Richmond Ghosts Boos and Booze Haunted Pub Crawl

Ghost stories taste better with a local drink. Richmond Ghosts Boos and Booze mixes old city tales with stops at pubs, a brewery, and several sites tied to war, crime, religion, and Edgar Allan Poe. I like the compact two-hour format and the chance to hear local legends while walking through Richmond’s oldest streets. I also like that guides such as Mars and Bob have made the evening lively, social, and easy to enjoy with strangers.

The main catch is consistency. Some outings include time inside the drinking spots, while another account describes a group that entered no establishment and had more than 20 people, despite the stated limit of 15. You should also expect a walking tour with steep roads, not a seated bar crawl with a ghost story attached.

Key points to know before you book

• Richmond history drives the route: Expect stories tied to the Railroad YMCA, the old red-light district, Civil War medicine, the War of 1812, Freemasonry, and Edgar Allan Poe.
• Four drink stops are named: Rosie Connolly’s, JewFro, Richbrau Brewing, and Patrick Henry’s Pub & Grille are built into the planned route.
• Mars receives especially strong praise: Her animated style, friendliness, and habit of getting the group involved can make a major difference.
• The walk is short but not effortless: The tour lasts about two hours, and Richmond’s steep roads call for comfortable shoes.
• Drinks cost extra: The $37 price covers the guide, stories, and tour, but not food, beer, cider, wine, or other drinks.
• The mood can vary: Some outings sound warm and entertaining, while others have been criticized for weak ghost content, awkward pauses, or missed pub access.

What the Richmond Boos and Booze tour is really selling

At its best, this experience gives you a quick introduction to Richmond after dark. You move through a compact part of the city, stopping for a drink and a story, then stepping outside to hear about a building, cemetery, hospital, or former business. The haunted material is tied to real places, which gives the evening more substance than a string of floating spirits and recycled campfire tales.

The tour begins at McCormack’s Irish Pub, 12 N 18th Street, at 6:00 pm. It ends back at the same meeting point. That arrangement is useful because you do not need to arrange a ride from a distant final bar, and you can plan dinner or another evening activity from the starting area.

The experience is in English, uses a mobile ticket, and has a listed maximum of 15 people. That is a good size for a walking story tour. You can hear a guide more easily, and the group has a better chance of staying together on city streets. Because one account describes a group of more than 20, I would confirm the expected group size if a small gathering matters to you.

This is also an adults-only outing. No one under 21 is allowed, and the price does not cover drinks or food. Think of the $37 as payment for the guide, research, local legends, and route. Your final bill depends on how much you order at the stops.

Rosie Connolly’s and the Railroad YMCA

The first named stop is Rosie Connolly’s Pub Restaurant. It occupies a historic building that once housed the Railroad YMCA and sits in an area formerly known as Richmond’s red-light district. Those details give the opening stop a useful blend of social history and ghost-story atmosphere.

The planned visit lasts about 20 minutes, with no admission charge. You can order a drink, but it is not included in your ticket. The tale here concerns the possibility that unseen hands have had a part in pouring or handling drinks. It is a playful opening, and the setting helps establish the evening’s main idea: ordinary pubs can carry traces of older, less ordinary lives.

I like this stop because the building itself does much of the work. You are not hearing a ghost story in an anonymous modern bar. You are hearing it in a structure connected to workers, travelers, and a neighborhood with a difficult past.

Still, the experience depends on access and timing. If the group cannot settle inside, or if the guide spends too long organizing people, the first stop can feel like a pause rather than a proper beginning. That is one reason the guide’s delivery matters so much.

JewFro and Richmond’s oldest commercial building

Next comes JewFro, located in Richmond’s oldest commercial building. The building’s reputation is unsettling for a different reason: many businesses have failed after moving into it, leading some people to call it cursed.

The story centers on Daniel Denoon, who is said to haunt the structure. Smith and Foundry, located there, offers African wines for tasting. The wine is an optional purchase, not part of the ticket, but it gives you a chance to try something tied to the present-day business while listening to a story from the building’s past.

