With over 500 documented ghost stories, Montreal is easily the most haunted city in Canada, if not all of North America. Haunted Montreal dedicates itself to researching these paranormal tales, and the Haunted Montreal Blog unveils a newly researched Montreal ghost story on the 13th of every month!

This service is free and you can sign up to our mailing list (top, right-hand corner for desktops and at the bottom for mobile devices) if you wish to receive it every month on the 13th!

With the Halloween Season behind us, Haunted Montreal is moving into winter mode by restarting our Haunted Pub Crawl!

Offered every Sunday at 3 pm in English and the last Sunday of the month at 4 pm in French, the Haunted Pub Crawl is a great way to enjoy some spirits with a spirit! More details are below in our Company News section!

We are also offering our other ghost walks and paranormal investigation as private tours, weather permitting:

Haunted Downtown Ghost Walk

Haunted Mountain Ghost Walk

Haunted Griffintown Ghost Walk

Paranormal Investigation in the Old Sainte Antoine Cemetery

Our Virtual Ghost Tour is also available on demand!

Want to give the gift of a haunted experience this holiday season? You can now order a Haunted Montreal Gift Certificate through our website. They are redeemable via Eventbrite for any of our in-person or virtual experiences. There’s no expiration date.

Lastly, we now have an online store for those interested in Haunted Montreal merchandise. More details are below in our Company News section!

This month we examine Clock Tower Quay, a tourist destination in Montreal’s Old Port where visitors sometimes discover creepy and paranormal wet footprints that defy evaporation on even the hottest and sunniest of days.  

Haunted Research

Clock Tower Quay is a popular tourist destination in the Old Port of Montreal, especially following the installation of an urban beach in 2012. Overlooking the deadly St. Mary’s Current, it is an ideal place to spend a sunny afternoon safe on the shore. However, several people have spotted wet footprints on the quay – even on the hottest days when water evaporates very quickly. As the sun beats down on the pavement, the wet footprints remain, unevaporated, baffling the tourists who visit. Could these paranormal prints be related to a maritime disaster from the city’s distant past?

The island of Montreal/ Tiohtià:ke has hosted maritime and port facilities since the ancestors of today’s Kanien’kehá ka (Mohawk) people settled it over 8000 years ago. With the island being surrounded by rapids, it was necessary to establish docking areas to unload canoes in order to portage goods around the dangerous waters.

When the French colonized the island in 1642, their port facilities were very rudimentary. Wooden docks were laid out along the shoreline but could not provide harbour for larger ships. Instead, smaller rowboats were lowered to bring people and goods to the shore.

When city capitulated to the British in 1760, plans were made for a major port expansion. In 1830, the Montreal Harbour Commission embarked upon a 20-year plan to develop a world-class port where large ships could dock on various quays that extended into the water.

Passenger service of paddle-wheel steamboats began operating between Montreal and Quebec City, with the Victoria Pier in Montreal employed to load and off load passengers.

Following World War I, Montréal-based engineer Paul Leclaire designed the Clock Tower. It was built between 1919 and 1922. At a striking forty-five metres high, it marks the entrance to the port and also serves as a memorial to sailors lost at sea in wartime. Upon its completion, the wharf was renamed “Clock Tower Quay”.

Always a popular site with tourists, who can climb to the top up a set of stairs to an observation deck with great views of the river, the site was enhanced in 2012 with the addition of an urban beach. While swimming is not allowed due to the deadly currents, guests can enjoy a sandy beach while relaxing under blue parasols.

One American tourist named Billy Yzereef visited Clock Tower Beach in July of 2021 and was impressed:

“This is a great place to spend the afternoon sun-tanning while watching the boats on the river! The only weird thing was a series of wet footprints on the quay that I noticed while approaching the beach. It was a very hot day and I knew that swimming was not allowed, so I wondered where they came from.”

Yzereef continued:

“What was even stranger was that the same footprints were still there after I had spent the afternoon lounging on the beach. I tried soaking one up with my towel, but it just reappeared seconds later.”

Yzereef is only one of many visitors over the years who have spotted the wet footprints on Clock Tower Quay, leading to speculation that something paranormal is going on.

Upon hearing about the mystery, a Montreal-based psychic decided to visit the quay to see if she could determine the origin of the haunting.

After much interrogation of the site and intense meditation, a date sprang into her mind: Saturday, June 27, 1857.

