Chester is one of the best-preserved walled cities in England. Its Roman street plan survives beneath the medieval one, the walls are still walkable, and the Rows offer a form of commercial architecture found almost nowhere else in the country. Two thousand years of continuous occupation have left the city with a built record of considerable depth.

That depth is reflected in its ghost tradition, which is among the most varied in the county. Accounts range from Roman-era apparitions reported in the cellars of the city centre to disturbances in its medieval churches and Victorian institutions. Chester has attracted serious historical investigation alongside the ghost-walk trade, and some of its better-documented accounts reward closer attention than they usually receive.