Salem Ghost Night Tour

Overview

Explore the city centre of Salem on a night walk of approximately 1h 20m dedicated to the city's most documented hauntings and tales. Accompanied by a licensed local guide, you will uncover the dark stories that the town has never forgotten. The route takes you to iconic sites, including Bridget Bishop's homestead, the iron gates of Salem's oldest cemetery, and the site where Giles Corey was pressed to death. The guides draw on deep local knowledge to provide an authentic, unscripted narrative. The meeting point is at Remember Salem on Essex Street, close to themed shops and museums such as the Ouija Board Museum and the Halloween Museum. The tour is designed as an easy walk for the comfort of all participants.

Itinerary

1. Salem Night Tour

   Check in early at Remember Salem on Essex Street, where Wynott's Wands, the Ouija Board Museum, and the Halloween Museum are all within steps. The experience starts before the tour does.

   · 15 min

2. Introduction

   · Non-stop passage

3. Salem Witch Trials Memorial

   Salem Witch Trials memorial featuring a series of inscribed stones throughout the burial ground.

   · 10 min

4. Charter Street Cemetery

   Charter Street Cemetery, dating to 1637, is one of Salem's oldest burial grounds — but notably absent are the victims of the witch trials, who were denied Christian burial. Instead you'll find John Hathorne, the unrepentant hanging judge whose legacy so haunted his descendant Nathaniel Hawthorne that he added a 'w' to his name and spent his literary career processing the guilt. A Mayflower passenger rests here too. The cemetery closes at dusk — guests view it from beyond the iron gates, which somehow makes it more unsettling.

   · 5 min

5. Salem Old Town Hall

   guests will hear about Salem's movie history and see one of the iconic filming locations of the movie Hocus Pocus

   · 10 min

6. Essex Street Pedestrian Mall

   Pass through the epicenter of historic Salem filled with shopping, sightseeing and history.

   · Non-stop passage

7. Today home to Turner's Seafood at Lyceum Hall, and the site of the first public demonstration of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell, this storied building stands on the former property of Bridget Bishop, Salem's first executed witch. Hanged in 1692, Bishop has never quite left. Ghost hunters have recorded unexplained audio here, staff report persistent disturbances in the upstairs Bridget Bishop Room, and her face has been captured in upstairs windows. One of Salem's most documented and genuinely unsettling hauntings. We cover her story, her legacy, and her ghost!

   · 5 min

8. This is the site of Salem's original witch gaol — where the accused were chained in dungeon conditions while awaiting trial. Among them was Dorothy Good, four years old, who confessed to witchcraft not out of guilt but out of desperation to stay near her imprisoned mother. Her mother Sarah was executed anyway. Dorothy spent eight months chained in darkness, alone, until her spirit went silent. She survived. She never recovered. Her ghost is said to still search these grounds for her mother — and those with a maternal instinct have reported feeling small hands tugging at their coats and bags in the dark. The weight of this story, on this ground, is something you feel before your guide has finished telling it.

   · 5 min

9. We stop near the former Essex County Jail — built in 1813, it became the oldest active penitentiary in the United States before closing in 1991 under a court order citing inhumane conditions. But this ground holds something older and darker. This was once an open field where Giles Corey was pressed to death in 1692, the only person in American history executed by pressing. Corey refused to enter a plea, and with his dying breath cursed the sheriff and the city of Salem. Every sheriff who kept offices here before the jail's closure reportedly died of heart ailments — and Corey's ghost, seen before the Salem Great Fire and other calamities, is considered Salem's most feared and malevolent spirit. The Howard Street Cemetery next door holds prisoners who died inside, their gravestones marked with skeleton hands pointing skyward. This is not a ghost story. This is Salem's most documented and genuinely feared haunting — and we treat it that way.

   · 10 min

10. Saint Peter's Episcopal Church

    Behind St. Peter's Church lies a garden that most Salem visitors never find. Dark, enclosed, and built on top of the dead. The gravestones were moved to the front when the church was rebuilt in 1833. The bodies were not. Beneath the ground you're standing on lies Philip English, accused witch, escaped prisoner, and one of Salem's wealthiest and most defiant merchants. A French-speaking Anglican among Puritans, English fled to New York in 1692 with his wife Mary to avoid execution, returning after the trials to spend his remaining years suing Salem for everything that was taken from him. He donated this land as a final act of defiance, establishing Salem's first Anglican church on the doorstep of the community that tried to destroy him. Our guides bring you here after dark, where the stories get darker and the air gets heavier.

    · 5 min

11. Gardner Pingree House

    In 1830, Captain Joseph White — wealthy sea captain and slave trader — was bludgeoned to death in his sleep inside this Federal-style mansion on Essex Street. A hired killer entered through an open window. The trial that followed gripped the nation and inspired Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart, with details from the prosecution speech echoing directly into the story's most famous lines. The murder is also said to have inspired Parker Brothers to rebrand the British board game Cluedo as Clue. Witnesses still report ghostly faces in the windows and unexplained footsteps inside. This is one of Salem's most consequential and most haunted addresses

    · 5 min

How to use your ticket

[November - September Check-In]: Check in 15 minutes prior to tour time at 127 Essex St. (Remember Salem Gifts) [October Check-In]: Share this information with EVERY person in your party. Check in at 127 Essex St. (Remember Salem Gifts) 30 minutes prior to your tour time. Join the check in line when your entire party is present. When you are checked in you will depart, possibly earlier than your ticket time. The last tour guide to leave will depart exactly on time. Guests who arrive late (even by just a minute) cannot be checked in. Please double-check with your group and make sure you have enough tickets, additional tickets CANNOT be purchased at check in. Especially in October, late arrivals (even by just a minute) cannot be accepted, cannot be refunded, cannot 'catch up', cannot move to a different time slot, and cannot be checked in under any circumstances.

Meeting point

What to know before you go

• Prams and strollers are permitted.
• Service animals are welcome.
• Public transport is available nearby.
• Suitable for all fitness levels.
• In October, check-in begins 30 minutes before your tour time at 127 Essex Street; any delay after the final guide's departure results in cancellation without refund.
• From November to September, arrive 15 to 30 minutes before your tour at 127 Essex Street; any delay at the time of departure results in cancellation without refund.
• The tour involves walking between several locations; guests using wheelchairs or mobility equipment must provide their own.
• The activity can accommodate a maximum of 40 travellers.
• Confirmation is received immediately upon booking.

Travelers

Cancellation policy

Free cancellation for a full refund at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure date.

• No refund is possible less than 24 hours before departure.

Who is it for?

• Travellers interested in history and the paranormal
• Those looking for an easy urban walk
• Groups of up to 40 participants
• English speakers

What makes it different

• Guides licensed by the City of Salem
• Authentic, unscripted storytelling
• Itinerary focused on the most documented haunted sites

Frequently asked questions

Reviews

Product code: 26797P1

Activity offered by The Salem Night Ghost Tour via Viator.