Windermere House — the haunted Muskoka lakeside resort, Ontario

Windermere House in the village of Windermere, Ontario, is a grand resort hotel on Lake Rosseau in the heart of Muskoka cottage country. The hotel, first built in 1870 and rebuilt after a fire in 1996, has been a fixture of Ontario's cottage country tourism for over 150 years. The hotel is said to be haunted by a variety of spirits connected to its long history. Guests have reported seeing an elderly woman in period clothing in the main corridor, hearing footsteps on the veranda late at night, and experiencing unexplained temperature drops in specific rooms. Some guests have described waking to find objects in their rooms rearranged, and staff members have reported hearing the sound of a piano playing in the lounge after hours. The hotel's setting on Lake Rosseau, surrounded by the granite and pine landscape of the Canadian Shield, creates a natural atmosphere of beauty and isolation. Muskoka, which has been a summer retreat for Ontario's elite since the 19th century, is a landscape haunted by history — old steamship routes, abandoned logging camps, and First Nations sites stretching back thousands of years all add layers to the region's supernatural geography.