According to the Montreal Gazette on that date:

“The scene on the Montreal waterfront that Saturday morning was horrifying. Twelve little children lay huddled in death on the deck of the steamer Napoleon. Beside them were the bodies of a young man, a teenage girl and two women “worn with the toil of the world, mothers perchance.”

The day before, the worst maritime disaster in the country’s history had occurred. Over 250 people, mostly Scottish immigrants, had died upstream from Quebec City at Cap Rouge.

Their voyage had begun on May 18^th when they boarded the John McKenzie in Greenock, Scotland. Bound for Quebec City and beyond, over 330 skilled immigrants were onboard, including mechanics, farmers, weavers and other professionals. With families in tow, these immigrants were hoping to make a new life on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

After a tedious journey, the John McKenzie arrived in Quebec City on June 25^th. The passengers disembarked and found lodgings for the night.

The following day, approximately 250 of the Scottish immigrants boarded the paddle-wheel steamer Montreal at 4 pm with the upriver destination of Montreal City. Others stayed in Quebec City or took the train to Montreal.

The Montreal departed on schedule with Captain J.C. Rudolph at the helm and 300 passengers. About an hour later, Rudolph spotted the steamer Napoleon ahead of him at Cap Rouge. Even though the Montreal was an older vessel with a history of engine fires, Rudolph ordered to crew to add more fuel to the boilers in an effort to overtake the Napoleon. These types of race were not uncommon for bragging rights and to save time and money for the company.

The Montreal’s engine room became dangerously overheated and two small fires broke out. A crewman doused them with a bucket of water but within seconds a third flame erupted, this one much deadlier than the first two.

Indeed, within minutes, the whole ship was engulfed in flames.

Captain Rudolph tried to steer the ship into the shore to give its passengers a better chance of surviving. However, it got snagged on a rock about 250 meters from the riverbank. The Montreal began to break apart as the inferno raged.

Passengers began hurling themselves into the deep and fast-flowing waters, many of them on fire. Because most of them could not swim, they were doomed to drown in the swirling Saint Lawrence River. Some were even killed when struck by pieces of lumber being thrown overboard in an attempt to give them something to cling to in the river.

The Napoleon immediately turned around and tried to rescue as many of the passengers as possible by throwing out ropes and lowering its lifeboat.

One woman from Edinburgh named Margaret Bloomfield managed to catch hold of and cling to piece of rope with one hand. During the fire, she had lost two of her children, aged eleven and five. However, she also saved the two others, aged one and nine.

She held one of her daughters above water with the other hand and used her teeth to hold on to the clothing of her last child. According to the Montreal Gazette: “So heavy was the load that two of her teeth gave way and were lost, yet she still retained her hold.”

In total, over 250 people drowned and approximately 50 others were rescued by the Napoleon.

Meanwhile, Captain Rudolph managed to swim to another steamer, the Alliance, which rescued him. The Alliance also collected dozens of bloated corpses floating in the Saint Lawrence River near Cap-Rouge, including men, women and children.

While Mount Hermon Cemetery near Quebec City received most of the bodies for burial, Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal also donated a plot to inter several victims of the Montreal.

The Montreal’s owner, John Wilson, faced a lot of scrutiny following the tragedy. Earlier in the season, the insurers of the steamer condemned it and refused to supply future insurance. With a long history of boiler fires, the insurers simply deemed the derelict steam-ship as unseaworthy.

However, John Wilson still kept it running on daily trips between Quebec City and Montreal.

Prosecutors put the reckless Captain Rudolph on trial, but the judge ultimately acquitted him.

Within a year, he was back on the river despite having killed so many people with his foolish decision to try to overtake the Napoleon in his derelict vessel, the Montreal.

Most of the Scottish emigrants who survived would eventually return home to Scotland as very broken people whose dreams had been dashed. Families were ruined and survivors were devastated.

Are the wet and paranormal footprints found so often on Clock Tower Quay related to this maritime disaster and tragedy? It is certainly worth more investigation!

Company News

With the Halloween Season behind us, Haunted Montreal is moving into winter mode by restarting our Haunted Pub Crawl!

Offered every Sunday at 3 pm in English and the last Sunday of the month at 4 pm in French, the Haunted Pub Crawl is a great way to enjoy some spirits with a spirit!

Starting at McKibbin’s Pub on Bishop Street, guests will hear some of Montreal’s most infamous ghost stories while enjoying drinks in three haunted pubs!

Designed for the winter, the pubs are each within a 5-minute walking distance to ensure clients stay warm!

