It’s no secret that the small village of Pluckley in Kent is famously known as the ‘UK’s most haunted’.

Situated within the stunning Kentish countryside, Pluckley is home to just over a 1,000 people and holds the Guinness World Record for Britain’s most haunted village (a category they have since discontinued). One foot in the village and it’s easy to understand why.

According to legend, the village is home to at least a dozen resident ghosts and has seen countless apparitions and eerie sightings over the years. 

Several of the spirits said to haunt the town are believed to be connected to the Dering family, who were the Lords of the Manor from the 15th century until the First World War. From the ‘Red Lady’ and a phantom highwayman to notorious ghostly patrons in a historic pub — Pluckley has something for every fan of the supernatural.

But perhaps the most spine-chilling area is the Screaming Woods. On the edge of the village, tucked somewhere between Pluckley and Smarden, you’ll stumble upon Dering Wood, named after the noble Dering family.

Until the mid-1920s, the woodland was part of the Dering Estate and served as a leisure spot for the family. It’s said that Edward VII visited frequently, while George IV was known to host lavish picnics beneath its trees.

According to the Woodland Trust, Dering Wood has been continuously wooded since at least the early medieval period and was even mentioned in the Domesday Book — so it’s highly likely these ancient woods have been witness to their fair share of tragedies and countless deaths within their dark confines.

The Dering Woods, ominously known as the ‘Screaming Woods’ of Kent, live up to their spine-chilling name as there have been numerous reports and eerie tales of bloodcurdling screams of men and women resonating from within these woods at night that have become a part of the villages’ lore.

These haunting woods continue to attract intrigued visitors from across the globe, with ghost stories about the forest’s mysteries frequently surfacing online. The screams heard from within the woods are said to be the echoes of those unfortunate souls who perished while lost in the foggy woods.

Over time, this spooky site has evolved into a popular tourist attraction, with some daring individuals even opting to camp overnight beneath the supposedly haunted trees.

One popular legend — considered to be one of the main reason’s behind why the Screaming Woods were nicknamed as such — is about Robert du Bois, a highwayman who was either tortured, lynched or killed while being tied to a tree in the woods, his screams reportedly still echoing through the dense foliage.

Another haunting tale speaks of a suicidal army colonel from the 18th century who apparently hung himself from a tree in the woods, and whose ghost can sometimes still be seen hanging.

Another unverified story claims on Halloween night in 1948, peculiar lights and sounds were seen emanating from the woods, followed by the horrifyingly grim discovery of 20 bodies the next morning.

The tale suggests these were residents from the nearby Maltman’s Hill area, and since there were no signs of struggle, and an inconclusive autopsy, the police concluded that these 20 individuals had fallen victim to carbon monoxide poisoning. This incident has been termed the Dering Woods Massacre. Nevertheless, despite adding to the village’s eerie standing, no official documentation of the occurrence exists, prompting numerous individuals to reject it as merely an urban legend.

A separate story claims that in 1990, four university students disappeared from the woodland during a camping expedition; yet, this assertion is also unverified.

Fast-forwarding to the present, a recent post on Reddit also talks about the Dering Woods and a Redditor’s experience traversing through it.

On the ‘Paranormal’ subreddit, one user shared their story about the woods, writing: “So yesterday me and my mates decided to go to Pluckley (most haunted village in England supposedly) it was a lovely little town and we had a nice time in the village itself. After which we made our way to ‘Dering woods’ nicknamed the screaming woods.

“We walked round the gates to the entrance and a man with a dog walked past us, but my friend Kian is convinced he saw a woman walking the way we would soon go (no one else saw her). Keep in mind my friend Kian is a very honest and trustworthy guy. We kept walking deeper and deeper into the woods till the path we was on became overgrown and signs of human activity seemed to dwindle faster and faster.

“We then kept hearing what was a woman mumbling off in the distance, weird but not “paranormal”. We hiked deeper and deeper and we were off trail now, in the deepest part of the forest. This was when we asked “is anyone there please make yourself known” and I couldn’t lie about this if I tried and all my friends heard it — we heard a woman maybe 30-40, whisper something unintelligible about 30 or so meters away from us.”

The spooked social media user added: “We all froze and our hearts sank. We just made a beeline for the trail not knowing we were running deeper and deeper. Again we were lost at this point and the feeling of uneasiness had set in for us. All the constant thumps off in the distance and the whispers seemed to get more frequent. We wanted out at this point and so we kept searching for an exit whilst we were convinced we were being followed.

“We made it out and we’re all okay but definitely a scary experience. Just to clear up — there was no one in the woods with us. The guy who drove us there stayed in the car for the 3 hours we were gone and he said no one entered those woods whilst we were in there and the man with the dogs left an hour after we went in.”

Several other Redditors also commented on the post sharing their own experiences in the woods and in Pluckley. It’s safe to say the Screaming Woods of Kent are not for the faint hearted — so if you’re planning to make a trip, make sure you’re prepared.