With their twilight and hard-to-identify animal noises, haunted forests can be the scariest places on earth.
Aokigahara – Japan
The Aokigahara Forest, also known as the “Sea of Trees”, located at the foot of Mount Fuji, is said to be haunted by demons, according to Japanese legend. It is said that the yūrei – the trapped, lost, angry or vengeful souls – would twirl amid twisted-branched trees. Followers of spiritualism attribute to these trees an evil energy accumulated over the centuries. It’s easy to get lost in this eerily silent forest: compasses and cell phones are sometimes inoperative here. This could be explained by the presence of significant iron deposits in the soil.
The Black Forest – Germany
So named for its almost impenetrable twilight, the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) is the site of some of the Grimms’ most chilling fairy tales. Legend has it that the forest is haunted by werewolves, witches and the devil himself.
According to TripSavvy, the legend of the Grossmann tells the story of a tall, horribly disfigured man with bulging eyes and many arms who forced children into the forest and confessed their sins before dooming them to never again. come out of it.
Wistman’s Wood – England
In Wistman Woods, moss and lichen are so dense in the tangled treetops that the sky is nearly darkened, according to Atlas Obscura. And the place is haunted, according to those familiar with ancient tales of druids, hellhounds, ghosts and a host of other supernatural creatures, earning it the title of ‘the most haunted place in the world’. Dartmoor National Park, England”.
Island of the Dolls – Mexico
La Isla de las Muñecas, a small island in a park south of Mexico City, is said to be one of the scariest places in the world, Live Science tells us. The island owes its name to its collection of dolls (whole or dismembered) which would have been hung on the trees by a man haunted by the sight of a young drowned woman whose body he would have found on the shore, more 50 years old. The sight of the dolls is quite terrifying and some claim to have heard them whispering to each other high in the trees.
Tawau Hills National Park – Malaysia
This forest park in Tawau, Malaysia is home to the tallest tree in the world, a yellow meranti. It is frequented by tourists…but only during the day because locals believe the forest is haunted and the spirits that lurk there come out at night.
Go there if you dare, but many people are thought to have disappeared there, especially near its famous waterfall.
The forest of Broceliande – France
It is said that the Breton forest of Brocéliande, in France, would have been the scene of the legend of King Arthur and that it would shelter the tomb of Merlin (see photo). There is nothing frightening about it, except perhaps the Val-sans-retour where, according to legend, the witch Morgan le Fay (King Arthur’s half-sister) held unfaithful men prisoners.
The forest was recently ravaged by a terrible fire in 1990; a golden tree planted at the entrance to the valley a year later testifies to this sad event.
Hoia-Baciu forest – Romania
Located in northwestern Romania, the Hoia-Baciu Forest is known as the “Bermuda Triangle” of Romania because strange disappearances are said to have taken place there. For example, a shepherd would have disappeared with a flock of 200 sheep. A five-year-old girl, who had sunk into it, would have reappeared five years later without having aged.
Visitors often come away with “deep anguish and a sense of having been constantly watched,” the forest website warns. Locals tend not to venture there for fear of never finding a way out.
Smolensk Forest – Russia
In 1943, at the height of World War II, German troops invaded the Smolensk Forest and discovered a mass grave containing the corpses of thousands of Polish soldiers (20,000, according to some estimates). It was later established that they had been massacred on the orders of Joseph Stalin. If the presence of 20,000 of these lost souls was not enough to scare people, the tragic plane crash that took place there in 2010 in which 96 Polish political, military and economic leaders lost their lives so to speak, driven the nail into the coffin. You really want to be scared?
The “Long Trail,” Bennington–Vermont
It is on this 437 km (272 miles) long hiking trail that Paula Jean Welden, a student at Bennington College, disappeared on December 1, 1946. And she is not the only one. Four others vanished there between 1945 and 1950, only one body having been found. It is still spoken of today as a trail that exudes a “haunting and bizarre energy.”
Pine Barrens – New Jersey
The soil of New Jersey’s vast pine forests is sandy, acidic and poor in nutrients. Yet the pine forests are filled with plants, including pines that thrive on forest fires. In the 18th century, the region was populated by outcasts and other outcasts who, over time, are said to have developed, and even incubated, a somewhat backward mentality in order to ward off undesirables.
The legend born of this culture gave birth to the “Jersey Devil”, a monster with the head of a goat, the wings of a bat and the feet of an ungulate. Go visit him, if you dare.
Doon Hill – Scotland
It is in the woods of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park in Scotland that we find Doon Hill, famous for its “Fairy Tree”, a Scots pine lost in a sea of oaks. “This tree is believed to mark the entrance to the Fairy Queen’s underground palace,” according to Scotsman.com.
A secret no one was supposed to reveal. But in 1691 a local reverend revealed it in his book, The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies, angering the enchanted inhabitants of this forest, who cursed him and whose spirit, it is said, would always be prisoner of the forest.
Blairadam Forest – Scotland
Blairadam Forest, which in Victorian times was home to a coal mine and a mining town, is another of those eerie forests that Scotland has to offer. Visitors to this wooded area report strange phenomena: they feel inexplicably restless there or find that their pets seem frightened.
Living so close to Blairadam didn’t stop the Wilson family from hiking and picnicking there in 2008. of their children, they clearly saw a sinister Victorian figure lurking among the trees.
The forest of Freetown-Fall River – Massachusetts
“Besides its scenic beauty, outdoor activities and thrilling history, the Freetown-Fall River Forest is renowned for the intensity of the strange and inexplicable phenomena that take place there,” according to Mysterious Universe. This is not surprising considering that the forest is located in the famous “Bridgewater Triangle” in southeastern Massachusetts, an “epicenter” of the paranormal that is said to span 500 square kilometers.
Even if you’re not afraid of Bigfoot or UFOs, the forest is said to still be haunted by the ghosts of a Native American tribe, embittered by the presence of European settlers.
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