Ghost tour Cambridge: haunted colleges and witch trials

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/13

Duration1h 30m

GroupUp to 25

LanguagesEN

Mobile ticketAccepted

What happened to the people whose ghosts still walk these streets?

You walk through central Cambridge visiting seven haunted sites — a ducking stool, an exorcised church, a college with a skeleton cupboard, and a pub where ghosts suffocate if the window closes — while your guide tells the specific deaths and punishments tied to each location. The tour adjusts its stops and stories based on your group's questions, and takes roughly two hours through fully accessible streets.

1h 30m

Step-by-step itinerary

Cambridge ghost walk highlights

Start at Magdalene Bridge
Hear story of the Round Church
Visit Clare College's skeleton story
Explore Market Square history
See Benet Street's haunted building
Discover Corpus Christi ghosts
Visit Sidney Sussex and Cromwell's resting place

The Experience

A ducking stool for witches sat at Magdalene Bridge, a crossroads that existed before England did. That's where the Cambridge ghost walk begins — not with atmosphere, but with the actual mechanism used to punish women accused of witchcraft, and the fact that people still report feeling watched there. The tour moves through seven stops across central Cambridge, each one tied to a specific death, exorcism, or unexplained presence that locals have documented for centuries. Your guide walks you through the oldest streets in the city, pointing out the buildings where these things happened, and the ones where they're still happening, depending on who you ask.

The Round Church was built by Crusaders returning from the Holy Land, and it became the site of multiple exorcisms — the kind where priests were called in because something was wrong enough that the church itself needed cleansing. Clare College holds the original "skeleton in the cupboard," a literal story that became a phrase, and Market Square, now full of street food stalls, was where different kinds of meat burned five hundred years ago. Benet Street has the oldest building in Cambridge standing opposite a pub with an unusual lease clause: one particular window must always stay open because customers suffocate when the ghosts inside get trapped. The tour also covers Corpus Christi, where a Master of the college and another famous cupboard resident haunt the grounds, and Sidney Sussex, where Oliver Cromwell's head is buried — or at least part of him is, and whether he's resting is debatable.

The route stays in the walkable center of Cambridge, so you're moving between colleges and medieval streets the whole time, not hiking out to isolated graveyards. The guide adjusts the pacing and which stories get told depending on the group's questions and interests, so it's not a script you've heard before. Wheelchair users can join — all the surfaces are accessible — and if you're bringing a small child, they can ride in a pram or stroller while you listen to stories about people who were hanged, drowned, and buried in unmarked graves under the buildings you're standing in front of.

What’s included

A walking tour of central Cambridge covering seven haunted sites, including Magdalene Bridge, the Round Church, Clare College, Market Square, Benet Street, Corpus Christi, and Sidney Sussex.
The guide shares the specific stories of deaths, exorcisms, and unexplained presences tied to each location, and adjusts the itinerary based on group questions.
All areas are wheelchair accessible, and strollers are permitted.

Good to know

Easy physical levelWheelchair accessibleAccessible transportStroller friendlyInfant seats availablePets welcomePublic transport nearbyInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Terrible Tours

Is this one for you?Right for anyone who knows Cambridge's surface — the colleges, the river, the tourist squares — and wants to learn what actually happened in those places. Expect stories about witches, hangings, and exorcisms told by someone who knows which buildings still unsettle people, not a generic haunted-house narrative.