We are also offering our other ghost walks and paranormal investigation as private tours, weather permitting:

The Haunted Downtown Ghost Walk

The Haunted Mountain Ghost Walk

The Haunted Griffintown Ghost Walk

Paranormal Investigation in the Old Sainte Antoine Cemetery

For private tours, clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours are based on the availability of our actors and start at $170 for small groups of up to 7 people.

Email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book a private tour!

We are also offering our Virtual Ghost Tour on demand in both English and French.

Please spread the word to those who might be interested in a Haunted Montreal experience and if you want to send someone a haunted experience as a gift for the holidays, now you can. Introducing Haunted Montreal Gift Certificates available through our website and redeemable via Eventbrite for any of our in-person or virtual events (no expiration date).

Finally, we have opened an online store for those interested in Haunted Montreal merchandise. We are selling t-shirts, magnets, sweatshirts (for those haunted fall and winter nights) and mugs with both the Haunted Montreal logo and our tour imagery.

Purchases can be ordered through our online store: shop.hauntedmontreal.com

Haunted Montreal would like to thank all of our clients who attended a ghost walk, haunted pub crawl, paranormal investigation or virtual event during the 2020 – 2021 season!

If you enjoyed the experience, we encourage you to write a review on our Tripadvisor page, something that helps Haunted Montreal to market its tours.

Lastly, if you would like to receive the Haunted Montreal Blog on the 13th of every month, please sign up to our mailing list.

Coming up on December 13: Montreal’s Secret Pool

Perched on the slopes of the mountain lies a mysterious and abandoned swimming pool. Authorities at the Old Royal Victoria Hospital built it in 1961, allegedly to allow nurses to swim there. Since its construction, rumours have swirled that it was actually built to conceal children buried on the site. These allegedly include Indigenous victims of the nearby Allan Memorial Institute – McGill’s deranged Psychiatry Department. Known as “Montreal’s Secret Pool”, it was closed down following the drowning of a man in 2013. Today, the pool is creepy, decrepit – and some say haunted!

Donovan King is a postcolonial historian, teacher, tour guide and professional actor. As the founder of Haunted Montreal, he combines his skills to create the best possible Montreal ghost stories, in both writing and theatrical performance. King holds a DEC (Professional Theatre Acting, John Abbott College), BFA (Drama-in-Education, Concordia), B.Ed (History and English Teaching, McGill), MFA (Theatre Studies, University of Calgary) and ACS (Montreal Tourist Guide, Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec). He is also a certified Montreal Destination Specialist.

With over 450 documented ghost stories, Montreal is easily the most haunted city in Canada, if not all of North America. Haunted Montreal dedicates itself to researching these paranormal tales, and the Haunted Montreal Blog unveils a newly researched Montreal ghost story on the 13th of every month!

This service is free and you can sign up to our mailing list (top, right-hand corner for desktops and at the bottom for mobile devices) if you wish to receive it every month on the 13th!

We are also thrilled to announce that with new public health measures in place, we are re-booting two of our outdoor haunted experiences with a maximum of 8 clients each:

• The Haunted Downtown Ghost Walk
• Paranormal Investigation in the Old Sainte Antoine Cemetery

We are also offering our Virtual Ghost Tour once a month in both English and French.

Both public and private sessions are available! More details are below in our Company News section!

This month we examine Montreal’s abandoned Brock Tunnel. Set discretely beside a highway exit ramp, the tunnel has been abandoned since the 1970s.

Today, the creepy arched passageway is rumored to be haunted.

Haunted Research

Half-hidden beside an exit ramp lurks the creepy and abandoned Brock Tunnel. With a rusty gate blocking its magnificent arched entrance, the tunnel is both foreboding and mysterious. Rumours of haunted activity within the structure keep many people away from it. At 208 meters long, the arched brick tunnel is a very dark and creepy place.

The Brock Tunnel was designed to connect the old Port of Montreal refrigeration warehouse at the harbour with the city. Opened in 1895, another purpose was to speed up the transfer of merchandise being offloaded from the ships into the city.

Now sealed off on the port end, the tunnel is currently used by urban explorers and ghost hunters due to its haunted reputation. According to one condo owner near the entrance of the tunnel, it is not uncommon to see someone enter the tunnel and then run out screaming after a minute or two.

The Brock Tunnel is located in the Faubourg Québec, the second oldest neighborhood in the city after Old Montreal.

In 1852, a devastating fire destroyed much of the Faubourg Québec and left almost 10,000 people homeless.

Instead of rebuilding all of the housing stock, much of the area began to industrialize rapidly.

