A Guide to Cambridge Ghost Tours
Cambridge might be best known for its iconic university, but hidden behind the scholarly façade lie harrowing tales from the city’s past. In fact, the city is home to so many ghostly visitors that there is a wealth of ghost tours available, offering you the chance to get up close and personal with the city’s many known apparitions. You’ll also uncover many interesting facts about the city’s history with experienced tour guides who combine exceptional storytelling with local knowledge to ensure a night you won’t forget.
From haunting tales of early Viking settlers to spooky scholastic goings on, we’ve put together this guide to Cambridge ghost tours to help you decide which spooktacular tour is right for you.
Haunted Cambridge
Haunted Cambridge’s atmospheric ghost tours run every Friday and Saturday evening, so they are perfect for those in Cambridge on a weekend retreat. Tours last approximately an hour and start in winter at 6.30pm and 7pm in summer.
The tour meets at the front of Great St Mary’s Church before guiding you through darker alleyways of the city where it is rumoured the dead still linger.
From a longstanding librarian who still haunts the Tourist Information Centre, a former library, to suicidal stories from long ago and terrifying tales of skeletons in cupboards, you’ll learn about the stories of real people who once lived in Cambridge and still haunt its streets today!
Expect your guide to be dressed in a spooktacular costume fitting the creepy nature of this Cambridge ghost tour.
Terrible Tours of Cambridge
Next up in our guide to Cambridge ghost tours is Terrible Tours of Cambridge. Ideal for families, the expert tour guides are masters of turning the ghastly into something giggly, creating an immersive experience that’s fun for all the family.
Expect weird, odd, gruesome, and revolting stories of real people who once lived in Cambridge, with a spattering of history thrown in for good measure.
Their ‘Creepy Cambridge Tour’ dubbed Cambridge’s spookiest ghost walk, is approximately an hour and 15 minutes long. It starts at Magdalene Bridge and finishes at The Mill Pond outside Peterhouse.
Adult tickets cost £18.99, 13–17-year-olds £15.99, 3–12-year-olds £14.99 and under 2s free.
Guide & Peek
Guide & Peek Cambridge ghost tours offer an intimate foray into Cambridge’s dark alleyways and cobbled backstreets as you are regaled with sinister stories at known haunted sites. Don’t worry, as the tour promises guides fully trained to keep you safe from ghostly apparitions. Just be sure to stay close to them - wander off at your own peril!
The tour lasts approximately an hour and is limited to just 12, making it more intimate than some other tours featured in our guide to Cambridge Ghost tours. The company runs different tours throughout the year, so check the website for availability and pricing before booking. Group discounts are available though, making it a great activity for a group get-together in the heart of Cambridge.
Cambridge Alumni Ghost Tours
If you’re interested in knowing more about Cambridge University’s sinister side, then the Cambridge Alumni Ghost Tour is the tour for you. Run by past alumni, it offers a unique opportunity to hear directly from those who have spent nights shivering in centuries-old dorms, avoiding the many ghosts who roam the colleges.
Look out for the ghost of Oliver Cromwell, see where Wordsworth made ghost spotting scientific and discover the sinister origins of the phrase ‘skeletons in the cupboard’ on this hour-long tour.
The tour starts at the front entrance of King’s College before taking you on a ghostly tour around some of the university’s most well-known buildings, including King’s Chapel, Trinity College, Corpus Christi College, and Little St Mary Peterhouse.
Adult tickets cost £23, 13-17 years old £21, and 3-12 years old £18.
Halloween Punting Tour
Visiting Cambridge at Halloween? Arguably the most unique tour featured in our guide to Cambridge ghost tours, Rutherford’s Punting Tours, offers special Halloween Punting Tours in the lead-up to Halloween. The 45-minute journey along Cambridge’s very own river Styx, is a unique way to experience the city’s most sinister stories and delve into its creepy past.
Check the website for further details about this year’s Halloween tours, and book your place on this spine-chilling punting tour.
Recover from Your Spine-Chilling Adventure
After experiencing the spooky side of Cambridge, you’ll want somewhere comfortable and free from apparitions to recover. Situated in the heart of Cambridge, the Gonville Hotel offers luxurious accommodation that seamlessly blends classic prestige with a warm, modern charm that is a million miles from the spooky streets of Cambridge. What’s more, our prime location in the centre of the city makes us the perfect base for exploring all the delights and frights of Cambridge.
Ready for some more spooks and scares? Join us for our Murder at The Gonville: Halloween Special.