The Haunted Walk of Ottawa

I have been on this walk at least 10 times. I make sure I bring any visitors I have to enjoy it. Fully recommended. Very enjoyable and very educational

Last night my husband and I went on the original tour with Paul as our guide. My husband isn’t into the whole ghost thing like I am but he enjoyed the tour because we got to see different parts of Ottawa that we wouldn’t have seen just wondering on our own. Paul did an amazing job with the story telling and we had a really great time. Personally my favorite story was the final one that included personal experiences of the tour guides. I would have loved more of that, but overall we had an absolute great time!

3.5 stars, if I only could!
This is definitely a good touristy thing to do in Ottawa, if even only once. Might be a different experience in the summer, or especially around Hallowe’en if you enjoy testing your limits of being scared, but I went between Christmas and New Years when family was here for a visit (so I might try this again just to check it out and see). It was fun; a good excuse to get together. We really do live in a beautiful city! Why not take advantage of some of the sights? They brought us down to the museum beside the canal, which is beside the Château Laurier. You know what’s scary? Anyone and everyone, big or small, can walk right up to the canal, and fall in — if you are not careful! So be careful! There are no railings to block pedestrians from falling in. But it’s still beautiful down there.
You know what? I tend to drive everywhere and I don’t walk around enough. Since I don’t work downtown anymore, I don’t get the pleasure of walking around there like I used to. I kind of miss that!
It cost $ 18 and was worth it.

Wow, I can’t believe how blessed we are to live in a city that offers such an amazingly rich history filled with scandal, scariness and intrigue! I’m even more fortunate that there is a business that tells these stories (for the super reasonable rate of $ 15!) in an engaging and vivid way.
The Haunted Walk is a walking tour company that leads several different tours (we opted for «The Original Haunted Walk Tour»), several times a night almost every night of the week. Walk onto Sparks Street around 7 p.m. and you’ll see various figures cloaked in black capes and carrying lanterns, gathering the walk’s participants and providing information on the walk to anyone who asks.
I recommend buying your tickets online (be sure to bring the printed copy!) so you have a spot reserved, but if this is a fly-​by-​the-​pants idea you can totally just walk into the office (which is underground right beside D’arcy McGee’s at the corner of Elgin and Sparks) about half an hour or so before 8 p.m. (for the general tour) and grab some spots if there’s any left. They also have drinks for purchase and a washroom in case you need to go before the tour starts!
Margo was our tour guide, and she came up to myself and the other Unilocalers in attendance about fifteen minutes before we started to introduce herself, which I thought was very thoughtful. She let us know they would start right at 8 and to have our tickets ready. True to her word, at 8 o’clock sharp she began with the haunting tale of the graveyard under our feet and continued across the street, under the canal, to Lisgar High School and all around Centretown spinning creepy tales of long ago ghosts and even some personal tales. It was super spooky and the time of day was perfect — it started off at dusk and was completely dark by the time we finished.
The tour itself is 90 minutes and goes by pretty fast. Don’t worry because it’s not a grueling walk by any means (I did it and flip flops and make it through!), but do bring bug spray, since it’s prime time of night for mosquitos.
Wonderfully gifted at storytelling Margo was the perfect host, and she never faltered. I left feeling a little more knowledgable about Ottawa’s past, and I saw some beautiful spots along the way. And yes… I’ll admit it — I was a tiny bit scared. However, not nearly scared enough — I can’t wait to go back for another one of their tours!

I’ll admit it. I love a good ghost story! Especially when it deals with the very real history of a place, and that place happens to also be the place I am sleeping for the night.
Which was exactly the case on my visit to Ottawa. I was spending a night in the notoriously haunted Old Carleton Jail, so I headed out with Ottawa’s Haunted Walks to discover what I had in store for my night! Not only did I learn about the ghosts with whom I’d be spending my night, but also the more ghoulish side of Ottawa’s history. Scared myself delightful!
Here is an account of the walk from one of my fellow travellers:

Again and again and again.
I’ve been on this tour about a half dozen times or more.
Every time I have out of town visitors I make sure this is part of their sight seeing. It’s a really fun way to see another side of Ottawa. Be it a sleezier side with their Naughty Pub Walk or a spookier side with my personal favourite, The Ghosts and the Gallows tour.
You never know what’s going to happen once you go into the Old Carleton County Jail.
Was that slamming sound a hostel guest, another tour going through or is somebody really unhappy to still be imprisoned after all these years?
I have never once had a poorly presented tour. The guides are always fantastically spoken, patient and add just that hint of mellow-​drama every good ghost story needs.
A must do for anybody looking for something interesting and out of the ordinary in Ottawa

The first time I took one of the walks, I was hooked. They’re a lot of fun, and you get to find out a lot of interesting facts about Ottawa.
The Original Haunted walk is a lot of fun with the tour going from Sparks street around to the Colonel By Museum, with the Halloween Tour taking you into the Museum.
I would recommend that anyone who is looking for a different thing to do that is a lot fun.

