Gibbets & executions

51 places across Britain and Ireland

• Beaumaris GaolBeaumaris, Anglesey · A Victorian jail with a treadmill, and a hanged man's curse on the church clock.
• Castle RushenCastletown, Isle of Man · A medieval castle that served as the island's prison.
• Caxton GibbetCaxton, Cambridgeshire · A roadside gibbet with a grim legend of a man hung alive.
• Charles PeaceArmley Gaol, Leeds · A master burglar who leapt from a moving train.
• Claude DuvalHounslow Heath, London · The French highwayman who danced with his victims.
• Combe GibbetWalbury Hill, near Inkpen, Berkshire · A lonely gibbet on a hilltop, built for two murderers.
• Cork City GaolSunday's Well, Cork · A prison that looks like a fairy-tale castle.
• Crumlin Road GaolBelfast · A Victorian prison with a tunnel to the courthouse and a hanging cell.
• Dick Turpin's GraveSt George's Churchyard, York · The famous highwayman, hanged at York and buried in a quiet churchyard.
• Dr Pritchard, the PoisonerJail Square, Glasgow · Glasgow's last public hanging, watched by a huge crowd.
• Eugene AramKnaresborough, North Yorkshire · A scholar whose 14-year-old murder was uncovered by bones in a cave.
• Execution DockWapping, London · Where pirates were hanged, then left for three tides to wash over them.
• FotheringhayFotheringhay, Northamptonshire · Where Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded, and the castle was torn down.
• Gad's Hill and Swift NickHigham, near Rochester, Kent · A robbery at dawn and a ride to York by sunset.
• Gibbet HillHindhead, Surrey · An unknown sailor murdered at the Devil's Punch Bowl.
• Harraby HillCarlisle, Cumbria · Where captured Jacobites were executed after the '45.
• Ilchester GaolIlchester, Somerset · Somerset's county gaol, where a famous radical was locked up.
• Inveraray JailInveraray, Argyll · A Victorian courthouse and jail, now a living museum.
• Jedburgh Castle JailJedburgh, Scottish Borders · Home of 'Jeddart Justice': hang first, try afterwards.
• Judge Jeffreys and Martha BrownDorchester, Dorset · The Hanging Judge's lodgings, and a hanging that inspired Thomas Hardy.
• Kevin BarryMountjoy Prison, Dublin · An 18-year-old student hanged in the War of Independence.
• Kilmainham GaolDublin · Where the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were executed.
• Lady Betty, the HangwomanRoscommon · A woman sentenced to death who became the hangman herself.
• Lincoln CastleLincoln · Hangings on a castle tower, watched by crowds below.
• Lynch's WindowMarket Street, Galway · Where a mayor, legend says, hanged his own son.
• Mary Ann CottonDurham Gaol, Durham · Britain's first serial killer, it was claimed, hanged at Durham.
• Mary TimneyDumfries · The last woman publicly hanged in Scotland.
• Newgate PrisonOld Bailey, City of London · London's most notorious prison, and the man who escaped it four times.
• Ruth EllisHolloway Prison, London · The last woman hanged in Britain.
• Shepton Mallet PrisonShepton Mallet, Somerset · England's oldest prison, which once hid the Domesday Book.
• SmithfieldWest Smithfield, London · Where William Wallace was executed and martyrs were burned.
• St Richard GwynBeast Market, Wrexham · A Welsh schoolmaster executed for his faith.
• Stirling Old Town JailStirling · A Victorian jail near where the Radical leaders were beheaded.
• The Bloody Assizes at TauntonTaunton Castle, Somerset · Judge Jeffreys sentenced Monmouth's rebels in the castle's great hall.
• The Cardiff MartyrsGallows Field, Cardiff · Two priests executed after a made-up plot.
• The Chartist Trial, MonmouthShire Hall, Monmouth · The last men sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
• The Execution of Charles IBanqueting House, Whitehall, London · A king beheaded outside his own palace window.
• The Grassmarket GallowsGrassmarket, Edinburgh · Where 'Half-hangit Maggie' came back to life on the way to her grave.
• The Halifax GibbetGibbet Street, Halifax, West Yorkshire · An early guillotine, used long before the French Revolution.
• The Hanging of William BurkeLawnmarket, Edinburgh · The bodysnatcher who was himself dissected.
• The Hartlepool MonkeyHartlepool, County Durham · The townsfolk who, legend says, hanged a monkey as a French spy.
• The Heart of MidlothianRoyal Mile, Edinburgh · A heart in the cobbles where people still spit for luck.
• The Lewes MartyrsLewes, East Sussex · Seventeen Protestants burned, and remembered every Bonfire Night.
• The MaidenNational Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh · Scotland's own beheading machine.
• The Oxford MartyrsBroad Street, Oxford · Three bishops burned at the stake, marked by a cross in the road.
• The Tower Hill ScaffoldTrinity Square Gardens, London · Where Thomas More and many others lost their heads.
• Tom Otter's GibbetSaxilby, Lincolnshire · A man who murdered his bride on their wedding night.
• TyburnMarble Arch, London · London's great gallows, where crowds gathered by the thousand.
• Wicklow GaolWicklow · Where rebels of 1798 were held and hanged.
• William BuryDundee · Was Dundee's last hanged man Jack the Ripper?
• Winter's GibbetSteng Cross, near Elsdon, Northumberland · A gibbet on the moor with a wooden head swinging from it.