The guided ghost walk, in English
What you are actually booking
A person, a lantern and ninety minutes. There is no haunted house, no actor jumping out of a doorway, no sound design. The operator says so in its own listing, and the reviews confirm it: what people praise is the telling. Helen, from Australia, on 12 July 2026: “Our guide (Elin) was a gifted story-teller who was able to bring to life for us the ghosts and mysteries of old Copenhagen.” If you want to be startled, this is the wrong booking. If you want to be told things, it is the right one.
A traveller from Spain put the appeal more usefully than the marketing does, on 22 August 2026: “It focuses on interesting stories that nobody else is going to tell you!” In a city with one guided ghost walk in English, that is close to literally true.
The square it starts on
Nytorv was laid out in 1610 under Christian IV. A permanent execution scaffold stood on it from 1627, rebuilt in 1728 as an octagonal masonry podium, and removed only in 1761. The last executions there were in 1758: Frederik Hammond and Anders Sundblad, beheaded for forging securities. A pillory stood on the same square, and public branding and whipping continued until 1780. None of that is legend. It is municipal record, and it is the ground the group stands on while the guide does the introduction. The full account.
The building behind you is the Copenhagen Court House, built between 1803 and 1815 to C.F. Hansen’s neoclassical design, delayed by material shortages and by the British bombardment of 1807. It was city hall and courthouse at once. Its jail stands beside it, joined to it by a large overhead arch that served as a prisoner walkway. The courthouse inscription reads “Med lov skal man land bygge”; the jail’s reads “For almeen sikkerheden”. Read them while you wait.
Where it goes, and what is under it
The walk ends at Kongens Nytorv, next to Nyhavn. What happens between the two squares is the operator’s to tell, and the reviews are the only public account of it — David, from the United Kingdom, on 30 August 2026, singled out “the Salmon Street episode”. Salmon Street is Laksegade. In September 1826 the residents of Laksegade no. 210, roughly today’s nos. 9 to 11, fled the building as windows shattered and objects were reported flying through the air. The police issued a public statement on 15 September 1826 acknowledging that windows had been smashed from the outside and dismissing the wilder accounts as fabrication. The case was never solved, and Danish kept the phrase: “Fanden er løs i Laksegade”, the Devil is loose in Salmon Street, still used for all hell breaking loose. The poltergeist is contemporary rumour. The panic, the statement and the idiom are documented. The 1826 case.
The end point has its own history and none of it is supernatural. Nyhavn was dug between 1670 and 1673 under Christian V by Swedish prisoners of war taken in the Scanian War, to let grain ships reach the market at Kongens Nytorv. For most of the twentieth century it was a sailors’ quarter of pubs, brothels and tattoo parlours; commercial shipping stopped in 1967. Nyhavn before the restaurants.
The date problem, which is real
David’s review is the one to read before you book. He liked the walk and still wrote that the downside was “the lack of choice for dates.. only one available for the whole month”. This is a small operation, not a nightly production line. Two things follow. First, look at dates before you book flights around an evening. Second, if October is what you want — and it is, because that is when it is dark — book early, because October is the month everyone else wants too.
Included
- Ninety minutes on foot with a guide, in English
- A guide in a black cloak carrying a lantern
- Storytelling, from an operator running walks since 2004
- A start at Nytorv and a finish at Kongens Nytorv, beside Nyhavn
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours before
- A walk that goes ahead in rain and in cold
Not included
- Special effects, actors or elaborate props — the operator rules them out
- Children under 7, who are not admitted
- Permission to record the guide: no audio recording
- Darkness, between roughly May and August — see when it gets dark
- Food, drink, or entry to any building
- Warm and waterproof clothing, which is on you: what to wear
What works
- The only guided ghost walk in English here, so there is nothing to compare it against
- 5.0 across 14 verified bookings, with no dissenting review on the record
- Ninety minutes fits inside an evening without taking the evening
- It starts on the square where the scaffold actually stood, from 1627 to 1761
- It ends at Kongens Nytorv, beside Nyhavn, which is where you would want to end anyway
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours before, and it runs in bad weather
Worth knowing
- Dates are thin. One reviewer found a single date in an entire month
- Fourteen reviews is a small sample, however good the score
- Between May and August the walk happens in daylight or near-daylight
- No props and no effects, so nobody is going to frighten you on purpose
- Under-7s are not admitted, and you cannot record the audio
- The Danish-language walks cover more ground than this one does
What people say about it
Anna, from Sweden, on 31 May 2026: “Exciting stories and super friendly and engaging guide.” Deniz, from Sweden, the day before: “Fantastic ghost walk! The stories were fascinating, and our guide was friendly, knowledgeable, and engaging.” David, from the United Kingdom: “The stories were interesting and entertaining, especially the Salmon Street episode.” Every review on the file is a verified booking, and the fourteen of them are unanimous about the guiding and divided about nothing except the calendar. The longer reading is on the review page.
Book an October date and you get a dark walk; book June and you get the same walk in daylight. The gap is not small. Sunset on 1 October is 6:47 pm, on 15 October 6:12 pm, on 25 October 4:48 pm once the clocks go back, and on 31 October 4:35 pm — the day length falls by 2 hrs 13 min across the month. On 21 June the sun sets at 9:57 pm and it is not properly dark at all. Halloween in Copenhagen.
Book the ghost walk
Live availability is below. If there is nothing that suits you, the two self-guided hunts start on your own schedule and need no date at all — the difference between the two formats is worth two minutes before you settle. What to expect walks through the ninety minutes beat by beat.
If this one is not right
A killing in 1899Copenhagen: Murder Mystery Hunt by The Round Tower
Nineteenth-century murderCopenhagen: Murder Mystery Hunt by Amalienborg Palace
Six trolls in the woodsCopenhagen: The Six Forgotten Giants Hunt and Nature Walk
Those dates don’t work?
The guided ghost walk runs on set evenings and sells out early in October. Browse what else is bookable in Copenhagen — the self-guided murder mysteries you can start whenever you like, and the daytime walks — and pick a date that suits you, with instant confirmation.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Copenhagen ghost walk in English?
Yes, and it is the only guided ghost walk in the city that is. The nightman’s walk and the folk-legends walk from the same operator are in Danish only: what runs in English.
How long is the walk and where does it end?
An hour and a half. It starts at Nytorv in front of the court house and ends at Kongens Nytorv, beside Nyhavn. Meeting points for all six walks are on the meeting-point page.
Will it be dark when I take it?
In October, yes: the sun sets at 6:47 pm on 1 October and 4:35 pm on 31 October. In June, no — sunset is 9:57 pm on 21 June and twilight runs on to about 10:58 pm. The month-by-month table has the rest.
Are there jump scares or actors?
No. The operator states there are “no special effects nor elaborate props”. It is a guide, a lantern and ninety minutes of stories. What a walk is actually like.
Why are there so few dates?
It is a small operation. One reviewer found only one available date in a whole month, and that is the honest weakness of the product. Book early for October, and keep the self-guided hunts as the fallback.
Can children come?
Not under 7. The six giants walk sets its limit at 12. More on ages and what actually holds a child’s attention on the children page.