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Haunted places in South Carolina

Explore 52 haunted places in South Carolina. Read ghost stories, local history, source notes, and visiting information in the PHASM Haunted Atlas.

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• Oakwood Cemetery (Hell’s Gate)

  Spartanburg, South Carolina · Cemetery

  According to Haunted Rooms, visitors report inexplicable phone behavior, low-lying mist, wandering lights and children’s laughter at the cemetery popularly nicknamed Hell’s Gate.

• Old Charleston Jail

  Charleston, South Carolina · Prison

  Southern Spirit Guide recounts a worker seeing a gaunt gray man beside an exit. The figure vanished as he approached, reappeared on the door’s other side, then disappeared again. Voices and touch experiences are also reported. The article cautions that popular Lavinia Fisher stories contain substantial mythology.

• Old Exchange & Provost Dungeon

  Charleston, South Carolina · Other

  The vaults beneath Charleston’s Old Exchange carry ghost stories of captive voices and a Revolutionary-era prisoner still remembered by name.

• Old Main, Wofford College

  Spartanburg, South Carolina · Other

  Folklorist Tally Johnson recalled unexplained green lights above auditorium curtains. College lore also describes former president James Carlisle appearing or moving through Old Main’s halls.

• Old Sheldon Church Ruins

  Yemassee, South Carolina · Cemetery

  Explore Beaufort records a woman in a plain brown dress seen beside a child’s grave, accompanied by a sense of sadness. Other accounts mention heavy footsteps and flashes of light. Its published photographer’s experience adds to the site’s storytelling tradition without proving a supernatural cause.

• Olympia Mill

  Columbia, South Carolina · Other

  Accounts collected in Weird Carolinas and retold by Southern Spirit Guide describe children crying and tiny handprints forming on misted windows after the textile mill became residential lofts.

• Pelican Inn

  Pawleys Island, South Carolina · Hotel

  PawleysIsland.com retells reports of a uniformed man identified as former owner Mr. Weston and of Emily Weston’s presence accompanied by perfume. Its account also connects the inn with the broader Gray Man storm-warning tradition along the beach.

• Philadelphia Alley

  Charleston, South Carolina · Other

  Whistling and echoes of duels are reported in Philadelphia Alley. Southern Spirit Guide connects the spectral whistling with Joseph Ladd, mortally wounded in a 1786 duel.

• Pink House

  Charleston, South Carolina · Other

  A female presence is associated with this small Chalmers Street building. Southern Spirit Guide reports a speculative identification with pirate Anne Bonny, which should remain folklore.

• Poinsett Bridge

  Landrum / northern Greenville County, South Carolina · Road or bridge

  Travelers Rest Here records named locals describing voices from the arch, screams above the bridge and moving colored lights on the hillside. South Carolina ETV likewise documents its reputation for strange lights and vehicles failing to start. These experiences coexist with disputed explanations about the bridge’s builders.

• Poogan’s Porch

  Charleston, South Carolina · Other

  Restaurant lore names former resident Zoe St. Armand, seen upstairs and in the restroom. Southern Spirit Guide also recounts a child apparently playing with the invisible dog Poogan.

• Robert Mills House

  Columbia, South Carolina · Historic house

  Local tradition identifies Sarah Hall as the presence leaving indentations in an upstairs bed. Southern Spirit Guide connects the story to the house she lost after her husband died.

• Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site

  Union, South Carolina · Historic house

  Haunted Rooms records a family-haunting tradition at Rose Hill: former residents are said to linger both inside the plantation house and around their burial ground.

• Salem Black River Presbyterian Church

  Mayesville / Sumter County, South Carolina · Cemetery

  Haunted Rooms recounts sightings of a grieving clergyman, a crying boy and a Southern belle, with cold patches and flickering lights reported near the rear outbuilding.

• South Carolina State Museum

  Columbia, South Carolina · Other

  A workman-like apparition nicknamed Bubba reportedly walks among third-floor displays. Southern Spirit Guide recounts visitors following him into an elevator, then finding it empty.

• St. Helena Parish Chapel of Ease Ruins

  St. Helena Island, South Carolina · Cemetery

  Explore Beaufort recounts workers finding newly laid bricks removed from the Fripp vault and neatly piled nearby. Visitors also report prayer-like murmurs, singing and a white-clad woman carrying a child through the graves. The mother’s proposed identity varies between tellings.

• St. Philip’s Churchyard

  Charleston, South Carolina · Cemetery

  A 1987 photograph by Harry Reynolds was interpreted as a mourning figure above Sue Howard Hardy’s grave. Southern Spirit Guide traces that photograph’s role in local tours while treating a later blurry image cautiously. The church itself publicly rejects the ghost-story framing.

• Stoney-Baynard Plantation Ruins

  Hilton Head Island, South Carolina · Other

  Lowcountry lore, retold by Haunted Rooms, places William Baynard’s phantom funeral procession around the ruins of his former house; witnesses reportedly both hear and see it.

• Strawberry Chapel

  Cordesville, South Carolina · Other

  The Berkeley Observer records the tradition that Catherine Chicken haunts Strawberry Chapel after being tied to a gravestone by a schoolmaster. The chapel’s own history says she was rescued alive, an important distinction from versions that imply she died there.

• The Brentwood Restaurant & Wine Bistro

  Little River, South Carolina · Other

  The restaurant’s own ghost-tour page presents an unexplained childlike figure in a filmed segment and a dark form in an upstairs window in a visitor’s photograph. The business treats these as part of the house’s paranormal reputation; the images are claims, not verified ghost evidence.

• The Castle (Joseph Johnson House)

  Beaufort, South Carolina · Other

  Southern Spirit Guide recounts children meeting a small, old-fashioned figure called Gauche or Grenauche. Different tellings identify him as a European jester or early settler; neither origin is established.

• The Powder Magazine

  Charleston, South Carolina · Other

  Charleston Southern University’s account of Anne Bonny notes local reports that her ghost remains in the Powder Magazine. The notorious pirate’s uncertain later life makes her a popular figure in Charleston folklore; the story does not establish that she historically occupied this building.

• The Willcox

  Aiken, South Carolina · Hotel

  Southern Spirit Guide recounts small disturbances including books moving, ornaments falling intact and a ringing telephone with nobody on the line. A third-floor guest reportedly heard voices and footsteps overhead, despite the absence of a fourth floor. A television crew also reported failing lights while discussing the haunting.

• Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Cemetery

  Columbia, South Carolina · Cemetery

  A Columbia guide’s story, retold by Southern Spirit Guide, describes a jealous suitor visiting the graves of a couple whose romance followed a shooting and recovery.