Ghost Hunting in Plymouth, Massachusetts

Plymouth County 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. This is not a surprise being that it is one of the oldest towns in the US. Leyden Street is 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.

I am super interested in anything to do with the supernatural. I have loved my time living in New England (I could go on and on about all the wonderful things to do), exploring so many historic and spooky sites. As soon as I found out that Plymouth offers several night ghost tours, I jumped on the opportunity to sign up. I figured we would kick off the Halloween season with a night of supernatural adventure.

I always get an eerie feeling walking through the city with the old architecture, historic cemetery, and the (typically) dark, overcast skies much of the year. Walking around at night feels even creepier. I knew this was the perfect place for my first paranormal investigation.

Ghostly legends & a great history lesson

The Plymouth Night Tour is a fantastic opportunity, not only for the opportunity to contact spirits, but also to learn about the history of this historic New England waterfront town. Fans of both history and the supernatural should have a lot of fun on this tour, as both are covered in detail during the 2 hour time span.

Our engaging tour guide was Geoffrey Campbell, captain of the New England Patriots End Zone Militia. He is a very interesting and entertaining tour guide. I loved listening to his stories about recent ghost sightings & former haunts around the city. He was super convincing and I didn’t doubt him for a minute.

Our tour began with Geoffrey telling a story of men who froze to death on the 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 the biggest history buff, however, our tour guide was animated enough to keep me entertained all night. He worked as a Civil War reenactor for many years, and thus, has a captivating presence. I learned a lot of new facts about the city and also had a blast hearing about the supernatural legends.

Exploring the most haunted sites in town

First, we walked over to the Spooner House and Museum, one of the most haunted locales in town. We learned that an 8 year old girl named Abigail died in this house back in the 1700’s. According to local legends, she still haunts the house to this day. Many report seeing her bounce a ball in the alley.

Geoffrey also told us that 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. Many people in town report 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 right after tourists leave. Geoffrey has witnessed the windows being tampered with on previous tours, however, this night we saw no evidence of tampering.

An eerie walk through one of the oldest cemeteries

The highlight of our tour was the 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 but we would never know due to the current condition. Most gravestones are unreadable due to wear and tear. Walking around, you will quickly see that wood was the chosen material for early gravestones.

Testing out paranormal equipment

Mike & I have taken many afternoon strolls through Burial Hill, however, it is much creepier at night! Add in ghost hunting equipment and the experience is that much scarier. Flashlights and EMF meters were provided to everyone which was so cool. Typically, 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 because obviously more ghosts would hang out in the cemetery than around town.

Geoffrey had a few other ghost hunting tools, such as an infrared camera and a ghost EVP app (EVP stands for Electronic Voice Phenomenon). He attempted to contact a man who died in Burial Hill during a thunderstorm (the last place 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 😉

Who should take this tour?

Fans of shows like Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters will likely love testing out real ghost hunting equipment (I know I did!). 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 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? 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. I couldn’t imagine ever taking a better tour.

And, best of all, you will leave with more knowledge of the history of the city. When else will you be able to walk around with an EMF meter through one of the country’s oldest cemeteries? Whether your love Halloween, history, or both, I recommend signing up.

The tour seemed pretty family friendly to me. I didn’t notice any inappropriate jokes or anything.

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. I found this so fascinating as I always wondered about this.

*The location of Plymouth Rock has changed 4 times! The town 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. You can learn more about the historical attractions in town in my guide to exploring the waterfront.

*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.