Haunted Places in Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle

The castle sits on Castle Rock, a volcanic plug about 130 metres above sea level, and drew 2,044,963 visitors in 2025. Two legends carry its ghost reputation. The headless drummer story says a headless boy drummer was seen in the courtyard in 1650, just before Cromwell took the castle. The lost piper legend says a boy piper sent into tunnels running from the castle towards Holyrood vanished when his pipes stopped halfway. Both are folklore with no contemporary records.

The documented dark history is real enough. Castle vaults held prisoners of war in the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence and the Napoleonic Wars, and in 1811 49 prisoners escaped through a breach in a wall. Historic Environment Scotland lists online tickets at £23.50 for adults, £19 for ages 65 and over and £11.50 for children aged 7 to 15, with gate prices of £26, £21 and £13. Children under 7 enter free. From 1 April to 30 September the castle is open daily 9:30am to 6pm, and from 1 October to 31 March 9:30am to 5pm, with last entry one hour before closing. Allow at least 2 hours, and book ahead because tickets often sell out far ahead.

The Witches' Well

The Witches' Well is a bronze fountain on the Castle Esplanade at the top of the Royal Mile, directly outside the castle gates. Sir Patrick Geddes commissioned it in 1894 and the painter John Duncan designed it. The plaque was mounted in 1912 and the structure became Category B listed on 13 August 1987. Its inscription says the fountain stands near the site where many witches were burned at the stake, and it is linked to executions between 1479 and 1722. The carving shows a foxglove, a serpent around the heads of Hygeia and Asclepius, and an evil eye. The water spout is dry today.

Historians criticise the inscription for implying that those killed had real magical powers. Across Scotland an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 people were tried for witchcraft and more than 1,500 were executed, about 75 percent of the accused women, under a Witchcraft Act of 1563 that stood until 1736. Scotland's First Minister formally apologised to the accused in 2022. No documented total records how many died at Castlehill specifically. Seeing the well is free, and the Edinburgh Witches and Haunted History Walking Tour covers the witch trial story in 70 to 75 minutes for $24.23.

Mary King's Close

Mary King's Close is an underground close beneath the City Chambers on the Royal Mile, named after a widow and fabric trader who lived there in the 1630s. The city partly demolished and buried it in 1753 when the Royal Exchange was built over the top. The last resident, Andrew Chesney, was offered a compulsory purchase of 400 pounds in 1897 and left in 1902. Edinburgh was hit by plague in 1645 and the cramped close was a bad place to be, but the popular story that the council walled up 600 residents to die is a myth, and plague victims were in fact cared for.

Today Continuum Attractions runs the site as The Real Mary King's Close at 2 Warriston's Close, open seven days a week with the homepage showing 9:30am to 10:30pm. The standard tour lasts one hour and leaves about every 10 minutes, led by costumed character guides. Photos and video are banned during the tour and children under 5 are not allowed. The famous Annie doll story dates from a 1990s psychic visit and rests on one account, not on any historical record. The Mary King's Close guide has the full story and ticket details.

Deacon Brodie's Close

This close on the Lawnmarket carries the name of William Brodie, the cabinetmaker, locksmith and city councillor who lived a double life. From around 1768 he copied keys from wax impressions to burgle wealthy homes, funding gambling and two mistresses who did not know of each other. On 5 March 1788 he led an armed raid on an excise office in Chessels Court and the gang got away with only 16 pounds. An accomplice turned informer and Brodie was caught in Amsterdam. He was tried in August 1788 and hanged on 1 October 1788 before a crowd of about 40,000.

The legend that he designed the gallows and survived the drop by a steel collar is disputed folklore. What is documented is his literary afterlife, because Robert Louis Stevenson drew on Brodie for Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in 1886. Deacon Brodie's Tavern stands at 435 Lawnmarket in a building from 1806, at the corner with Bank Street, and it is free to walk past. The Deacon Brodie guide tells the whole tale, and the Edinburgh Late-Night Underground Vaults Terror Tour meets at 300 Lawnmarket, opposite Deacon Brodies Tavern.

The Mercat Cross

The Mercat Cross stands on the High Street beside St Giles', and it is one of the darkest spots on the Mile for its public history alone. An original cross dates to 1365, though the monument you see today took its present form in 1885. Executions and public punishments took place here, including that of the Marquis of Montrose in 1650. Royal proclamations are still read at the cross, which makes it one of the few places on this list still doing its original job.

For visitors the practical detail is the meeting point. Mercat Tours, founded in 1985, gathers guests at the Mercat Cross, and it is also where the check-in rep for the Multi-Sensory Haunted Underground Vaults Tour waits in black with an orange lanyard, at the eight-sided monument with the white unicorn on top, postcode EH1 1RF. The Edinburgh Underground Vaults Evening Ghost Tour with Whisky meets there too, a 2 hour tour at $41 that ends with a drink in a candlelit cellar. Standing at the cross costs nothing and takes a minute.

