HALIFAX - Ghost tours are a regular occurrence at the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site, but tour guides are especially busy this week with large crowds, as people celebrate Halloween.
“I love the spookiness and the coziness,” said Sarah MacLellan who went on her first ghost tour. “I have been bored lately and I want some ‘pep in my step’ so if something jumps out at me, I am down for that.”
“I loved hearing the stories and I loved the history of things that likely and realistically happened here,” added Anastasia Brown who was also a ghost tour first-timer.
In the daytime, the fortress which overlooks Halifax’s downtown core, looks friendly and inviting. But when the sun goes down, the eeriness of this historic site settles in.
“It is very ominous,” MacLellan said.
With 19-century-style candle lit lanterns serving as the guiding lights, the tour took people inside several buildings that date back more than 200 years, up dark stairways, into a cavernous moat framed by steep stone ramparts, through underground tunnels and into darkened rooms to hear some of the many creepy chronicles that have been passed on through generations.
Terrifying people and leaving them unsettled requires a performance art. It’s been said any good story worth telling is also worth stretching.
Tour guide Bryce Walsh does this work on a regular basis, not just on Halloween and one of his favourite tragic ghostly tales involves a soldier named Barry Edwards and his bride who became known as a ghost called “The Grey Lady.”
“As the story goes, he was found dead the morning that he was supposed to be married, to Miss Cassie Allen, who we believe to be ‘The Grey Lady’,” said Walsh.
Ghost tours are growing in popularity, not just in Halifax but also across the country. They offer a mix of history, sightseeing, and spookiness, all rolled up into one.
“Anytime I travel, it’s actually one of the things I want to do because there is some history to it, it is a lot of fun, you get to learn about the place, and get scared,” said visitor, Melissa Brown. “This reminded me a bit of a found footage Halloween movie.”
Walsh said the tours are a creative and often unsettling outing to learn some history, experience some fear and celebrate Halloween in a ghostly setting.
“A part of me thinks that it’s a way to find entertainment in places where people might not be conventionally expecting it,” said Walsh. “People search outside the box and maybe come to places like the Halifax Citadel to do a ghost tour because it is a fun change.”
