Ghost Walking

Abstract

Ghost walks have become a very popular phenomenon internationally. Examples in the United States are numerous — from the ‘French Quarter Phantoms’ ghost tours of New Orleans to the ‘Ghosts of Gettysburg’ tours. Examples in the Czech Republic include the ‘Mysterium Tour’, and the ‘Ghosts and Legends Tour’ by ‘Haunted Prague’. Paris has the ‘Mysteries of Paris Ghosts and Vampire Tour’. Significantly, these last three examples are English-language tours, aimed at English speaking tourists. In Scotland, Edinburgh’s ghost tours are big business. A number of different companies compete with each other for visitors’ custom: walk down the Royal Mile in summer and you end up with a fistful of flyers for a variety of walks. The largest of the companies, Mercat, offers ghost tours daily, all year round, and they don’t just run in English — there is a ‘Misterios de Ultratumba’ tour for Spanish-speaking tourists. Ghost walks are popular in England too. The London Walks Company offers several: ‘Ghosts, Gaslight and Guinness’ (starting at Holborn Tube station, its blurb influenced by an Ackroydian discourse of occult geometries), ‘Ghosts of the Old City’, ‘Haunted London’ and ‘The West End Ghost Walk’ amongst them.¹ The website boasts that, barring Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the company hosts a ghost walk every day of the year.²