Do you believe in the supernatural? In ghosts?

This article will introduce a number of famous haunted places in Korea. Please keep in mind that we do not recommend including them in your travel itinerary. You would do better to stay away from these uncanny places!

*Some pictures in this article are pretty scary - you might want to refrain from further reading if you're not into ghosts and scary stories.

Korea’s Haunted Places

Neulbom Garden (늘봄가든)

Where ghosts might take your order  ... 

We will start by introducing three most famous haunted houses in Korea.

First on our list of is Neulbom Garden, located in Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province. There are a number of uncanny stories concerning Neulbom Garden, and below we are going to present the most famous one. 

The story tells us that the restaurant Neulbom Garden was once a successful enterprise, run by a couple who had a daughter with a physical disability. 

However, one day the daughter was hit by a car on the road just in front of the restaurant, an accident which ended up taking her life. Her father, distraught with grief, committed suicide by hanging himself. Her mother, also in shock, died shortly after.   

After the family tragedy, a few attempts have been made by other people to reopen the restaurant, but there was always an uncanny feeling surrounding the place. On top of that, strange incidents kept occurring. 

For example, guests of the restaurants would order their food from a female staff. They waited and waited, but the food never arrived, so they called one of the male staff. “The lady took our order a while ago, but we are still to receive our food.”

Puzzled, the male waiter replied: “But we don’t have any female staff here…”

Source: keh125430

On other occasions, the staff forgot to bring side dishes to costumers. Realizing their blunder, they hurried to correct their mistake, only to find that the side dishes already had mystically appeared on the table.

After a busy night, the staff would sometimes go home without cleaning up the last tables, but when they came back to work the next morning, the place was sparkling clean.

Some customers claimed that they had been slapped by someone from behind after playing with their food!

After numerous similar incidents, customers started to avoid the restaurant, and it eventually shut its doors. Neulbom Garden was later said to have been purchased by a priest who decided to just let it rest in peace.

However, recently there has been some renovation work done on the building, and it is now a gathering spot for ghost hunters! 

Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital (곤지암정신병원) 

Patients die without any apparent reason ...

Second on the list of the famous haunted houses in Korea is Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, located in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province. It’s usually called Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, but originally it was Namyang Psychiatric Hospital.

This place gained worldwide fame in 2012, when CNN Travel included it on its list of “the 7 freakiest places on the planet”.

Source: NAVERBLOG＠cwm997

Needless to say, Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital is not operating anymore. Warnings signs along with an iron gate will meet you by its entrance. It is also fenced with barbed wire, making it a tricky task to enter.

However, there are some minor holes in the fencing, making it possible to creep through. Experienced ghost-hunters are said to know just where they are.

There are many spooky stories surrounding Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital.

Before the hospital was built, there was a prison located at the place where many inmates had died. After opening the psychiatric hospital, many patients were later said to have died without any apparent reason. And the director of the hospital himself is rumored to have committed suicide by hanging himself.

The current owner of the hospital supposedly lives abroad, and the building remain closed to public. 

Patients and directors dying, this place sends a chill down your spine, doesn’t it?

NAVERBLOG＠cwm997

After Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital gained fame as a haunted place, many Koreans started visiting it, looking to test their courage and maybe see a ghost or two. You can find both pictures and videos of people sneaking in on the Internet.

*Warning: a lot of content is nothing for the faint-hearted!

And please be satisfied with the material you can find online: if you are caught sneaking into the hospital, it can lead to a criminal arrest for trespassing. 

A horror movie called Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum was released in 2018.

Yeongdeok Haunted House (영덕흉가)

Where Ghosts Of The Korean War Wander

Source: NAVERBLOG＠app5900

Last on our list of Korea's three greatest haunted houses is Yeongdeok Haunted House.

Personally, I find this the most disturbing of all places.

You find it close to Jangsa Beach in Yeongdeok County, North Gyeongsan Province. Like its popular name of Haunted House suggests, it’s surely not an ordinary house. 

source: NAVERBLOG＠app5900

According to locals, about 400 young student soldiers were killed and buried in this area during the Korean War.

