Haunted Houses & Ghost Tours in Wilmington, NC

The history

Wilmington's haunted reputation has an unusually documented research trail behind it, because one local company has been collecting it on purpose since the 1970s. Haunted Wilmington, the operator of the Ghost Walk of Old Wilmington, states on its About page that it began in 1978 when founder Kim Miller Hirchak began researching the ghosts of historic Wilmington: she "interviewed hundreds of locals, including homeowners, tenants, employees, city officials, and others who encountered some of Wilmington's wayward spirits, recording hundreds of spectral events that are still part of today's tours," and she and her staff reviewed "old family letters, diaries, photos, and various other documents" and logged, the company says, well over 10,000 hours of local research. Public tours followed in 1999, and the company describes itself as "one of the south's oldest, continually operating paranormal research companies."

The places that research covers are dated by the operator's own stop descriptions. St. James Episcopal Church was built in 1739, per the Ghost Walk's homepage, and its churchyard is "the oldest graveyard in Wilmington." The Latimer House is a 10,000-square-foot Antebellum home. The Bellamy Mansion is a pre-Civil War mansion with a surviving slave quarter. Gallows Hill was, the operator says, the site of public executions. The old Masonic lodge's lower floor was a grocery store in the 1870s. These are the operator's published descriptions of its own stops, recorded as such.

Wilmington's other haunted anchor is a warship. In September 1942, the paper reports, the ship "was struck by a torpedo during operations in the Pacific, killing five crew members." That documented loss is the factual core underneath the ship's ghost stories, and it is treated that way below.

The legend

This section is folklore — reported by the sources cited, and never asserted as fact here.

The Ghost Walk's own homepage tells its stops' legends in its own words, and they are quoted here at exactly that strength. At the Latimer House, "one of the most haunted residences in Wilmington," the operator says the home "was the site of heartbreak, tragedy and death. As per history, many of Zebulon Latimer's children didn't make it until four. Even the employees report missing things and a rotting smell of death in the basement." At St. James Graveyard, the operator cites "a historical account of a man buried alive" and says "the chilling occurrences reported for over 200 years are still experienced by visitors today." At the Bellamy Mansion, it is the top floor — the Children's Floor — that "gives guests the uneasiest feelings," and "the ghost of the old woman that may be the most frightening." At Gallows Hill, where "thieves and murderers were among those who likely met the noose," the operator says simply: "Their spirits still are active today."

Two more stops carry specific tales. The New Hanover County Courthouse, the operator says, has stories of three spirits: "a distraught woman, a previous clerk still doing his job and a amorous madman from long ago." And at the old Masonic lodge, where a woman was shot and killed outside the 1870s grocery, "every once in a while her name appears to be written in the glass behind the bar. But the spookiest thing is the image of her killer appearing in our guest's photos." All of it is the operator's route copy, attributed as such.

The battleship's legend is shorter and is told the same careful way by the Star News: "Some ghost stories claim those men" — the five crew members killed in the September 1942 torpedo strike — "still haunt the vessel." No named apparition, no invented sailor biography, appears in the source collected, and none is added here.

Haunted today

Hountix lists 4 places in Wilmington, NC. Seasonal attractions keep their own open dates, so check each business's own site before you go.

• Battleship North Carolina — ghost tour, 1 Battleship Rd NE, Wilmington, NC 28401
• Ghost Walk of Old Wilmington — ghost tour, 0 Market St, Wilmington, NC 28401
• Haunted Pub Crawl — ghost tour, 8 Market St, Wilmington, NC 28401
• Torment Haunted Laser Tag — haunted house, 5320 Oleander Dr, Wilmington, NC 28403

Attraction stories

Ghost Walk of Old Wilmington

The Ghost Walk's own pages, collected, make a research claim few ghost tours can match, and they make it in detail. Founder Kim Miller Hirchak began interviewing Wilmingtonians about their encounters in 1978 — homeowners, tenants, employees and city officials — and recording "hundreds of spectral events"; the company reviewed family letters, diaries and photographs, studied hauntings up and down the Cape Fear River (including, it says, Fort Fisher, the Maco Light and Moores Creek), and puts its logged research at "well over 10,000 hours." Public tours began in 1999; the company says it has since entertained "over half a million Wilmington guests," is locally owned and family-run, and lists among its notices "Top 5 Ghost Walks in America" (USA Today), "Best Tour" voted by locals since 1999, and a TripAdvisor top-10 tours listing — all as the operator presents them.

