The White Hart Exeter Awakens: A Two-Day/Night Investigation into Exeter’s Hidden Spirits
- Dr Iain M Lightfoot
- Dec 5, 2025
- 7 min read
I was going to start by asking if you are interested in the paranormal? Of course you are, that is why you are reading this blog isn't it...! Instead I will make the recommendation straight away that if you want to visit Exeter, then you will have to stay in The White Hart, and if possible ask for Rooms 1, 20, 21 or 27... You will not be disappointed...
Make no mistake, this is an ancient building in every sense of the word. One can imagine it being the place where the plans were drawn up for what should be created in the world as everyone involved sat around drinking mead shouting argh and slapping their thighs!
Sometimes, a haunted building reveals it's story like a book placed gently into your hands, which then tremble as you turn the cover and begin to read the page. The White Hart in Exeter takes this approach, the spirits were absolutely cautious at first, then suddenly, they unmistakably became 'alive'. We spent 48 hours inside this vast, sprawling coaching inn, and it became clear that we weren’t just exploring a haunted building, we were exploring history itself...
Why Were We There?
Paranormal Hunters UK were asked to investigate what is/was becoming an increasingly active location. We needed to identify what was happening and to provide as much information as possible for the staff at the White Hart in Exeter.
The footprint of the White Hart is enormous, corridors folding into stairwells, stairwells drifting into tucked-away lounges, forgotten upper rooms scorched by an old fire, and the hidden remains of servant routes and coaching passages, not to mention hidden priest holes and tunnels under the roads. It’s the kind of place where you can walk for ten minutes and still feel like you’ve only seen a fraction of it. In the building, energy shifts from room to room, not randomly, but like a story unfolding in chapters.
Over two nights, we were granted a rare glimpse of the building's story.
Night One: The Building Begins to Wake Up
The first night began quietly during our guided walk around. When we approached the Bottlescrus bar there was an unmistakeable heaviness, the feeling of being watched from the far end of the bar. As an investigator, you begin to develop a sense for these feelings, they get familiar, nothing dramatic yet, but the environment is adjusting to you. A small amount of dowsing and no contact via spirit balls.. I asked “Are you Samuel?” the reply came back immediately via EVP, a whispered “No.” Direct, intelligent, confident. The temperature then dropped sharply as if someone had stepped between us. The investigation begins. It is hard to describe the impressions that one gets, the words spoken because they are so prolific... but it was in the hidden garden that most of the psychic impressions came.
The atmosphere shifted in a way I didn’t expect. The place looked calm enough at first glance, but beneath the paving slabs the energy felt tangled, heavy, layered. I kept being pulled to the same impression: two bodies lying opposite each other beneath the stone, metres apart. I didn’t know the story then, only what I could sense, but the dowsing rods later validated two presences on a perfect line, as if both had fallen together.
The official tale speaks of two workers who died while repairing the old well, and a third who was supposedly “pulled out” before the so-called cockatrice, the mythical creature blamed for the deaths, claimed the others. Another story suggests they were overcome with poor air.. Yet what I felt was different. I sensed violence, a struggle, two men critically wounding each other before a third finished the job and pushed them into the well, later blaming folklore to cover the truth. A winner-takes-all moment buried under the garden’s polite surface.
As if that wasn’t enough, I then caught the impression of a bomb-blast casualty exactly where the car park now lies. I pointed to the spot without knowing why, only to discover the next day that the Blitz bomb maps show a cluster of bombing directly through that area. It makes you wonder whether the presence we met in Bottlescrus belonged to someone taken during the Second World War. Pure theory, but the energy fits. Just when I thought the garden couldn’t offer any more, I saw a white cat with a ginger flash at its neck slip between the shadows, at the exact moment Barry captured a clear EVP of a cat’s meow. The garden holds its stories tightly, but every now and then it let one out.
I also felt strongly that the building had been a copy of a building in the West Indies? I have no idea why that impression was inside my mind, along with the maritime theme which was to emerge later...
We discovered hidden meeting rooms, saw a flash of light at the end of the corridor outside room 1 - was this a portal? (As a note, corridors always seem to be a feature of a portal's location - strange but there it is). We also ventured into the boardroom, ante-room, the bar and cellars and bedrooms... My room for the duration of our stay was Room 21, one of the most actively haunted rooms. During the walkaround we visited the room as a group and captured some EVPs - a male voice whispering, a soft whistle from the doorway, deliberate, tonal, nothing like the ambient noises of an old building. Then my own name was spoken clearly in a voice that wasn’t mine or Barry’s. I can tell you that one never can get used to hearing your name spoken by the unseen. It’s not frightening, just deeply, unmistakably real! Later, all my equipment malfunctioned in my room as I tried to film over night, this meant that I had to record on my bodycam... orbs? Blimey there were plenty!
