✦   TRAVEL

Edinburgh has more ghost stories per square mile than most countries have in total, and almost all of them can be visited on foot.

Few cities wear their history as openly as Edinburgh. Plague, public executions, body snatching and a castle that has watched over the city from its rock for centuries have all left their mark on the streets, and the locals have been retelling the darkest of those tales for generations.

Walk the Royal Mile after nightfall, when the lamps throw long shadows over the cobbles, and you will understand why visitors come back with a story of their own.

This guide takes you to the most atmospheric places in the Old Town, explains what to book and when, and shows you how to fit it all into a short visit.

Mary King’s Close is a street that was built over and left in darkness.

It was once a busy part of the old Royal Mile, but when the Royal Exchange was raised above it in the 1700s, its lower levels were sealed beneath the new city. Today you can walk down into what remains through The Real Mary King’s Close, on the Royal Mile. As the stone walls close in and the temperature drops, it is easy to feel the weight of the centuries above you, and to understand why this is one of the most talked-about places in the city. Visits are by guided tour only, and  last about an hour. You are led through the buried streets by someone who knows exactly where the stories are hidden.

Book ahead, particularly in the weeks around Halloween, when the tours fill quickly. Photography and filming are not allowed during the tour, so put the camera away and let the guide’s voice and the dim passages do the work. The tour is aimed at ages five and over, but policies can change, so check before you go. There is no car park nearby, so walk the Royal Mile or take the bus, and enjoy the old streets on the way.

The underground streets of Mary King’s Close

Beneath South Bridge, a row of stone arches was built with one purpose in mind: shops and workshops for the busy Old Town above. Then the damp crept in, the tenants walked away, and the spaces that were meant to hum with trade fell silent. Into that gloom moved the poorest people in the city, and the vaults became the kind of place that people in the streets above preferred not to think about. Stand in the low, echoing chambers on an autumn evening and it is easy to see why their stories have lasted. You are walking through a hidden layer of Edinburgh life, where the ordinary and the eerie have always been close neighbours.

Two operators run tours here, and each brings its own style to the candlelit story. Mercat Tours is rooted in the history, so you hear how the vaults were built, used and abandoned, and about the people who called them home. Auld Reekie Tours leans into the theatre, with a performance that brings the characters and the scares to life. Both make a fine evening, so choose the one that appeals to you. Age limits differ between them, so check before you book. Both run plenty of tours in the weeks around Halloween, when the vaults are at their most popular, so book early if you want an evening slot.

The kirkyard itself is free to wander and is open all day and all night, but its most famous corners are behind locked doors. The Covenanters’ Prison, where more than a thousand prisoners were held after the Covenanters’ defeat at Bothwell Bridge in 1679, is reached only on guided visits, and the Black Mausoleum stands within it. Access has varied over the years, with evening tours run by City of the Dead Tours and limited council-led visits. Operators publish their own age guidance, so check it before booking with children, and expect the evening tours to fill quickly.

Dusk is the best time to visit, when the shadows fall across the old headstones and the stories feel closer. Many people come for the Mackenzie Poltergeist. It is a story that begins in 1998, when a homeless man sheltering from a storm broke into the Black Mausoleum, and since then visitors and guides have told of injuries, fainting and unexplained events. Some accounts put the number of reported incidents in the hundreds. The mausoleum is traditionally linked to Sir George Mackenzie, the seventeenth-century Lord Advocate known as Bloody Mackenzie, though some guides say his own tomb stands nearby. Either way, it is one of the most talked-about hauntings in the city.

If you only have time for one night tour in Edinburgh, make it this one.

The Gates of Greyfriars Kirkyard

High above the city, Edinburgh Castle sits on a volcanic rock that has been fortified for centuries, and it is one of the most dramatic places in the country to stand. Its tales have grown with its history. The lone piper is said to have vanished in the tunnels under the Royal Mile, and the headless drummer is said to warn of an attack. Walk the battlements on a grey afternoon, with the wind coming off the Firth, and it is easy to see how those stories took hold.

