Merry meet all,
Here is my first article for the Paranormal Daily News!!
Haunted Halifax Citadel – Canada’s Spookiest Ghost Tour
Brief history of the Halifax Citadel
Halifax is a charming maritime city in Nova Scotia, Canada, brimming with spooky historical legends. Ghost stories are often laced with tragedy and nowhere is that more true than at the Halifax Citadel, and Halifax itself, where the dead roam amongst the living.
The Halifax Citadel is a national historic site. Four fortifications were constructed on Citadel Hill since the British founded the city in 1749 and are often referred to as Fort George. Only the third fort which was built between 1749 and 1800 was officially named Fort George, after King George III.
While Citadel Hill was never attacked, the Citadel is significant in its defence of the Halifax Harbour and the Royal Navy dockyard.
The British founded Halifax to act as a counterbalance to the French stronghold of Louisburg, which was returned to French control the previous year by the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Edward Cornwallis, the appointed governor, arrived on June 21, 1749 to settle Halifax. He traveled to Halifax and was followed by 13 transports that carried about two thousand settlers. Halifax was a strategic city during the next decade in the ongoing Anglo-French rivalry in the region. The British had recruited Protestant settlers from Europe and built fortifications to protect them from raids by the French, colonial Acadians and allies from the Wabanaki Confederacy (Mi’kmaq).
The infamous ‘Father Le Loutre’s War’ (1749-1755) began when Edward Cornwallis, the appointed governor, arrived on June 21, 1749 to settle Halifax. He was followed by 13 transports that carried about two thousand settlers.
The current star shaped Halifax Citadel fort was a massive masonry-construction designed to protect against a land or water-based attack from the United States. Completed in 1858, the star shape structure was purposely designed to give many lines of fire from the defenders. A few portions of the hill were built with tunnels, which could be provided with explosives and detonated from the forts. The British forces enhanced Fort George’s armaments by using heavier and more accurate long-range artillery. By the end of the 19th century, the role of the Halifax Citadel changed to a command center for other harbor defenses and to provide barrack accommodations.
During the Second World War, the role of Halifax Citadel was to provide temporary accommodations, signaling and a coordination point for the city’s aircraft defenses during the war. Today, Parks Canada operates the Citadel as the Halifax Citadel National Historic site of Canada. The fort has been restored to its appearance as it was in the Victorian Era.
For many years, a set of military gallows with a flogging post, stood in the centre of the CitadelHill parade grounds.
In 1935, Citadel Hill was designated a National Historic Landmark but showed signs of decay. Some Halifax downtown businesses suggested demolishing the fort and using the space for parking and development.
Restoration of the Halifax Citadel
Thankfully, the historic Halifax Citadel was recognized for its worth. The historical significance and the tourism potential led to its preservation and gradual restoration. In 1956, the site had been partially restored and opened for business as a Halifax army museum. It was home for the Nova Scotia Museum and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.
Parks Canada fully restored the famous fort to its full grandeur in the 1990s. It was a common practice for the restoration workers to leave dated coins in the mortar or under replaced stone walls. The coins were a marker of what areas had been worked on and when.
Today, the site is still managed by Parks Canada. The Halifax Citadel is one of the most visited National Historic Sites in Atlantic Canada. The grounds of the Citadel are open to the public year round. From the spring to fall, living history programs feature animators portraying the 78th Highland Regiment, stationed in Halifax from 1869 to 1871, the 78th Highlanders Pipe Band, the Third Brigade of the Royal Artillery, and tradespeople. Halifax Citadel sees up to 200,000 visitors and tourists annually.
The Halifax Citadel Ghost Tour
One significant attraction the Citadel offers is a year-round daily ceremonial firing of the noon gun, a reminder of the fort’s role in the city’s defenses. The best attraction for me and many other people are the ghost tours offered by the staff at Halifax Citadel.
A costumed guide leads you through a 70-minute walk, weaving stories intended to keep you awake all night. Be prepared to be spooked. You meet the guide on the drawbridge at the main gate and are led by candlelight (spooky setting!) through tunnels and prison sites, and hear true tales of many unexplained events in their real locations.
Popular ghost stories
There are about forty documented sightings of ghosts at the Halifax Citadel. Here are some of the popular ghost stories associated with the Ghost Tour.
