Most people will joke about spending a night in a 'haunted house', but if you are serious about experiencing the paranormal first hand and finding evidence to bring home with you, spending the night in a haunted location is not as far fetched as it sounds.

Some places, usually old places, particularly old buildings such as castles, prisons, old pubs etc. will have a reputation for being 'haunted'. The older the building, the more haunted it seems to be, an old stone building which has been standing for hundreds of years and has an extensive history will be much more likely to have reports of paranormal activity than a brand new modern house built in the last few years. There are exceptions to this however, but your best chances of finding evidence of ghosts is to visit somewhere with a reputation for being haunted. Often, haunted locations will have spawned many stories of visitors who have witnessed unexplainable things. These are ideal places to visit, both because they are fascinating historically, and because you have a chance of experiencing something paranormal.

There is some debate over the time of day that you are most likely to experience something, but the most common belief is that you are much more likely to see or feel something at night, in particular in low light or total darkness. The downside of this is that at night you are more likely to be tired, and in the dark it is entirely possible that even the slightest noise in a haunted castle will scare you rigid. This is a problem when investigating at night, but despite this it is probably worth a try nonetheless.

Safety tip: If you plan to spend the night in a haunted location, take someone with you, preferably a small group of friends or fellow ghost hunters. Take with you the basic essentials to keep you warm, fed and hydrated, and bring several torches. Also make sure you know the way out of the building in case you need to make a sharp exit.