After roads and railways were installed in the Port of Montreal, it became increasingly difficult to move goods from the ships into the city. Stevedores often had to wait for trains to pass, causing significant delays in offloading the ships and bringing products to market. This was especially important for perishable goods being stored in the Port of Montreal refrigeration warehouse.

Port officials decided that tunneling under the infrastructure was the best option to speed up the maritime operation. City of Montreal engineer P. W. George was put in charge of the project and he designed the Brock Tunnel in a very solid way.

Dug with picks and shovels from both ends, at the breakthrough point of the two teams a commemorative plaque was installed to mark the event.

The arched tunnel was reinforced with copious amounts of bricks to ensure its sturdiness. Built between 1889 and 1895, its construction cost $163,750.

Author Stuart Howard details the tunnel’s engineering work in his book Construction of the Ontario and Berri Street Subways, Brock Street Tunnel, and Notre Dame Street Viaduct.

At 208 meters long, with two lanes and a sidewalk, it served its purpose well for decades in speeding up freight transfers from port to city.

After over 80 years of service, the Brock Tunnel was abandoned in the 1970s due to changes in the Port of Montreal’s operations. Ships began offloading containers directly onto rail and truck beds, meaning that stevedores were no longer required to haul merchandise from the ships through the Brock Tunnel and into the city.

The port end of the tunnel was sealed off and a metal gate was installed on the city end to keep out those deemed undesirable.

At some point before 1989, the Brock Tunnel was re-named the Beaudry Tunnel by city of Montreal officials in an effort to transform English landmarks into French ones. Re-named after Beaudry Street, which the north side of the tunnel exited onto, the re-branding was done quietly.

While General Issac Bock was a famous Protestant British military hero who was killed during the War of 1812, Pierre Beaudry was a humble Catholic soap and candle-maker. Beaudry was a well-known local businessman and philanthropist who donated a parcel of his land to establish the nearby Saint-Pierre-Apôtre Catholic Church.

When the street was laid in 1843, it was named after Beaudry due to his devotion, five years before his death.

Today, the abandoned Brock/Beaudry Tunnel is mostly used by urban explorers, ghost hunters, squatters and film crews.

A quick internet search reveals several urban explorer websites of people investigating the tunnel, including many with remarkable photos.

It is also popular with ghost hunters and paranormal investigators, who have reported a lot of haunted activity within the structure.

In the past, squatters have occupied the Brock Tunnel, only to be evicted by the police again and again.

Film crews have also shot on location within the tunnel. The most famous movies that employed the tunnel as a setting are Jésus de Montréal (1989) and Le Dernier Tunnel (2004).

In all cases, those using the tunnel have reported disturbing instances of paranormal activity.

The most common problem is the disembodied sound of someone marching, almost with military precision. With the invisible boot steps echoing throughout the tunnel, film directors have had to re-take scenes that were interrupted by the clacking sound emanating from the subterranean sidewalk.

Squatters have also heard these sounds, causing many to abandon the tunnel as a living space. While there are no reports of urban explorers hearing the paranormal marching, ghost-hunters have picked up all sorts of strange noises in the tunnel such as EVPs (electronic voice phenomena) and the footsteps themselves.

With the reputation as a haunted tunnel, it also attracts thrill-seekers who dare one another to enter through the metal gate near the off-ramp.

One nearby condo owner has reported seeing people cautiously enter the tunnel only to bolt out of it screaming after a minute or two.

While there is one theory that the ghost might be that of tunnel engineer P. W. George, others suggest it is unlikely because he led an illustrious career and never suffered any tragedy that might result in him coming back as a spirit.

Another theory, perhaps more plausible, is that it is haunted by the ghost of General Issac Brock, the tunnel’s original namesake.

General Issac Brock was a dashing young British soldier with a redcoat and a musket at his shoulder.

At 15 years old, he joined the British Army. He served in several colonial locations before being deployed to Upper Canada in 1802.

With strong leadership skills, in 1811 Issac Brock attained the rank of Major General. He took command of all British forces in Upper Canada and became the administrator of the province the same year.

General Issac Brock was very fond of a young woman named Lady Sophia Shaw and she was equally enamored with him. It was a case of love at first sight.

However, Sophia’s father did not approve of Brock. Even though he had a high stature in Upper Canada, he was not from the wealthy upper class nor the nobility. The father felt that Brock could not afford the best for his beloved daughter and therefore denied him permission to marry her.

Not to be deterred, the two began a secret love affair and vowed to get married regardless of the father’s objections.

