Halloween may be over, but I’m looking forward to taking the high-speed train this Sunday from London to England’s most haunted city: York.

A ghost walk in York

At this time of year the nighttime ghost tours are harder to find. I’m not sure I’ll be able to go on one while I’m there. But on Monday I look forward to meeting Patricia Ong from York Walking Tours. We’ll be covering some of the highlights of York, like the Museum Gardens and The Shambles (former medieval butchers’ street) and the famous Minster cathedral, where she is certified to lead tours.

On Patricia’s website there is reference to a walking tour focusing on the Roman history of York. That reminds me of a ghost sighting not that many years ago that I’ll have to ask her about:

In an old issue of National  Geographic Traveler, I ran across an article about York and was nicely spooked by the story of a man who saw a platoon of Roman soldiers marching past him . . .  in 1953.

According to this recent legend, with the blast of a trumpet, Harry Martindale turned from his task of installing a new boiler in the Treasurers’ House basement to witness a column of dirty, tired Roman legionnaires and their horses tramping through the basement, disappearing through the stone wall ahead.

Before bolting upstairs, Martindale noticed the even stranger detail that the group was only visible from about the knees up. It wasn’t until later that the remains of a Roman road was discovered beneath the foundations of the house. The Roman soldiers couldn’t be seen from the knees down, because they were walking on that ancient Roman road . . . .

Bwaaaaaaahaaaahaaahaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaa!

Okay! Time to finish packing and head to the airport. Stay tuned for stories from York, Liverpool, the Lake District and the Isle of Man when I return.