Haunted places in the Netherlands: Castles, convents and ships

The Netherlands is more haunted than you may think! It has quite a few old castles, buildings and even ships that have their own tales of unexplained sightings and blood-curling sounds. So, let's explore them and get into the Halloween spirit! Here are some of the most haunted places in the Netherlands. 

Haunted castles in the Netherlands

Here's just a few of the old tales about Dutch castles that are said to be hotspots for hauntings:

The rabid hunter of Castle Rechteren

Castle Rechteren, not too far from Zwolle, has a room that no one dares enter, not even its residents. The key is right there in the lock, but it doesn’t get turned. There are probably precious antiques and religious robes located in the room, but still, people avoid it.

A long time ago, a local hunter was bitten by a rabid dog and he lost his mind. They lured him into that room and locked the door. People could hear him roar manically for days. Now, it’s as silent as the grave and no one enters that room, out of fear that the ghost of the rabid hunter will come storming out.

The vicious maiden of Grunsfoort

At Castle Grunsfoort, just 15 kilometres outside of Arnhem, lived a nasty maiden. Even as a child, she was so vicious that she bit the midwife on the thumb when she was baptised. She made her servants sew silken white carpets to cover the ground wherever she went in town because she didn’t want to soil her shoes. She avoided the cemetery like the plague because she thought it was unclean. Even when her parents died, she refused to go.

In time, she died alone and was buried at the cemetery... or so people thought. In a spooky twist, the next day people saw crows circling the cemetery and, upon investigation, they found the woman’s coffin back above ground, body and all. They buried her again and weighed her down with a heavy stone. The next morning, the coffin was right back out of the ground again.

A local witch told the villagers that it was the maiden's own fault for avoiding the cemetery in life, so now she was banned from the place. They placed the coffin on a dung cart and chased the horse out of town. After a while, it fell off into a brook near the castle and everyone just left it there. It is said that at night, when the moon shines and the water turns as white as a silken carpet, the maiden is seen walking over the brook, and she brings misery to all who come near her.

The dancing girl of the Grubbervorst ruins

The castle ruins of Grubbenvorst, by the Maas River, have been around for a very long time. One night, around the end of the 16th century, a young nobleman caught his beloved rowing over the Maas River with another man. When they came to shore and the nobleman confronted them, the other man killed him by pushing him into the recesses of the ruins. Before he died, the nobleman cursed the girl, promising her she would never find rest and that her spirit would be trapped by the ruins.

The girl was so shocked that she died three days later from a heavy fever. Now, the Grubbenvorst ruins are haunted by a spirit in a white shroud. The legend says that when a man walks by at night, the spirit will grab him by the arms and force him to dance with her until he dies of terror.

Other haunted locations in the Netherlands

Here are some other haunted locations in the Netherlands. Visit them at your peril! 

The Flying Dutchman

The Dutch have long been seafaring people, and there are many tales of ghost ships along the coasts. The English and the Dutch had some rivalry when it came to seafaring, so it is no surprise that this English tale is about a stubborn and manic Dutch captain. There are various versions of the story, with the most famous being about VOC captain Willem van der Decken.

Against common sense, Willem sailed his ship out on an Easter Sunday. When he neared Cape of Good Hope, he was hit by a heavy storm. His crew begged Willem to turn around, but Willem was foolhardy and cried, "The devil knows I’ll sail the cape, even if it takes me until judgement day!" At that, the storm swallowed the ship, Willem and all his crew.

Sailors tell tales of seeing the Flying Dutchman when the sky thunders and the sea is rough. The ship sails among the clouds, with blood-red sails and a dead crew that slaves away under the rabid rantings of their mad captain.

The walled-in nun of Singraven

The Singraven estate was a convent for about 10 years around the 1500s. During this time, a nun was found guilty of interacting with the villagers and being unchaste. After a show trial, she was put behind a wall of the convent as punishment. For days, the other nuns could hear her scream and moan, until she finally went quiet. But peace never returned.

The nun would appear above the splashing water of the moat’s watermill, and her spirit was said to bring bad luck to Singraven’s residents. This was true even after more than 300 years, when a man who lived there tried to light a cigar after dinner, tripped over an oil lamp, set himself on fire and burned to death.

To this day, the nun is sometimes seen as a pale, shapeless mist, or appearing behind a window of the Singraven estate. This legend gave the building the nickname "The Black House".

The forsaken family of Amsterdam

Constructed in 1516 as part of the renewed defences of Amsterdam, the striking Montelbaan Tower has a sad and creepy history. The area used to be a key part of Amsterdam's ship-building industry, and was therefore a prime target for foreign invaders. During one Spanish attack as part of the Eighty Years War, a family fled to the tower to seek refuge behind its defences. Sadly, the assailants got in and the whole family met a tragic fate within the tower’s walls.

According to legend, every year on June 2, the spirits of that family return to haunt the tower, reliving their last desperate moments before vanishing at the top of the tower stairs.

Halloween in the Netherlands

If you want to explore more ghost stories from the Netherlands, why not read about the different spirits, monsters and witches that you share your space with.

Halloween is right around the corner! What will you be doing this year? And if you know any haunted castle stories, let us know in the comments below.