Haunted hotel guide · Ottawa, Ontario

The Haunted Ottawa Jail Hostel: Sleep in a Cell on Death Row's Doorstep

For 110 years this stone building on Nicholas Street was Ottawa’s jail. Since 1973 it has been a hostel, and you can still sleep behind the original iron bars.

By The Haunted Rooms Team · Updated November 2026 · How we rate hotels

5.0/5Haunted Rooms Score

1862Jail built

1869Whelan hanged

Check availabilityMeet the ghosts

Few places in Canada let you spend the night in a building as grim as the old Carleton County Gaol. Built in 1862, it held murderers, debtors, drunks, women and children in tiny stone cells for more than a century before closing in 1972. A year later it reopened as a hostel, and the cells, iron doors, death row floor and gallows were kept.

It is also one of the most haunted buildings in Ontario. Its most famous ghost is Patrick James Whelan, hanged here in 1869 for the assassination of a Father of Confederation, a crime he swore he did not commit. Staff and guests say he has been seen at the foot of their beds. Here is what is reported, what is history, and how to book a night in a cell.

The ghosts of Saintlo Ottawa Jail Hostel

Patrick James Whelan

On April 7, 1868, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, a Father of Confederation and a famous orator, was shot dead outside his Ottawa boarding house. Patrick James Whelan, an Irish-born tailor, was arrested and tried. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, a friend of McGee, sat beside the judge during the eight-day trial. Whelan was convicted largely on circumstantial evidence, some of it contested, and historians still debate the verdict.

Whelan insisted he was innocent at his sentencing and again on the scaffold. He was hanged at the jail on February 11, 1869, in front of a crowd of about 5,000 people.

Staff and guests report seeing him standing at the end of their beds at night, or in and around his old cell on the death row floor. Some say he carries a Bible. One reason given for his restlessness: he had been told he could be buried in his family’s plot in Montreal, but officials, fearing unrest, are said to have buried him secretly somewhere in the jail grounds. The exact spot has never been confirmed.

The death row floor and the gallows

The top floor of the jail was death row, and it has been kept in close to its original condition. The gallows are still in place. Guests on the tour often say this floor feels colder than the rest of the building, and there are stories of footsteps near the gallows and of whispers along the corridor when it is empty.

The cell blocks and solitary

Up to 150 prisoners at a time were packed into 60 tiny cells, about one meter by three, plus 30 larger cells and six solitary confinement units. Conditions were notoriously harsh, and prisoners died of disease and neglect. Reports from the cell blocks include doors slamming on their own, voices calling out, and belongings disappearing from rooms. The solitary cells, where prisoners are said to have been chained to the floor, are among the places people least like to linger.

Stairwells and other stories

Ghost writers have collected more dramatic tales over the years: a staircase haunted by prisoners who are said to have jumped, a guard said to have been thrown over a railing, crying women and children heard on the upper floors, and invisible hands slapping staff. These stories are widely repeated but we have found no records behind them, so read them as legend.

On television

The hostel has appeared on paranormal television, including Mystery Hunters in 2002 and The Girly Ghosthunters in 2005, which helped make it one of Canada’s best-known haunted places to stay.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Private jail cells: Single, double and twin cells behind the original iron doors and stone walls. This is the full jail experience; cells are small and bathrooms are shared.
• Deluxe private room: A double with a private bathroom and air conditioning for those who want the history without the hardship.
• Death row floor: Not a sleeping area. You see it, and the gallows, on the jail tour. This is where Whelan’s cell was.
• Shared dorms and pods: Budget dorms from 4 to 10 beds, including women-only options, in the converted jail.

History of Saintlo Ottawa Jail Hostel

The Carleton County Gaol was designed by architect Henry Horsey and built in 1862 next to the county courthouse, to which it was connected by a tunnel. For more than a century it was Ottawa’s main jail.

Conditions inside were bleak. Men, women and children shared the same building, held for anything from murder to being drunk and disorderly. Cells were cramped, with poor heat and light, and illness spread quickly. Modern excavations on the grounds have turned up a number of unmarked graves.

Three official executions took place at the jail. The first was Patrick James Whelan in 1869, a public hanging watched by thousands. The last was Eugene Larment, who had killed an Ottawa police detective, hanged in 1946. The gallows are still intact.

The jail closed in 1972 and was bought by Hostelling International, which opened it as a hostel in 1973 and kept much of the structure as it was. The hostel later ran a bar called Mugshots and partnered with a local ghost walk company before converting those spaces into more rooms. It now operates as the Saintlo Ottawa Jail Hostel, in the ByWard Market area a short walk from Parliament Hill.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Book a private cell rather than a dorm for the full experience. Cells sell out early around Halloween.
• Join the free jail tour for hostel guests; register at reception. It is the way to see the death row floor and gallows.
• Cells really are small and stone-walled. Pack earplugs, a light layer and a sense of humor.
• Free continental breakfast is served every morning, and there is a guest kitchen.
• Pair your stay with a night at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier across the market, Ottawa’s other famously haunted hotel.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Fairmont Chateau Laurier, Ottawa: the railway castle whose founder died on the Titanic, a few minutes’ walk away
• Hochelaga Inn, Kingston: a Victorian mansion with a woman in black at the window
• Fairmont Royal York, Toronto: Toronto’s grand hotel and its eighth-floor ghost
• Haunted hotels in Canada
• Haunted hotels in Ontario

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

• Saintlo Ottawa Jail (official site)
• Wikipedia: Ottawa Jail Hostel
• Wikipedia: Patrick J. Whelan
• Mysteries of Canada: 10 haunted hotels in Ontario
• Atlas Obscura: Ottawa Jail Hostel

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