Creepiest Things Discovered By Urban Explorers

When we see abandoned places, it’s hard not to wonder what’s inside, and why was it abandoned in the first place? But, sometimes, those questions are best left unanswered. Because once in a while, urban explorers of abandoned places end up finding things they wish they hadn’t.

Creepy Abandoned Mineshaft

YouTube user Frank Hood of the Exploring Abandoned Mines channel posted a chilling video while deep in an abandoned gold mine in Australia. Exploring the mine on a dark and stormy night, a questionable idea in itself, the video captures something very creepy indeed.

If you listen carefully to the clip above, you can hear what sounds like whispering voices in the secluded underground mine. The YouTuber stays surprisingly calm, but was still too freaked out to continue exploring. It’s worth noting, this YouTuber’s channel is not focused on the paranormal. This video is somewhat of an anomaly among its usual content.

Could the odd hissing sound have been snakes, like he suggested? Were his footsteps, or the sound of wind, reverberating and echoing around the mine shaft, creating the strange auditory phenomena? Or was it really the voices of people, or things, occupying the mine, who don’t seem too welcoming of visitors?

Viewers were seriously spooked by the video, with one suggesting it sounded like a demonic ritual. Other users were less convinced, agreeing with the theory that the noises were simply echoes, or were possibly even added in after the event. But on the chance that it is real, can you imagine hearing those sounds while exploring an abandoned mine at night alone?

Pickering Dungeon

Contractors inspecting an abandoned farmhouse in Pickering, Ontario made a truly bizarre discovery underneath the property back in December 2011. Located at the end of a long driveway, surrounded by greenery, the house is hidden from passers-by. It seems to be a nice place to live, secluded and rural, but it hides a terrifying secret.

Although the house was unoccupied for half a decade, the contractors found a recently-installed locking system on the door to one of the rooms in the basement. The room was secured by a heavy door with multiple exterior locks, quite clearly designed to keep someone inside. Low-quality photos released of the room’s interior show heavy-duty, steel chains hanging from the ceiling.

Deeply concerned by the room, so new and carefully built, the police began an investigation into who had built it and what their sinister purpose was. The day they began their forensic search of the property, however, a huge blaze engulfed the house overnight. The fire destroyed the entire residence, along with any evidence it may have contained, leaving big questions unanswered.

Abandoned Camelot Theme Park

Theme parks are normally places filled with laughter and fun. But this abandoned amusement park in Lancashire, England, has an entirely different atmosphere now than when it was still open.

When urban explorer Andre Govia searched the place, he found it full of a nightmarish army of terrifying mannequins. With their haunting expressions and decaying bodies, they make for a seriously creepy sight. If that wasn’t unsettling enough, some of the mannequins were also dressed in disturbing costumes, now tattered and faded, scattered along the ghost-train ride.

Dating back to the 1960s, many of the mannequins were mechanical, which would have allowed them to move. Of course, the electronics are long defunct, and many of the mannequins’ wires now trail out onto the ground. But the thought of one of these turning to face you while exploring the park is easily enough to keep most people out. We have an entire article about creepy abandoned theme parks in case you want to explore more!

Abandoned Asylum Encounter

If you’re looking for real scares online, your best bet isn’t to search for ghost videos or anything supernatural. It’s the scary people YouTubers encounter that you should be more afraid of.

YouTube channel the Proper People posted a strange and unexplained encounter that happened when they were exploring an abandoned asylum in the dead of night. The pair enter the asylum to find it largely destroyed, with the walls covered in graffiti from previous explorers. As the pair look around, they are stunned to see another person in the shadows outside the property.

Miles from anywhere, there is nothing to indicate who the person is, how they got there, or what they were up to. There were no other cars parked at the asylum besides the one the Proper People arrived in. The pair call out but get no response. Very uneasy, they decide to leave the asylum and get away from the unknown person, who didn’t seem to want to be found.

Hell On Earth

Urban Explorers from the ‘Hell on Earth’ YouTube channel happened across something terrifying in one of their videos. Having received a tip-off about an abandoned building somewhere in England, allegedly used by the Ministry of Defense, the group decide to investigate.

Soon after entering, they find an intimidating message saying "DIE" on a wall. Not the warmest of welcomes. But remarkably undeterred, the group continue further into the abandoned, pigeon feces-covered complex only to find another message saying "Don’t Go Upstairs". And yet, up they go.

