Hilton Head Ghost Tours: The Island’s One, and Nightly Ones Nearby

On the island

one ghost tour, in October

Run by

the Heritage Library

Where

Zion Cemetery and the Baynard Mausoleum

Nightly tours

Beaufort and Savannah

Hilton Head has no ghost tour that runs every night. The island’s one ghost tour is “Ghosts and Myths of Hilton Head Island,” an evening walk the Heritage Library puts on each October at Zion Cemetery, the old chapel graveyard on William Hilton Parkway. For a ghost tour on any other night of the year, drive to Beaufort, about 45 minutes away, or Savannah, about an hour.

Ghosts and Myths of Hilton Head Island

After dark, actors in period dress take small groups among the graves and tell the island’s old stories in the voices of the people who lived them: Lydia Davant, Andrew Baynard, Cap’n Jack Stoney, Mary Kirk and William Eddings Baynard among them. You hear about the Blue Lady, the Harbour Town Lighthouse and the Baynard funeral procession, the ghostly carriage said to ride from the ruins of the Baynard plantation in Sea Pines to the mausoleum on the parkway.

When

a few evenings in October, 7 to 8 p.m.

Where

Zion Cemetery, 574 William Hilton ParkwayCopy

Tickets

sold online by the Heritage Library, about $15

Ages

not recommended for children under 12

The evenings sell out every year, so buy tickets as soon as the dates are announced. The walk is outdoors on grass and uneven ground in the dark: wear flat shoes and bring a small flashlight and bug spray. For dates and tickets, call the Heritage Library at 843-686-6560.

Haunted Places on Hilton Head

You can visit the places in the stories by day, on your own. The Zion Chapel of Ease cemetery and its 1846 Baynard Mausoleum are open daily and free. The tabby walls of the Stoney-Baynard Ruins in Sea Pines are where the Baynard funeral carriage is said to set out. The island’s best-known ghost, the Blue Lady, belongs to the Leamington Lighthouse in Palmetto Dunes. You can see the old tower from the golf course, but it is not open to climb.

Ghost Tours in Beaufort

Beaufort is the closest town to Hilton Head, SC with ghost tours all year. Its 18th- and 19th-century houses, churchyards and live oaks make an easy evening walk, and a local guide leads a walking ghost tour through the historic district most nights. Each October the Exchange Club of Beaufort adds its own ghost walks and carriage rides as a fundraiser, starting on Bay Street downtown after dark.

Ghost Tours in Savannah

Savannah is known as one of the most haunted cities in the country, and it has ghost tours every night: walking tours through the squares, haunted pub crawls, and trolley tours that stop inside old houses after dark. It is about an hour’s drive, so plan on dinner in the city and a late drive home.