Discover The Past: Ghostly Walks

Ghost tours, lectures and programs in Victoria, B.C. Canada

Descriptions and detailed schedule of the Ghostly Walks routes
Check out our new routes.

All Ghostly Walks tours (except at Halloween and for Ghostly Walks EXTREME!) start at the Visitor Info Centre at 812 Wharf Street (corner of Government Street). There are eight basic routes which cover every corner of downtown Victoria and around the Inner Harbour. Take one or all and discover for yourself why Victoria is the most haunted city in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest.

Note: occasionally routes may vary
depending on weather or downtown events.

Route 1: Old Town and Bastion Square
January through April: Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm
(Start outside Visitor Information Centre, 812 Wharf St.)

Route 1 winds through the narrow streets and back alleys of Old Town, past the site of Fort Victoria. It includes the ghosts of Rogers Chocolates, the poet Robert Service, phantom footsteps in Helmcken Alley and the many ghosts of the Maritime Museum and Bastion Square (where public hangings took place in the 1860s).
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Ghostly Walks - EXTREME!
2010 schedule: March 27, April 30, May 29, June 26
EXTREME! tours do require reservations.

Ghostly Walks - EXTREME! is a new route that has been developed for those who want a truly scary experience. The route is secret. Not suitable for young children or those of a timid disposition. The cost for the EXTREME! tours is $20 per person. This is the only Ghostly Walks tour for which advance registration is required. Telephone 250.384.6698 for information or to reserve your space, or send us an email at discoverthepast@telus.net.
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Route 2: Empress Hotel, Helmcken House, St. Ann's Academy
Not offered during the fall and winter

Route 2 includes stories of Lizzie McGrath, the Empress Hotel chamber maid who plunged six stories to her death in 1909, architect Fransic Mawson Rattenbury, the mystery of Lady Douglas's pocket watch at the Royal British Columbia Museum, the many ghosts of Helmcken House (BC's oldest house), spectral nuns at St. Ann's Academy and a grisly phantom in Beacon Hill Park.
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Route 3: Parliament Buildings and Gatsby Mansion
Not offered during the fall and winter

Route 3 passes the Fairmont Empress Hotel, then heads behind the massive stone Parliament Buildings. The ghost of architect Francis Rattenbury stalks its corridors and statues of many famous people who have come back as ghosts line its outside walls. It finishes at the Gatsby Mansion, the haunted former home of the Pendray family whose paint factory stood on the Indian burial ground at nearby Laurel Point.
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Route 4: Old Burying Ground
Not offered during the fall and winter

Route 4 starts along old Kanaka Row where the ghost of a Hawaiian murderer seeks revenge for his hanging. It then proceeds past the Chateau Victoria and the former site of the Cherry Bank Hotel. After discussing an amazing duel fought to the death in 1858 the tour ends in the Old Burying Ground with its two famous resident phantoms featured on the Creepy Canada TV series.
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Route 5: Harbour, Red Light District and Chinatown
Not offered during the fall and winter

Route 5 starts with stories of native spirits along the shore of Victoria Harbour, passes behind the spooky old Customs House and pauses to discuss the many ghosts in the historic stone warehouses along Wharf Street. It then heads up to Johnson Street, the heart of Victoria's old red light district which has plenty of ghost stories, including the famous Belle Adams and Charlie Kincaid. It finishes with the story of Chung, the Chinese boy who cut off the head of his girlfriend.
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Route 6: Royal Theatre, St. Andrew's Cathedral and the Titanic
Not offered during the fall and winter

Route 6 starts on Kanaka Row then passes the Strathcona Hotel, the site of Victoria's first haunted house. It includes the Royal Theatre, the story of a haunted book from a Fort Street shop, then stops at St. Andrew's Roman Catholic Cathedral for the amazing story of a political assassination on the church steps after Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, 1890. A story of Emily Carr's ghost is next, then the tour finishes with an amazing story about a strange coincidence involving the sinking of the Titanic, ghosts and Victoria's former Balmoral Hotel.
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Route 7: James Bay, Emily Carr and The Bent Mast
Not offered during the fall and winter

Route 7 is a new route in 2009. It starts at the Visitor Information Centre and heads south past the Empress Hotel and goes behind the Royal BC Museum to the site of the haunted cherry tree, past the old house haunted by Sir James Douglas's youngest daughter, then into Victoria's oldest heritage residential neighbourhood. Included on the route are quaint Heather Street, the James Bay Inn where famous artist Emily Carr died, a story about a fortune teller and her cryrsal ball and ending at The Bent Mast, one of Victoria's most haunted pubs.
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Route 8: Trounce Alley, Broad Street and City Hall
Not offered during the fall and winter

Route 8 is new in 2009. It tsarts at the Visitor Information Centre and heads into uptown along Broad Street, through the Bay Centre and along Trounce Alley. The story of one of the city's oldest doppelgangers is told at the corner of Government and Yates Streeet, then the tour goes back to Broad Street for the phantom madam, the creepy story of Victoria's first graveyard, the ghosts at the McPherson Playhouse, City Hall and two old hotels.
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Halloween Route
Every night Oct. 22-31 at 6:30, 7:30, 8:30 and 9:30 pm
(Start at Bedford Regency Hotel, 1140 Government St.)

Halloween Route (Oct. 22-31). Starts at the Bedford Regency Hotel (1140 Government Streetand explores the haunted alleys, courtyards and waterfront near Bastion Square, then finishes inside a haunted building.
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Ghosts of Christmas Past
December 2010: Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm (except Dec. 24. and 25) plus every night from December 27 through Jan. 1, 2011.
(Yes, we do tours on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day!)

Christmas in Old Victoria has become an annual favourite in Victoria. We start at the Visitor Information Centre and stay close to Government Street where the Christmas lights add a little glitter to the spooky stories of ghosts associated with Christmas. We include the story of the slaying and resultant ghost on the steps of St. Andrew's Cathedral after Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve 1890 and in Boomerang Court we tell about the ghost of Adelaide Griffin, one of the first documented ghosts in the city (1861). The tour ends inside our haunted meeting space in the former Burnes House Hotel off a back alley near Bastion Square.
Click here to return to Ghostly Walks main page.

To make a ghost tour booking or inquiry, please contact us at:
tel: 250.384.6698; fax: 250.384.2833
discoverthepast@telus.net
Note: all tours start outside the Visitor Information Centre,
corner of Government and Wharf Streets, except our Halloween tours from Oct. 23-31 (which start at the Bedford Regency Hotel).