The Edinburgh Vaults: A Guide to the South Bridge Underground

Building the Bridge

South Bridge came out of an Act of Parliament in 1785, and work began that August. Robert Kay designed it and Alexander Laing built it. The foundation stone was laid on 1 August 1785 by George Gordon, Lord Haddo. The bridge opened to foot traffic on 19 November 1786 over temporary wooden planks, and it was completed in 1788.

The structure has 19 arches, and the largest is where the street crosses the Cowgate. The rooms built into those arches became the Edinburgh Vaults. There are about 120 chambers, ranging from about 2 to 40 square metres each. The whole complex sits under the South Bridge and Blair Street area, at about 55.9494 N, 3.1872 W.

From the street you would never guess. The bridge is almost entirely enclosed by buildings on both sides, so it looks like an ordinary road. Today only the Cowgate arch of the bridge is visible to the eye. The bridge is a Category B listed building, designated on 13 December 1970.

Several tours start on the Royal Mile. The pick, the Edinburgh Haunted Underground Vaults and Graveyard Tour, meets in front of 300 Lawnmarket and takes 1.5 hours for $34, rated 4.6 from 7,436 reviews. It enters the South Bridge Vaults by a 2-foot step and a single-floor spiral staircase, so wear shoes you can manage stairs in.

Taverns, Cobblers and the Slum Years

The vaults were meant for trade. The plan was to house taverns, cobblers' workshops and merchants' storage in the chambers, and for about 30 years that is roughly what happened. The rooms were lit by fish oil lamps. They had no running water and no sunlight.

The good years ended early. Businesses began leaving the vaults as soon as 1795, barely a decade after completion. In the 1800s the chambers found a darker use: slum housing for the city's poorest people. Some rooms housed more than 10 people at a time.

Crime moved in with the poverty. Illegal gambling taverns operated in the vaults, and there was an unlicensed whisky distillery among the chambers. Written records from the slum period are almost non-existent. That gap matters when you hear tour stories: most specific tales about who lived down there and what happened to them are folklore rather than documented history.

Estimates of when the vaults were finally abandoned range from about 1835 to about 1875. After that the vaults were largely forgotten until the 1980s. One thing you may hear from guides is a Burke and Hare connection. Wikipedia states plainly there is no evidence that Burke and Hare used the vaults, and the Burke and Hare guide follows the documented trail to the West Port instead. If a guide claims otherwise, treat it as storytelling.

Rediscovery and Excavation

The modern story of the Edinburgh Vaults starts in the 1980s, and it starts with a rugby player. Norrie Rowan, a Scottish rugby player, rediscovered the chambers in the 1980s. An excavation in 1985 found clear evidence of human habitation, including middens containing toys, medicine bottles and pottery. The dig also uncovered the remains of demolished Adam Square, with a hearth and a well still in place.

In the 1990s Rowan and his son Norman excavated the vaults properly. They removed hundreds of tonnes of rubble by hand. Among the finds were thousands of oyster shells, along with toys, medicine bottles and plates.

The north side is now used for ghost tours, and the south side holds The Caves and The Rowantree, venues for private events, weddings and live music. In August the vaults become Fringe venues, hosting more than 60 shows a day.

Television found them too. Most Haunted investigated in 2003 and returned for a 2006 Halloween special. BBC staff recorded unexplained voices during a 2009 sleepover with Joe Swash. Ghost Adventures claimed spirit encounters in the vaults, and none of those claims is confirmed. The haunting reputation is covered fully below, as claims rather than facts.

Which company takes you into which chamber depends on who you book with, and each operator makes its own exclusivity claim. Mercat Tours says no other company can enter the Blair Street Underground Vaults, a separate set of chambers from the Niddry Street and South Bridge vaults. Its Multi-Sensory Haunted Underground Vaults Tour costs $36.34, lasts 75 minutes and caps groups at 18. Auld Reekie Tours says it has exclusive use of its own vaults in the South Bridge and Niddry Street set, including a stone circle vault it says only its tours can enter. City of the Dead Tours runs an Underground City of the Dead tour through vaults beneath the city and pairs them with Greyfriars Kirkyard on the City of the Dead: The Double Dead Tour, 1 hour 45 minutes at $34.99 for groups of up to 6.

If you want the full story of the kirkyard half of these tours, see the Greyfriars Kirkyard guide. The table below sets the vaults' timeline in one place, drawn from the Wikipedia pages on South Bridge and the Edinburgh Vaults.

