The Miners’ Arms in Eyam was built in the early 17th century, around twenty years before the plague that would devastate the village, and served for many years as the meeting place of the Great Barmote Court, an ancient body that administered the laws governing the local lead mining industry.
The pub has a long reputation as one of the most haunted buildings in Eyam. The most frequently reported phenomenon is footsteps: heard proceeding along the bedroom corridor accompanied by the rustle of a woman’s dress, loud and firm despite the soft pile of the carpet, sometimes followed by a door handle seen to move. Multiple tenants across different decades reported the same experience independently.
The most documented sighting involves a figure seen by the chairman of Eyam Parish Council, J. A. Carnall, who reported watching an elderly woman in elastic-sided boots, a black bonnet, and a cape trimmed with jet sequins enter the back door of the inn some time after its restoration. She appeared confused by the structural alterations before vanishing. It has been suggested she may be the wife of a former landlord, said to have been murdered in the 17th century by being pushed downstairs.
Other reported phenomena include a clock wound up in the small hours, a record player starting in an empty room, a voice calling the landlord’s name, and on one occasion a couple waking to find the room filled with antique medical equipment that was gone by morning.