Back to the investigation and with such a large real-estate, We decided to concentrate on the boardroom and the bar for the time we had left...
The Orb Activity Begins
In a normal building, orbs are common place, but in this building it is thick and rich in orb activity, in one case we witnessed string orb / plasma movement, (please let's not start the discussions about dust and insects). In the corridors and the boardroom we caught zip-orbs: tiny high-energy bursts shooting across frame faster than any insect could move. While upstairs in the ballroom, a cotton-wool orb drifted curiously but absolutely toward us when we put classical music on.
However, the highlight remains, the one that became the investigation’s anchor point, which was the string orb we captured in the bar area... you see we had reports of a girl having been seen on numerous occasions, so we set up cameras and began to investigate where this occurred and shortly into the vigil, on our full-spectrum camera, we saw an area of pixilation and a string orb flying purposefully into it... Fantastic! The orb seemed to move with intention, as if attempting to manifest, then dissolved into the wall. A rare catch, and one that seemed to mirror the building’s emotional heartbeat. The energy died down, and we called it a night!
Day and Night Two: Everything Changes
The next day began with our analysis and research - looking at what we captured on cameras and recorders before diving into the history of the building. Let's look now at the building's history!
The White Hart Hotel in Exeter has roots going back to at least the early 15th century. It is believed to have been the home of William Wynard, the recorder of Exeter, between approx. 1418 and 1442. Over the centuries the building evolved and at one time it was known as the Blue Boar Inn (named after the heraldic badge of Richard, Duke of York) before eventually becoming the White Hart Inn. Its location at the bottom of South Street located just inside the old city walls near the former South Gate. This made it ideally placed to stable pack animals, horses and carriages, which suited its later role as a coaching inn.
By the 18th and 19th centuries the White Hart had become a hub of activity: it served as a busy staging post for carriers travelling across Devon to places like Axminster, Seaton, and Ilminster. The building has experienced highs and lows and during the cholera outbreak of 1832 the area around South Street saw many deaths and the hotel experienced a steep drop in guests. Through the 19th and early 20th centuries it hosted dinners and meetings for local clubs and societies, including serving as headquarters for the Exeter Touring Cyclists Club in 1912. The building you see today reflects a Georgian-era makeover: a three-storey roughcast façade with sash windows and a slate roof, though behind the already ancient exterior lies a much older structural element! Just look inside the bar and you will see what I mean.
Back to the Investigation...
The second night was indeed different in every way. It felt more responsive, curious. Almost as if the White Hart had decided we weren’t just visitors and we were allowed to be participants.
My own bedroom area was active; I had heard people in the corridor returning from a night out, 0300... a ladies voice and giggle. I made the assumption it was the people next door 0 but on checking, they never arrived/ So who was it? Apparently, this wasn't an uncommon experience.
We needed to concentrate on areas again. Bottlescrus and Garden, Boardroom, Ballroom and Bars were chosen... The bottlescrus and garden seemed gentle and peaceful, we had interactions with dowsing rods and even one pub guest asking questions of the rods... and getting the right answers (of course)!
Meanwhile, in the boardroom and ballroom, the EVPs were relentless. Women’s voices. Men’s voices. We had more pages of EVP notes than we would normally gather from an entire week of investigations. The White Hart wasn’t just active, it was expressive. Oh, and Barry was prodded in the ballroom... (some cluedo link I won't mention)...
The Energy of the Place
I believe that child spirits do move playfully through the building, curious, playful, and darting into the corners of the wooden framework. Oh and back to the maritime link which appeared several times. On the wall there is a suggestion that Dutch Sailors had helped construct the building wonder if this was also why I felt that it was similar to the West Indies / Dutch Antillies?
What Stays With Me from The White Hart Exeter
After 2 days and nights inside the Martson's White Hart Pub and Hotel, and it's sprawling footprint, I came away with a simple truth, this was a building that needed to get to know you before it lets go of its secrets.
I would love to be a regular at this location because there is so much more to learn in the shadows, it was a privilege.
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