Edinburgh Ghost Tours

Vault Ghost Tours

Six tours go underground. Note that the South Bridge Vaults and the Blair Street Underground Vaults are separate sets of chambers: Auld Reekie Tours and City of Edinburgh Tours use their own sections of the South Bridge vaults, while Mercat Tours says it is the only operator in the Blair Street vaults. The Auld Reekie Haunted Vaults and Graveyard Tour ($34, 1.5 hours) splits between Greyfriars Kirkyard and the South Bridge Vaults. Mercat's daytime Multi-Sensory Vaults Tour ($36.34, 75 minutes, up to 18, no children under 5) hands every guest a headset. Mercat's Evening Vaults Tour with Whisky ($41, 2 hours) ends with 45 minutes and a drink in Megget's Cellar. The Evening Underground Ghost Tour ($25, 75 minutes, no children under 7) and the Afternoon Old Town and Underground Ghost Tour ($21.53, 1 hour, children from 5, departures at 1:15, 3:15 and 5:15) are the cheapest ways down.

The Late-Night Vaults Terror Tour ($34, 75 minutes) is strictly 18 and over and adds a torture exhibition.

The Locked Covenanter's Prison

Greyfriars Kirkyard is free to walk by day, but the Covenanters' Prison section has been sealed since around 1990 and opens only by arrangement or on guided tours. City of the Dead's Double Dead Tour is the only listing here that takes you inside it, and the operator says it holds the key. Groups are capped at 6, the tour runs 1 hour 45 minutes at $34.99, and it combines the South Bridge Vaults with the prison, where the Mackenzie Poltergeist stories are set. The minimum age is 12.

You meet at the tree beside St Giles' Cathedral on the Royal Mile, and the operator asks you to arrive 10 to 15 minutes early. The legend of the poltergeist rests on visitor accounts of bruises and cold spots, none of it proven. If you only want the open part of Greyfriars, the Auld Reekie vaults and graveyard tour covers the mausoleums and the Greyfriars Bobby story for $34.

Old Town Ghost Walks Above Ground

Three walks stay mostly on the surface. Sandemans' Darkside Ghost Tour ($29, 2 hours, recommended 10 and up) runs from 130 High Street along the Royal Mile and South Bridge, up through Old Calton Burial Ground and Calton Hill past Jacob's Ladder, finishing in Canongate Kirkyard where Burke and Hare operated. The Witches and Haunted History Walking Tour ($24.23, 70-75 minutes, up to 30) is character-led and covers Scotland's accused witches through the closes and wynds, ending at Grassmarket, the execution site of Half-Hangit Maggie. The Dark Secrets of the Old Town Ghost Walking Tour ($26, 2 hours) walks Old Calton Cemetery and Canongate Kirkyard in English, French or German, covering Burke and Hare and the witch trials.

None of the three promises a set underground visit, so pick them for views and stories rather than vaults.

Dark History, Not Ghosts

One listing says plainly that it is not a ghost tour. The Edinburgh Dark History Tour from All-Star Guides charges $24.23 for 2 hours, holds the best rating in this set at 5.0 from 917 reviews, and uses no costumes or jump scares because the operators judge Edinburgh's real history dark enough. The route has no stated stop list, but the topics are murderers, cannibals, hangings, decapitations, witches, the Plague and the city's human waste.

Groups run up to 30. It meets in West Parliament Square, look for the white umbrella, and it is the one tour here listed as wheelchair accessible. Children are welcome, with Viator listing infants from 0 to 5 and small children in prams allowed.

Choose it if you want the history straight, or if a wheelchair user in your group rules out the vault stairs. Free cancellation runs to 24 hours before.

The Ghost Bus

How long is the Ghost Bus Tour in Edinburgh? The listing gives 75 minutes. The Edinburgh Comedy Horror Ghost Bus Tour costs $28 and runs on a refurbished vintage double-decker with a live guide billed as a strange conductor.

It is a theatrical comedy horror show, not a walking tour, and the route loops the Old Town and New Town past Edinburgh Castle, Grassmarket, Greyfriar's Kirk, Holyrood Palace and the Royal Mile without getting off. It boards at 7-9 George IV Bridge outside the Edinburgh Central Library, and the bus will not wait for latecomers. No age limit is stated, though the operator says the show is generally not suitable for children aged 1 to 5, and no food or drink other than bottled water is allowed on board.

