Haunted Walk Ottawa - Activities for Teens

Friday October 13. The haunted day and the month of fear meet around once every seven years. While I may not be a superstitious person, it's hard not to see the significance of this spooky calendar event. What better way to spend it than at one of the most iconic Halloween attractions in the city- a haunted tour of the Bytown Museum?

We arrived on Sparks Street at 7 pm, ready for our tour. Our guide was wearing an ominous black robe, setting the mood for the experience that lay ahead. We set off, walking by city hall and listening to our first spooky story next to the Rideau Canal. The stories our guide told were historical anecdotes of mysterious ghostly phenomena around the area, including the Chateau Laurier. After walking down the locks, we arrived at our main destination- the Bytown Museum. 

The museum is a small brick building, reminiscent of Ottawa’s early days. We made our way in and sat down to hear our first ghost story, recounting how the ghost of Colonel John By haunts the building. We then made our way upstairs to the first exhibition room.

In the exhibition room, there was a full collection of artifacts dating back to the mid-19th century. Among them was the cast of Thomas D’Arcy McGee’s hand; an improvisation due to the fact that his face was too mutilated to make a death mask. I was quickly finding this tour to be an exploration of Ottawa’s early history with a creepy twist. 

We continued walking through more of the museum's displays, with each coming with a scary story. Finally, we arrived at the last room- the vault of the building. It was in this room that important weapons were stored. We cycled through it, as our guide told one last story about the many construction workers for the Rideau Canal that perished. A chilling end to a ghost tour.

If you want to see the city in a scarier manner than ever before, check out Haunted Walks’ ghost tours. On top of the Bytown museum, they offer the original haunted walk (downtown), Beechwood Cemetery, former prime minister Mackenzie’s estate and, for the last season ever, an abandoned jail. The original, Mackenzie’s estate and jail tours are available in French. The Haunted Walk also has tours in Kingston and Toronto. For more information, click here.

David is a fifteen-year-old aspiring adventure and travel writer living in Ottawa.  Skydiving is on his bucket list. He received a complimentary ticket for this post, but all views are his own.