St Giles' Cathedral

St Giles' Cathedral was traditionally founded in 1124 and its crown steeple dates to 1460-1467. Its dark history is religious rather than ghostly. On 23 July 1637 the Jenny Geddes riot broke out here. The cathedral sits at about 55.9494 N, 3.1908 W, in the heart of the Old Town, which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.

For ghost tour purposes St Giles' matters as a landmark. The City of the Dead: The Double Dead Tour, priced at $34.99, meets at the tree on the pavement at the side of the cathedral on the Royal Mile, not the front, and the operator warns the map pin sits on the wrong side of the church. The Edinburgh Dark History Tour at $24.23 meets in West Parliament Square in front of the cathedral, look for the white umbrella. This page leaves the building's full history to the cathedral's own information.

The South Bridge Vaults

South Bridge was designed by Robert Kay and built by Alexander Laing, with the foundation stone laid on 1 August 1785. It opened to foot traffic on 19 November 1786 over temporary wooden planks and was completed in 1788. The bridge has 19 arches, and the chambers built inside them hold about 120 rooms ranging from 2 to 40 square metres. They were meant to house taverns, cobblers' workshops and merchants' storage, and worked as intended for only about 30 years before businesses began leaving as early as 1795.

In the 1800s the vaults became slum housing for the poor, with illegal gambling taverns and an unlicensed whisky distillery among their uses. They were abandoned at some point between about 1835 and 1875. Rugby player Norrie Rowan rediscovered them in the 1980s, and excavation in 1985 found middens with toys, medicine bottles and pottery. Records from the slum period are almost non-existent, so most vault ghost stories are folklore. Today the north side hosts ghost tours and the south side holds the event venues The Caves and The Rowantree. Note that the Blair Street Vaults are a separate set of chambers from the Niddry Street and South Bridge vaults, and each operator claims exclusivity over its own set. The Edinburgh Vaults guide compares them all.

The Banshee Labyrinth

The Banshee Labyrinth at 29-35 Niddry Street is the haunted pub on this list. It is built partly into the South Bridge vaults, which is the documented fact behind its reputation. The pub has seven rooms, three bars, a live music venue and a cinema.

The ghost stories are staff and visitor accounts, not records. People describe a figure called The Watcher, a faceless man in a tricorn hat and long black coat, and refurbishment workers described a sobbing woman in a grey dress. None of this is proven. If you want the vaults around it explained properly, the vault tours listed on this site run nearby, and the Edinburgh Evening Underground Ghost Tour at $25 covers the South Bridge arches in 75 minutes.

Gilmerton Cove

Gilmerton Cove is a set of hand-carved sandstone rooms under Gilmerton, in the south of the city at about 55.9056 N, 3.1331 W. It is first recorded in 1721, and its purpose is unknown. Theories include a tavern, a Covenanter refuge, a Hellfire Club meeting place and a smugglers' den, and all of them are theories only.

The cove opened to visitors in 2003 and was reported closed from the COVID-19 pandemic through 2023. No current status was found for this guide, so do not travel to Gilmerton without checking first whether it has reopened. For a confirmed underground experience in the city centre, the Edinburgh Underground Vaults Evening Ghost Tour with Whisky and the City of the Dead: The Double Dead Tour both take you below ground on a booked tour.

Greyfriars Kirkyard

Greyfriars Kirkyard at 26A Candlemaker Row was opened in 1562 on the grounds of a Franciscan friary and holds hundreds of notable burials, including geologist James Hutton and poet Allan Ramsay. Two low iron mortsafes still stand in the yard, cages built to stop resurrection men reaching fresh graves. The story that draws the crowds concerns the Black Mausoleum, the domed tomb of Sir George Mackenzie, the Lord Advocate nicknamed Bluidy Mackenzie for persecuting the Covenanters.

The legend says a homeless man broke into the tomb in the late 1990s, fell through the floor and woke the Mackenzie Poltergeist, and that visitors have since reported bruises, scratches and cold spots. None of it is proven. The tomb sits beside the Covenanters' Prison, an enclosure where about 400 Covenanter prisoners were held after the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679.

The council keeps that section locked to protect the graves, and it can be entered only by arrangement, on the Friends of Greyfriars open days, or on a guided tour such as City of the Dead: The Double Dead Tour, which costs $34.99 and whose operator says it has after-hours access. The full Greyfriars Kirkyard guide covers the graves, and Greyfriars Bobby covers the dog's story in detail.

Old Calton Burial Ground

Old Calton Burial Ground opened in 1718 on the slope of Calton Hill and was split in two when Waterloo Place was built between 1815 and 1819. Philosopher David Hume is buried here, and the ground also holds the Political Martyrs' Monument, an obelisk for reformers sentenced to deportation in 1793, and a Lincoln statue dedicated in 1893, the only American Civil War monument outside the United States. It is run by the City of Edinburgh Council and is Category A listed.

The haunting stories here are quieter than Greyfriars, and no ghost story specific to this ground appears in the sources, so go for the graves and the atmosphere rather than a named ghost. Two bookable tours walk it. Edinburgh Darkside Ghost Tour of Mysteries, Murder and Legends spends 10 minutes in the cemetery on a 2 hour route priced at $29, and Edinburgh Dark Secrets of the Old Town Ghost Walking Tour covers it on a 2 hour walk costing $26 in English, French or German.

