LEESBURG, VA — Have you ever seen a ghost? If not, it might be time to visit the Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve in Leesburg this weekend for a ghost hunting tour.
The tour is being led by a local historian and will begin on Saturday at 8 p.m at the visitor’s center. The guided experience will take visitors to the site’s most haunted locations as the sun sets.
Hannah Snyder is an instructor at Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve. She will be guiding this weekend’s tour. Snyder has been researching history in Loudoun County for over a decade and also works at George Washington’s Mount Vernon.
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“This tour is meant to make history thrilling, by connecting the visitor to the past through the mystery of the supernatural,” Snyder told Patch. “People will learn about the history of the BRNP property and how it connects to our shared local history. This history is important because it not only helps us acknowledge our past, but to come together as a community to do so.”
The ghost hunting tour has quickly become one of the site’s most popular programs. Saturday will be the fourth iteration of the tour, and organizers plan to host the event again on July 1.
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Banshee Reeks’s history is steeped in the supernatural, from its modern ghost hunts to its spooky name. Jordan Luck, the property’s first owner, decided on the name after being spooked by sounds he heard on his way home one night.
“He supposedly heard the sounds of nocturnal creatures like foxes and owls, along with the howling of the wind through the hills of the property,” Snyder said. “Believing that the noises sounded similar to a Banshee, or a screaming spirit of a woman from Irish folklore, Luck is said to have dubbed the property ‘Banshee Reeks,’ with ‘Reeks’ meaning hills and dales.”
These days, people still report supernatural events on the property. Staff and visitors have shared strange experiences over the years. Ron Circe, the manager at Banshee Reeks, said he’s had first-hand encounters with the supernatural.
“There is certainly a lot of history at BRNP, and many people have lived and died on that property over the past 200 years,” Snyder said. “There is definitely a sense of mystery about the property that pulls people in and makes us curious to the possibilities of the past still being with us in some way.”
Snyder has even had her own unexplained experiences at the site, though she stopped short of saying she’d seen a ghost.
“While I have not seen anything, I have certainly heard plenty,” Snyder said. “Footsteps in the main farmhouse, the crunching of leaves behind me as I walk an empty trail, and even the faint voice of a woman when the 700 acres of the preserve was completely empty.”
Anyone interested in attending the ghost hunt should register online by 12 p.m. on Friday. Registration costs $5, and the tour is recommended for anyone 12 years old or older.
“There is always room for skepticism, but my experiences have certainly made me feel even more motivated to continue my research and tell the untold stories of those who might still be lingering here,” Snyder told Patch.
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