Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal, Quebec, is one of Canada's most important burial grounds, established in 1852 on the slopes of Mont Royal, the mountain that gives the city its name. The cemetery contains the graves of many of Canada's most prominent figures, from business magnates to political leaders, across 165 acres of landscaped grounds. As with many large Victorian cemeteries, Mount Royal has accumulated ghost stories over its 170-year history. Visitors and groundskeepers have reported seeing figures in 19th-century clothing walking among the monuments, particularly in the older sections where elaborate Victorian monuments crowd together among mature trees.
Cold spots have been reported along specific pathways, and some visitors describe hearing the sound of a woman weeping near a cluster of children's graves. In autumn, when Montreal's famous fall colours set the mountain ablaze and fog settles in the hollows of the cemetery, the atmosphere becomes particularly atmospheric. The cemetery's elevated position on Mont Royal provides views over the entire city, and on clear days the Laurentian Mountains are visible to the north — a landscape that early settlers found both beautiful and forbidding.