At the same time, in 1812, war broke out between the United States of America and British North America, including Upper Canada.

General Issac Brock’s military actions, particularly his success in making Detroit surrender, earned him a knighthood, many accolades and the sobriquet “Hero of Upper Canada.”

On October 13th, 1812, the sounds of cannon fire boomed from Queenston Heights where American soldiers were invading Upper Canada.

General Isaac Brock mounted his horse, to ride into battle. He briefly visited Lady Sophia Shaw to kiss her goodbye.

It was the last time she would see her handsome lover alive.  

As General Isaac Brock rode into battle, a skilled American sharpshooter took aim at him from behind a bush and fired his musket. The bullet struck the general in the chest and he fell from his horse, dead from the mortal wound.

His men retrieved the body and noticed his red coat and the sash given to him by indigenous rebel Tecumseh were soaked in his blood. General Isaac Brock was just 43 years old when he was killed in battle.

General Issac Brock was hailed as a British hero and major efforts were made to memorialize him. However, Lady Sophia Shaw was devastated by the loss of her dear love and future husband. She disappeared from public sight.

From the second floor of her family manor in Niagara-on-the-Lake, the sounds of sobbing would disturb other residents at night.

According to the local lore, this is how the ghost story of “Sobbing Sophia” was born. Sophia never married and died a few years after her beloved’s death, some say of a broken heart. 

Furthermore, following her death, the disembodied sobbing did not stop. Reports continue to this day of the sounds of a woman weeping on Queen Street in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. The sobbing noises emanate from the second floor of her old family home, which today it is a popular Bed & Breakfast called Brockamour Manor.

The proprietors of Brockamour Manor have even erected an artwork of “Sobbing Sophia”.

They embrace the ghostly legend, no doubt increasing sales from the haunted tourism industry’s many clients.

Returning to General Issac Brock, following his premature death many locals who knew of his affair with Lady Sophia Shaw began to speculate that he would come back as a ghost due to the tragedy. Some suggested it rivalled Romeo and Juliet and were convinced, especially with all of the sobbing noises, that the ghost of the general would undoubtedly return.

Meanwhile, the British government commemorated General Issac Brock and his legacy as much as possible. An elaborate monument and park were prepared for him on the battlefield of Queenstown Heights where he had died. Officials even transferred his corpse to the monument to be reinterred.

Brock University and the city of Brocktown, Ontario were also named in his honor. Montreal’s Brock Tunnel was yet another example of the many efforts made to commemorate the famous British general.

According to legend, the ghost of General Issac Brock returned, haunted by his inability to marry his beloved Lady Sophia Shaw.

Many reported seeing his spirit wandering the site where he was killed – in Queenstown Heights.

The theory as to why he might be haunting the Brock Tunnel, named in his honor, has to do with it being re-branded as the “Beaudry Tunnel”.

According to the legend, the ghost of General Issac Brock returned to his sites of commemoration to celebrate his glorious and yet untimely death again and again. Unable to re-connect with his love, Lady Sophia Shaw, it is said that his ghost returned to glorify his death in the afterlife as a deranged alternative option.

With the re-branding of General Issac Brock’s Montreal tunnel after humble soap merchant Pierre Beaudry, it is said that the general’s ghost became unhinged. Without his beloved Lady Sophia Shaw, all he had left was his legacy.

When his name was stripped from the tunnel, some believe he came back to haunt it.

According to many sources, General Issac Brock’s spirit marches incessantly throughout the tunnel, disturbing various contemporary users. Some say that he is furious about the removal of his glorious name from the now-renamed Beaudry Tunnel.

Today, the big question many people are asking is what is going to happen to the abandoned Brock (Beaudry) Tunnel in the future.

In March 2020, the City of Montreal embarked on a new urban plan for the Faubourg Québec entitled Programme particulier d’urbanisme (PPU) des Faubourgs.

Included in the plan is the creation of a small park at the entrance of the tunnel called Parc du tunnel Beaudry.

At 1800 square meters, the park will be created once an exit ramp is removed from the Ville-Marie Expressway and the road is reconfigured into an urban boulevard.

Otherwise, there are no immediate plans at this time to re-open the port end of the tunnel.

In conclusion, the creepy Brock (Beaudry) Tunnel is a disturbing and hidden location in the Faubourg Québec.

With its haunted reputation, locals hope that one-day officials will re-open it again in its full historical glory.

Enter at your own risk!