The Grey Lady: A spirit said to forever wander the grounds, mourning her lost love and bearing the scent of roses. She wanders the floors of the Cavalier building, wearing a 19th-century dress and is still seen to this day. A guard was stationed overlooking the second floor balcony, and saw a woman pass on the veranda beneath him and disappear around the corner. She is believed to be Miss Cassie Alan, and was engaged to a soldier stationed at the Citadel. But on her wedding day, when she waited at the altar on November 14, 1900, he never arrived.
The carriage driver arrived to pick up the groom only to discover that he had shot himself. He believed that was the only way to conceal his past. The driver went to the church to break the sad news to the bride. She became hysterical and found the truth too hard to accept. Her spirit still searches the grounds for him. Officer Edward, the groom who committed suicide, is said to haunt the area near his barracks.
The most vivid occurrence of the Grey Lady being spotted was when an employee had to sit in a certain chair to greet guests. When she arrived, he saw her and thought she was of the living. He rose from the chair to greet her but then she was gone. She was spotted a few more times always wearing the same dress and disappeared before he had the chance to talk to her.
Ghost lighting a pipe: Brunswick Street is across from Citadel Hill and boasts its own ghost story. According to a newspaper titled The Acadian Recorder dated December 16, 1867, a ghost who was an imposing height of about twelve to sixteen feet was spotted walking from Citadel Hill to Brunswick Street. He wore a British Army uniform and paused to lean over a lamp post to light his pipe. A local Halifax police officer chased the giant apparition who vanished into a Brunswick street window.
The Murdered Soldier: A murdered soldier tragically fell down a well, his remains discovered centuries later. In 1782, two young officers were patrolling the grounds when they came upon an unsavory character. The tall figure wore Tom hunting clothes and he was tall and gaunt. One of the officers recognized him as his brother. A while later, his worst fears were confirmed when a letter arrived – his brother had died in a hunting accident the exact same time he saw the spirit.
The Lady of the Ditch: A woman was found dead at the bottom of the ditch. Her remains were never identified. At 4am in the morning, a sentry observed that something had fallen into the ditch and was not moving. Upon closer observation, he realized it was a woman in a tattered grey dress who had fallen tragically to her death from the top of the wall with a slash across her throat. Now she haunts the Citadel and visitors have reported spotting her in the Cavalier Building
The Tale of the Missing One-armed Sergeant: There is a well on the northern side of the inner Citadel, behind a closed locked door in Casemate 18. The unfortunate sergeant went by the name of O’Reilly and his job was to guard the regimental flags in battle. That was a hard job. He was responsible for a young private named Billy and often gave him a hard time, believing it would teach him responsibility. That turned out to not be the case. A fire erupted at three in the morning at the North Barracks. The barracks were constructed from resinous pine lumber. No one noticed when the sergeant vanished but the fire consumed the entire building.
The next morning when the roll call was taken, Billy and O’Reilly were gone. In the winter of 1851, a soldier drew water from the well at Casement 18. To the soldier’s horror, a severed arm was found in the bucket from the well. The body of sergeant O’ Reilly was finally recovered. The water was putrefied. The rest of his body was brought up. He had been shot in the back by Billy, who deserted. To this day, his ghost is seen in the well standing at attention sometimes carrying his missing arm.
Visitors and staff have noticed orbs of light passing through walls and doors, shadowy figures that vanish when approached and cold spots that set off motion detectors. The prison cells of the fort are very spooky. People have heard chains dragging across stone floors and whispers in the dark! The grim history of the Halifax Citadel is full of loss and bloodshed, never to be forgotten, where the dead refuse to remain ‘quiet’. It is no wonder the Citadel is so haunted.
The horrors of the First and Second World Wars are over but their tragedies and the battles live on at the Halifax Citadel. The ghost stories will live on in our imaginations and in our hearts. Future articles will delve into ghost stories from other areas of Halifax.
References:
https://halifaxcitadel.ca/services/the-halifax-citadel-ghost-tour.html
https://www.dustykeleher.com/the-halifax-ghost-walk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadel_Hill_(Fort_George)
https://dalgazette.com/arts-culture/27613/
Halifax Haunts: Exploring the City’s spookiest places. Nimbus Publishing, 2009. Nova Scotia, Canada.
Blessings, Spiderwitch
