Local event tells of Guelphite folklore
On a chilly Friday night in October, The Ontarion had the chance to participate in the Ghost Walk of Guelph. For just over an hour, guide Greg Taylor led a group around the streets of downtown, visiting sites with spooky histories.
Taylor began hosting the walk in 2013, and has run it several times a year since. However, it sees quite a bit of interest in the weeks before Halloween.
“I’ve been on ghost walks and haunted walks in different cities in Canada and the U.S., and Guelph never had one, and I thought ‘there’s got to be something,’” said Taylor.
“…Norfolk Street, one of the oldest streets in Guelph, and the Baker Street parking lot.”
Without divulging too much about the walk, eerie sites included Norfolk Street, one of the oldest streets in Guelph, and the Baker Street parking lot.
The parking lot is an old graveyard site, and skeleton fragments continue to surface as the ground shifts and different spots are dug up.
The Ghost Walk even has a University of Guelph version, which takes place on campus leading up to Halloween.
“…is an old graveyard site, and skeleton fragments continue to surface…”
“The University actually reached out to me […] and stories jumped out from all over campus,” said Taylor. “The University of Guelph is very haunted.”
The Ghost Walk points to a larger historical theme: current Guelph residents get to enjoy a taste of the city’s past. The architecture of sites downtown makes walkers realize these buildings aren’t new, and that they inevitably have a past.
When Halloween season comes around, people are looking for strange and sinister stories to fuel their costume-making and house-decorating. Mysterious stories like these are the glue that keep the holiday together, because that’s what folklore is all about. Spooky apparitions can’t be proven via mathematical equation, and that’s what makes them so uncanny.
Photo by Claire Wilcox.