Some travelers say the audio can be hard to follow, so sit near a speaker. Rated 4.5 from 4,776 reviews.

The Vaults Tours at a Glance

These listings all take you underground, with figures taken from each operator's own listing page. Tour names link to the full cards with meeting points and cancellation terms. Note that the South Bridge Vaults and the Blair Street Underground Vaults are two separate sets of chambers, so check which one your ticket covers before you book.

What the Vaults Are

South Bridge was designed by Robert Kay, built by Alexander Laing and completed in 1788. It has 19 arches and about 120 rooms beneath the surface. The chambers were meant to hold taverns, cobblers' workshops and merchants' storage, and they worked as intended for only about 30 years before businesses began moving out.

In the 1800s the rooms became slum housing for the poor, alongside illegal gambling taverns and an unlicensed whisky distillery. Written records from the slum period are almost non-existent, so most of the stories about who lived down there are folklore. Estimates of when the vaults were finally abandoned range from about 1835 to about 1875.

Excavation in 1985 found evidence of human habitation, and the vaults were rediscovered in the 1980s and dug out by hand, with thousands of oyster shells, toys, medicine bottles and plates among the finds. Today the north side of the vaults is used for ghost tours, while the south side holds private event venues.

South Bridge or Blair Street

The two sets of chambers are separate. The Blair Street Vaults are a distinct set of rooms from the Niddry Street and South Bridge vaults, and each operator's claim of exclusivity is its own claim. Mercat Tours says no other company can enter the Blair Street Underground Vaults, and Auld Reekie Tours says it has exclusive use of its own vaults, including a stone circle vault it links to a figure called The Watcher.

On the Multi-Sensory Haunted Underground Vaults Tour every guest gets a personal audio device and the guide speaks through a headset microphone, so the story carries over the street noise above. You can bring your own headphones with a 3.5mm jack or use a pair of theirs.

Edinburgh Haunted Underground Vaults and Graveyard Tour

Auld Reekie Tours runs the 1.5 hour pick of this guide at $34, rated 4.6 from 7,436 verified bookings, the most reviews of any listing here. It is the only vault tour in this set that adds Greyfriars Kirkyard first, walking from 300 Lawnmarket past Gothic mausoleums and the Greyfriars Bobby legend before descending into the Edinburgh Vaults under the South Bridge arches. Underground, the guide tells of the destitute residents, witches accused in the city and a hellfire club.

The entrance has a 2-foot step and a spiral staircase, and rain can drip in and leave the floors wet. Video and audio recording are not allowed. Some content covers torture, hangings and death, so the listing suggests ages 12 and over and bars children under 2.

Starting times show when you check availability.

Edinburgh Evening Underground Ghost Tour

City of Edinburgh Tours runs the evening budget option at $25 for 75 minutes, rated 4.4 from 4,294 bookings, which makes it the cheapest GetYourGuide vault ticket in this guide. The guide meets you at the police box kiosk on the Royal Mile and leads the way through hidden wynds to Greyfriars Kirkyard before the finish underground in the Edinburgh Vaults, finished in 1788 as taverns and storage. The listing says the vaults were used to store the bodies of people killed by Burke and Hare, who murdered 16 victims in 1827 and 1828.

The content spans 400 years of hangings, torture, murder and witchcraft. Some travelers say the tone is more historical than scary, so manage expectations if you want frights. Children under 7 are not suited to it, and the listing is marked likely to sell out.

It is not suitable for wheelchair users.

Afternoon Old Town and Underground Ghost Tour

This is the family option and the lowest price in the guide at $21.53, rated 4.8 from 1,706 reviews. City of Edinburgh Tours runs it as a 60 minute afternoon walk with a guide in period costume playing a real person from Edinburgh's history. Departures are at 1:15, 3:15 and 5:15, as the product title names.

