Canada: Highly haunted Victoria prepares for its ghosts festival
If you love getting scared at Halloween, Canada is calling.
It’s said that Victoria, the British-flavored city on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, is the most haunted city in British Columbia. Every October, the city that began as a trading post in 1843 celebrates its apparitions in the Ghosts of Victoria Festival.
This year’s celebration runs Oct. 17 to Nov. 1 and includes cemetery tours, ghost walks through spooky alleys and courtyards, the Festival of Fear at Galey Farms and Original Ghost Bus tours led by local phantom expert John Adams for the Old Cemeteries Society.
Adams, who owns Discover the Past and has been leading ghost walks since the early ’70s, said top haunts include the Old Burying Ground, Bastion Square and, curiously, the Victoria Golf Course.
The golf course is where, the story goes, the oft-spotted ghost of Doris Gravlin. Seems her husband strangled her on the sixth fairway, then hid her body under logs near the green of the seventh fairway in 1936.
Victoria overflows with ghosts, said Adams, who has a helpful ghost named Lum in his house.
“Lum has helped us find many lost items,” Adams said. “It’s an old house, with a big and rather cluttered basement.
“Many times we have searched for something in vain, but when we call out ‘Lum, please help us find it,’ invariably we find it right away.”
Discover the Past also steers visitors to haunted hotels, pubs and restaurants.
Info: Discover the Past and Tourism Victoria
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