After our fantastic tour with Sandeman this morning, we went back and signed up for their night tour exploring the city’s true stories of murder and mischief through the ages. This time, we had to pay somewhere around £8 (student rate) for a 2-hour tour. Once again, we find ourselves searching for the red umbrella!
Found them!
A start to another rainy night with Asya and Anjali!
Things are simply not what they seem in this Jekyll and Hyde city, famous for witch burning, grave robbing, body snatching, and mysterious murders. Behind, beneath and beyond the Royal Mile lie plundered tombs, funeral pyres, and mass graves from thousands of years of history. Expose Edinburgh’s dark side and relive the most evil tales from its past.
Feel the hair on the back of your neck stand on end as you explore gruesome graveyards and narrow alleyways hiding secrets from deep in Edinburgh’s dark history. Even the bravest soul will be shaken by spine-chilling, true stories of real life cannibals and vampires.
No fake stories, no men in wolf masks: Edinburgh’s true history is terrifying enough.”
– Sandeman’s Edinburgh website
Old Calton Cemetery
No ghost tour would be complete without walking through one of the oldest cemeteries in Edinburgh: Old Calton Cemetery.
This cemetery overcrowded long before there were asphalt roads in Edinburgh so when the city started work on building infrastructure, workers paved over many existing graves to make room for public projects. Today, there is a road separating two halves of the cemetery, which makes for interesting ghost stories.
Edinburgh’s Ghost Stories
Throughout our walk, our lovely guide would jump right into some of the most gruesome and disturbing tales I ever heard. He talked of cannibalism, serial murderers, ghostly revenge, infanticide, and other cases of horrifying woe. I am one of those people who get very squeamish with horror films and gore. Standing in a cemetery while listening to these stories makes for great spine-tingling shivers.
I am slightly superstitious about death and ghost stories and find they still have power over me when I recount them to people. Below, you can find the list of ghost stories they cover on the tour and you may look them up to your heart’s content.
- Burke and Hare – the West Port Murderers
- Witch trials and the site of Witch Burnings
- Folklore and Faeries
- The bodysnatchers and living burials
- Edinburgh’s Cannibals and Vampires
- The Murder of Mary Queen of Scots’ lover
- Canongate Kirkyard and mausoleums
- The best view of the Old Town
- Arthur’s Seat and the mystery of the 17 doll coffins
Views of Edinburgh from Holyrood Park
Although we are standing on top of a massive grave site, the views are still quite beautiful.
Edinburgh in the Dark
Our tour ended in the darkest of night, making our journey back to the hostel more eerie and spooky. The closes along the Royal Mile that once looked so whimsical to me now has a hint of danger after listening to 2 hours of ghost stories. I think we all really enjoyed this tour, but it will take me a little while to recover from that trauma.
Selene + Abroad 