Richmond holds two of Virginia's ten most haunted places, new index finds

HauntBound's 2026 index ranks Virginia's 163 documented haunted places by published evidence rather than reputation, and names the state's ten most haunted. Richmond holds two of the top ten.

The top five:

1. St Albans Sanatorium, Radford
2. Virginia Executive Mansion, Richmond
3. Martha Washington Inn, Abingdon
4. Swannanoa Palace, Afton (visits by guided tour only)
5. Haw Branch Plantation, Amelia (exterior viewing only)

Swannanoa Palace in Afton has the most distinct published accounts of any Virginia site, five. The oldest documented site is Bacon's Castle in Surry, dating to 1665. Apparitions are the most commonly reported phenomenon, on record at 116 sites. The ranking weighs how independent the accounts are and how many decades they span, not only how many there are, so the most documented site is not always the one ranked first.

"We rank by evidence, not legend: independent published accounts, documented history, and how far back the reports go. We don't claim ghosts are real, or that they aren't. We document where the reports concentrate, and we show our work," said Ben Fineman, editor of HauntBound.

HauntBound ranks each state's places by the documented record of reported haunting phenomena: the quantity, independence, persistence and documentary quality of published reports. A story retold many times counts for less than independent accounts, and a source that only establishes a building's history never counts as evidence of a haunting. The index does not try to determine whether paranormal phenomena are real. The 2026 index reflects sources identified and classified as of September 15, 2026.

For media:The full ranking: https://hauntbound.com/most-haunted/virginia/The fact sheet, with city-by-city numbers and cleared images: https://hauntbound.com/press/fact-sheets/virginia/Interviews by email and city-by-city data on request.

HauntBound (hauntbound.com) is a family-friendly field guide to more than 6,000 documented haunted and historic places across the United States, ranked by published evidence rather than legend. No venue pays to be listed or ranked.

Media contact: Ben Fineman, Editor, HauntBound, editor@hauntbound.com

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