Edinburgh Dark Side Walking Tour of Murder, Witchcraft and Legends

The Royal Mile and Old Town Justice

The walk begins at 130 High Street in the heart of the Old Town, a cramped and teetering warren of closes where tens of thousands once lived amid disease, poverty and crime. The Royal Mile was the spine of the medieval city, and along it punishment was public: hangings drew crowds, offenders were locked in the stocks or nailed by the ear to the pillory, and the Town Guard, armed with long axes, kept an uneasy order.

For about 40 minutes your guide brings this world to life, explaining how justice worked, which crimes were punished most harshly and why so many legends grew from these streets. This is the starting point of a haunted Edinburgh Old Town walk, and the stories are grounded in real records rather than invention, which makes them all the more unsettling as darkness falls.

South Bridge and the Story of the Vaults

South Bridge was opened in 1788 to carry a new street across the Cowgate valley. Only one of its nineteen arches is visible today; the rest are hidden inside the buildings on either side, enclosing the vaulted chambers known as the Edinburgh Vaults. First used as workshops and stores, they were soon abandoned by traders because of damp and flooding.

Your guide tells how the vaults became a refuge for the poorest people of the city and a hiding place for illegal activity, and shares the most menacing legend said to linger in them. This stop, about 15 minutes, tells the story from street level; the tour does not go underground. It is a good moment to understand why the Edinburgh vaults are at the heart of so many ghost stories.

Calton Hill and the Scottish Witch Trials

Calton Hill rises at the east end of Princes Street and offers one of the finest views in the city: the Old Town skyline, the castle, Arthur's Seat and the lights of Leith. Its unfinished National Monument, begun in 1826 on the model of the Parthenon in Athens, and the City Observatory give it a classical character that earned Edinburgh the nickname Athens of the North.

Here, for about 30 minutes, your guide tells the story of the Scottish witch trials. Between the Witchcraft Act of 1563 and its repeal in 1736, thousands were accused, many after the panic of the 1590s when the king himself took part in questioning suspects. Is Calton Hill worth visiting? By day for the views and by night for this story, it is unforgettable, and the climb is short from the Old Town.

Old Calton Cemetery and Jacob's Ladder

Old Calton Cemetery, or Old Calton Burial Ground, opened in 1718 on the slope of Calton Hill. Its high walls and grand mausolea were built with body snatchers in mind. Your guide shows you how to read the symbols carved on the older headstones, skulls, crossed bones and hourglasses, reminders that life is short, and points out the tall obelisk of the Political Martyrs' Monument of 1844.

From here the route descends Jacob's Ladder, a steep, narrow stairway cut into the hillside that links the upper streets with Calton Road and the Canongate below. Once part of the route used to carry the dead to their burial, it is especially atmospheric after dark. Take care on the steps: this is one of the reasons the tour is not suitable for wheelchairs.

Canongate Tolbooth and Canongate Kirkyard

The Canongate was a separate burgh outside the town walls until 1856. Its Tolbooth, built in 1591 with a turreted tower and a projecting clock, served as courthouse, council chamber and prison, where torture and harsh justice left little room for mercy. Today it is a museum of the everyday lives of Edinburgh people, and your guide stops outside for about 15 minutes to tell the darker side of its history.

The tour ends next door in Canongate Kirkyard, behind the Dutch-gabled Canongate Kirk of 1691. Here you hear about the West Port murders of 1828, when two men killed sixteen people to sell their bodies to an anatomy school, a scandal that forced through the Anatomy Act of 1832. A Canongate Kirkyard visit at night is a fitting close to the darkest walk in the city.