Company News

Haunted Montreal is thrilled to announce that new public health measures in place allow small gatherings outdoors!  We are now permitted to run outdoor tours and activities with a maximum of 8 clients.

As such, we are re-booting two of our outdoor haunted experiences:

1) The Haunted Downtown Ghost Walk

2) Paranormal Investigation in the Old Sainte Antoine Cemetery

We are also offering our Virtual Ghost Tour once a month in both English and French.

Both public and private sessions are available!

Private tours of up to 8 people are also available for a fixed rate of only $160.

While clients can request any date, time and operating tour, they are based on the availability of our actors and must end at least one hour before the 8 pm curfew.

Email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book a private tour!

For Health and Safety reasons, Haunted Montreal provides face masks and hand sanitizer. All of our walking tours and haunted experiences practice social distancing.

Please spread the word to those who might be interested in a Haunted Montreal experience!

Haunted Montreal would like to thank all of our clients who attended a ghost walk, haunted pub crawl, paranormal investigation or virtual event during the 2020 – 2021 season!

If you enjoyed the experience, we encourage you to write a review on our Tripadvisor page, something that helps Haunted Montreal to market its tours.

Lastly, if you would like to receive the Haunted Montreal Blog on the 13th of every month, please sign up to our mailing list.

Coming up on April 13: Redpath Museum

Entering McGill University’s Redpath Museum is like stepping back into the Victorian Era. Hosting bizarre collections of dinosaur bones, shrunken heads and stolen Egyptian mummies, the Redpath Museum is unique among Montreal’s attractions. According to various reports, it is also haunted, with shrunken heads said to stare at people and the stolen mummies sometimes moving on their own accord. While the museum is certainly an interesting place to visit, some guests experience frightening paranormal activity within the dusty establishment.

Donovan King is a postcolonial historian, teacher, tour guide and professional actor. As the founder of Haunted Montreal, he combines his skills to create the best possible Montreal ghost stories, in both writing and theatrical performance. King holds a DEC (Professional Theatre Acting, John Abbott College), BFA (Drama-in-Education, Concordia), B.Ed (History and English Teaching, McGill), MFA (Theatre Studies, University of Calgary) and ACS (Montreal Tourist Guide, Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec). He is also a certified Montreal Destination Specialist.

With over 450 documented ghost stories, Montreal is easily the most haunted city in Canada, if not all of North America.

Haunted Montreal dedicates itself to researching these paranormal tales, and the Haunted Montreal Blog unveils a newly researched Montreal ghost story on the 13th of every month! This service is free and you can sign up to our mailing list (top, right-hand corner for desktops and at the bottom for mobile devices) if you wish to receive it every month on the 13th!

We are also thrilled to announce:

Winter Ghost Stories: A Québécois Tradition!

This virtual storytelling session resurrects the Québécois tradition of telling ghost stories during the long winter months.

Go back in time, from New France to Montreal’s Victorian Era, when creepy tales were told on winter nights around the hearth with a glass of mulled wine.

This online experience is ideal for:

• Virtual gatherings of family, friends and co-workers
• Romantic dates
• As gifts

Both public and private sessions are available! Details here. More details are below in our Company News section!

Please spread the word to those who might be interested in an online winter ghost tour experience!

Haunted Research

The Victorian Era began on June 20, 1837 with the birth of baby Victoria into the British Royal Family. She would become the British Queen and oversee a colonial Empire across the planet where the sun never set.

During the Victorian era, there was a popular tradition of telling ghost stories during Christmas all across the British Empire, including in the City of Montreal.

These spooky tales reflect darker, ancient, and more fundamental issues, such as the Winter Solstice, death, rebirth, and the connection between a ghost storyteller and his or her audience.

During winters of the 19th and early 20th Century, Montrealers celebrated the re-telling of these deranged ghost stories with a hot glass of mulled brandy or wine by a warm, crackling fire in the hearth.

The winter has always brought many hardships to Montreal, the most obvious of which is the months of endless cold and snow.

In the Victorian Era, Montrealers came up with some novel ways to overcome the hardships of winter. With all the misery, solutions were sought to soften the edge of the hard winters.

Victorian Montrealers has some amazing traditions that no longer exist, notably the city’s famous winter carnivals. The first was held in 1883.

Another tradition was the telling of ghost stories during the Christmas holidays and over the wintertime. This tradition goes back thousands of years in Indigenous cultures, was all the rage during the colonial era of New France, and continued into the Victorian Era.

