10 Haunted Places to Explore in South Carolina

The Rose Hill Plantation was constructed in the mid-1800s, near Hilton Head Island. It was built off the back of the enslaved, until the owners fled in the Civil War, during which Union troops camped on the grounds, leaving behind eerie messages scrawled onto the house such as, “Hell is here.”

The owners moved back to the plantation after the war but were economically ruined. They were buried in a family plot, and the house was left abandoned for a while. Today, you can catch a tour at the property and take part in “haunted” events.

The Stoney-Baynard Plantation Ruins, listed on the National Register of Historic Sites, includes the remains of an antebellum plantation that housed a Revolutionary War hero, merchant ship captain, Union forces and more. 

You can see the ruins of both the plantation house and slave quarters, as well as outbuilding foundations. If you’re lucky, you’ll also see some of the resident ghosts, including that of one of the plantation’s early owners, William Baynard. He is sometimes spotted along with an entire funeral procession.

The Battery and White Point Gardens in Charleston’s historic district offers amazing views of Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean. The green space has been a public park since 1837, before becoming part of a fortification during the Civil War.

Before this, White Point Gardens had a far grislier past. Its location by the entrance to the Ashley River was deemed to be a suitable spot for public hangings. The most notable of these was the hanging of pirate Stede Bonnet and 50 of his compatriots in the early 1720s.

Pawleys Island is a prominent day-trip destination in South Carolina. While many come here to see the 18th-century architecture, beaches and wetlands, do keep an eye out for the island’s most famous ghost, the Gray Man.

The Gray Man walks along the beaches of the island wearing all gray, with all the appearance of an actual person, sometimes speaking and sometimes not. His appearance is told to be a harbinger of devastating hurricanes to come in the near future.

The South Carolina State Museum offers plenty to learn and lots of history, but the building itself offers a historic past littered with ghosts. Before becoming the museum, it was occupied by Columbia Mills Co., which was notably the first textile mill ever to be powered by only electricity.

A 14-year-old boy was crushed and decapitated at the mill in a horrific accident. He’s now known as Bubba the Ghost. Watch out for him when the elevator doors open on the 4th floor.

The Old Charleston Jail operated for more than a century, mostly in the 1800s. It held a wide variety of criminals, from pirates to Civil War officers to the first female serial killer in the USA. The popular tourist destination is open for tours only – if you pick the right time, you might just see a ghost.

Reported ghosts include former penitentiary guards and inmates. Past visitors claimed to have captured ghostly images on their camera. Some even claimed that mischievous spirits stole their belongings. 

Dock Street Theater was previously a hotel and is considered one of the last remaining antebellum hotels. Later, the structure became Charleston’s very first theater. It would change purposes several times over its life, but it currently serves as a historic theater for the Charleston Stage Company.

You can catch a show and even a ghost while visiting. Reported spirits include that of Junius Brutus Booth (father of the same Booth who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln), former actors, theatregoers and even prostitutes.

Cypress Gardens is a large nature preserve deep within the swamps of South Carolina. There’s plenty of good-natured, family-friendly fun to be had in the gardens, from hiking to boating. But if you want to give yourself a fright, go out to the ruins hidden in the swamps.

The ruins aren’t authentic – they were left there by filmmakers after filming The Patriot – but visitors claimed that ghostly figures have taken up residence among the stone columns in the swamp water and shrouded by shadows.

The Magnolia Cemetery was once a plantation in Charleston but is now home to Civil War graves and many mausoleums, all designed with flair. It backs up to several other cemeteries, but Magnolia offers some of the more riveting historical facts. The land was a rice plantation during the 1700s but became a cemetery in 1850 as a result of a Yellow Fever outbreak in Charleston that left many dead with nowhere to be buried.

Now, you can explore around 150 acres of 19th-century gravestones and famous burials at your leisure. Many guests say they feel watching eyes throughout the entire experience.

Surrounded by oak trees and Spanish moss, Hampton Plantation certainly looks peaceful, but its haunted history is less so. A slave graveyard and suicides mar the plantation’s past. 

The stories say that if you visit the slave graveyard – now a still-used Gullah cemetery – and step on the graves, the spirit of the deceased will follow you home. Also, if you so much as point at one of the graves, your finger will fall off in the near future.