While it can be fun to tramp around a corn maze or darkened warehouse with costumed actors jumping and poking, sometimes a creepier, more mysterious scare is in order. Haunted walking tours can be a great alternative to the usual haunted attractions, especially when the stories that make up the basis of the tour are so deeply routed in local history. It's just that much creepier when it might be real.
There are haunted tours available in almost every city in Canada (especially the older ones) and the Ontario Ghosts & Hauntings Research Society offers two in Toronto. One tour is a two hour trip along a strip of Bloor street that promises angry ghosts and long-dead nuns, while the other takes a tour through one of North America's oldest educational institutions; the University of Toronto.
Organizing a tour is easy; just contact the tour host through their website and let him know when you'd like to go, and how many people will be coming. The cost is $10.00 per person (which doesn't include parking) and may seem like a lot, but consider that this society is of the non-profit variety, and needs to stay in business (or we wouldn't have these haunted walks!). I think it was worth it.
We met our ghost host on a Saturday night at the beginning of October when the moon was waxing behind thick, dark clouds and the air was starting to chill. From the steps of the Royal Ontario Museum we began with a story of a ghostly curator, and then followed our host into the depths of nearby U of T.
I will not recount the tales he told, that would spoil the fun, but I can tell you that the U of T walk was spooktacular. As Richard promised me, the atmosphere of the St. George campus by night is perfect for a haunted walk. As you crowd around the dim light of his lantern and gaze up at the two-hundred year old architecture of the university buildings, you can not help but look for ghostly visages in the grimy windows.
Richard's stories are all based on historical fact, and include eyewitness accounts. The tales might have had more impact with a more dramatic telling, but it must be conceded that doing so is difficult. You have to walk a fine line between sounding sincere and sounding corny. I'd rather hear sincerity, and Richard does it well.
The walk is about one and a half hours long, winding along dark alleys and paths between the old colleges and dorms of the school. The moon was heavy in the sky, adding to the ambience. Richard lead us around the campus, stopping in front of various buildings to tell us his stories. Of course we heard the one about the two construction workers who loved the same woman, and their axe/knife fight that left a mark in one old, wooden door (every UofT student knows that one), but we also heard about famous Canadian author Robertson Davies, who would write a new ghost story every Christmas for the college over which he was master.
It is too bad that the tour does not include the interiors of the buildings (U of T won't allow it), because I've been in them before and I can tell you they'd be a great place to look for ghosts at night. The campus isn't the only place to find ghosts though, and towards the end of the tour our guide took us to Queen's Park for stories about ghosts in the government buildings, and the haunting of the nearby Christie Mansion.
Finally in the dark of the park, Richard recounted his final tale and bid us adieu. The tour was excellent; full of historical fact, and fanciful conjecture in equal doses. One tour guest even assured me that he'd seen... something... in one window of the ROM during the tour.
So if a change of pace is what you want this Halloween, consider a haunted walking tour over plastic and latex. Even if you don't believe the stories, you'll get some good exercise and see some inspiring old architecture.