The ghost stories were especially popular at the Montreal Winter Carnivals. Set in late January or early February, the winter carnivals typically attracted 50,000 tourists to Montreal for winter sports and social gatherings. The streets were choked with thousands of sleighs, and parties and balls were held all over the city.

There were also ice sculptures in Dominion Square, curling bonspiels on the frozen river, and a giant toboggan slide down Peel Street.

Torch-bearing snow-shoers would tramp up to the summit of Mount Royal, creating an illusion of a fiery snake ascending the mountain.

Winter sports were enormously popular. Snowshoeing, curling and tobogganing were very popular, as was the newly-created game of hockey.

Hockey was invented in 1885 in Montreal and matches were played at the palatial Victoria Rink, which also hosted lavish skating parties.

One of the major highlights of the Winter Carnival was the construction of massive ice castles in Dominion Square.

These magnificent structures were lit up at night and it was from here that colorful fireworks displays were launched to the awe of large crowds beneath the frosty night sky.

The ice castles were also rumored to be haunted on account of the fact that Dominion Square was established on the old Saint Antoine Cholera Cemetery which had closed in 1799 because it was full.

With tens of thousands of corpses buried under Dominion Square, many stacked in burial trenches, rumours spread that the Dead were unhappy with these celebrations taking place on their old cemetery.

Because fireworks were stored in the ice castles, they had to be guarded for safety reasons.

The night watchman was a fellow named Ambrose who was half-French and half-Irish. Being superstitious, he suspected that the ice castles were haunted.

Sometimes, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him when he spotted what appeared to be frozen humans within the ice after sundown.

He also heard ghostly moaning sounds, which seemed to voice their disapproval of him being there. He often heard the disembodied words: “Respect the Dead” which seemed to echo through the icy corridors, courts and ballrooms.

He told his colleagues about these strange occurrences, and while they humored him, they did not take his claims seriously.

To keep himself sane, he brought along a flask of whisky, a pipe and a pouch of tobacco to calm his nerves during the long winter nights guarding the ice castle.

During the climax of the Winter Carnival week, the ice palace was site of a great battle between two “armies” of hundreds of snow-shoers.

One group defended the ice castle while the other attacked it. The defending soldiers would line the walls and prepare for the oncoming siege. As the battle began, fireworks would be launched both from both armies, and from the walls of the castle.

The spectacular light show was described as a “fairy land,” with the fireworks and burning colored lights turning the sky into a “rainbow hue” that lasted half an hour.

As the battle came to a close, the attacking army would overtake the palace and claim victory.

With the battle over, both sides would then converge and begin a torch-lit snow-shoe ramble up Mount Royal. Once on the heights, they would release more fireworks over the city.

When people returned to their homes or hotels, the fireplaces were stoked and piping hot mulled wine was prepared.

Once everything was ready, folks gathered around parlors across the city for a much-loved Victorian tradition – the telling of ghost stories!

Unfortunately, the famous Montreal Winter Carnival was not to last. The fifth and last edition occurred in 1889.

The final edition was very successful, at first. The same routine of winter sports and lavish balls entertained both tourists and local revelers.

However, the night before the mock war at the ice castle, there was a serious problem.

Ambrose, the guard, was having a terrible time. More and more frozen bodies seemed to be appearing in the icy walls of the castle. To make matters worse, the disembodied moaning voices were becoming more frequent.

“Respect the Dead,” he heard echoing throughout the icy structure as he guarded the fireworks. “Respect the Dead,” again and again and again.

Ambrose was beginning to panic, so reached for his whiskey flask and drank a large sip. He then lit up his pipe.

He continued to hear the voices: “Respect the Dead, Respect the Dead.” He was sure that he could see more and more frozen corpses appear within the ice.

Ambrose guzzled down the rest of his whiskey and began puffing furiously on his pipe. He felt as though he was losing his mind!

After finishing his last drop from the flask, Ambrose snapped! He started screaming at the ghosts who were haunting him.

“Quit messing with my head!” he yelled out.

Then he heard it again. “Respect the Dead, Respect the Dead.”

Ambrose lost it. “Feck the Dead! Feck the Dead!” he yelled out.

As he puffed on his pipe, suddenly he felt as though something had given him a hard push. He went flying into the bundles of fireworks. His pipe spit out is burning ash.

Suddenly, Ambrose heard a sizzling sound.

Ambrose looked over and saw that the embers of his pipe had lit the fuse on one of the fireworks!

He scrambled towards it to try and extinguish it, but he was too late.

There was a loud explosion and all of the fireworks began exploding!

As they lit up the night sky, the fireworks also blew apart sections of the castle, reducing them into shards of ice.