The highlight of this tour is definitely the old jail which is downright creepy but also wonderfully interested.
We purchased our tickets at the booth located at the corner of Elgin and Sparks Street (steps from many other major attractions). The woman at the counter was a bit gruff but our tour guide made up for it. She was very pleasant, engaging and you could just tell she really liked Ottawa.
We were in a tour of many people from outside Ottawa which made the experience all the more interesting because I was reminded by how many cool buildings and attractions we have in Ottawa.
It’s about $ 20 per person which may seem a bit high but it’s an hour and a half trek around downtown and you can always amaze your other Ottawa friends or those visiting the city with random ghostly knowledge about downtown buildings. That stuff is priceless!

I’ve never been to any of the Haunted Walks before, and after being to this one, I would absolutely go again!
My boyfriend and I went on Thursday, October 28^th, 2010, just in time for Halloween. We took the 8:30pm walk, the Ghosts and Gallows «Are You Afraid of the Dark?» Halloween version tour, which was predominantly in the dark, guided only by a lantern. The tour was about $ 20 per person for an hour and a half. We walked around downtown a bit, but we spent most of the time at the Carleton County Jail, now the Ottawa Jail Hostel.
Our guide was very well spoken, as expected, and told all of the stories with expression and ease. A couple of the stories were not as interesting as the others, also as expected, but I’m a huge horror buff, so as a whole, the experience was quite enjoyable. It was all very well organized, especially because the group seemed fairly large. The tour started and ended on time, with a couple of small prizes at the end. This particular tour, however, is definitely not recommended for young children. Within the jail, we took a tour of the 8^th floor, Death Row, the gallows, the courtyard, and a few other spots. A couple of friends that went on the same walk this year had the same bangs and screams happen in the same spots as we did, but it did differ from the Original Haunted Walk, so if you’ve already done it in previous years, it might be fun to go again on one of their many different walks, either during Halloween or any other time of the year.

The Original Haunted Walk of Ottawa is one of several tours offered by Haunted Walks, Inc. They have a kiosk in the row of tourists booths on Elgin Street a bit past D’Arcy McGee’s pub. Their main office is on Clarence Street. Additionally, Haunted Walks offers similar tours in Kingston. (Ontario, not Jamaica)
The gathering crowd was greeted by our guide a few moments before 9pm. Sporting a lantern and long black cloak, our guide led us to various destinations to impart her ghostly wisdom upon us.
No recording of the audio or video kind was permitted while she spoke. Pictures of the landscape and surroundings were not a problem and in fact encouraged to see if any ghastly orbs would appear.
The tales involved the murder of Mr. McGee, a haunted high school and hotel. The tour lasted about 90 minutes and had us walking about to various locations including Confederation Park and the Rideau Canal.
This is not the kind of ghost tour that resorts to using props and melodramatics to keep one’s attention. Instead, it’s good old fashioned story telling with the stories apparently researched and vetted out beforehand. In other words, don’t expect fake blood and rejects from a Halloween costume parade magically appearing during the tour.
I found the tour quite informative and useful in discovering the streets of Ottawa. It was an orientation of sorts on our first night in town. Now if only the giggling teenagers on the tour had vanished in mid air like a spectre.

Last Christmas, my parents came to the city and my boyfriend and I decided to take them out for something a little different that still has the flavour of Ottawa. We ended up buying tickets to The Haunted Walk of Ottawa’s Ghost and the Gallows tour. We started at the Clarence Street location and wove our way through the courtyards in the market while our tour guide told us various Ottawa ghost stories, including the story of D’Arcy McGee’s murder and the haunting of Courtyard Restaurant.
Most of the 90 minute tour took place at the hostel, which was formerly the Old Carleton County Jail. We were told various creepy stories about the living conditions of the inmates and made our way to the top floor, which contained death row and the gallows. Actually, the gallows still work. The experience was interesting and kinda a bit creepy. Even if you don’t believe in ghosts, it’s still an interesting excursion in a city with a violent history.
We paid $ 14.50 per ticket (Adult prices), but there are discounts for members, students, seniors, children and hostellers. Book in advance.