Ghost Hunting in Plymouth, Massachusetts
Plymouth County, Massachusetts is hands down one of the most haunted places in the US. As a result, the spooky city has been featured on many ghost hunting shows. Plymouth is one of the oldest towns in the US. Leyden Street claims the title of the oldest continuously used street in the US. First Parish Church, located on Leyden Street, is the oldest continuous church in New England. The Pilgrims founded this beautiful church in 1620. Not surprisingly, with all this history comes a lot of supernatural occurrences. Plymouth is one of the best places in the US to take a ghost hunting tour.
I always get an eerie feeling walking through Plymouth with the old architecture, historic cemetery, and the (typically) dark, overcast skies much of the year. Walking around at night feels even creepier.
The best ghost tour in Plymouth
This year, Mike and I decided to kick off the Halloween season with a ghost tour in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Plymouth Night Tour is a fantastic opportunity, not only for ghost hunting, but also to learn about the history of this historic New England waterfront town. Fans of both history and the supernatural will appreciate this tour, as both are covered in detail during the 2 hour time span.
Your engaging tour guide is Geoffrey Campbell, captain of the New England Patriots End Zone Militia. He is a very interesting and entertaining tour guide. Geoffrey provides great stories pertaining to both recent ghost sightings & former haunts in Plymouth.
The tour begins at Remember Plymouth Gifts at 120 Water Street (update – now begins at 65 Main St). From here, you will walk a short distance over to the Plymouth Waterfront to begin the tour. The tour begins as Geoffrey tells a story of men who froze to death on the Plymouth waterfront. As the story goes, 2 boats were fighting, and one boat became stranded as a major storm hit the area.
One boat was sneaking up upon the other. When the storm hit, the water around the boat froze. The captain told his crew-members to put their alcohol in their stockings to warm their extremities. They chose not to listen and instead drank the alcohol. As we know, alcohol lowers your body temperature; therefore, they ended up freezing to death. Their bodies supposedly exist in a mass grave in the Burial Hill Cemetery.
I am not a huge history buff, however, our tour guide was animated enough to keep me entertained! He worked as a Civil War reenactor for many years, and thus, has a captivating presence.
Plymouth’s most haunted sites & ghostly legends
We walked over to the Spooner House and Museum, one of the most haunted places in Plymouth. Back in the 1700’s, an 8 year old girl named Abigail died in this house. She still haunts the house to this day. Many report seeing her bounce a ball in the alley. Abigail reportedly messes around with the window shutters during the ghost tours. Many have claimed to see her looking down from her 3rd bedroom window. Also, numerous people report feeling colder in the alley (a temperature drop is a signal of a supernatural presence).
Geoffrey said that he has talked with the neighbor across the street, who claims to have spotted the girl in the morning as he sits outside to drink his coffee (around 5:30am when most kids are still sleeping!). He has seen the same image as everyone else – the image of Abigail bouncing her ball. Geoffrey has talked with many people in town who have reportedly seen the same ghost (including a construction worker who claims that Abigail opened the door for him).
No one on our tour saw Abigail’s ghost, nor any evidence of her presence on this particular night. We decided to stop back on the return route to see if any of the windows had been changed as Abigail often messes around with the windows after tourists leave. Geoffrey has witnessed the windows being tampered with on previous tours, however, this night there was no evidence of tampering.
An eerie walk through one of the oldest cemeteries
The highlight of a tour was a walk through Burial Hill, an old cemetery which dates back to the 17th Century. The oldest gravestone belongs to Edward Gray, who died in 1681. Who knows how early the first gravestones date back; many likely date even further than Edward’s! Most gravestones are unreadable due to wear and tear. You will quickly see that wood was the chosen material for early gravestones.
Testing out Ghost Hunting equipment
Mike & I have taken an afternoon stroll through the cemetery once before, however, it is much creepier at night! Especially with ghost hunting equipment! Flashlights and EMF meters were provided to everyone. Usually one would walk up the main staircase to enter the cemetery. Geoffrey decided to go up the ramp on the side because one of his former co-tour guides saw a ghost in that area.
Several times, the EMF meter detected unusual changes in the electromagnetic fields. This happened to occur much more frequently right by a grave site, which could mean a spirit was present! I noticed that our EMF meter did not go off at all on the way back; it only went off in Burial Hill which is a bit spooky!
Geoffrey had a few other ghost hunting tools, such as an infrared camera and a ghost EVP app (EVP stands for Electronic Voice Phenomenon). Geoffrey attempted to contact a man in Plymouth who died in Burial Hill during a thunderstorm (the last place in Plymouth you want to be during a storm due to the high elevation!) He asked a few questions using the EVP app. We heard two short phrases. One of them appeared to be “clean.” The other no one could really make out.
He also used another technique, which included putting a light on a gravestone. He asked yes or no questions (blink one for yes, 2 for no) to the spirit. The spirits are said to respond quickly if present, so even though we got a few flashes, they took much too long to be considered a legit response. Many ghost hunters use this technique to communicate with spirits. You may have seen this technique on popular TV ghost shows. Ghost Adventures with Zak Bagan is my personal favorite 😉
Fans of shows like “Ghost Adventures” and “Ghost Hunters” will likely love testing out real ghost hunting equipment. I loved being able to use the EMF meter myself, feeling like I was a ghost hunter just like Zak Bagans! The frequency did change at several times during the tour. Was it just a coincidence that the meter happened to go off dramatically in Burial Hill as opposed to when walking through the regular streets of Plymouth? It’s up to you to decide!
I highly recommend this fun, informative tour. This unique, hands on experience, the chance to use ghost hunting equipment, and a lively tour guide, all in a great historical town, is hard to top. And, best of all, you will leave with more knowledge of the history of Plymouth. When else will you be able to walk around with an EMF meter through one of the country’s oldest cemeteries?
A few unique facts we learned during our tour:
*There was only one Mayflower passenger buried in Burial Hill.
*Upright graves do exist. Have you ever noticed that some of the graves are located so close together, that it does not seem possible that 2 people could be buried so close? Explanation – some people were buried in an upright position.
*The location of Plymouth Rock has changed 4 times! The town of Plymouth used to let tourists chisel a small piece of the rock to keep for a memento, however, the stone became so small that they had to encase it. The rock now stands at less than 1/3 of its’ original size.
*Approximately 30% of US citizens are a descendant of a Mayflower passenger.
Tour information
Meeting location: 65 Main St. Plymouth, MA
Time: Thursday-Monday (tour leaves around 8:00pm, but you should arrive by 7:30pm). Tours last approximately 2 hours. Plan for a little extra time (our tour actually lasted 2.5 hours, however, we definitely were not complaining!).
Cost: $25 per person
Family-friendly: The website says that the tour is catered towards all ages. No inappropriate material.
Note: It was much too dark to obtain night photos of the cemetery, so do visit the cemetery by day to take a good look.
Reservations recommended. Tours fill up fast. Call 978-741-1170 to book your spot. Or, book online to ensure availability.
Has anyone ever taken a ghost tour? Have you ever seen a ghost? Feel free to comment below with any of your ghost sightings and/or ghost hunting experiences!
