Spine-Chilling Spooky Spots To Visit in Canada

Spine-Chilling Spooky Spots To Visit in Canada

If you’re a thrill seeker who gets excited at the prospect of supernatural encounters there are plenty of haunted gothic hotspots to chill you to the bone. A grand tour of these famous spooky hotels and ghostly historical buildings is bound to make your skin crawl!

Like every country, Canada has its own unique collection of traditional ghost stories and scary tales of spooks, spectres and things that go bump in the night. If you’re brave enough to venture out on a ghost hunt here are a few haunted home turf locations you should check out…

The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, Banff, Alberta

One of Canada’s most picturesque hotels, the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel could easily give the Overlook Hotel (in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining) a run for its money. Many chilling spooky rumors abound about this auspicious building. Built by the Canadian Pacific Railway, in 1888, the grand hotel is the prime site of many ghostly sightings. It’s not unusual to ‘see’ or ‘sense’ the family who were murdered in room 873; the bride who died falling down the marble staircase; or the retired bellman who still roams the hotel dressed in his on duty uniform.

Fairmont Chateau Laurier, Ottawa, Ont.

Wealthy business tycoon Charles Melville Hays commissioned the building of the lavish Fairmount Château Laurier. Just days before the hotel’s grand opening, in 1912, he tragically died aboard the Titanic. It’s rumored that Hays frequently visits and roams the property that he invested so much of his time and money into.

Craigdarroch Castle, Victoria, B.C.

This Victorian-era mansion was built in the 1890s for coal miner Robert Dunsmuir and his family. His untimely demise however, occurred a year before the castle building was completed. Many people have reported sightings of the ghostly figure of a woman in white, and a piano playing by itself, in what has now become a popular eerie tourist attraction.

The Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto, Ont.

Now known as Canada’s hockey shrine, this building was previously the Bank of Montreal. Local legend has it that the ghost of lonely bank teller Dorothy roams the Hall, and can sometimes be heard crying. She fell in love with the bank manager, but when her romantic advances were rejected she took her own life.

The Keg Mansion, Toronto, Ont.

Built in 1867 for Arthur McMaster, the Keg Mansion is today part of the Keg steakhouse franchise. In 1880, the house was purchased by industrialist Hart Massey, who allowed his beloved only daughter Lillian to rename the property Euclid Hall, after the name of the street in Cleveland, Ohio, where the family lived for a while. In 1915 Lillian died. Learning of her mistress’s demise, Lillian’s maid took her own life by attaching a noose to the vestibule above the main staircase, and was found hanging. Most people believed she committed suicide out of grief, but rumors circulated that it was because of a secret affair with one of the Massey men. Her ghostly figure is sometimes seen hanging above the main stairs.

In 1915 Euclid Hall was given to the Victoria College, and would serve as the first home of radio station CFRB (now Newstalk 1010). It later became an art gallery and then a restaurant, before being purchased by the Keg in 1976.

The Old Spaghetti Factory, Vancouver, B.C.

This popular traditional Italian style eatery is built on top of an old underground railway track, and is regularly visited by the ghost of a train conductor. This spooky fellow has a habit of mysteriously rearranging table settings and creating spine-tingling cold drafts. The dining room features a 1950s photograph of the decommissioned electric trolley, with the ghostly figure of the train conductor proudly standing on the steps.