Embark on a spine-tingling adventure through the eerie Haunted Wood Trail at Green Gables Heritage Place in Prince Edward Island National Park. As a child, L.M. Montgomery believed these woods were haunted, a fear she vividly brought to life in Anne of Green Gables. In the novel, Anne Shirley's overactive imagination transforms the path between Green Gables and the Barry home into a realm of ghosts and shadows. Experience the haunting beauty of the trail that inspired such unforgettable scenes, and let your own imagination wander as you walk in the footsteps of Anne and Diana.
The interpretative trail is a short, 1 mile (1.6 km) path that begins in front of Green Gables and heads east through the forest. Along the trail, you can see the site where L.M. Montgomery's Cavendish School was once located. It inspired the Avonlea School in Anne of Green Gables. The Haunted Wood Trail winds past the Cavendish Cemetery, where L.M. Montgomery's grave is located, and it connects to the Site of L.M. Montgomery’s Cavendish Home. You can visit these sites and the nearby Cavendish Post Office and then return to Green Gables through the Haunted Wood.
Interpretive signs placed along the trail provide L.M. Montgomery's own descriptions about her imagination and inspiration.
As a child, L.M. Montgomery shared many adventures with two little boys who came to board at her grandfather's house to attend school. Their names were Wellington and David Nelson, and they were known as Well and Dave. Well was the same age as Montgomery, and Dave was a year younger. The two boys are pictured on the sign below.
Well and Dave believed in ghosts and loved to tell frightening stories, and their stories "infected" young L.M. Montgomery with a belief in ghosts. The trio shared a deep fear of the spruce grove near their home, especially after dark. These childhood memories inspired Montgomery's "Haunted Wood" in Anne of Green Gables. In her autobiography, The Alpine Path, Montgomery writes:
"Readers of Anne of Green Gables will remember the Haunted Wood. It was a gruesome fact to us three young imps. Well and Dave had a firm and rooted belief in ghosts. I used to argue with them over it with the depressing result that I became infected myself. Not that I really believed in ghosts, pure and simple; but I was inclined to agree with Hamlet that there might be more things in heaven and earth than were commonly dreamed of — in the philosophy of Cavendish authorities, anyhow.
The Haunted Wood was a harmless, pretty spruce grove in the field below the orchard. We considered that all our haunts were too commonplace, so we invented this for our own amusement. None of us really believed at first, that the grove was haunted, or that the mysterious 'white things' which we pretended to see flitting through it at dismal hours were aught but the creations of our own fancy. But our minds were weak and our imaginations strong; we soon came to believe implicitly in our myths, and not one of us would have gone near that grove after sunset on pain of death. Death! What was death compared to the unearthly possibility of falling into the clutches of a 'white thing'?"
In Anne of Green Gables, Anne's imagination goes too far and she frightens herself in Chapter XX ("A Good Imagination Gone Wrong"). She describes the "Haunted Wood" and her fear of "white things" to Marilla, saying:
"Diana and I just imagined the wood was haunted. All the places around here are so—so—commonplace. We just got this up for our own amusement. We began it in April. A haunted wood is so very romantic, Marilla. We chose the spruce grove because it’s so gloomy. Oh, we have imagined the most harrowing things. There’s a white lady walks along the brook just about this time of the night and wrings her hands and utters wailing cries. She appears when there is to be a death in the family. And the ghost of a little murdered child haunts the corner up by Idlewild; it creeps up behind you and lays its cold fingers on your hand—so. Oh, Marilla, it gives me a shudder to think of it. And there’s a headless man stalks up and down the path and skeletons glower at you between the boughs. Oh, Marilla, I wouldn’t go through the Haunted Wood after dark now for anything. I’d be sure that white things would reach out from behind the trees and grab me.”
Some parts of the Haunted Wood seemed very peaceful...during the day...
In The Alpine Path, L.M. Montgomery wrote, "Everything was invested with a kind of fairy grace and charm, emanating from my own fancy."
This next sign reminds visitors to use their imaginations: "L.M. Montgomery worked a special magic on her quiet Cavendish surroundings. Use your own imagination to discover how real-life people, places and events inspired the enchanting world of Anne."
There were many bare trees along the path, which were a bit spooky.
Keep an eye out for birds, chipmunks, and other woodland creatures as you walk through the Haunted Wood. I saw this downy woodpecker.
This sign explained that L.M. Montgomery had an imaginary friend in her childhood named Katie Maurice. She later used these memories to give Anne Shirley an imaginary friend with the same name in Anne of Green Gables.
I didn't notice any ghosts here.
L.M. Montgomery went to school in a one-room schoolhouse called the Cavendish School. In her autobiography, The Alpine Path, L.M. Montgomery wrote,
"The Cavendish school-house was a white-washed, low-eaved building on the side of the road just outside our gate. To the west and south was a spruce grove, covering a sloping hill. That old spruce grove, with its sprinkling of maple, was a fairy realm of beauty and romance to my childish imagination. I shall always be thankful that my school was near a grove — a place with winding paths and treasure-trove of ferns and mosses and wood-flowers. It was a stronger and better educative influence in my life than the lessons learned at the desk in the school-house."
Although L.M. Montgomery's old school no longer stands, you can visit the site where it once stood, which is marked by a sign. L.M. Montgomery's school inspired the Avonlea School in Anne of Green Gables where Anne Shirley, Diana Barry, and Gilbert Blythe attended class.
L.M. Montgomery, like her fictional creation Anne Shirley, often gave the places around her special and fanciful names. Some of the fictional places she described in her stories are based on real ones like Lover's Lane and the Haunted Wood.
I found these bare trees pretty spooky. Maybe it was just my imagination taking effect. For fans of Sullivan Entertainment's Anne of Green Gables miniseries, exterior filming was done along this pathway.
The Haunted Wood Trail is a special place where you can use your imagination and pretend to be Anne Shirley or a young L.M. Montgomery. Just watch out for the spooky ghosts and "white things!"
Official Websites:
Haunted Wood Trail, Prince Edward Island National Park, Parks Canada
Trails at Green Gables, Green Gables Heritage Place
Location:
Haunted Wood Trail
8619 Cavendish Rd. 9 (Route 6), Cavendish, PE C0A 1M0, Canada .
Image credits:
Photographs by World of Anne Shirley.
Map copyright OpenStreetMap.
References:
Haunted Wood Trail. Hiking PEI. Retrieved from: https://www.hikingpei.ca/Trails/PEIPark/Cavendish/HauntedWood.html
Haunted Wood Trail. Prince Edward Island National Park. Parks Canada. Retrieved from: https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/pe/pei-ipe/activ/sentiers-trails/haunted-hantee
Krzewinski, Agatha. The Original Homes of Lucy Maud Montgomery. Anne of Green Gables. Sullivan Entertainment. Retrieved from: https://www.anneofgreengables.com/blog-posts/the-original-homes-of-lucy-maud-montgomery
Montgomery, L.M. The Alpine Path. Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited, 1997.
Montgomery, L.M. Anne of Green Gables. L.C. Page & Company, 1908.
Trails at Green Gables: Green Gables Heritage Place. Parks Canada. Retrieved from: https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/pe/greengables/activ/sentiers-trails
Created July 17, 2007. Last updated August 12, 2024.
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