The following is a list of the seven best ghost hunting spots in Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe. Note that these locations are FREE to visit.
7. ALBION FALLS (HAMILTON)
Mud Street and Mountain Brow Boulevard, at the southernmost tip of King’s Forest Park
In 1865, a Hamilton woman named Jane Riley, rejected by her lover Joseph, came to Albion Falls and jumped to her death. The spot where she committed suicide is now known as “Lover’s Leap.” Jane’s ghost frequents the area. Her sobs can be heard at the base of Albion Falls at night.
6. DINGLE PARK (OAKVILLE)
Dunn and Front Streets
Visitors to Dingle Park have seen the ghost of a little girl dancing barefoot on the rocks. It is believed that she drowned in the lake many years ago.
5. FORT MISSISSAUGA (NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE)
Simcoe and Front Streets
Completed in 1815, this national historic site is not as well known as nearby Fort George. Visitors to Fort Mississauga have heard gunfire, as well as the bloodcurdling screams of men being “flogged” or beaten. Some even claim to have seen the ghost of a headless Aboriginal warrior.
4. THE BEACH STRIP (BURLINGTON)
The sandbar between the Burlington Canal and the northern mainland
In 1830, a scowman named Jem Horner was unloading a barge when a wave hit the boat, sending him overboard. He began to pull himself up, but a second wave rammed the boat against the dock, crushing Horner’s left leg. A surgeon named William Case decided to amputate the leg, but Horner died that night. It is said that Horner walks along the sandbar, looking for his lost leg. His screams of agony are often heard late at night.
3. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE (TORONTO)
University of Toronto campus, west of Queen’s Park Crescent
University College was built between 1857 and 1858. Two stonemasons, Ivan Reznikoff and Paul Diabolos, were in love with the same woman. In a fit of rage, Reznikoff went after Diabolos with an axe. He missed his target, but left a slash-mark on the door next to the roundhouse, which can still be seen. A few hours later, Diabolos murdered Reznikoff. Both professors and students have encountered the ghost of Ivan Reznikoff in and around University College. It seems that the stonemason is looking for people who will listen to his tragic story.
2. THE SCREAMING TUNNEL (NIAGARA FALLS)
Warner Road
This limestone tunnel is 16 feet (4.9 m) high and 125 feet (38 m) long. According to legend, a young girl narrowly escaped a burning farm building nearby, and then died of burns inside the tunnel. Locals maintain that if someone stands in the middle of the tunnel at midnight and lights at wooden match, the girl’s scream will sound when the match goes out. Film director David Cronenberg used the tunnel in his 1983 adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Dead Zone.”
1. DRUMMOND HILL CEMETERY (NIAGARA FALLS)
Drummond Road and Lundy’s Lane
This was the site of the Battle of Lundy’s Lane on July 25, 1814. Many consider it to be the bloodiest clash in the War of 1812. Drummond Hill Cemetery is haunted by not one, but two sets of different soldiers. The first consists of five soldiers dressed in the uniform of the Royal Scots, who limp across the former battlefield and then disappear. The other group consists of three British soldiers who make their way up the hill.
Further Reading:
Belanger, Jeff. Encyclopedia of Haunted Places: Ghostly Locales from Around the World. Castle Books, 2005.
Colombo, John Robert. Haunted Toronto. Hounslow Press, 1996.
Colombo, John Robert. Mysteries of Ontario. Hounslow Press, 1999.
Da Silva, Maria and Andrew Hind. Ghosts of Niagara-on-the-Lake. Dundurn Press, 2009.
Hauck, Dennis William. The International Directory of Haunted Places: Ghostly Abodes, Sacred Sites, and Other Supernatural Locations. Penguin Books, 2000.
Smith, Barbara. Ontario Ghost Stories. Lone Pine Publishing, 1998.
Thay, Edrick. Haunted Cemeteries: True Tales from Beyond the Grave. Lone Pine Publishing, 2004.
Toronto Ghosts and Hauntings Research Society.
