Dragsholm Castle

On the coast of Zealand, Denmark, Dragsholm Castle has stood in some form for roughly 800 years and is often called one of Europe's most haunted buildings. Its darkest chapter involves James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, the third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, who was imprisoned in the castle's dungeons after 1573 and reportedly went insane, chained to a pillar, before dying there in 1578; visitors have long claimed his mummified remains were once put on display in the local church. Staff and guests also describe encounters with the "Grey Lady," said to be a servant girl who fell in love with a nobleman and was walled up alive by her disapproving father, and with the castle's "White Lady," another young woman confined and left to starve within the walls. Today Dragsholm operates as a hotel and restaurant, and it markets its ghostly reputation openly, drawing visitors curious to spend a night among its centuries-old stones.