Around the World: Haunted Hostels
Saturday, October 28, 2006 ? The Ottawa Citizen

HI-Ottawa Jail Hostel - Hostelworld.com has named the four ?creepiest hostels? in the world, just in time for Halloween.  (Hostelling) International's Jail Hostel in Ottawa makes the list since it's the site of Canada's last public hanging, in 1869.

"Guests can visit death row and the gallows during a jail tour and then sleep in a former jail cell", says Colm Hanratty, editor of hostelworld.com.  "But be wary" it is said that the ghost of Patrick James Whelan walks the corridors to this day?

The other three scariest hostels are:

• USA Hostels, San Diego, California:
  ?San Diego might be a city of sun and fun, but when the sun goes down, USA Hostels San Diego, a former brothel in the late 18th century, is not for the faint of heart,? says Hanratty.  ?Guests have told stories about lights going on and off without reason, banging sounds that come from all directions, windows and doors closing on their own and unexplained breezes moving through the rooms.  One guest felt her leg being grabbed, only to wake up and find everyone else asleep.?
  
  
• Foulksrath Castel, Kilkenny, Ireland:
  In a 16th century Norman Tower House, Foulksrath Castel is said to be Europe's oldest hostel.  ?A BBC television team of British Ghost hunters visited the hostel and sent back a report stating ?their machines recorded the best ghostly sounds of any place they visited in all of Ireland,? says Hanratty.  ?It is believed that the daughter of the owner fell in love with an Irish boy and was locked away by her father.  As the story goes, the father finally murdered the girl, and her ghost still walks the castle halls.?
  
  
• The Pirate Haus Inn and Hostels, St. Augustine, Florida:
  ?The Pirate Haus Inn and Hostel is sure to put a chill in your bones,? says Hanratty.  ?The hostel is situated just up the street from the Old Spanish Treasure, where Robert Searles and his band of pirates would have headed in their raid of 1668.  All ghost tours in St. Augustine stop outside the Pirate Haus to tell the tale of Estefania de Cigarroa being shot as she ran out of a house with her baby sister in her arms during Searles' raid.  The hostel staff tells tales of objects falling off the shelves for no apparent reason and strange blue lights coming from Room 6.?