to the first Lockhart Mill, completed in 1894. The two-mile Lockhart Canal, originally completed in 1823 and designed by state architect Robert Mills, powers the Lockhart Power Company's hydroelectric facility. The water tower serving this mill community dates to the industrial infrastructure of that era.
Lyman, SC
Lyman Lake is a 350-acre reservoir on the Middle Tyger River in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. The dam was commissioned in 1955 for recreational purposes and is managed by the SJWD Water District. The public park at 200 Lyman Lodge Road provides fishing and boating access.
Manning, SC
Manning Cemetery in Clarendon County, South Carolina is a rural roadside burial ground in the Santee Cooper Country region. No documented historical records specific to the cemetery were located in web research beyond its presence in Find a Grave records and local ghost story collections.
McClellanville, SC
The Cape Romain lighthouses on Lighthouse Island, within the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge in South Carolina, comprise an 1827 65-foot tower and an 1857 150-foot replacement built using enslaved labor. The 1857 tower has been visibly leaning for more than a century due to foundation settling. The site is accessible only by boat.
McConnells, SC
The Enslaved Ancestral Burial Ground at Historic Brattonsville in York County, South Carolina, holds the remains of at least 481 people of African descent enslaved at the Bratton plantation. The cemetery was formally reconsecrated in February 2025 with markers placed at each documented grave. Watt, the enslaved man whose 1780 warning enabled the Patriot victory at the Battle of Huck's Defeat, is buried here.
Murrells Inlet, SC
The Hermitage in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, was constructed in 1849 as the summer home of rice planter and Methodist minister James Lynch Belin. The property subsequently became the summer residence of Dr. Allard Belin Flagg, a physician whose sister Alice spent time at the house. The Hermitage is listed as a contributing property in the Murrells Inlet Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a private residence and is not open to public visits.
Myrtle Beach, SC
Myrtle Beach has been a South Carolina resort destination since the early twentieth century, growing from a small community to one of the most-visited beaches on the East Coast. Its coastline and surrounding region carry centuries of maritime history — shipwrecks, pirate activity, lighthouse tragedies — that form the foundation for its substantial body of local ghost lore.
Newberry, SC
The Hound of Goshen legend is attached to the historic Old Buncombe Road through the Goshen Hill section of Newberry County, South Carolina, an old route connecting Newberry and Union counties. The story is thought to have originated in the mid-1800s and is one of the most thoroughly documented ghost legends in the state, covered by South Carolina ETV, regional newspapers, and local historians.
North Augusta, SC
Rosemary Hall in North Augusta, South Carolina, was completed in 1902 by James U. Jackson, the founding father of the city of North Augusta. The two-story Greek Revival home is built around rare rosemary pine paneling that gave the house its name, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It currently operates as the Rosemary Inn bed and breakfast.
Parris Island, SC
Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, established in 1915 on a South Carolina sea island, has trained Marine recruits for over a century. On April 8, 1956, Staff Sergeant Matthew McKeon marched his 74-man Platoon 71 into Ribbon Creek — a tidal swamp creek — at night. Six recruits drowned. McKeon was court-martialed and convicted of negligent homicide.
Spartanburg, SC
Gettys D. Broome High School was constructed in 1975-1976 in Spartanburg as a result of school district consolidation, merging Cowpens and Pacolet High Schools into a single new facility. The school opened in 1976 as a modern secondary education institution serving the southwestern Spartanburg County region.
Tigerville, SC
New Salem Baptist Church Cemetery in Tigerville, South Carolina holds more than 100 interments, with the earliest dating to the early twentieth century. The cemetery is associated with an African American Baptist congregation on Highway 414 in Greenville County.
Travelers Rest, SC
Constructed in 1820, Poinsett Bridge is the oldest surviving stone bridge in South Carolina and potentially the oldest in the southeastern United States. The 130-foot Gothic-arch span over Little Gap Creek was built as part of the State Road connecting Columbia to the North Carolina mountains, named for Joel Roberts Poinsett, then-president of the state Board of Public Works. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, it is now the centerpiece of the 400-acre Poinsett Bridge Heritage Preserve managed by SC DNR.
Union, SC
Rose Hill is the antebellum home of William Henry Gist, the 68th governor of South Carolina, who from this house wrote other Southern governors in 1860 urging secession. By 1860 the cotton plantation comprised more than 8,000 acres and held 178 enslaved people. The property became a South Carolina state historic site in 1960.
West Columbia, SC
Airport High School was constructed and opened in 1958 in West Columbia, South Carolina, initially as Airport Junior High School to accommodate rising student enrollment in the district. The school operated as a junior high before later transitioning to a full secondary institution. The red brick modernist structure reflects post-war educational expansion in the Midlands region.
Westminster, SC
The bridge near Westminster in Oconee County, South Carolina sits adjacent to a former sawmill site over a creek. Local accounts state that a woman drowned in the water below the bridge in the late 1950s. The site is known regionally as Lonely Bridge and is included in South Carolina paranormal folklore collections.
Whitmire, SC
Molly's Rock Picnic Area is a day-use recreation site within the Sumter National Forest in Newberry County, South Carolina. The picnic shelter was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps between 1936 and 1942. The site was originally the Suber Recreation Area and was renamed to honor the local Molly's Rock landmark.