Ghost stories always have a scarier side when they take place close to home! From gothic hotels to gruesome battlefields…here are spooky sites that are among the most haunted places in Quebec and Canada.
Craigdarroch Castle, Victoria
Built in the 1890s for coalman Robert Dunsmuir and his family, this Victorian-era mansion has since been hailed as one of Canada’s most haunted places. Rumor has it that a piano plays alone from time to time and that a woman dressed in white has been seen.
Many people associate the supernatural of the castle with Dunsmuir’s death a year before construction was completed.
Plains of Abraham, Quebec
In 1759, British forces under Major General James Wolfe staged a three-month siege of Quebec City, culminating in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
As the site of one of the most famous battles in Canadian history, it’s no wonder it’s one of the most haunted places in the country, with many recorded sightings of ghostly soldiers in the fields and tunnels.
James Wolfe and French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm died in that clash – and it’s hard not to wonder if their spirits are still fighting today.
Tranquil Sanatorium, Kamloops, British Columbia
The eerie ruins of the sprawling Tranquille Sanatorium outside Kamloops, British Columbia, are something of a nightmare. Built in 1907 as a treatment center for tuberculosis patients, it later served as a mental institution before being abandoned in the early 1980s. Echoes of its former residents seem to linger, however, as witnesses report paranormal activity outside the common and strange moans.
You can now visit this strange place – surely another of the most haunted places in Canada. For the intrepid, there’s even an escape game organized in the gloomy tunnels that connect the various buildings on the property.
Hôtel Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, Alberta
Think the “Bates Motel” in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho or the “Overlook Hotel” in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining were creepy lodgings? You haven’t seen anything! The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel is hands down one of the best hotels in Canada, but it’s also known to be a heavily haunted place.
Built in 1888 by the Canadian Pacific Railway, many terrifying ghost sightings have been reported at this hotel. It would be common to see a bride, who would have died by falling down the marble staircase of the hotel. Her husband, Sam McAuley, also continues to haunt the building in his suit.
Keg Mansion, Toronto
Today it’s one of many locations in the Keg Steakhouse franchise, but the legendary Keg Mansion on Jarvis Street in Toronto was once the private residence of industrialist Hart Massey and his family.
According to legend, in 1915, following the death of Lillian, Massey’s only daughter, one of the maids was so sad that she hanged herself. Another version of the story is that this maid killed herself for fear that her affair with Massey would come to light.
Either way, the ghostly image of a maid hanging by her neck has been seen by more than one Keg Mansion visitor over the years.
Fairmont Chateau Laurier, Ottawa
Business tycoon Charles Melville Hays had the Fairmount Château Laurier built just before he tragically died aboard the Titanic, just days before the hotel’s official opening in 1912. Rumor has it that Hays’ spirit wanders now in the property.
After all, having invested time and money in building a lavish castle like this, only to die a few days before its inauguration, we too would probably be inclined to return to live there for a while.
The Old Spaghetti Factory, Vancouver
This popular restaurant is built on top of an old underground railroad in Vancouver’s Gastown neighborhood. The ghost of a train conductor still haunts the place and has fun mysteriously replacing the tables in the restaurant.
Cold drafts are still inexplicable, and a photograph of the decommissioned 1950s electric wagon, now featured in the restaurant’s dining room, gives goosebumps. In the photo, it is possible to see a ghostly figure standing on the steps of the wagon.
Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto
Before being the sanctuary of Canadian hockey, this building was once a simple branch of the Bank of Montreal. Legend has it that a lone cashier, named Dorothy, committed suicide after being refused her advances by the bank manager.
The ghost of Dorothy is now believed to inhabit the Hockey Hall of Fame, as some visitors report hearing inexplicable sounds throughout the building of a woman crying.
West Point Lighthouse, O’Leary, PEI
Seeing a lighthouse bathed in total darkness conjures up all sorts of unsettling thoughts. For several years, rumors have swirled that Willie, the original lighthouse keeper, haunts the West Point Lighthouse now run by the Canadian Coast Guard.
British Columbia Maritime Museum, Victoria
The British Columbia Maritime Museum, once the site of the city’s imprisonment and ordeals, is located in Victoria’s famous Bastion Square pedestrian mall.
Some say that if you look through the windows of the museum’s entrance, a dark, slender figure can be seen on the main staircase. Some people associate this mysterious apparition with the ghost of Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie, Victoria’s infamous ‘hanged judge’.
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