This is one of the more interesting stops for anyone who likes the line between folklore and business history. A haunted house is easy to sell as a spooky attraction. A commercial building with a record of failed businesses feels more ambiguous. You can decide for yourself if the cause was bad luck, difficult conditions, or something less explainable.

The planned time is about 20 minutes. You should not expect a formal tasting course or a full meal. It is a brief stop within a walking route, so keep your order simple if you want to stay with the group.

Masonic history, wartime medicine, and the Poe Museum

Several stops are described along the route without individual names, but they add important context to the evening. One is a Masonic lodge that is among the oldest still operating anywhere in the world. It was used as a hospital during the War of 1812, and the building has become associated with reports of paranormal activity.

That combination is effective. The lodge is not presented only as an old meeting place. Its use as a hospital connects the building to pain, fear, and wartime death, which are common sources of ghost stories. You will hear the claims outside the building rather than taking part in a separate admission visit.

The Edgar Allan Poe Museum is another major landmark on the route. It honors Poe’s time in Richmond and sits near his former home and place of employment. The museum occupies the city’s oldest standing structure, and Poe is said to appear in several parts of the house.

The explanation given for these sightings involves Poe’s attachment to personal belongings. That idea makes the story more personal than a generic haunting. It suggests a writer lingering around the objects and rooms connected to his life.

You should understand that the Poe Museum stop is part of the walking narrative, not a museum admission visit. If you want to tour the interior, see the exhibits, and spend time with Poe’s belongings, you will need a separate visit. On the pub crawl, the value comes from the location and the story the guide tells about it.

For me, this part of the route may be more rewarding than the drinking stops. Even if you remain doubtful about ghosts, you still get a look at buildings connected to Richmond’s political, military, religious, and literary past.

Richbrau Brewing and the American beer story

Richbrau Brewing is the third named drink stop. Here the guide discusses the background of beer in the United States before you have a chance to try one of the house brews. One specific drink mentioned by name is the 14th Street Horribles sour ale.

The planned stop lasts about 20 minutes. I like the way this breaks up the ghost material. Beer has its own history, and a quick explanation can turn a simple tasting into a better sense of what you are drinking.

The stop also shows why the experience is not purely a paranormal walk. You are getting local places, drinks, and historical side notes alongside tales of the dead. That mix will suit you if you want a social evening with some history. It may disappoint you if you want constant supernatural evidence.

Access here appears to be one of the less reliable parts of the experience. One person had a good time with the 14th Street Horribles sour ale, while another specifically regretted not being able to visit Richbrau. I would treat the brewery visit as part of the planned route, but not assume that a particular beer or indoor stop is guaranteed.

The old church and the Civil War hospital

The route then turns to an old church described as the first church built in Richmond. It has witnessed repeated disasters, and the cemetery and church are said to be haunted by four ghosts.

This is the kind of stop where the surroundings matter more than a drink. Churches and burial grounds naturally slow the pace of a night walk. You hear about the people connected to the site, then look at the building and cemetery with that information in mind.

Another stop concerns a former tobacco store that later served as a Civil War hospital. More than 300 soldiers died there, and the stories focus on the spirits thought to remain. It is a grim piece of the route, but it gives the ghost stories a clear human setting.

I prefer this sort of tale to a claim that a room is haunted for no stated reason. The hospital story connects the supernatural claim to a known use of the building and a large number of deaths. You can accept the legend, reject it, or simply use it as a way to think about what happened there.

The drawback is that the most compelling locations may receive only a short explanation. The tour lasts about two hours and includes multiple stops, so you will not get a long historical talk at every site. If you want detailed architecture or Civil War scholarship, this is an introduction rather than a full lesson.

Patrick Henry’s Pub and the walk back

The final named pub stop is Patrick Henry’s Pub & Grille. The featured drink is Farmhouse Dry Cider, presented as a taste of what colonists drank in daily life.

That detail gives the final stop a practical historical angle. Instead of treating colonial drinking as a modern novelty, the guide connects cider to ordinary life. The ghost angle returns when you are reminded that an odd movement in the corner of your eye might not be caused by alcohol alone.

The stop is planned for about 20 minutes, after which the activity ends back at McCormack’s Irish Pub. Because the start and finish are the same, you can decide if you want to continue your evening nearby.

