It is interesting how something unexplainable and eerie that happened almost ninety years ago has now turned into an activity for curious tourists. Apparently, this poltergeist from 1929 ended up creating a phenomenon that continues to tie people in knots.
Very Little Rest for These Mount Royal Spirits
Mount Royal Cemetery
The Protestant Mount Royal Cemetery, established in 1852 and situated high on the mountain, is sometimes described as a “city of the dead” overlooking a city of the living. It is also often cited as one of the most haunted locations in Montreal.
Originally intended to serve Montreal’s English-speaking community, the cemetery is now the last resting place of more than 160,000 people. But the site’s most famous resident is one who is definitely not at rest. Indeed, he has been regularly seen standing watch near the Camillien Houde lookout. The silent figure, often seen standing guard on the edge of the cliffs, is believed to be the spirit of an Algonquin warrior. The man, whose presence very likely precedes the establishment of the cemetery by thousands of years, does nothing mischievous. He merely stands and appears to look over the landscape below. But the mere presence of this silent sentinel is said to have terrorized sightseeing tourists, who have spotted him upon looking up at the cliffs from the aforementioned lookout.
Two different articles on the Haunted Montreal website discuss both the spirit of this mysterious man as well as other eerie spectres and unexplained phenomenon experienced near the cemetery. A July 2016 blog post outlines a number of odd accidental falls from the lookout, as well as a mysterious orb of light.
In 2012, a forty-eight-year-old American tourist fell to his death at approximately 1:00 a.m. His body was discovered at the bottom of a one hundred foot drop after rescuers were called by the man’s friends, who reported him missing. The police indicated that no foul play or alcohol seemed to be involved in the incident, and the cause of the man’s fall could not be determined.
A few years later a similar thing happened at approximately the same early morning hour. A man, who had been drinking with two friends, fell from the lookout and tumbled down the slope. His two female companions, who tried to help him get back up, ended up also losing their footing and falling down the same slope. All three were injured but survived. They needed to be rescued by a specialized climbing team from the Montreal Fire Department.
Is there a mysterious force lurking in the area from the nearby cemetery, pushing at people with unseen hands?
It seems to be more than a solitary ghost. The same article mentions a man who reported an odd visual phenomenon from near the lookout. Sitting in his car, he was shocked to see a strange orb, ten feet around and alight, floating in the air above his parked vehicle. The ball of light hovered there for several minutes before slowly moving its way east. Uncertain as to whether or not it was a UFO or some sort of spiritual manifestation from the nearby cemetery, the man was confused and frightened by the incident.
A December 2016 blog post on the same site shared tales not only of strange shadowy figures seen lurking in the cemetery after dark, but also fairies and other supernatural entities.
Teams of paranormal investigators, intrigued by the legends of ghostly shadows seen flitting about the graveyard, have descended upon the cemetery over the years. Some of them have reported unexplained ghostly images appearing in the photographs taken during their investigation. These odd images weren’t visible to the photographer at the time, but, rather, appeared in the image afterwards. Others shared that they had heard the eerie sound of a little girl giggling and noted that the trees swaying in the wind above their heads sounded uncannily like the sound of a coffin lid opening. Other investigators claimed that they saw fairies dancing about the graves in the cold dark shadows of the night.
In an anonymous letter to Haunted Montreal, a former Westmount High School student wrote that they had experienced something quite disturbing after taking a walk through the cemetery. The student shared that they had returned home after being at the Mount Royal Cemetery and had quickly fallen asleep. A few hours later, they awoke to the eerie sound of a voice repeatedly calling out their name. It appeared to be coming from a male figure who was standing in the dark right there in the person’s bedroom. They could apparently make out the shadow of this figure and promptly told it to go away. Terrified and soaked in sweat, the person then describes finding the courage to reach for and turn on the bedside light, only to find there was nobody there. They attributed the experience to perhaps being a spirit who followed them home from the graveyard.
Among the many stories shared about the Protestant Mount Royal Cemetery, one thing seems to be certain: There appears to be little actual rest taking place in this lush, beautifully landscaped 165-acre cemetery.
Locked Up for an Eternity:
Haunted Montreal Prisons
Historically, prisons have been places of darkness, filled with the cries of pain from torture, isolation, and near starvation, where atrocities are committed upon the guilty, the insane, and even those wrongly incarcerated. They were places where death from exposure and inhumane forms of torture, not to mention from government-sanctioned executions, regularly occurred. If ever one were to imagine a place that might be rife with lingering and tortured spirits, a prison would surely be at the top of that list.
Below, we include a few Montreal and area prison stories that are sure to unshackle unpleasant thoughts about those prisoners who are locked up for all of eternity.
The Dungeon of Old Montreal Prison
Vauquelin Square (or Place Vauquelin in French), is an urban square located in Old Montreal. It is named in honour of Jean Vauquelin, a naval officer, who was recognized for the bravery he displayed in battle during the Seven Years’ War. The square was not always a public space, however — it was the site of the Old Montreal Prison until 1836.
The prison was demolished in 1950 and a courthouse was erected on that spot. Outside the courthouse is the square. Today, tourists flock to the site to check out the beautiful fountain of Neptune, god of the sea (the original name for the square was Neptune Square), and the nearby City Hall. Few among these are aware of the secrets that lay just below the street’s surface.
A dungeon and a series of repurposed jail cells still lie underground, rumoured to be haunted by the ghosts of notorious prisoners who were once held in those very cells, some of them awaiting execution.
City workers who access the cells for storage and other purposes have reported feelings of intense claustrophobia, an unexplainable shortness of breath, and overwhelming feelings of dread and fear when moving about the historic corridors. Others report hearing the muffled sound of disembodied voices, the clanking of chains, or a sudden drop in temperature in quickly manifesting cold spots.
Executions in this location began in 1812. The final execution, which occurred in August 1833, was of Adolphus Dewey (written about in detail in the following chapter, “The Last Hanging”). Conditions at the prison were described in the book History of the Montreal Prison From A.D. 1784 to A.D. 1886 as inhumane, and several of the punishment and torture techniques employed would, by today’s standards, be seen as completely barbaric.
A blog post from the Haunted Montreal website speculates that some of the phenomenon experienced in the old underground cells and galleries could be pointing to the ghost of the starving vagrant John Collins, who froze to death in the dungeon in December of 1835. Or perhaps it’s the ghost of Adolphus Dewey, who suffered a long and tortuous death, or any other of the executed prisoners, such as the thirteen-year-old B. Clement, hanged for stealing a cow.
When you stand in that square, can you feel the weight of the macabre history of that location, the overwhelming emotion of dread coming upon you, and, perhaps, the faint echoes of the cries of long-ago prisoners?