Inside haunted Cornwall jail that’s now a luxury hotel – with ghosts

Room 311 in this Cornish hotel is not like any other normal hotel suite. True, it has all the luxury finishings one might expect – but it’s also haunted by a former prisoner. 

The doors open and close randomly, and cleaning staff have noted the bathroom door swinging of its own accord – unsettling, to say the least. 

Hauntings like this are not uncommon in this establishment – and that’s down to the hotel’s stormy past. 

Bodmin Jail Hotel, located in Corwall, is one of the UK’s best-kept secrets: a former prison, it is now home to a luxury retreat with a twist.

Rob Cox, the hotel’s chief executive officer, tells the Daily Mail: ‘You can tell this was a prison, there’s no doubting it. Small windows, cellular rooms, there’s no mistaking where you are.’

The hotel features in the second episode of Channel 4’s World’s Most Secret Hotels – and viewers are given an inside look at the cells-turned-bedrooms, as well as the champagne bar in the former chaplain’s office and fine dining in the chapel restaurant.

Retaining its historic intrigue, this unique escape now offers indulgent comfort within its atmospheric walls. 

‘It’s a well-kept secret, one of those places where you have to know about it to experience it. And once you’ve experienced it, you have this special journey which you can take and share with other people,’ says Rob during the episode.

Bodmin Jail Hotel, located in Corwall, features in Channel 4’s World’s Most Secret Hotels

The interior of the hotel retains the structure and feel of its historic origins

The jail opened for the first time in 1779, and could house more than 200 prisoners, with up to eight in a cell.

‘Prisons like this exemplify the Victorian control over the soul, the body and the mind,’ says Jess Marlton, the hotel’s general manager.

The aim of the jail? Reform. 

Jess explains the establishment had the goal of bettering its prisoners – through ‘short, sharp shock.’

The prison closed in the 1920s, before falling into disrepair. After it was repurchased, planning permission was granted in 2017 – and the building was almost completed by the end of Covid.

Rob adds: ‘The transformation was incredible. When I first arrived here, it was an open, derelict site with no roof. The walls were covered in green ivy, the trees were growing out of the building. 

‘To set about recreating that into a beautiful five-star hotel was a real journey for us, and needed so much imagination.’

The steel balconies inside, for instance, are real feats of engineering, are parts were lowered in through the roof. 

With reports of ghostly sightings, even in the bedrooms that used to be cells, it’s thought to be one of the most haunted hotels in the UK

The hotel is based on the site of a former prison – and has been refurbished since it fell into disrepair after the 1920s

The rooms, also featuring living areas and bathrooms, add a touch of modernity while retaining the charm of the historic building.

Nowadays, the imposing hotel has two main wings, each housing a central atrium with four floors, leading to 70 rooms. 

Each of the bedrooms comprise three former cells – so there is no shortage of space here. 

The chapel, used by former prisoners, is now a restaurant, while the library functions as a lounge – and there’s even a gym in the basement. 

There are rumours of hidden rooms and tunnels that lead nowhere, often drawing in keen tourists.

Rob tells the Daily Mail: ‘There is no doubt, because of some of the things that have happened in the prison, things I’ve seen with my own eyes, that there are unexplainable occurrences happening there all the time.

‘We’ve recorded on CCTV glasses moving across dinner tables, unexplained, and in front of people’s eyes. We’ve seen things jump from tables and move around.

‘We like the history as much as we like the leisure side of it. What we didn’t want to do was take a former prison and make it into a hotel and just put some badges on the wall and make it seem a bit like it used to be a prison.’

This history, of course, is not always quite so pleasant – and Bodmin Jail is said to be one of the most haunted places in the UK. 

That can make things tough for housekeeping – with staff noting they can hear footsteps while walking through the corridors.

Rea Gillen, the housekeeping supervisor, says in the episode: ‘Room 311 is very haunted. When you’re in there cleaning the room yourself, the door opens and shuts to the bathroom. 

‘In 209, the curtains sometimes flutter when there is no wind.

‘In my first week working here, I had to tell a ghost off because she was scaring one of my attendants so much that she didn’t want to go in the room.’

It’s a perfect destination for any horror movie junkies, too.

The hotel runs nightly ghost-hunting tours, as well as an immersive museum next door exploring the prison’s history. 

Rob says: ‘You can, if you wish, go on a tour of the darker side of the hotel. We do some ghost walks, which are a more light-hearted introduction into the spiritual side of the prison. 

‘And then we do darker tours where you can spend the night in the basement with specialists who will help you make contact with the deceased, if you believe in that. And we certainly do. We get a lot of paranormal activity in the jail.’

He adds the museum is a ‘state-of-the-art visitor attraction, which hosts well over 150,000 people coming through there every year, who get to see the full story of the prison, who get to understand the real detail of the history.’

Historical sights include the ‘last remaining hanging pit in the UK’, Rob reveals – which he says is a ‘solemn testimony to what we used to do and how we used to treat people in the UK’.

The hotel lures in tourists who are intrigued to discover its ghost tours

It also has two ‘condemned cells’, the spots where prisoners were kept for three consecutive Sundays alongside a guard in the lead-up to their execution – here, they could have their last meal and last rites. 

But the hotel does, of course, have modern amenities.

Rob adds: ‘It feels comfortable and warm, and you can drift away and forget about it – but the minute you open your eyes in the morning, you’re transported straight back to 1779 and the prison that was there.’

Hotel manager Rei says you can still see the thick walls from its time as a jail, as well as plaques showing which prisoners used to be housed in each room.

Plus, there are hooks which previously held bells on the door, which would have been rung by prison staff.

Food, however, has changed drastically in the last 200 years. Prisoners ate gruel and porridge – a far cry from the hotel’s restaurant menu today. 

Dane Watkins, the executive chef, says: ‘Everything is as local as it can possibly be. The beef, the lamb, the pork here is second to none.’

The majority of guests staying in Bodmin Jail Hotel are from the UK, but many Australians visit too – on account of the country’s history being innately tied up with the British penal system. 

Bodmin Jail is just one of several rare and remote stays featured in the upcoming episode of World’s Most Secret Hotels. 

Other properties include a historic lighthouse perched on the rugged rocks of Paternoster Island in Sweden, a South African hidden gem, two charming wooden pods tucked away in perfect seclusion along the banks of a wildlife-rich lake in Wales and an eco-resort that offers treetop accommodation in Northern Queensland.

Narrated by Julie Walters, the six-part series ventures across all six continents to shine a spotlight on some of the most unusual and breathtaking escapes, along with the teams that keep them running and the guests living their wildest dreams. 

World’s Most Secret Hotels airs on Channel 4, Saturdays, 8pm.