These Haunted Forests Are As Eerie As It Gets

This verdant north London garden, fictionalized in Bram Stoker’s Dracula as Kingstead Churchyard, has an eclectic roster of notable graves, including those of Karl Marx and Douglas Adams. And while it remains one of London's most under-the-radar landmarks, those who do venture past the gates do so in search ghostly encounters as much as celebrity headstones.

The site was established in the mid-1800s and became neglected and unattended by the end of WWII, the overgrown vegetation and crumbling monuments only upping the fear factor. Then in the 1970s, after appearing as a filming location in several horror movies, Highgate reached a surge in popularity—namely among self-proclaimed vampire hunters. Many visitors claimed to see a creature hovering over the graves (a vampire, presumably), and stories of grave robbing began appearing in the news. The so-called vampire hunters would open tombs to drive wooden stakes into the corpses' chests, or steal the corpses and relocate them to random places (including the car of one of the cemetery's neighbors!). To this day, Highgate remains a go-to spot for enthusiasts of all things fanged and occult.