The South Bridge And Niddry Street Vaults

The chambers under South Bridge belong to the 19 arches of the bridge, with about 120 rooms in total ranging from 2 to 40 square metres. The north side of the vaults is used for ghost tours today. Auld Reekie Tours runs its tours in the South Bridge and Niddry Street vaults and says it has exclusive use of its own vaults, including a stone circle room it says is exclusive to its tours. That exclusivity is the company's own claim, not an independently verified fact. City of the Dead Tours also runs an Underground City of the Dead tour through vaults beneath the city.

The south side of the vaults is a different world. It holds The Caves and The Rowantree, venues used for private events, weddings and live music rather than ghost stories.

The Blair Street Vaults

The Blair Street Vaults are a separate set of chambers from the Niddry Street and South Bridge vaults. Mercat Tours, founded in 1985 and registered at 28 Blair Street, runs its Doomed, Dead and Buried tour into them and says no other company can enter. Again, treat that as the operator's own claim. Mercat Tours also advertises small groups and hands-on access to old artefacts in its vaults, and it is a Certified B Corporation. Its meeting point is the Mercat Cross on the High Street, beside St Giles' Cathedral.

The practical effect for you is simple. You cannot compare one vault with another by walking between them. Each company shows you the chambers it holds, and the stories differ with the door.

The Banshee Labyrinth And The Fringe

The Banshee Labyrinth pub at 29-35 Niddry Street is built partly into the South Bridge vaults. It has seven rooms, three bars, a live music venue and a cinema. During the Fringe in August, the vaults host more than 60 shows a day, from comedy to theatre in rooms that were never meant for an audience.

If you want the deepest version of the story, combine a daytime tour with an evening drink in the pub. You will have seen the same arches lit by a guide lamp and lit by bar light.

What The Record Actually Says

Written records from the vaults' slum period are almost non-existent. That means most stories about who lived down there, who died there and what they did are folklore by default. Documented records of residents and deaths are almost non-existent. When a guide tells you who slept in one room, the reported figure of more than 10 people in a room is the most you can take from the record, and the named individuals and their fates generally have no source.

One popular claim can be settled: there is no evidence that Burke and Hare used the vaults. No source places them there. The murders happened in the West Port, and the Burke and Hare page follows the documented trail.

The Investigations And The Claims

The television record is long and inconclusive. Most Haunted investigated the vaults in 2003 and again in a 2006 Halloween special. BBC staff recorded unexplained voices during a 2009 sleepover with Joe Swash. Ghost Adventures claimed spirit encounters in the vaults. None of these is confirmed, and none amounts to evidence.

The Watcher is the vaults' own legend. Staff and visitors at the Banshee Labyrinth describe a faceless man in a tricorn hat and long black coat, and staff also describe a sobbing woman in a grey dress seen by refurbishment workers. These are staff accounts with no records behind them. The Late-Night Terror Tour by Auld Reekie takes adults into the stone circle vault said to belong to The Watcher, still marked with pentagrams. Tell it to yourself as a story and it works well. As history, it has nothing under it.

The Full Comparison

The table lists every tour in this comparison whose route goes into the Edinburgh Vaults, with the ticket price in dollars, the stated duration, the chambers named in the listing and the age rule. Figure out the length you want first, then the age rule, then the price.

Day Or Night, Family Or Adults Only

For children, the cheapest door underground is the Afternoon Old Town and Underground Ghost Tour at $21.53, a 1 hour daytime walk with departures at 1:15, 3:15 and 5:15. The Multi-Sensory Haunted Underground Vaults Tour caps groups at 18 and uses headsets, which helps small ears over street noise. Mercat says its vault visit has no jump scares or staged effects.

For adults, the Late-Night Terror Tour refuses under 18s and adds a torture exhibition. If you want a drink at the end, the Evening Ghost Tour with Whisky spends 45 minutes in the Blair Street Vaults and finishes in Megget's Cellar with a whisky, beer or soft drink included. The smallest groups belong to the Double Dead Tour, capped at 6 people, which joins the vaults to the locked Covenanter's Prison in Greyfriars Kirkyard.

Wear, Carry And Expect

Wear shoes with a grip, not smooth soles, and dress in layers. October in Edinburgh averages a high near 12 C and rain falls on about 65 percent of days, and January has rain on about two days in three, so a waterproof layer is sensible year round.

Access is by steps. The South Bridge Vaults on one tour are entered by a 2-foot step and a single-floor spiral staircase. The Late-Night Terror Tour names people with claustrophobia as unsuitable, and several listings name wheelchair users and people with mobility impairments as unsuitable. Most vault tour listings state no start time, so check availability for actual departure times. October sunset in Edinburgh is about 18:11 mid-month and about 16:33 at the end after the clocks go back on 25 October, so check sunset against your start time. The tours are not free, but other haunted places can be seen without a ticket in the haunted places in Edinburgh guide.