The first half covers the closes of the Old Town above ground and the second half goes into the operator's own section of the South Bridge vaults. The listing bills the afternoon start and lighter tone as suitable for children from age 5, though the tales still cover murder, bodysnatching, witchcraft and cannibalism. Groups are capped at 28.

The product page gives no meeting point, so confirm it in your booking. Free cancellation is available up to 24 hours before departure.

Edinburgh Underground Vaults Evening Ghost Tour with Whisky

Mercat Tours runs the longest and most expensive vault tour here at $41 for 2 hours, rated 4.7 from 2,837 bookings. A cloaked Master Storyteller meets you at the Mercat Cross on the Royal Mile and leads 30 minutes through the medieval closes of the Old Town, then 45 minutes in the Blair Street Underground Vaults with audio headsets. The last 45 minutes are in Megget's Cellar, a candlelit cellar, with a complimentary Ballantine's Finest whisky, a Skeleton Blues hazy IPA or a Scottish-made soft drink and more stories.

The ticket also includes access to the Vaults Museum with the Vaults Revealed film. Children under 5 are not admitted to underground tours for health and safety reasons, and the listing is not suitable for wheelchair users. The description only names a drink under its Food line, so ask the operator before counting on a meal.

Edinburgh Late-Night Underground Vaults Terror Tour

Auld Reekie Tours runs this as the strictly adults-only option at $34 for 75 minutes, rated 4.6 from 4,686 bookings. Under 18s are refused entry, and anyone under the influence of alcohol or drugs is turned away. The route walks the wynds and closes of the Royal Mile, takes in a torture exhibition with instruments of torture, then goes into the South Bridge Vaults, including the operator's stone circle vault tied to The Watcher and still marked with pentagrams.

Toilets are not available during the tour, filming and audio recording are forbidden and the vaults entrance has a 2-foot step and a spiral staircase. The listing says it is likely to sell out. Some travelers say it felt less scary than expected, so treat the terror label as atmosphere rather than guaranteed frights.

Mary King's Close Is Not a Ghost Tour

The Real Mary King's Close is a separate attraction under the City Chambers on the Royal Mile, not one of the bookable ghost tours on this site. Costumed character guides lead a standard one hour tour through the close, which was partly demolished and buried in 1753 when the Royal Exchange was built over it. Children under 5 are not allowed for health and safety reasons, photos and video are banned during the tour and groups of 15 or more qualify for discounted rates.

The popular story that the council walled up the close and left 600 residents to die in the 1645 plague is a myth, and historians say plague victims were in fact cared for. The homepage shows tickets but no price, so check the official page for current admission.

Greyfriars Kirkyard and the Covenanters

Greyfriars Kirkyard was established in 1561-1562 on the grounds of a former Franciscan friary, and the land passed to Edinburgh in 1562 after the Reformation. After the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679, about 1,200 prisoners were brought to Edinburgh and roughly 400 Covenanter prisoners were held in a makeshift open enclosure south of the kirkyard. Around 1700 the area was enclosed with vaulted tombs and became known as the Covenanters' Prison.

The man who persecuted them as Lord Advocate, Sir George Mackenzie, lived from 1636 to 1691 and earned the nickname Bluidy Mackenzie. His domed tomb, the Black Mausoleum, stands in the kirkyard and is the structure tied to the Mackenzie Poltergeist stories. The kirkyard also holds hundreds of notable burials, including James Hutton, Colin MacLaurin, Joseph Black and Allan Ramsay.

Which Graveyard, and How You Get In

The table below sets out what each burial ground holds, how public access works and which listing in this guide covers it. The open part of Greyfriars Kirkyard is free to walk in by day, but the Covenanters' Prison is kept locked by the City of Edinburgh Council to protect the graves and is opened only for guided groups. You can also ask the council bereavement team for access, and the Friends of Greyfriars Kirkyard run free tours and open days.

The Double Dead Tour in Detail

City of the Dead Tours runs the Double Dead Tour, which is the highest-rated ghost tour here with real volume at 4.9 from 1,020 verified reviews. It costs $34.99 and lasts 1 hour 45 minutes, combining the operator's vaults route and its graveyard route into one walk. The guide meets you at the tree on the pavement at the side of St Giles' Cathedral on the Royal Mile, not the front, and the operator warns that its own map pin sits on the wrong side of the church.

