HauntBound Press Fact Sheet · Updated September 2026
The Most Haunted Places in Maryland
Maryland has 87 documented haunted locations in the HauntBound index.
Top 10 identified after source-level analysis of the 27 strongest Maryland candidates.
By the numbers
- Total documented
- 87
- Museum / Historical Site
- 26
- Haunted House / Historic Home
- 15
- Haunted Hotel / Inn
- 9
- Family-friendly
- 80
- Bookable
- 40
- Oldest documented site
- Shiplap House (1715)
- Most-reported phenomenon
- apparitions
Ranked
- 1. Druid Ridge Cemetery HauntBound identified nine distinct published accounts at this burial ground, across five kinds of published source. Three later publications retell those accounts. 9 original accounts · documented across 3 decades, 1920-2022 · retold in 3 later publications
- 2. Old South Mountain Inn An inn has stood on this National Road site since 1732, hosting stagecoach travelers including Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. John Brown's raiders seized it in 1859, and General D.H. Hill made it his headquarters and a hospital during the 1862 Battle of South Mountain. Staff say Madeleine Dahlgren, who bought the inn in 1876, still paces the upper floor in her blue velvet dress and once unlocked a stuck door ahead of a fire. 8 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 1876-2019
- 3. The Horse You Came In On Saloon HauntBound identified eight distinct published accounts at this operating restaurant and bar, across three kinds of published source. One later publication retells those accounts. Reported phenomena include electrical anomalies and objects moving. 8 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 1849-2017 · retold in 1 later publication
- 4. USS Constellation HauntBound identified six distinct published accounts at this museum site, across three kinds of published source. One later publication retells those accounts. Reported phenomena include apparitions and phantom sounds. 6 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 1799-1955 · retold in 1 later publication
- 5. Westminster Burying Ground, Edgar Allan Poe Grave Established in 1787, Westminster Burying Ground holds Revolutionary War and War of 1812 veterans; in 1852 a church was built above the graves on brick piers, creating catacombs. Edgar Allan Poe was buried here in 1849, and from 1949 to 2009 an anonymous visitor known as the Poe Toaster left roses and cognac at his grave each January. Visitors report a dark, hooded figure near Poe's monument and cold hands brushing them in the catacombs. 9 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 1920-2009
- 6. Ram's Head Tavern Samuel Chase, a Declaration of Independence signer, worked out of this West Street building in 1769, when it later became a house of entertainment called the Sign of the Green Tree. Bill and Paula Muehlhauser bought the tavern in 1989 and grew it into the Ram's Head Tavern. Staff report drinks knocked over and silverware rearranged overnight, along with full-bodied apparitions including an unidentified older woman, activity staff trace to the building's centuries as a colonial-era house of entertainment. 4 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 1794-2014 · retold in 2 later publications
- 7. Antietam National Battlefield On September 17, 1862, the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg produced 23,100 casualties in a single day, the bloodiest in American military history, with more than 5,000 concentrated along a sunken road known as Bloody Lane. Visitors report phantom gunfire and gunpowder smell in quiet fields, along with uniformed figures that vanish on approach. At Burnside's Bridge, accounts describe balls of blue light moving through night fog, accompanied by fading drum cadence. 14 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 2012-2022 · retold in 4 later publications
- 8. Spook Hill HauntBound identified six distinct published accounts at this outdoor site, across four kinds of published source. Three later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include disembodied voices and phantom footsteps. 6 independent sources Contradicted by physical evidence. A visitor account on a crowdsourced haunted-places site concludes the hill's famous uphill-rolling-car effect is 'definitely an optical illusion' caused by the road's slope, the well-documented gravity-hill phenomenon, and one longtime local writer has said that in the early 1980s he and friends staged the effect themselves by physically pushing visitors' cars.
