Kokkola guides restrict darker ghost tours to adults
Thursday 29th October 2026 on 20:01 in
Finland
About 300 Kokkola residents joined the city’s tourist guides on ghost tours in October, Yle reports. This year, the guides added two tours for people aged 18 and over, where they tell stories of ghosts, harsh punishments and a cemetery for plague victims.
One story concerns Mrs Ahlqvist, also known as Mrs Räpsy, a wealthy and influential woman who lived in Kokkola’s Old Town. She ran a small lending business and charged high interest. Her fondness for playing cards during church services was considered scandalous. According to the tale, the tongue of the church’s largest bell fell beside her coffin during her funeral procession, nearly piercing it.
The adult tour starts at the town hall, which was once used as a place of punishment. Among those held there were preacher Maria Åkerblom and Siimen Mikkelson, known as Rindamuru. Mikkelson was caught burgling, sentenced to death and imprisoned, but the story says he escaped despite being locked up and chained by his hands and feet. Guide Anette Högdahl joked that he must have had dealings with the devil and witchcraft.
From the town hall, the tour passes through the Old Town to Katariina cemetery, where people who died of plague were buried in 1710 and 1711. It then continues past the city theatre to Mäntykangas, a hill where executions by hanging took place. The guides also tell stories about creaking floors at the Workers’ Hall and the maiden of Harrbåda, whose appearance is said to foretell misfortune.
Guides say at least 10 ghosts are believed to haunt Kokkola’s Old Town. Many are said to be mischievous rather than threatening, turning lights on and off, knocking objects from shelves or riding in empty lifts. Residents of some houses keep their ghost stories private to stop people from coming into their yards to look around.
Other tales include a man in a black hat who is said to sit at a former bakery, and Elsi, a servant who died after an unhappy romance and is said to haunt Hotel Seurahuone. Her room can only be reached via a balcony, but a light is sometimes seen burning inside.
About 50 people took part in one of the 18-plus tours. Participants said they were drawn to the mystery and the uncertainty over what is true and what is not.