More sadly, Ambrose was soon discovered by his colleagues, lying among the ice shards. He had suffered severe burns to his body and was rambling about what had happened in a semi-coherent manner.

While the surgeons tried their best to help him, Ambrose passed away shortly after the explosion in the ice castle. The authorities tried to hush it up, but the damage was done.

In addition to the fireworks stock explosion and tragic death of Ambrose, Montreal’s Winter Carnival was seen as having become too commercial. Its original authenticity just wasn’t there anymore. The party was over.

Montreal has not hosted a Winter Carnival since. The only reminder of these remarkable times is found within the city’s architecture.

In neighborhoods such as the Plateau, Quarter Latin and Gay Village, the old Faubourg Québec, one needs only look up to observe the Ice Castle architecture adjourning many of the older buildings.

The Victorian Era ended on January 22, 1901 with the death of the monarch. With her passing, Victorian traditions began to fade across the British Empire, including in Montreal.

Not only was the Montreal Winter Carnival deemed a relic of the past, but with the advent of radio, silent films and eventually television and film, the telling of Christmas ghost stories began to fade.

It wasn’t long before Montreal lost its fascinating Victorian traditions in the winter.

Today, Montreal is unremarkable in its winter activities, even though the city is shrouded in the cold season for almost half of the year.

It is a real shame, given that the city’s once glorious Winter Carnivals during the Victorian Era put Montreal on the map as a winter destination.

As a city shrouded in winter for almost half of the year, it is not surprising that many of our ghosts appear at this time!

Company News

Haunted Montreal is thrilled to present our new virtual haunted event:

Winter Ghost Stories: A Québécois Tradition!

Prepare a glass of mulled wine or brandy, fire up your computer and go back in time to celebrate the winter in the style of Montreal’s bygone days. From the days of New France, the telling of ghost stories around the fireplace was one of the most popular traditions in the city!

Guests will be regaled with winter ghost stories from Montreal’s past and hear about New France legends and the famous Winter Carnivals of the 1880s. Magnificent ice castles were built in Dominion Square – on top of the graves of tens of thousands of Cholera victims.

Learn the French-Canadian legend of a rustic ghost house – and the miser who was trapped inside it for decades!

Hear all about Montreal’s haunted sewer network and a tragic accident one Christmas Eve that led to one collector being plagued by the deranged ghost of a vagabond.

Discover the most popular ghost story from the 1800s about a wealthy fur baron who was frequently spotted tobogganing down Mount Royal in his own coffin after his untimely death.

Lastly, learn about Montreal’s most haunted hotel – and the ghostly Lady in White who brings freezing temperatures with her wherever she wanders!

Winter Ghost Stories: A Québécois Tradition is ideal for romantic dates, family gatherings and as gifts for those interested in Montreal’s deranged history and ghost stories!

Both public and private storytelling sessions are available in English and French.

Public storytelling sessions take place every Friday or Saturday evening at 8 pm.

Private sessions are based on the availability of our professional actors and can be arranged by emailing info@hauntedmontreal.com.

Tickets are on sale now!

Haunted Montreal would like to thank all of our clients who attended a ghost walk, haunted pub crawl or paranormal investigation during the 2020 – 2021 season!

If you enjoyed the experience, we encourage you to write a review on our Tripadvisor page, something that helps Haunted Montreal to market its tours.

Lastly, if you would like to receive the Haunted Montreal Blog on the 13th of every month, please sign up to our mailing list.

Coming up on March 13: Brock Tunnel

The abandoned Brock Tunnel snakes from the old port to the city and was built in 1895 to speed up the transfer of merchandise being offloaded from the ships. At 200m long, the arched brick tunnel is a very dark and creepy place. Now sealed off on the port end, the tunnel is currently used by urban explorers and ghost hunters due to its haunted reputation. According to one condo owner near the entrance of the tunnel, it is not uncommon to see someone enter the tunnel and then run out screaming after a minute or two. Enter at your own risk!  

Donovan King is a postcolonial historian, teacher, tour guide and professional actor. As the founder of Haunted Montreal, he combines his skills to create the best possible Montreal ghost stories, in both writing and theatrical performance. King holds a DEC (Professional Theatre Acting, John Abbott College), BFA (Drama-in-Education, Concordia), B.Ed (History and English Teaching, McGill), MFA (Theatre Studies, University of Calgary) and ACS (Montreal Tourist Guide, Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec). He is also a certified Montreal Destination Specialist.