Things that go bump in the night in Ontario, Canada

Ghostly goings on and things that go bump in the night. Ontario, Canada has a number of spooky places to see and visit across the Province and not just for Halloween.

Spooky overnight stays

If you fancy staying in a former prison cell during your stay then the Hi-Ottawa Hostel in downtown Ottawa will be perfect for you.The property is on the site of the former Carleton County jail and is the site of Canada's last public hanging and the only hostel in North America located in a former prison. It  has 110 beds in total featuring a blend of shared and private cells with guests sleeping in the former cells. The hotel has its fair share of ghostly and gruesome stories and is featured on a haunted walk tour of Ottawa hihostels.ca/ottawa / hauntedwalk.com

Toronto

'The Haunted Walk of Old Toronto' was launched this summer and gives visitors the chance to discover Toronto's darker side by lantern light through the old military town of York, the cobbled streets of the Distillery District and the former hanging grounds near St Lawrence Market ending up 90 minutes later at the Hockey Hall of Fame. There are also haunted walks run in both Ottawa and Kingston. hauntedwalk.com/torontotours.php.

Niagara Region

The Old Angel Inn in Niagara on the Lake is an old English style pub with an inn above the pub. It's Ontario's oldest operating inn and is supposedly haunted by one of the soldiers from the War of 1812...story goes that Captain Colin Swayze  delayed joining his British troops to meet his girlfriend but was ambushed by American forces at the inn and killed. Legend has it the soldier still haunts the inn looking for his true love but remains friendly as long as a British flag flies over the Inn. angel-inn.com/about.php#swayze

Ghost Tours of Niagara report that on two-thirds of the tours run since 1994, visitors have encountered something not of this world.This 1½ hour guided candlelit walking tour of Historic Fort George offers colourful battlefield history, intrique, romance and much excitement. niagaraghosts.com

Ottawa

The Fairmont Chateau Laurier, Ottawa's grand landmark hotel, has its own ghost story to tell. It's financier, Charles Hays, President of the Grand Trunk Railroad, never made its ribbon cutting as he was aboard the ill fated Titanic. There are tales at the hotel that he still visits his last grand masterpiece. fairmont.com/laurier-ottawa

In 1913, work was completed on Ottawa's Victoria's Memorial Museum Building which now houses the Canadian Museum of Nature. Historically significant and impressively designed, the building houses floors of dinosaurs, mammals, minerals and creepy critters. Proudly, the Museum also boasts strange creatures and occurances that have caused more than one staff member to quit. Most believe it to be the building's architect, David Ewart, alleged to have thrown himself from one of the buildings towers. Some however think it could even be Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who lay in state in the building's auditorium. nature.ca/en/home

South Western Ontario

The Southwestern Ontario Heritage Village in Harrow houses a number of 19th and early 20th century buildings including log cabins, general store, barber/cobbler shop and a school. One of the cabins belonged to a family named Waggit - and still does. At a time when lamps were used to light the cabins, those lamps in the Waggit cabin would not stay lit. Staff would light the lamps, leave the cabin and watch outside as the lamps went out one by one. To this day, staff greet the Waggits when entering the cabin and bid goodnight when leaving - to do otherwise ensures that the locks do not function. ctmhv.com/index.htm