Country file · North America
Haunted places in Canada
What are the most haunted places in Canada? The best-known are Fairmont Banff Springs, Ottawa Jail Hostel, Château Ramezay and Fort George National Historic Site, among 9 on file.
Canada’s ghost stories follow its history: the stone houses and convents of New France, the British garrison towns and forts of the War of 1812, the railway hotels that opened up the West, and the lighthouses and jails of the 19th century. The best-known ghosts are often gentle – a bride on a staircase in Banff, a helpful bellman, a printing press that runs by itself in Toronto – and many come with an admission, from the hotels and museums that tell them, that the records do not back them up.
- 9 hauntings
- 12 recorded sightings
Haunted places in Canada
Fairmont Banff Springs
Canada’s “Castle in the Rockies” is famous for a ghost bride on its staircase, a vanished room and a helpful bellman – stories the hotel itself retells. Widely reported
Ottawa Jail Hostel
Ottawa’s 1862 jail, now a hostel with beds in the cells, where guests report Patrick Whelan – hanged for D’Arcy McGee’s murder – at the foot of the bed. Widely reported
Château Ramezay
A governor’s mansion of 1705 turned museum, where staff have found brochures scattered, books fallen and an antique car’s wheels turned overnight. Local legend
Fort George National Historic Site
A War of 1812 fort on the Niagara River, burned, rebuilt and now home to Canada’s longest-running ghost walk – footsteps, cold spots and phantom soldiers. Widely reported
Mackenzie House
The last home of rebel and first mayor William Lyon Mackenzie, often called Toronto’s most haunted house – a printing press is said to run by itself. Regional legend
Gibraltar Point Lighthouse
The oldest lighthouse on the Great Lakes, haunted in Toronto lore by its first keeper, killed in 1815 – a case new research has partly untangled. Regional legend
Shadow People
Dark human-shaped figures glimpsed at the edge of sight or standing over the bed – and the sleep-paralysis research that explains many of them. Widely reported
Bloody Mary
Say her name three times into a dark mirror and she will appear – the sleepover dare that folklorists trace to old Halloween divination rituals. FolkloreBlack-Eyed Children
Pale children with solid black eyes who knock at night asking to be let in – a modern legend traced to one Texas journalist’s story in the 1990s. FolkloreThe ghost lore of Canada
Old Montreal and Quebec City carry the deepest French colonial layer, with legends of governors and fur-trade magnates; Ontario has the densest cluster of famous sites, from Niagara-on-the-Lake – which bills itself as one of the country’s most haunted towns – to Toronto’s lighthouse murder of 1815 and Ottawa’s old county jail, where Patrick Whelan was hanged in 1869. In 2014 Canada Post began a Haunted Canada stamp series, featuring the Banff Springs ghost bride, Fort George, Count Frontenac at the Château Frontenac, the phantom burning ship of the Northumberland Strait and the St. Louis ghost light in Saskatchewan.
Many of Canada’s most visited haunted places are working hotels, hostels and museums with ghost walks of their own. Indigenous nations across the country hold their own living traditions about the dead and about sacred places; those belong to their communities, and are not part of the haunted-places circuit described here.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- Old Montreal
Montreal’s old quarter and Mount Royal gather tales from the Château Ramezay to the restless fur baron Simon McTavish, whose ghost was said to toboggan down the mountain.
- Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
A War of 1812 town burned in 1813, home to Fort George and some of Canada’s longest-running ghost walks.
- Downtown Toronto
Mackenzie House, Old City Hall’s Courtroom 33 and the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre are staples of the city’s ghost tours.
- Ottawa
The capital’s ghost walks take in the old jail on Nicholas Street, the Château Laurier and the Billings Estate, Ottawa’s oldest surviving house.
- Old Quebec
The walled city’s legends include Count Frontenac, the colonial governor whose ghost is said to walk the Château Frontenac.
- Northumberland Strait
Residents of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have told for some 200 years of a burning ghost ship that vanishes when approached.
Timeline
- 1936Saved from demolition Mackenzie House
The neighbouring row houses were torn down, but the Mackenzie house survived while his grandson was prime minister.
- 1 July 1940The reconstructed fort opens Fort George National Historic Site
After a Depression-era rebuilding by the Niagara Parks Commission, the fort opened to the public. Only the powder magazine survives from the original.
- 27 March 1946The last execution Ottawa Jail Hostel
The jail’s final execution took place. The gallows were never dismantled.
- 1973From jail to hostel Ottawa Jail Hostel
A year after the jail closed, Hostelling International reopened it as a hostel with beds in the old cells. Stories of Whelan’s ghost became part of its identity.
- 1970sDeath of a popular bellman Fairmont Banff Springs
A long-serving bellman remembered as Sam died in the 1970s, according to the hotel; popular accounts give 1975 or 1976. Reports of a helpful phantom bellman followed and became one of the hotel’s signature stories.
- 1982The “Old Hag” studied Shadow People
Folklorist David Hufford publishes The Terror That Comes in the Night, showing that the Newfoundland tradition of being “hag-ridden” matches a consistent experience – sleep paralysis with a sensed presence – reported by people who had never heard the folklore.
- 1994The ghost tours begin Fort George National Historic Site
Candlelight ghost walks of the fort started, later run by the Friends of Fort George. They became a magnet for reports of paranormal experiences.
- October 2011“The most haunted house in Toronto” Mackenzie House
A ghost-tour founder told the Globe and Mail that the house was arguably the city’s most haunted, describing the self-starting press, third-floor lights and the white-haired woman.
- 13 June 2014The Ghost Bride on a stamp Fairmont Banff Springs
On Friday the 13th, Canada Post issued its first Haunted Canada stamps, including the Ghost Bride of the Banff Springs. The Royal Canadian Mint released a coin with the same image, in which the bride’s eyes open when it is tilted.
- 13 June 2014A Haunted Canada stamp Fort George National Historic Site
Canada Post featured Fort George’s War of 1812 spirits on one of its first five ghost-story stamps, describing cold spots, crying and visitors whose hair was pulled.
- 2015The case re-examined Gibraltar Point Lighthouse
Eamonn O’Keeffe’s archival research identified the accused soldiers and showed that key details of the legend lack contemporary support.
- October 2016Staff stories in the Montreal Gazette Château Ramezay
The Montreal Gazette included the château in its list of the city’s most haunted places, describing scattered brochures, fallen books and the antique car whose front wheels were found turned after closing.
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