Canongate Kirkyard

Canongate Kirk was founded in 1688 and completed in 1691, and its kirkyard at the lower end of the Royal Mile holds about 62 tombs, 140 monuments and 150 wall plaques. Economist Adam Smith is buried here, and the poet Robert Fergusson, who died in 1774, has a monument arranged by Robert Burns and erected in 1828. The last burial was architect Robert Hurd in 1963.

The kirkyard appears as the finishing point of dark history walks rather than as the home of a named ghost. Edinburgh Darkside Ghost Tour of Mysteries, Murder and Legends ends here after 2 hours, and Edinburgh Dark Secrets of the Old Town Ghost Walking Tour also closes its route in the kirkyard. The Mercat Tours product Doomed, Dead and Buried is on sale via Tiqets from 31 pounds lasts 1 hour 45 minutes and ends at Canongate Kirkyard, though that listing is for adults only, with no children under 18.

St Cuthbert's Churchyard

St Cuthbert's Church stands at 5 Lothian Road, with a churchyard reached by steps below Princes Street. The church was probably founded in the 7th century and first recorded in 1128, and the present building dates from 1892 to 1894. Mathematician John Napier and writer Thomas De Quincey are buried in the churchyard.

The ground has real body-snatching history. A high wall was built against resurrection men by 1738, a kirk beadle was implicated in body thefts around 1742, and a watchtower was erected on the boundary in 1827. The Edinburgh Comedy Horror Ghost Bus Tour passes St Cuthbert's Graveyard on its 75 minute route, which costs $28.

Entry to the churchyard itself is free, so you can walk it yourself after the bus tour.

The Grassmarket Gallows and Half-Hangit Maggie

The Grassmarket was a market place from 1477 and the city's place of public execution. More than 100 Covenanters were hanged here between 1661 and 1688, and a dark paving mark in the square records the shadow of the gibbet, with a memorial from 1937 noting where it stood. The gallows was dismantled each night and stored in the Parliament House vaults, and executions moved to the Old Tolbooth in 1764.

The square's best known story is Maggie Dickson, hanged in 1724 who survived the drop, which earned her the name half-hangit Maggie. The Porteous Riots of 1736 also ended here, when a mob lynched Captain John Porteous. Edinburgh Witches and Haunted History Walking Tour finishes at the Grassmarket with the Half-Hangit Maggie story, costing $24.23 for 70 to 75 minutes, and the Edinburgh Comedy Horror Ghost Bus Tour passes through the square.

Major Weir on the West Bow

Major Thomas Weir lived from 1599 to 1670 and commanded the Edinburgh Town Guard from 1650. He was known as the Bowhead Saint for his public piety, until in 1670 he confessed from his sickbed 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 tried on 9 April 1670 and found guilty, and Weir was executed that year. The upper West Bow was called Major Weir's Land for two centuries because his house stood empty for more than 100 years, its reputation for hauntings keeping tenants away. Tales of a phantom calf at the bed-end and his stick turning in the flames are folklore with no records after 1670.

Holyrood Palace and Abbey

The Palace of Holyroodhouse sits at the bottom of the Royal Mile and has 289 rooms, with the present palace built between 1671 and 1678 to a design by Sir William Bruce. Its dark story is documented rather than legendary. David Rizzio, secretary to Mary Queen of Scots, was murdered in her apartments on 9 March 1566 and is said to have received 57 dagger wounds.

Mary lived in the royal apartments from 1561 to 1567. Next door, Holyrood Abbey was founded in 1128 by King David I, its roof collapsed on 2 December 1768, and the ruin is a scheduled monument holding the graves of James II and James V. An advance adult ticket is listed at about 22 pounds, and the palace closes during royal functions, so check opening days. The Edinburgh Comedy Horror Ghost Bus Tour passes Holyrood Palace but does not enter it.

Surgeons' Hall

Surgeons' Hall on Nicolson Street is where the Burke and Hare story ends up on display. The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh was founded in 1505, the present building was designed by William Henry Playfair and finished in 1832, and the museums reopened in 2015 after a 4.2 million pound refurbishment. Burke's death mask and a pocketbook said to be made from his skin are held here.

The museum is open 7 days a week from 10am to 5pm with last entry at 4:30pm, adult admission is 10 pounds, concessions 6.50 pounds and children 5 to 15 are 5.50 pounds, with under 5s free. It recommends a minimum age of 10, and children under 16 need an adult. No pre-booking is needed for standard visits.

The full tale of the 16 murders is in the Burke and Hare guide.

The Full List, Place by Place

Free places can be seen without a ticket, though the Covenanters' Prison inside Greyfriars is locked and needs a guided group or an open day. Castle prices are the official Historic Environment Scotland figures, at 23.50 pounds adult online or 26 pounds at the gate, with children under 7 free. Admission prices for paid attractions are in pounds as the operators list them.

Tickets

Each row gives the lowest adult rate shown on the booking page and the length of the visit.