Groups are capped at 6 and the minimum age is 12, with children accompanied by an adult. The first half goes into the South Bridge Vaults and the second half enters the Covenanter's Prison, which the operator says it holds the key to. Free cancellation is offered up to 24 hours before departure, and cancellation for bad weather is available.

The Mackenzie Poltergeist

The legend says a homeless man broke into the Black Mausoleum in the late 1990s and fell through the floor into a pit of plague bodies. Visitors have since reported bruises, scratches and cold spots near the mausoleum. None of it is proven.

The reports rest on tour and press accounts, and there is no official record of the break-in. City of the Dead Tours has built its reputation on the story and says Lonely Planet named it Edinburgh's best ghost tour, so treat the poltergeist as the best-told legend in the kirkyard rather than documented history. What is documented is the Covenanter history, the architecture of Mackenzie's tomb and the fact that the council locks the prison section to protect the graves.

Greyfriars Bobby and the Tom Riddell Grave

The story says Greyfriars Bobby, a Skye Terrier born around 1855 or 1856, guarded the grave of his owner John Gray, a police nightwatchman who died of tuberculosis in 1858, for 14 years until the dog's death in 1872. Historian Jan Bondeson has questioned the account and suggested Bobby was a stray fed by visitors, and even the breed is disputed, with some claiming a Dandie Dinmont. The bronze statue by William Brodie went up in 1873 nearby on Candlemaker Row.

The other famous grave belongs to Thomas Riddell, who died in 1806 aged 72. The tomb may have inspired J. K. Rowling's character Tom Riddle, though Rowling has not confirmed it. Visitors seeking the grave have caused erosion of the ground around it, so keep to the paths.

How Scary Is Scary

Most listings here are guided walks where a guide tells true and legendary stories in dim kirkyards and underground rooms. The bus tour is the exception, a theatrical comedy horror show with a costumed conductor and scripted moments on a vintage double-decker. The dark history tour sits at the other end, because its operator says plainly that it is not a ghost tour, with no costumes and no jump scares.

Even the family-rated afternoon walk still covers murder, bodysnatching, witchcraft and cannibalism, and several listings warn that content on torture, hangings and death may distress some visitors. The comparison below gives the minimum age and group size exactly as each listing states them.

The Family Options

Three listings work best with children. The Afternoon Old Town and Underground Ghost Tour takes ages 5 and up on a 60 minute afternoon walk at $21.53, with a costumed guide and a lighter tone the listing bills as suitable for children. The Multi-Sensory Haunted Underground Vaults Tour is the daytime vaults option at $36.34 for 75 minutes in groups of up to 18, and it bars under 5s because the underground route is not safe for them, though the guide leans on true history over jump scares and hands out a ghost story gift. The Comedy Horror Ghost Bus Tour at $28 for 75 minutes sets no minimum age in its listing, and the operator itself says the show is generally not suitable for children aged 1 to 5, so judge the comedy horror tone for your own family.

Adults-Only and Late Options

The Late-Night Underground Vaults Terror Tour is the strictest, at 18 and over with under 18s refused entry, and it adds a torture exhibition to the vaults route for $34. The Double Dead Tour sits in the middle at a minimum age of 12, with groups capped at 6 and the Covenanter's Prison at the end. The Haunted Underground Vaults and Graveyard Tour suggests 12 and over and bars children under 2, with content covering torture, hangings and death. If you travel with teenagers, the witch trials walk at 70 to 75 minutes and the 2 hour Darkside route over Calton Hill are both rated from age 10 upward in their listings.

The Stories and What the Record Shows

The table below sets the famous tales against the documented history, so you know what stands on records and what rests on legend. Most of these names turn up on every tour on the homepage, which is why the routes matter more than the scripts. The vaults tell the fullest story: the South Bridge arches were finished in 1788, worked as taverns and storage for only about 30 years, then became slum housing before the chambers were abandoned, somewhere between about 1835 and 1875.

Written records from the slum years barely exist, so most vault stories are folklore by default.

