As Hallowe'en creeps ominously closer, the writing wraiths at East Coast Car Rentals thought it might be prudent to give our brave customers a loathsome list of the most spectacularly spooky places to visit across Australia. Only the most terrifying cemeteries, abandoned houses and derelict hospitals make the cut…and the cut runs deep. The crypt opens with a traumatic tour of awe-inspiring Adelaide…come along and enter, if you dare…just make sure you don't come alone.

The Adelaide Arcade  

Since it was built in 1885, the Adelaide Arcade has played host to numerous ghostly sightings. The ghost of a long-deceased security guard and a guilt-ridden mother are just two of the spirits wandering the halls of this charming, rustic building, despite breathing their last decades ago…

The former caretaker of the Adelaide Arcade, Francis Cluney, was attempting to fix a flickering light when he fell into the electricity generator, just two years after the Arcade opened. The moving machinery made a mess of old Francis, and it's said he continues to make his presence felt yet still, beeping EFTPOS machines, bringing a sudden chill to the air and, perhaps aptly, turning out the lights…he's even been caught on CCTV… 

In another melancholy tale, a young mother, with a child, attempted to do away with herself and her young son after the father committed adultery, but only succeeded in killing the boy. Racked with guilt, she took her own life a week later, and the tragic pair's cries and moans can still be heard echoing throughout the old building.

Martindale Hall

Martindale Hall can be found just a short drive out of Adelaide. A mansion completed in the late 19th century, Martindale Hall is home to a number of lost spirits. A well-dressed man is said to sit on the staircase, preventing living, breathing people from passing – no one knows who he is. A collection of ghost children have also been seen in the house, often appearing sleeping guests' bedsides. Now used as a museum hotel and fittingly, for murder-mystery parties, Martindale Hall is certainly worth your time.

The Old Adelaide Gaol House

Foreboding places at the best of times, abandoned prisons score highly when it comes to ramping up the Scare Scale to 'maximum'. The Old Adelaide Gaol is no exception – almost fifty people were hanged here before capital punishment in Australia was abolished. Complete with its own 'Hanging Tower', howls of anguish and whispering voices can still allegedly be heard within the crumbling walls, and there have been reports of a shadowy figure ambling along the corridor, a rope still attached to its neck…

Take a hold of your fears, and drive one of East Coast's rental cars to each of these chilling chambers of the supernatural. Just don't blame us when the engine mysteriously decides not to start, out in the darkness, in the middle of nowhere. Our cars are thoroughly tested, almost new and were running perfectly before…