If you’re visiting the Southern Finger Lakes region and want to stay at an inn oozing with charm and history, I highly recommend the Fainting Goat Island Inn in Nichols, NY. The inn is a convenient place to stay if you’re visiting Owego, or if you’re on your way to or from the Finger Lakes wine trails and need a place to stopover for the night.
Fainting Goat Island Inn is well known to be haunted and has been repeatedly voted one of the best haunted hotels in the U.S.
The inn’s history as a railroad hotel contributes to its reputation as a paranormal hotspot. Built in the late 1800s, many guests stayed here while in traveling the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad. Presumably, some died and their spectral forms were not able to leave the premises.
Prior to our arrival, the inn’s haunted reputation led me to imagine a foreboding old mansion with shadowy figures flickering behind third floor windows.
Instead, we arrived to total cuteness.
A pen full of friendly goats greeted us. There was also a pot-bellied pig named Porkchop and some very friendly and furry dogs. The Fainting Goat Island Inn is named after its resident goats. Fainting goats are a breed that appears to actually faint when they experience fear.
The inn sits on the banks of the Susquehanna River and the grounds, in addition to the friendly animals roaming around, are full of lush gardens and looks out onto a 17-acre island in the middle of the river. It is a slice of rural paradise.
Along with the adorable welcoming committee, owner Marnie Streit and her partner Bill greeted us. We chatted for a while and then Marnie showed us to our room. We settled in for a friendly, relaxed stay, though I did wonder if we’d have any paranormal experiences.
We stayed there on a very dark Tuesday night in early November, and we were the only guests at the inn. We stayed in the Fainting Room (each of the five guest rooms is named for a breed of goat), but had Marnie told us to make ourselves at home and wander through the other guest rooms if we wanted to.
I was thrilled to be able to check out the décor and antique furnishings in the other rooms. I especially wanted to read the diaries that Marnie leaves in each room so guests can write down any paranormal activity they witness.
In our guest room, ghostly sightings of two women drinking tea have been reported, and a chair meant for a child has moved on its own in the Nubian Room. In the Angora Room, guests have felt someone sitting on the bed with them or pulling off their sheets during the night, and at least one person reported a feeling of being pinned to their bed.
I didn’t see any evidence of paranormal activity in the guest rooms. I also didn’t see eyes looking back at me in a mirror or hear footsteps on a non-existent staircase, both occurrences which other guests have reported.
I’m not a disbeliever in ghosts but if there are people more perceptive to the nonliving in our presence, I’m not one of them. I do, however, love a good ghost tour or haunted house, and I like to scare myself a little bit (as long as I know I’m safe!), so I loved walking from room to room on that dark night as the late autumn wind whistled through the old inn, reading diary entries of spectral sightings.
Our night in the Fainting Room was mostly uneventful. Matt did wake up throughout the night for unknown reasons. Maybe it was the old house settling in, or maybe the ladies decided to hold their tea party while we slept.
In any case, we didn’t see or hear anything to report but we weren’t disappointed, and I ended up loving Fainting Goat Island Inn for many reasons.
The guest rooms are spacious and clean and have the feel of staying in an old, well-kept farmhouse, while the hallways outside the rooms are decorated with haunting photos and antique dolls that honestly were scarier than any potential ghost that’s been reported.
The rest of the inn is decorated in rich colors with vintage furnishings, and there are plenty of places to fan out and relax, both indoors and out.
Marnie was gone by the time we got up (she is a teacher by day), but she had left us hot breakfast sandwiches outside our door and a short note, wishing us a good day.
Fainting Goat Island Inn
- Address: 1311 West River Road, Nichols, NY
- Ph: 607-972-9849
- Room rates: Start at $115 per night
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