At their peak around a century or so ago, Estonia boasted 1,245 manor houses (Mõis), each with their own histories, stories, and sometimes tragedies or dark sides which have given rise to the myriad ghost stories that still "haunt" the locations today.

Maaleht listed five of the most haunted manors in Estonia, some of which can be visited or even stayed in.

Kolga mõis

Kolga mõis, in the western part of the Lahemaa National Park, could be considered Estonia's most haunted manor even with the stiff competition that entails; the ghosts and other entities wandering around the estate caused a stir among both the local folk and the Stenbock family who lived there in the late 19th century.

While doing her master's thesis, folklorist Liis Järv found several references to the manor lord's officer son, who had been murdered and buried under a pond and whose spirit haunted the building, candle in hand; Järv also references passages and caves beneath the house where some very dark deeds are supposed to have taken place: Torture and the amassing of a collection of human skins which might make even Ed Gein envious.

Much has also been said about third floor rooms which were off limits to all – though a maid reported seeing a mysterious gray woman who, on being followed, turned out to have been the apparent ghost of someone who had committed infanticide.

In fact this apparition was one of several to haunt the dreaded third floor, where the slamming of doors, the echoing of mysterious laughter and even ghosts gathering to play cards were apparently nightly occurrences.

But Kolga mõis' most infamous ghost reputedly was or is the so-called red-haired witch, who was no friend to men in particular – one bite from this particular denizen spelled death for the hapless male within the year, and was even said to be the cause of death of Carl Magnus Stenbock, scion of the same family.

The manor is in private hands and is not open to the public, though the adjacent museum is.

Porkuni mõis

Moving on, Porkuni mõis, near Väike-Maarja in Lääne-Viru County, brings with it tales, some of them recent, of a small light burning on the manor pond for an hour around midnight, floating islands, floating people, and strange fawn-like figures with hooves moving around.

Palmse mõis

Third on the list is Palmse mõis, also in Lääne-Viru County and built on the site of a former Cistercian monastery and now a hotel, whose staff have reported experiencing ghostly figures, mysterious music with no obvious source, ghostly crying children, the mandatory opening and closing of doors and even, in a novel twist, the tidying up of photos and papers in the library, by one particularly fastidious phantom.

Mooste mõis and Vana-Vigala mõis

Over at Mooste mõis, Põlva County, in the 16th century granted by Polish King Stefan Batory to a Baltic German family, the spirit of a manor lord's son who died tragically on a hunting trip has been reported, while the specialties of the Vana-Vigala mõis in Rapla County include ghosts in the von Uexküll cemetery.

Mooste mõis is now a hotel and restaurant,

A more worldly summary of the place of the Estonian manor house in the country's history and culture is here.

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