The Weird Trend Of Vandalising British Haunted Places In 2019

There's been a strange trend of criminal damage to haunted locations across the UK in 2019. Even though the break-ins and vandalism are unrelated, it's odd.

What makes this spate of criminal acts even stranger is that they all happened in fairly quick succession in the latter part of the year.

It all started in July when vandals targeted Guy's Cliff House, a haunted house in Warwick, which dates back to 1751. The damage caused has undone some of the hard work carried out in the house's grounds by volunteers trying to restore the historic building.

The incident took place late one night, when no ghost hunt was taking place in the building. The vandals gained access to the grounds and knocked down a sandstone wall and placed it into the driveway, to stop anyone gaining access.

As well as this mindless damage to the stone wall, which will now have to be re-built, the vandals also ripped signs off the building's walls. This caused damage to the outer walls of the building and ruined the signs that had been hand carved by the group's volunteers.

The next incident took place just over a week later and saw the haunted Derby Gaol trashed during a break in. The historic jail, which is now a museum owned by paranormal expert and historian Richard Felix, is said to be the most haunted building in the town and was originally built in the 1500s to house local criminals.

The break in resulted in a considerable amount of damage to the Police Museum area of the building and the old gaol itself. The raiders took money, alcohol and various other items from the historic building including the CCTV server, effectively wiping any evidence of their criminal act.

Less than 24 hours later a fire ripped through the haunted ruins of a historic house on the south-east side of Loch Ness, which was once the home of author and occultist Aleister Crowley where he performed black magic rituals.

At the time there was speculation that the fire at Boleskine House may have been started accidentally by candles being used in amateur Crowley-esque rituals at the property. However, this was soon ruled out when fire fighters arrived to tackle the blaze.

Although the house was seriously damaged by another fire in 2015 and has been victim to a lot of vandalism ever since, the house along with over 22 acres of surrounding land were sold earlier this year to three anonymous buyers who are hoping to restore the property to its former glory.

A month later another paranormal hotspot was targeted this time a tourist attraction in the capital. Eerie custom-made model heads of Guy Fawkes, Oliver Cromwell and Sir Thomas More were stolen during the night from the Tooley Street entrance of the London Bridge Experience.

The attraction released CCTV footage that showed a man using a rope to pull the busts off the wall of the popular attraction, before walking away with the objects.

In the footage the thief can be seen approaching the attraction and using a lasso to hook himself Sir Thomas More and then after pulling down the whole top of the new facade he bagged Oliver Cromwells head and finally he was caught on CCTV forcing the head of Guy Fawkes off his spike before heading off down the road with him under his arm.

The most recent incident took place at the end of September when burglars caused extensive damage to a small privately-run theatre in Portsmouth that's a popular location for ghost hunters with various paranormal events companies running events there.

During the raid the Groundlings Theatre the building was ransacked, and the intruders destroyed computers, smashed open the box office's till, and stole a safe containing £800 in cash. The two men, who gained access through the stage door, were caught in the act by one of the theatre's staff.

The carpet was damaged during the raid, seven doors were smashed off their hinges, and bleach was poured into computer equipment destroying important files, including cast lists, press releases and even the scripts for upcoming productions.