Many of their remains were discovered when they built the house later to be called Yeongdeok Haunted House. 

Source: NAVERBLOG＠app5900

Because of all the young soldiers that had been killed there, the place was already rumored to be haunted. This drove down the price of land, and a young couple saw this as an opportunity to build a seafood restaurant at the location.

But not long after the building was completed, the wife looked up the staircase and saw a ghost, hair hanging down, descending from the second floor. She fainted at the spot.

Unable to suppress their fear, the couple ended up abandoning the house

Source: NAVERBLOG＠app5900

Later, a couple adherent of traditional Korean shamanistic beliefs moved into the house. But even their faith wasn’t enough to keep the spirits at bay, and they also ended up leaving the place.

If you enter the house, there are still some traces to be found from this second couple in form of shamanistic items. 

More recently, a Korean talent together with a shaman visited the place, as a part of a TV show. The shaman flatly claimed that over ten thousand spirits occupied the house, something which further increased its fame as a haunted place. 

True or not, it sure sounds like a scary place! This building has also had some repair works done to it lately, and it is considered to be a powerful psychic spot.

However, we have also heard that there are plans to tear down the house … 

Haunted Places That Are Not Around Anymore 

Source: NAVERBLOG＠eg7800

Naju Haunted House, Paldang Haunted House and Gyeongsan Abandoned Cobalt Mine are other famous psychic spots in Korea. but they have all been torn down. Below we'll take a brief look at why they are famous.

1. Naju Haunted House

This place is famous for being inhabited by so many spirits that even shamans avoid it!

The large amount of underground water in the area meant that it was never an ideal spot to build a house. Also occupied by an abundance of spirits, they tried to purify the place by bringing a shaman, but it was to no avail.

It is said that many who had visited the Naju Haunted House died a sudden death or developed deadly diseases. The house has now been demolished and only its memory lives on.

Source: NAVERBLOG＠tlsl4872

 2. Paldang Haunted House

This haunted house is located close to Mt. Geomdan in Hanam city, Gyeonggi Province.

Geomdan mountain has many steep slopes, and the public is prohibited from entering many areas of the mountain, making it difficult to access. Located inside the forest with almost no human presence, this place is said to be uncanny even during daytime.

Apparently, the place was originally used as a large storehouse for livestock, but rumor has it that spirits of people who committed suicide haunt the place. The moldy inside of Paldang Haunted House gave it a gruesome and spooky look. No wonder Koreans thought of it as a psychic power spot.

Luckily (?), it has also been torn down. 

3. Gyeongsan Abandoned Cobalt Mine

The abandoned Gyeongsan Cobalt Mine is located in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsan Province.

The mine was used during the Japanese occupation for mining cobalt, but it was later abandoned as the mine ran dry. So why is it said to be haunted?

During the Korean War, civilians and convicts, accused of conspiring with North Korea, were brutally massacred in the area. The mine is where they threw the bodies.

Estimates has it that around 3,500 people were brutally murdered here.

＠경산코발트광산유족회
(Remains found in the abandoned Gyeongsan Cobalt Mine)
 

Several factories were later build close to the mine, but a number of factory owners later committed suicide. 

The last company to be in operation was a glasses manufacturer. The factory owner is said to have poured petroleum over himself and his still sleeping employees, burning everyone to death. 

Although the mine has now been demolished, locals avoid the place to this day.

This article introduced some of the most famous haunted places in Korea.

Personally, I find the Yeongdeok Haunted House and the Gyeongsan Abandoned Cobalt Mine to be the most disturbing, both with history going back to the Korean War, with many innocent civilians being killed. It seems like their spirits still haven’t found peace.

Lastly, we don’t recommend going to these places, especially if you believe in ghosts and spirits of the dead. If you're still not scared off, do note that entering some places could be considered trespassing and you may face legal obligations.

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