Burke and Hare and the Body Trade

William Burke and William Hare murdered 16 people in about ten months in 1827 and 1828, smothering poor lodgers and elderly women in the West Port and selling the bodies to the anatomist Robert Knox. Knox paid around 8 to 10 pounds per body depending on the season. Hare turned king's evidence and walked free, Burke was hanged on 28 January 1829, and Knox was never charged though crowds burned his effigy. Burke's skeleton sits in the Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh, and Surgeons' Hall holds his death mask and a pocketbook said to be made from his skin.

The murders exposed a real shortage. Before the Anatomy Act of 1832, only executed murderers could legally be dissected, so resurrection men dug up fresh graves. Families fought back with mortsafes, iron cages left on a grave for about six weeks until the body was useless, and with watch-houses. The Act let doctors use unclaimed bodies from hospitals, prisons and workhouses, and the mortsafes were scrapped. Several listings in this comparison carry the story, including the evening underground ghost tour, which finishes in the vaults its listing links to the bodies.

The Witch Trials

Scotland tried an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 people for witchcraft between the Witchcraft Act of 1563 and its repeal in 1736, and executed more than 1,500 of them, about 75 percent of them women. The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft database identifies 3,837 accused people. The main waves of prosecution came in 1590-91, 1597, 1628-31, 1649-50 and 1661-62, and King James VI attended the North Berwick trials before publishing Daemonologie in 1597.

Most of the convicted were strangled at the stake before being burned. No documented total exists for how many were burned at Castlehill, so treat any precise figure you hear on a walk with care. The Witches' Well on Castle Esplanade, a bronze fountain commissioned in 1894, commemorates the executions linked to the site between 1479 and 1722, though its spout runs dry.

The witches and haunted history walking tour finishes at the Grassmarket, where convicted women were hanged.

Deacon Brodie and Major Weir

Two respectable men anchor Edinburgh's double-life stories. William Brodie, who lived from 1741 to 1788, was a cabinetmaker, city councillor and deacon of his guild by day, and a burglar by night who copied keys in wax to raid wealthy homes from around 1768 and funded gambling and mistresses with the proceeds. His final raid on an excise office in Chessels Court netted only 16 pounds, an informer betrayed him, and he was hanged before a crowd of about 40,000. Robert Louis Stevenson drew on him for Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and his name stands over a tavern on the Lawnmarket today.

Major Thomas Weir, who lived from 1599 to 1670, was famous for his piety until he confessed in 1670 to a secret life of vice and witchcraft. His sister Jean backed the claims and said his carved staff gave him magic powers. Both were found guilty, he was strangled and burned near Leith Walk and she was hanged in the Grassmarket. His West Bow house stood empty for more than a century because of its reputation. Guides on several walks tell both men, including the dark history tour, whose operator bills it as history rather than ghosts.

Sunset Through the Year

The figures below are mid-month sunset times in Edinburgh, from published sunrise and sunset data. In June, when the sun sets around 21:59, a tour leaving at a typical evening slot begins in daylight and only reaches the vaults as the light fades. In December, with sunset about 15:37, the same slot starts in the dark.

The afternoon Old Town and underground tour departs at 1:15, 3:15 and 5:15, so in winter even the last run starts at dusk, while in summer it is a bright-day tour. Other listings state no fixed start times, so the times show when you check availability.

Autumn, the Fringe and Halloween

October is a strong month for atmosphere and a wet one. The city averages a high near 12 C and a low near 6 C, and measurable rain falls on about 65 percent of days, among the wettest rates of the year. The clocks go back on 25 October, and by 31 October sunset is about 16:33, so evening tours run properly dark. Halloween itself has weight here: Samhain, the festival that fed the modern Halloween, runs from the evening of 31 October, and 31 October is also the anniversary of the last Burke and Hare murder, of Margaret Docherty in 1828. Operators add seasonal tours, including a Halloween Midnight Special from Auld Reekie Tours and Halloween editions from Mercat Tours.

August is the Fringe, running 7 to 31 August, with more than 60 shows a day performing in the vaults themselves. Book any underground tour well ahead that month, and expect the Old Town at its loudest. Whatever the season, every listing in this comparison carries free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure, so a wet forecast is not a lost ticket.