GHOST WALK OF YORK
York is widely considered the most haunted city in the world, so it’s no surprise it hosts plenty of ghost walks. What you may not know is that the city is also home to what is thought to be the world’s first citywide ghost hunt: The Original Ghost Walk Of York.
Mark Graham, the ghost-hunter extraordinaire who founded the tour in 1973, and his small team have been conducting these walks every night in the intervening 38 years, only allowing themselves three nights off for Christmas every year. The result of all that experience is evident in Graham’s storytelling. He’s a master of creating spinetingling moments, his voice dark and sonorous, drawing the assembled company into a haunting tale of spooks and scares, before quickly deflating the tension with a laugh.
The tour of York’s phantasmagorical history begins at the Kings Arms pub beside Ouse Bridge. Why? “Because...” says Graham, dropping his voice to a low growl. Our group leans in closer, wondering what tale of bloody and terrifying happenings could have gone on inside the pub. “...I happen to like it,” says Graham, breaking into a booming, infectious laugh.
From the Kings Arms we walk downstream a little way to congregate opposite the Cock and Bottle, another pub on the opposite bank. This time there is a story. “Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie,” says Graham. “Probably a rhyme you’ve heard, but what you may not know is that it tells the story of a man named George Villiers.”
Villiers, Graham explains, was the first Duke of Buckingham and something of a womaniser, especially during his visits to York when he was able to let loose in a way that courtly life didn’t allow. The Cock and
Bottle was a favourite haunt in life, but according to Graham, Villiers’ spectre is still known to make appearances in the ladies’ loos every once in a while.
From here we wander down river to Tower Gardens where rivals duelled to the death, then up to York Crown Court to see the spot where condemned men and women were hanged outside, and on to Clifford’s Tower to hear about the criminals who were displayed nude and left to rot in cages hanging from its battlements.
In the Shambles, we hear about how Dick Turpin, executed in York, rose from the grave to avenge himself on a disrespectful hangman. By the Minster, Graham reveals how a friend of his once witnessed a legion of spectral centurions marching down an old Roman road. We learn that former York resident Guy Fawkes was minded to make a ghostly return to the classroom after his old school, St Peter’s, decided to break with tradition in recent years and burn an effigy of him on their November bonfire.
It becomes clear soon enough that there’s scarcely a shop, house, restaurant or pub in York which doesn’t contain something that goes bump in the night. As we walk, Graham asks members of the group where they’re staying before proceeding to reel off a ghost story regarding each hotel and guesthouse they mention.
What makes this tour stand out is that these are never stories merely for the sake of provoking cheap scares, but windows into the past. Taking in all of the sights as it wends through the city by night, the Original Ghost Walk of York is a love letter to one of our most beautiful and fascinating historical cities.