The walking matters here. One person specifically warned that Richmond has steep roads and recommended comfortable shoes. The tour requires a moderate level of physical fitness, so I would not choose it if you need a flat, low-effort evening. Service animals are allowed, and the route is near public transportation, but no transportation is provided by the tour.

Guides can make or break the evening

The strongest praise goes to Mars and Bob. Mars is described as friendly, courteous, animated, and personable. A particularly good part of her approach is encouraging the group to share its own experiences, which can make the walk feel less like a lecture and more like a shared night out.

Bob receives praise for making Richmond come alive through his stories. That is exactly what you need on a tour with several outdoor stops. A guide must keep the group interested while standing on a street corner, looking at a building, or moving between bars.

The experience is less successful when the guide seems unsure, leaves long gaps, or gives too little attention to the ghost stories. One disappointing account described more dead time at bars than discussion of dead people. Another called the evening boring and awkward, with too little supernatural material for a city with so many old sites.

That contrast is important. The route has good raw material, but the $37 fee does not guarantee the same quality of storytelling on every outing. If you can request Mars, it may be worth asking. No guide request is guaranteed in the information provided, but her style clearly suits people who want energy and group interaction.

Is $37 a fair price?

At $37 per person, the tour is reasonably priced if you use it as an evening orientation to Richmond’s historic center. You receive a professional guide, researched history, local legends, and a route that combines four named drinking stops with several major sites.

The value drops if you expect the ticket to include drinks, food, museum entry, or a long visit inside each business. It includes none of those things. Your actual cost will rise with every beer, wine, cider, or cocktail you order.

I would compare it with the cost of spending two hours visiting several bars on your own. The tour adds a guide and a prepared story route, which can be useful when you are new to Richmond. It also saves you from having to find the sites and connect their history yourself.

For a birthday or special night, I would book only after checking the group size and confirming that the pub access plan is operating as expected. One poor outing involved no establishment visits and a group larger than advertised. That does not erase the good experiences, but it is a fair reason to ask questions before paying.

Who should book this Richmond ghost tour?

I think the experience suits you best if you:

• Want a social evening rather than a formal museum tour
• Enjoy local legends but do not need every story to be proven
• Like trying a beer, wine, or cider while hearing about the place
• Can walk for two hours on streets that may be steep
• Are at least 21 and comfortable paying separately for drinks
• Are visiting Richmond and want a quick introduction to several historic sites

I would choose something else if you want a serious paranormal investigation, guaranteed indoor drinking at every stop, a completely flat route, or detailed time inside the Poe Museum. The ghost content can also feel light if your main goal is fear rather than history and atmosphere.

Free cancellation is available if you cancel at least 24 hours before the 6:00 pm start time. Cancellations inside that window are not refunded, and changes are not accepted within 24 hours.

Should you book Richmond Ghosts Boos and Booze?

Book it if you want a friendly, after-dark walk through old Richmond with a drink in hand and a guide connecting buildings to unsettling tales. The best version of the tour seems to be warm, funny, and social, especially with a guide such as Mars or Bob.

I would set realistic expectations. You are paying for a guided pub crawl with ghost stories, not a haunted-house scare show or a full evening of bar hopping. Wear shoes that can handle hills, budget extra for drinks, and confirm the group and stop arrangements if those details matter to you.

FAQ

How long does Richmond Ghosts Boos and Booze last?

The tour lasts approximately two hours.

Where does the tour begin?

It begins at McCormack’s Irish Pub, 12 N 18th Street, Richmond, Virginia 23223.

Where does the tour end?

The activity ends back at the meeting point at McCormack’s Irish Pub.

What time does the tour start?

The scheduled start time is 6:00 pm.

Is food or drink included in the $37 price?

No. Food and drinks are not included.

Is the tour available in English?

Yes. The tour is offered in English.

Can children join the tour?

No. The experience is not available to anyone under 21.

How many people can join the tour?

The listed maximum is 15 participants.

Can I cancel for a full refund?

Yes, if you cancel at least 24 hours before the experience begins. Cancellations made less than 24 hours before the start time are not refunded.