Evening Underground Ghost Tour Edinburgh: Greyfriars Kirkyard and the Vaults

The Two Things in the Ticket

The verified Includes list shows a guided tour with a live guide and entrance to the Edinburgh Vaults. That is the whole list. The vault visit is part of the ticket. The $25 covers both the walk and the descent, and there are no mandatory extras stated on the listing.

What is not in the price, because the listing simply does not name them: hotel pickup, any drink or food, entry inside any building above ground, and transport of any kind. The tour is on foot from start to finish and no return point is stated. Bring comfortable shoes and weather appropriate clothing, which the listing asks for directly, because October is among the wettest months, with measurable rain on about 65 percent of days.

What You May Pay on the Day

The listing names no optional extras, no bar stop and no museum visit, so nothing further is required of you. Tipping is not mentioned. If you want to extend the night, the haunted places in Edinburgh guide lists free sites near the route, and the Edinburgh Dungeon is a paid live actor attraction on Market Street that you would visit on a separate ticket.

How the Price Lines Up Against the Other Listings

At $25 this is the cheapest GetYourGuide ticket in this comparison, and the badge says so. The figures below come from the listings themselves and show what each ticket costs and what it enters.

Meeting Point: the Police Box Kiosk on the Royal Mile

You meet at the Police Box / Kiosk on the Royal Mile. The operator, City of Edinburgh Tours, says on its own site that it meets at the Old Police Box at 124a High Street. The Royal Mile is almost exactly one mile long from the castle to Holyrood and falls from 358 feet at the castle to 138 feet at the palace.

No start time is fixed on the listing. Starting times show when you check availability.

First Stop: the Hidden Wynds Off the Royal Mile

The walk leaves the main street into closes and wynds, the steep alleys that run between tall tenement buildings called lands. The guide tells some of the city's notorious characters here, over 400 years of hangings, torture, murders and witchcraft. The Old Town itself is the setting for it all: the city walls left so little space that tall residential buildings became standard from the 16th century, and the whole Old Town and New Town have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995.

For the stories behind the characters, the site guides on Deacon Brodie and Burke and Hare go deeper.

Middle of the Walk: Greyfriars Kirkyard

The listing calls Greyfriars what is considered the world's most haunted graveyard. The documented history is rich enough without the ghosts: the kirkyard was established in 1561 to 1562 on the grounds of a Franciscan friary dissolved in 1560, and after the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679 about 400 Covenanter prisoners were held in an enclosure there, later walled as the Covenanters' Prison. Sir George Mackenzie, the Lord Advocate nicknamed Bluidy Mackenzie for persecuting the Covenanters, is buried in a domed Italianate mausoleum, and the legend of the Mackenzie Poltergeist clusters around that tomb in the late 1990s.

The stories say visitors have reported bruises and cold spots near it, though none of it is proven. The kirkyard also holds the grave of Thomas Riddell, who died in 1806, said by some to have inspired J. K. Rowling's character, and the story of Greyfriars Bobby, the dog, usually given as a Skye Terrier, said to have guarded his owner's grave for 14 years, a tale historians question. Note that this tour walks the open kirkyard.

The locked Covenanter's Prison section is entered only on City of the Dead: The Double Dead Tour or by arrangement.

Last Stop: the Edinburgh Vaults Under South Bridge

The finish is underground. South Bridge was begun after the South Bridge Act of 1785, opened to foot traffic in 1786 on temporary wooden planks and completed in 1788, with 19 arches, the largest where the street crosses the Cowgate. The chambers beneath it, about 120 rooms ranging from 2 to 40 square metres, were meant to house taverns, cobblers' workshops and merchants' storage.

They worked as intended for only about 30 years. Businesses began leaving by 1795, and in the 1800s the vaults became slum housing lit by fish oil lamps, with no running water or sunlight, some rooms holding more than 10 people. Illegal gambling taverns and an unlicensed whisky distillery operated there.

The listing says the chambers stored dead bodies killed by Burke and Hare for their medical experiments, and it is true that Burke and Hare murdered 16 people in 1827 and 1828 and sold the bodies to the anatomist Robert Knox for around 8 to 10 pounds each. Worth knowing for balance: Wikipedia notes there is no evidence that Burke and Hare themselves used the vaults, so treat that framing as tour storytelling rather than record. The chambers were abandoned by the late 19th century, rediscovered in the 1980s and excavated in the 1990s, with finds including thousands of oyster shells, toys and medicine bottles.

The Edinburgh Vaults guide covers this in full. No finish point or return point is stated on the listing.

Children Under 7

The listing says children under 7 years are not suitable for this tour. If you are travelling with younger children, the same operator runs the Afternoon Old Town and Underground Ghost Tour at $21.53, which takes children from 5 and runs in daylight, and the Multi-Sensory Haunted Underground Vaults Tour accepts children from 5 as well.

Wheelchair Users and People with Mobility Impairments

The listing names wheelchair users and people with mobility impairments as unsuitable. The listing states no step free access. If you need an accessible option, the Edinburgh Dark History Tour at $24.23 is listed as wheelchair accessible, with all areas and surfaces and the transport options named as accessible.

Anyone Who Wants Scares or a Late Night

The operator's own note says some travelers find the tone more historical than scary. If you want staged terror and an adults only atmosphere, the Late-Night Underground Vaults Terror Tour is strictly 18 and over with a torture exhibition. If you want comedy horror from a seat, the Comedy Horror Ghost Bus Tour at $28 runs 75 minutes on a vintage double decker.

Anyone who does not speak English is also ruled out here, since the guide is English only, while the Old Town Ghost Walking Tour runs in English, French and German for $26.

What You Can Do Alone

The Royal Mile and its closes cost nothing to walk, and the wynds are public ground. Greyfriars Kirkyard's open section can be visited on your own, though gate hours vary by source, so check locally when you arrive. The kirk itself is free with donations encouraged, and self-guided information boards in the kirkyard come in several languages.

Old Calton Burial Ground and Canongate Kirkyard can also be visited, and the haunted places in Edinburgh guide lists more. On your own you can find the Greyfriars Bobby statue and grave, the Mackenzie mausoleum from outside, and the two iron mortsafes in the kirkyard that once stopped body snatchers.

What You Cannot Do Alone

The vaults under South Bridge are visited on a guided tour, which is what the $25 ticket buys. The Covenanters' Prison is sealed and opened only for guided groups, by arrangement with the kirk or on City of the Dead tours, with occasional free open days run by the Friends of Greyfriars Kirkyard. The paid attractions you could visit alone include The Real Mary King's Close, at 2 Warriston's Close which sells its own guided tours, so check the official page for tickets and times.

Surgeons' Hall Museum on Nicolson Street charges 10 pounds for adults, 6.50 for concessions and 5.50 for children 5 to 15, open 10am to 5pm daily with last entry at 4:30pm, and it holds Burke's death mask and a pocketbook said to be made from his skin. Holyroodhouse charges around 22 pounds for an advance adult ticket and closes during royal functions, so check opening days.

What the Guide Adds

A guide adds the vault descent, the stories tied to each stop, and the pacing that fits a kirkyard and a vault into 75 minutes. For pure history the Edinburgh Dark History Tour covers 2 hours of it, and the Burke and Hare and Edinburgh Vaults guides on this site let you read the background before you decide. If you only want the free kirkyard and closes by daylight, walking alone is enough.