The castle is worth more than a quick photograph. St Margaret’s Chapel is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Edinburgh, a small, quiet room that feels a world away from the crowds outside. The Honours of Scotland, the crown, sceptre and sword of state, are on display in the Crown Room. Each day at one o’clock, the famous One O’Clock Gun is fired from the castle, and visitors nearby often find themselves jumping at the boom.

Because the castle is one of the busiest attractions in Scotland, book your ticket in advance and choose a time slot that suits you. The ghost tours that start on the Royal Mile will take you through the tunnel stories, but the castle itself is best seen in daylight, with a coffee and a view across the city, before the evening tours begin.

In 1828, William Burke and William Hare, two Irish labourers living in the Edinburgh slums, found an easy way to make money. It began when a lodger in Hare’s house died, and the two men sold the body to Dr Robert Knox, an anatomy lecturer with a keen interest in fresh specimens and very few questions asked. Over the following months, from late 1827 to the autumn of 1828, they killed a number of people, by most accounts sixteen, mostly poor folk with nobody much to ask after them, and sold each body to Knox. When the pair were caught, Hare turned King’s evidence and was never convicted. Burke was tried, found guilty and hanged in January 1829 before a large crowd, and his body was dissected in public, as the law of the time allowed. Knox was never charged. The case led to the Anatomy Act of 1832, which put the supply of bodies for medical study on a legal footing.

Burke’s death mask is in the History of Surgery Museum at Surgeons’ Hall, on Nicolson Street, along with a book said to be bound in his skin. Photography is not allowed, and the museum is wheelchair accessible. His skeleton is kept separately, by the University of Edinburgh’s anatomy museum, so do not plan on seeing both in one visit. Check opening hours and public access on the museum’s website before you go, as these can change.

After a morning of museum cases and dark stories, the Grassmarket is the place to stop. It was Edinburgh’s execution ground for centuries, and it is where Half-Hangit Maggie was hanged in 1724. According to the story, she woke up in her coffin, and the pub that carries her name still stands on the square. Sit down, warm your hands on something hot, and let the day settle before the evening tours begin.

If you want to spend real time exploring the city after dark, Edinburgh rewards you for it. The Old Town’s haunted sites sit close together, so a short stay can take in the castle, the underground streets and the graveyards without rushing. A single day is enough to get a real taste of it, and the plan below gives you a route that balances daylight sightseeing with the evening tours, so you can see the city as it is and as its stories describe it.

If you have one day, start with the castle in daylight, then make your way down the Royal Mile to Mary King’s Close. Stop for a rest in the Grassmarket in the late afternoon, then finish with an evening tour of the Blair Street Vaults. It is a full day, but the walking is easy, and the dark stories arrive at the right time.

The weeks around Halloween are when the ghost tours are busiest, and the city’s haunted trade is in full swing. If you can, book your underground tours as early as possible, because the popular slots sell out well ahead of time and the evening departures go first. Many of the best-known operators run several tours a day, so you have more choice than you might expect. The Old Town is compact enough to walk, which makes it easy to fit several tours into one trip without relying on public transport. Wear proper shoes, because the Royal Mile is cobbled and steep, and pack a warm layer for the underground sections, which stay cold even in summer.

Most of the places in this guide sit on or close to the Royal Mile, the Grassmarket and South Bridge, so you can walk between them with little effort. Surgeons’ Hall is on Nicolson Street, a little further south. Take your time between the sights, because some of Edinburgh’s best stories are the ones you come across on the way.

If these tales have caught your interest, we would love you to listen along. Episode 9 of the Everything Scotland podcast, “The Dark History and Restless Spirits of Edinburgh”, takes you deeper into the stories behind these places, and you can find it on the Everything Scotland podcast page.

You’ve clearly got nothing better to do, which suits me fine. Below is more of the same: Scottish history nobody taught you properly at school, places that are better than their Instagram photos, and the occasional confession about something I probably shouldn’t have said on a tour bus but did anyway. Go on, one more won’t hurt.