- 9. Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum HauntBound identified eight distinct published accounts at this documented crime site. One later publication retells those accounts. Reported phenomena include apparitions and cold spots. 8 original accounts · documented across 3 decades, 1960-2020 · retold in 1 later publication
- 10. Middleton Tavern Ferry operator Horatio Middleton bought this waterfront building in 1750 and opened it as a tavern serving passengers on the Annapolis-Rock Hall ferry, a route that carried George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. It remains Maryland's oldest continuously operating tavern. Staff have long described a male figure in revolutionary-era dress they call Roland at the harbor-facing windows before opening, along with the smell of cigar smoke and plates that topple from shelves untouched. 5 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 1876-1995 · retold in 2 later publications
By city
- Baltimore: 16 documented sites
- Frederick: 13 documented sites
- Annapolis: 12 documented sites
- Hagerstown: 4 documented sites
- Easton: 3 documented sites
- Cumberland: 3 documented sites
- Ellicott City: 3 documented sites
- Westminster: 2 documented sites
- Burkittsville: 2 documented sites
- Scotland: 2 documented sites
- 26 more across the rest of Maryland
Press images
- Druid Ridge Cemetery RichardRichardson7628 hauntbound.com/images/locations/maryland/druid-ridge-cemetery/hero.jpg
- Old South Mountain Inn Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_South_Mountain_Inn,_Turner%27s_Gap,_MD.jpg hauntbound.com/images/locations/maryland/old-south-mountain-inn/hero.jpg
- The Horse You Came In On Saloon Eden, Janine and Jim, CC BY 2.0, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Horse_You_Came_In_On_Saloon_(54547675099).jpg hauntbound.com/images/locations/maryland/horse-you-came-in-on-saloon/hero.jpg
- USS Constellation Smash the Iron Cage, CC BY-SA 4.0, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Constellation-2.jpg hauntbound.com/images/locations/maryland/uss-constellation/hero.jpg
- Westminster Burying Ground, Edgar Allan Poe Grave Ben Michalski, CC BY-SA 4.0, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Gravesite_of_Edgar_Allan_Poe.jpg hauntbound.com/images/locations/maryland/westminster-burying-ground-edgar-allan-poe-grave/hero.jpg
- Antietam National Battlefield Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dunker_Church_Antietam_MD1.jpg hauntbound.com/images/locations/maryland/anteitam-battlefield/hero.jpg
- Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum Preservation Maryland, CC BY-SA 2.0, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dr._Samuel_Mudd_House_(21603494465).jpg hauntbound.com/images/locations/maryland/dr-samuel-mudd-house-museum/hero.jpg
- Middleton Tavern AlbertHerring, CC BY-SA 3.0, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colonial_Annapolis_Historic_District_-_Middleton_Tavern.JPG hauntbound.com/images/locations/maryland/middleton-tavern/hero.jpg
Images listed here may be republished with the credit shown; all other HauntBound images are not offered for press use.
Superlatives
- Oldest documented site: Shiplap House (Private, not open to visitors) Documented since 1715.
- Most documented: Antietam National Battlefield 14 distinct published accounts.
- Top haunted stay: Old South Mountain Inn Overnight stays bookable.
- Most family-friendly: Maryland State House Family Comfort rating: High.
Methodology
For purposes of the HauntBound Index, "most haunted" means the location with the strongest documented record of reported haunting phenomena. We evaluate the quantity, independence, persistence, and documentary quality of published reports. We do not attempt to determine whether paranormal phenomena are real, and we never count a source that only establishes a building's history as evidence of haunting claims. Repetitive coverage is subject to diminishing returns, so a story retold many times does not outrank a story independently documented. Rankings never consider commercial relationships.
The 2026 Index reflects sources identified and classified as of September 15, 2026.
Updated September 29, 2026: documented totals now exclude the private homes, operating hospitals and venues with nothing left to visit that were withdrawn on September 25 and 26. The ranked ten are unchanged.
Updated October 19, 2026: listings that could not be sourced, or that are private or have no public access, were withdrawn after an October review, so some of the state's town counts are lower. The documented total stays as published until the November update.
This is a documentation ranking, not a visitation guide; sites not open to visitors are marked on their entries.