Salem: Ghosts & Witch Trials Walking Tour at Night

4.51

(622 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

The first thing I noticed was how the streetlights in Salem seemed to flicker a little more than usual near Turner’s at Lyceum Hall. Our guide, Maria, pointed at the spot where Bridget Bishop’s house once stood—she was the first woman executed in the 1692 witch trials. Someone in our group shivered, but maybe it was just the wind or maybe something else. I caught a faint smell of woodsmoke drifting from somewhere nearby, which felt weirdly comforting considering all the talk about ghosts.

We kept moving along those uneven cobblestones (watch your step if you go), and when we stopped outside the Witch House, Maria’s voice dropped lower. She told us about Judge Corwin—his name still makes my skin crawl—and how people claim to see faces in the dark windows. I tried not to look too long myself. There was this moment when everything went quiet except for some distant laughter from a bar down the street. It made me realize how much history just sits right under everything here.

Ropes Mansion looked almost gentle by comparison—white columns, tidy garden—but then Maria told us about Abigail Ropes and her accident by the fireplace. I swear I saw someone move behind one of those upstairs curtains, but maybe my imagination was running wild by then. The Salem Athenaeum was next; its brick walls still show scorch marks from that old fire, and Maria said some people hear whispers inside late at night. She laughed when someone asked if she’d ever heard them herself (“Not yet, but ask me after Halloween!”). We ended near Wicked Good Books—Maria said every town needs a haunted bookshop—and honestly, I kind of wanted to stay longer just to see what might happen if I did.