All aboard with York’s undead
York was once declared the most haunted city in Europe. Quite how the researchers compiled this league table is unclear – it’s not easy to count ethereal wraiths.
Whether or not York still boasts the continent’s greatest concentration of the undead, it is a spectacularly spooky place. With enough scary stories to fill a dozen books, the city has spawned its own ghost industry. Once night falls, countless ghost walks patrol the city – and the most likely thing to go bump in the night is one tour colliding with another.
Info
Address Tour departs from the RE bus stop at York Railway Station, +44 (0)844 5677 666, www.theghostbustours.com/york/, info@theghostbustours.com | Public Transport Closest bus stop: York Railway Station | Hours Sun–Thu 7:30pm, Fri–Sat 7:30pm and 9pm| Tip If you’d rather seek out the spooks on foot, the man who started it all, Trevor Rooney, still runs a nightly ghost walk from Stonegate, starting at 7:30pm.
Some of the stories have become the stuff of legend, such as the Roman legionnaires who trooped across the cellar of Treasurer’s House (see p. 204). Others are less well known, like the flying book apparently hurled by a poltergeist in the Yorkshire Museum.
More recently, the walking tours have been joined by something new: the York Ghost Bus Tour. Think of it as a coach party into the unknown. Climb aboard the disturbing double decker if you dare. The creepy conductor will clip your ticket and set the bus on its route around the darker corners of the city. Like some of the ghost walks, this is a theatrical sightseeing tour aimed at making you jump, shiver, and laugh in equal measure. The “Necrobus” – in actual fact a classic 1960s Routemaster – is a different way to see the spirits, and comes complete with Victorian lamps in the windows.
Among the stops are Clifford’s Tower, the Minster, and Dick Turpin’s grave (see p. 72), with some of the city’s lesser-known haunts thrown in too. As one reviewer put it, this is as camp as the movie Carry On Screaming, and the humour is just as corny.
Be aware that they take group bookings. You might find yourself stuck on a bus with one of the hen parties that often stalk York. Now that really would be scary … Otherwise, if there’s something strange in your neighbourhood, who ya gonna call? Ghost Bus Tours!
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