Kokkola’s ghost stories have prompted local guides to introduce two adults-only walking tours this October, with accounts of hauntings, harsh punishments and plague considered too frightening for children.
The Finnish city’s guides have added the K18 outings, restricted to people aged 18 and over, alongside their usual ghost walks. The idea is to tell the darker stories without adapting them for a younger audience, according to Yle’s report on the tours.
Around 300 local residents have taken part in the guides’ ghost walks during October. Roughly 50 joined the adults-only outing covered by the broadcaster.
Why Kokkola’s ghost stories have an adults-only version
The distinction is between two versions of the walk. Visit Kokkola’s programme of guided tours also lists the traditional October ghost walks, with free admission for children under 12. Its current event listings separately advertise the K18 tour and explain that its stories are too frightening for children.
The adult route begins at the Town Hall, a former place of imprisonment and punishment, before passing through the old town to Katariina cemetery. The burial ground was brought into use during the plague of 1710–1711. The walk continues via the city theatre to the former execution site at Mäntykangas.
Tour guide Anette Högdahl recounts how an executioner would arrive from another town and stay nearby. Another story concerns Siimen Mikkelson, known as Rindamuru, who is said to have escaped from a locked prison cell despite being chained by his hands and feet. In the guide’s telling, the escape becomes a tale of suspected dealings with the devil.
A maiden whose appearance foretells misfortune
One of the best-known local legends concerns the maiden of Harrbåda, whose appearance is said to warn of an approaching accident.
Visit Kokkola’s account of the legend places her near the former Harrinniemi navigation light, also known as Harrbåda lighthouse. In that version, a woman loses her husband and son in a shipwreck and subsequently dies at sea herself. Her ghost is described as wearing a white summer dress.
Other tales attach themselves to individual buildings. Yle describes a black-hatted figure associated with the former Forsnabba bakery and Elsi, a servant girl said to haunt Hotel Seurahuone after an unhappy love affair.
Mostly mischievous ghosts, and a darker local past
Fellow guide Elisa Maunumäki says at least ten ghosts feature in the old town’s stories. She describes most as benevolent but mischievous, switching lights on and off, knocking objects from shelves or riding empty lifts.
For some participants, however, the most unsettling stop was the execution site. After hearing its history, visitor Meri-Sisko Haapanen told Yle:
“It’s quite nice to be living in 2026.”
