Down the steps and across a bridge from Green Gables is the Haunted Wood, made famous by the author, Lucy Maud Montgomery.
She knew the area as a child and included the wood in her novels about Anne Shirley. Anne, like Lucy Maud, imagined these woods to be haunted.
Walking through the wood, one can picture the young Lucy Maud on her way to and from Green Gables from her home nearby.
Today, the mixed forest consists of huge trees at least twenty-five meters high.
The wind in the trees makes them creak and sway. What would that sound be like at night? The effect when the moon is full must be eerier with the shadows cast as the trees sway.
Branches reach like octopus arms grasping for anyone who comes within reach.
But the faces…
they look at any passer-by who is within the limits of their frozen expression. Sometimes, the faces are stacked as a natural totem.
The skeletons of trees which died along the path, are in stark contrast to the green of summer.
All add to the haunted feel, even during the day.
In the past, people have carved their initials into a few of the trees. Were such marks on similar trees over one hundred and thirty years ago when the child, Lucy Maud, walked this wood? Such initials could represent the names of people who disappeared there!
These days, a golf course crosses the Haunted Wood. The golfers are a curious distraction to the imagination and the ambience of the trail. We stopped to watch and wonder what Lucy Maud would think of their presence in one of her favourite haunts.
