A Lantern-Lit Charleston Ghost Walk From the City Market to St. Philip's Graveyard
An hour-long walk that pairs the 1718 pirate trials with two church graveyards and a hotel with its own ghost lore, with daytime and evening starts.
The walk starts on North Market Street, in front of T-Bonz, behind a guide carrying a lantern. The listing's stops are the Circular Church graveyard, two pirate-story houses, St. Philip's graveyard and a hotel on Meeting Street.
The operator puts the whole route at three blocks, with frequent rest stops. The hour is built on stories. One traveler in August 2026 found little that was ghostly, more folklore and stories, and called the narrator super nice.
As of October 27, 2026, the listing's calendar showed six departures a day through December: 1:00 PM, then 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, 9:00 and 9:30 PM. You can book until an hour before the start, confirmation is instant, and one booking takes up to fifteen travelers.
Cancel at least 24 hours ahead for a full refund through this booking. Food, drinks and parking are not included, and tips are optional.
Small Group Ghost Tour Charleston: 60min of True Haunted HistoryAbout an hour on foot from 80 North Market Street past two church graveyards, two pirate-story houses and a Meeting Street hotel.www.viator.comReal Pirate Trials, Disputed Pirate Houses
Charleston's pirate year is on record. In mid-May 1718 Blackbeard blockaded the port for nearly a week, seizing ships and holding hostages for ransom, with Stede Bonnet in his company. That November, Judge Nicholas Trott condemned forty-nine men to hang for piracy in a run of thirteen trials. By the county library's count, twenty-nine of Bonnet's crew were hanged at White Point, today's Battery, on November 8, and Bonnet followed on December 10.
The houses on the walk are another matter. The tour stops at 83 Cumberland Street, a house it ties to Trott, and the county library's historian has written that this story does not hold up. By the library's account, Cumberland Street was created in 1747, seven years after Trott died, and No. 83 was the kitchen house behind a larger home that fronted the street. The next stop, 145 Church Street, is the house the listing says Blackbeard rented during the blockade. The South Carolina Picture Project dates it to around 1740, two decades later, and says no evidence backs the pirate story.
Two Old Graveyards and the Mills House
St. Philip's says its churchyard and cemetery are generally open during office hours, 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM Monday through Thursday and to 1:00 PM on Friday, and during Sunday morning worship, so evening departures reach them after hours. Travelers in 2022 wrote that the group stood beside the Circular Church and St. Philip's graveyards rather than going in. The Circular Church calls its graveyard likely the oldest English burial ground still in existence in Charleston. At St. Philip's, the listing says the guide carries a photograph taken in that graveyard in 1987 and stands you where it was shot.
The hotel stop, at 115 Meeting Street, is the Mills House. The hotel's own history says it withstood the Great Fire of 1861, and that owners who bought it in 1967 found the building unsalvageable and rebuilt it, saving the iron balconies, before it reopened in 1970. Travelers in 2021 and 2025 wrote that the group went inside, and one was glad of the air conditioning on a summer night.
Pick an Evening Start for the Lantern
The 1:00 PM departure covers the same route in daylight. The listing describes a lantern-lit walk that starts as darkness falls, so the evening departures fit it best.
In summer you stand on the street for each story, and one traveler in August 2026 called it sweltering. Travelers have described a walk that carried on in light rain and one that rain cut short. The listing also lets the operator call off a walk for bad weather.
Families, Wheels and Walking Pace
Tickets on this listing cover ages 1 to 99 at one price, and the operator's booking page bills the walk as great for families. A traveler in August 2026 wrote that their 11-year-old had no fear, and another came with two teenage sons.
The operator calls the walk wheelchair friendly, and a traveler in October 2025 wrote that the guide was mindful of their mother in a wheelchair. The listing also marks it stroller friendly, while a 2018 traveler with strollers found the old lanes uneven. In January 2026 another wrote that a person with a cane could manage it, and that it ran closer to 50 minutes.
📍 Meet in front of T-Bonz, 80 North Market Street, between Church and Meeting streets.
- The map pin marks Washington Square, at Broad and Meeting streets beside City Hall, where the listing's itinerary ends. It is not the meeting point. The same listing's logistics section gives the end as the meeting point, and a traveler in March 2022 wrote that the walk did not finish back at the start.
- City of Charleston street meters are free after 6:00 PM and all day Sunday.
- The listing's parking tip quotes two dollars an hour for a garage at Church and Cumberland. Charleston County's garage at 90 Cumberland Street has charged a dollar for every twenty minutes since October 1, 2025, with a 24-dollar daily cap.
If the walk finishes at Broad and Meeting, Meeting Street leads straight back up to the Market and its restaurants.