When Glen Shackleton first started investigating the supernatural, he admits he was a sceptic, even a non-believer.

But after being followed by invisible footsteps, hearing angry voices argue in the attic of an old building and seeing a wooden door violently rattle just inches from his face with no worldly explanation, he says he can no longer deny his own senses.

“I’ve had things happen to me that now force me to take a moderate (stance),” says Shackleton, founder of the Haunted Walk of Ottawa, admitting some experiences have left the hair standing on the back of his neck.

In his new book, Ghosts of Ottawa, Shackleton shares many of the first-person scares that gradually spooked him into being a believer.

One of the most terrifying for Shackleton was the first night he spent at Watson’s Mill in Manotick. The mill is said to be haunted by the bride of its first owner, who was killed in the mill shortly after it was purchased in 1861.

Shackleton thinks he might have encountered other spirits that night. Angry ones.

After putting his first foot to the steps of the attic – which is said to be the most haunted spot in the building – Shackleton and another explorer heard the sounds of a violent argument overhead.

It was at that moment that Shackleton discovered his animal instinct. He’s neither lion, with instinct to fight, nor rabbit, with instinct to run.

“My animal instinct is to be like a deer in the headlights,” he says. “We both just froze . . . We were terrified.”

Though he’s never heard of anyone getting physically injured by a ghost, it didn’t make the experience any less freaky for the 13-year explorer.

“At that moment, there was someone up there,” he says.

GHOST TOWN

For Shackleton, a student of history, ghost stories are most fascinating when they have an explanation rooted in history. This is why he says the nation’s capital might just be the haunting capital of Canada.

“It’s definitely a city that has a very violent past,” he says.

In the days of old Bytown, in the 1800s, Ottawa was ruled by gangs, he says. The French, English, Irish, Protestant and Catholic groups took their grievances to the streets.

“It was definitely a place where people wouldn’t want to travel around without being heavily armed,” he says.

It’s part of the reason why Shackleton – who originally started ghost tours in Kingston – decided to move to Ottawa in 1996. The city is literally a haunted hot spot, he says.

One of the most haunted spots, without a doubt, is the Ottawa Jail Hostel, he says.

Criminals were often executed by hanging in the former prison.

While touring the prison’s death row, “people just get overwhelmed,” says Shackleton.

One woman felt hands trying to shove her all the way out of the building, other people get nosebleeds.

The scariest stories, explained in Shackleton’s book, tend to be the most subtle.

Take the former cell of Patrick Whelan.

Whelan was accused of killing D’Arcy McGee, one of the Fathers of Confederation. His guilt has since been questioned and many believe he was a scapegoat for the murder, says Shackleton.

If that’s the case, it would certainly explain the unusual experiences that seem to surround his death row cell, where he stayed before his execution.

A guide on the Haunted Walk once gestured towards Whelan’s cell only to feel her hand inadvertedly clasp around a rope. Quickly jerking her head to look at the rope, she discovered nothing was there at all.

“She panicked,” says Shackleton. “It was enough to convince her it was not a place she wanted to be.”

Shackleton has one possible explanation for the existence of ghosts.

“Ask yourself the question, ‘Is it a ghost or is it us reacting to something that happened in the past?’” he says.

Some people might be able to perceive other layers of history, he speculates. Stories of intelligent ghosts that seem to be aware of people are more rare, he says.

“I couldn’t even hazard a guess as to how that works,” he says. “The more we learn about it, the less we know.”

GHOSTS ON TRIAL

Shackleton is a rigorous investigator when it comes to claims of the supernatural.

He compares the study of ghosts to a murder trial. Though there’s often no conclusive evidence, almost all crimes are solved with circumstantial evidence.

You just need enough of it to prove guilt. Or in his case, ghosts.

“All history, to a certain extent, relies on anecdotal evidence,” he says. “We always want to make sure there is some credibility.

“Is that 100 per cent proof? No … but we’re never going to act like this is anything more than something interesting.”

Shackleton is appealing to readers for more ghost stories from Canada’s capital, possibly to include in a future book. Send your stories to info@hauntedwalk.com.

To pick up a copy of the book, visit hauntedwalk.com/books.php.