The product itself is specific. The walk runs 90 minutes through "Cape Fear's most actively haunted locations," led by costumed professional storytellers; from its portfolio of more than 30 researched locations it visits 5–6 per night, varying the route, and promises stories ranging "from hundreds of years ago, to the night before," including recent guest encounters. Its named stops — the Latimer House, St. James Graveyard, the Bellamy Mansion, Gallows Hill, the courthouse and the old Masonic lodge — and their reported legends are quoted in the city story above at exactly the strength the operator's homepage gives them. The same company also runs a Haunted Pub Crawl (a dozen researched pub locations, four visited per crawl, telling stories the walk cannot) and a Wilmywood movie-and-TV location walk, reflecting Wilmington's film-industry nickname.

Practically: buy tickets online, your name goes on the guest list (no printed ticket needed, per the tickets page), and meet 20 minutes before departure at the Ghost Walk of Old Wilmington sign on the riverfront at Market and Water Streets — the site suggests using the Black Cat Shoppe, 8 Market Street, for GPS. Confirm the current night's departure time and which stops are on that night's route on the operator's site before going.

*Website: https://hauntedwilmington.com/*

Battleship North Carolina

A collector's note belongs at the top of this story, in the open: the battleship's own website could not be collected. The story-material collector's nine attempts on battleshipnc.com returned a 202 challenge response, a 403, and repeated timeouts, so no page text from the ship itself is used here, and nothing is paraphrased from it.

Per the Star News, the Battleship North Carolina "serves as a museum and historic site" in Wilmington and is "widely considered to be haunted," having been featured on the show Ghost Hunters. It topped a travel website's recent list of North Carolina's spookiest places, ahead of every other Wilmington-area entry. The documented history underneath the reputation is wartime: the ship "participated in naval combat through World War II," and in September 1942 it "was struck by a torpedo during operations in the Pacific, killing five crew members."

The haunting claim, as the paper states it, attaches directly to that loss: "Some ghost stories claim those men still haunt the vessel." That is the whole of the sourced legend — attributed, unnamed, and tied to a dated, documented event rather than to atmosphere. The paper also supplies the practical point: "For those looking to check out this haunted status for themselves, nighttime ghost tours of the ship are offered."

*Website: https://battleshipnc.com/*

Sources

• Ghost Walk of Old Wilmington (Haunted Wilmington) — official website, homepage, About and Tickets pages as collected (research begun 1978 by founder Kim Miller Hirchak; hundreds of locals interviewed; family letters, diaries and photos reviewed; 10,000+ hours of research claimed; public tours since 1999; over half a million guests claimed; 90-minute walk; 30+ researched locations, 5–6 visited per night; Latimer House, St. James Graveyard and St. James Episcopal Church built 1739, Bellamy Mansion, Gallows Hill, New Hanover County Courthouse and old Masonic lodge stop descriptions and their reported legends, all in the operator's own words; meet 20 minutes before departure at the riverfront sign at Market and Water Streets, GPS via the Black Cat Shoppe, 8 Market Street; Haunted Pub Crawl and Wilmywood walks): https://hauntedwilmington.com/, https://hauntedwilmington.com/about, https://hauntedwilmington.com/tickets
• Wilmington Star News — "Two Wilmington-area sites named among NC's spookiest places" (Battleship North Carolina serves as a museum and historic site; widely considered haunted and featured on Ghost Hunters; participated in naval combat through World War II; September 1942 torpedo strike killed five crew members; some ghost stories claim those men still haunt the vessel; nighttime ghost tours of the ship are offered), via this batch's seed research: https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/lifestyle/things-to-do/2026/10/06/wilmington-attractions-rank-among-ncs-spookiest-for-halloween/91907181007/
• The Scare Factor — Port City Fear Factory Review (2023) (created by Bearded Skulls MUFX Group — Rick Pour, Jason Willis, Jeff Goodwin, Tony Rosen and Matt Barrett — with Opera House Theater Company's Justin Smith; film-effects background; Green Hope Church storyline centred on Reverend Meares and a demon-cult chapel, labelled here as the attraction's fiction; about 15-minute runtime in 2023; three haunt events per year planned per the review), via this batch's seed research: https://www.thescarefactor.com/port-city-fear-factory-review-2023/
• Battleship North Carolina — official website (the site is listed so Luis can check the current nighttime-tour schedule directly): https://battleshipnc.com/
• Port City Fear Factory — official website (current season, venue and dates to be confirmed there): https://portcityfearfactory.com/