As their exploration moves along, an increasingly noticeable number of dead pigeons can be seen, some headless. But the scariest part? Writing on the wall of a higher floor bears the words, "too many birds". Either someone’s playing a prank, or there’s a seriously twisted individual living in that abandoned building. At certain points, the ominous calling of what sounds like pigeons somewhere above the explorers also becomes apparent.

And later still, a male voice calls out to them. Freaked out, the group quickly exit the building, only to be confronted by an angry security guard who accosts them for trespassing. While waiting for the police to show up, the group ask the guard why the building was so inexplicably full of dead pigeons. The security guards simply replies “It's the ghosts. That is haunted!"

Perhaps there’s a reason the building is so closely guarded. It’s important nobody gets in or they might lose their heads.

David Gilmour's Abandoned Mansion

In 2017, urban explorers from the YouTube channel Exploring with Fighters made a chilling discovery in an abandoned thirteen-million-dollar mansion near Oxford, England. The mansion’s previous owner was rock star David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, who reportedly purchased the massive, eleven-bedroom, 16th Century manor house in 1980. But, sadly, after it changed hands a few times, the most recent owners let it fall into disrepair.

The video explores the rooms of the now-abandoned mansion, including a snooker room and an elaborately decorated child’s bedroom. However, as they venture downstairs into the basement, things get a little more sinister. Leaning eerily against a wall is what appears to be the gravestone of a seven-year-old boy, named Little Jack, who died in 1909.

As of yet, no one’s been able to offer an explanation, though some believe it may have been made in memory of a family dog, generations ago. Either way, it’s a creepy thing to encounter anywhere, let alone in the basement of an abandoned house.

But even the mansion’s more recent history is troubled. A woman named Jill Sinclair owned the manor house at the beginning of this century, but suffered severe brain damage after her son accidentally shot her with an air rifle on the premises. She later died of her injuries.

The house was sold in 2007 following the tragic incident and has been left to decay ever since, haunted by its tragic past. The urban explorers must’ve been very grateful that the manor’s disturbing past only came to light after they were safely away from the premises.

Dr. Anna’s House

There’s an abandoned urology clinic in Bad Wildungen, Germany that’s a morbid tourist’s dream. To the urban explorer community, this next creaky, decrepit building is known as Dr. Anna’s House. While the identity of Dr. Anna has never been confirmed, the clinic was abandoned sometime in the last thirty to fifty years.

The creepy contents of its downstairs surgery have lured explorers from across the world ever since. The diverse array of faded medicines and other pharmacological equipment is surreal, but not as creepy as the numerous glass vessels of preserved human kidneys.

Supposedly, if Doctor Anna was working with urine all day, it must’ve made sense to study the things that produce it up close. For science, you'd think? Or, maybe she just took her own out for inspection and forgot to pop ‘em back in before leaving? Whatever the answer is, you might not want to know.

New Orleans Charity Hospital

The New Orleans Charity Hospital dates back to 1736, when a generous benefactor left money to construct a new hospital in his will. But after surviving for over 250 years, the building was irreparably damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Devastated by the storm, the building became unusable and was abandoned.

Urban explorers, intrigued by the building, discovered eerie, storm-beaten rooms and operating theatres slowly rotting and decaying. More disturbingly, they also found trays of bio-hazardous material left behind in the rush to escape, including blood and urine. There were even body parts, such as removed gallbladders lying around in certain rooms awaiting the analysis or appropriate disposal that never came.

Today, the hospital remains closed to the public and strictly off limits. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a hotspot for urban explorers.

Barn Dolls

While exploring an abandoned petting zoo, the hilariously-named Reddit user Himmelfartskommando stumbled across a scene straight out of a horror movie. While the Redditor may have expected to find some unusual things while exploring, they couldn’t possibly have expected to find this.

©Himmelfahrtskommando via Reddit

Yes, it's a rickety old barn with several creepy children’s dolls strewn around the floor. Unsurprisingly, the sight of the dolls leading up to a dark and dilapidated barn was enough to convince the Redditor to leave as quickly as possible before they found out who they belong to.

While these dolls were probably originally intended to be sold in the petting zoo’s gift shop before it closed, you can’t help wondering who was behind this mess. Or whether they knew how much of a fright it’d cause!

Creepy Children’s Drawing

In 2017, urban exploration YouTuber ‘Exploring With Josh’ posted a video in which he explores a rotting chapel and two abandoned houses deep in the forest, somewhere in Pennsylvania. While the group feel uneasy visiting the chapel and the first house, they find nothing particularly unsettling.

However, in the second house, they come across a more chilling atmosphere. Layers of dust cake what is otherwise a neatly arranged home, which appears to have been abandoned in a hurry, seemingly leaving all the owners’ possessions behind. But continuing to explore the kitchen, the group encounter a chilling image scrawled onto a child’s blackboard.

The picture has been interpreted by some as depicting a woman hanging with a rope around her neck, though it's not entirely convincing. However, in another room, they find a more sophisticated drawing along the same theme. The group found nothing else around the house to explain the drawings or why the house was left in such a hurry, as if frozen in time.

While some commenters on the video have suggested the drawings were faked, either by Josh or previous explorers, it doesn’t make the houses themselves any less creepy. The unanswered question of why they were so quickly abandoned remains, lending itself to all sorts of dark conclusions. But whether tragedy really befell this place or not, there’s no doubt that an abandoned house full of morbid sketches would be a supremely creepy thing to find deep in the woods.

Abandoned Veterinary School

Most urban explorers know the risks they’re taking on when they enter places: they could be arrested, injured, or come across something truly horrific. For something from the latter category, just ask Stefaan Beernaert. What he found in the basement of an abandoned veterinary school in Anderlecht, Belgium is the stuff of nightmares.

The veterinary school closed towards the end of the 20th Century and has been abandoned ever since. Stefaan and other explorers decided to investigate the building to take pictures of the decaying classrooms, but once inside, they were met with the sickly, pickle-like odor of formaldehyde.

Stefaan and the others decided to head downstairs to figure out where the stench was coming from. What they found was beyond any of their expectations. Containers, some nearly a century old, were dotted all over, each filled with the preserved bodies of animals. Hundreds of grotesque body parts and organs could be seen floating in formaldehyde, with dogs, cats, and rabbits being among the hideous menagerie.

Stefaan’s photos are truly spine-chilling and it’s not hard to imagine the disgusting smell of all those random, preserved animal parts. While these specimens were clearly once used for study, you can’t help feeling like a mad scientist is about to jump out, ready to put my organs in a jar.

Bathtub Full of Brains

Back in 2009, in an abandoned hospital in an undisclosed location in the southern United States, one urban explorer made a truly ghastly discovery. The explorer snapped pics of this ghastly sight: a bathtub full of brains suspended in an unknown brown substance.

©via Reddit

While little information was provided alongside the image, it does appear to show real brains, potentially preserved with formalin for medical study. The strangest part, though, is that they look decidedly like human brains in shape and size.

While it’s possible this hospital had to quickly store the specimens in an emergency, a bathtub is an unlikely location to manage one's personal collection of brains. It’s got to be individually labelled jars, at least, for the discerning collector! But seriously, whatever the explanation behind the image, be it medical, artistic, or something darker, it’s a sight you sincerely hope to never encounter.

Rosie The Abandoned Shark

Early in 2019, an urban explorer came across something truly bizarre in an eerie, abandoned wildlife park near Melbourne, Australia.

YouTuber Luke McPherson decided to explore the derelict park hoping to gain some insight into its history, but instead found something terrifying. In a storage room, out of the corner of his eye, Luke spotted a 16 feet long, two-ton Great White Shark. The shark was suspended in a formaldehyde tank, almost perfectly preserved by the chemicals, surrounded by piles of litter and dusty boxes.

The shark, affectionately named Rosie, it turned out, had been accidentally caught in a fishing net over twenty years ago, and had been preserved and displayed in the tank ever since. But when the park closed almost a decade ago, its owners decided they didn’t want to take the enormous, creepy shark with them.

Fortunately, though, as a result of the publicity generated by this shocking discovery, a local tourist attraction, Crystal World stepped in to save the shark from disrepair. Rosie is currently being restored and rehoused before going back on display near Melbourne, creeping out the masses once more. But as spine-chilling as a preserved Great White may be, it’s still better than encountering a live one in the middle of the sea. Because in the ocean, there’s nowhere to formaldehyde!

If you were amazed at these creepy things discovered by urban explorers, you might want to read about abandoned places forgotten by the world. Thanks for reading!