Edinburgh Evening Ghost Tour with Underground Vaults and Greyfriars

The Royal Mile, Spine of the Old Town

The Royal Mile runs about a Scots mile, roughly 1.8 km, down the ridge from Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. It is made of four streets, Castlehill, the Lawnmarket, the High Street and the Canongate, and for centuries it was the whole of the capital. Because the town was squeezed inside its walls, buildings rose up to ten storeys or more, and rich and poor lived stacked in the same tenements.

Your Edinburgh ghost tour begins at the blue Police Box on the High Street, near the junction with South Bridge. In the evening the street lamps, the crown spire of St Giles' and the dark facades give the Royal Mile a very different mood from the daytime crowds. The Old Town and the New Town together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and this is the best place to start understanding both their beauty and their grim past.

The Hidden Closes and Wynds

Off both sides of the Royal Mile run dozens of closes and wynds, steep and narrow passages that once led into crowded courtyards and down to the valleys below. A close was originally a private entry that could be shut at night, while a wynd was a public lane wide enough for a cart. Many still carry the names of the merchants, trades or landlords who lived there, and some are barely wider than your shoulders.

For about 30 minutes your guide leads you through these passages and tells the stories behind them: outbreaks of plague in the 1500s and 1600s, public executions watched by crowds, the town guard, and the witch trials that swept Scotland from the late 16th century. In the dark, with echoes bouncing off the old stone walls, it is easy to see why the city became known for its ghost stories.

Greyfriars Kirkyard

Greyfriars Kirkyard opened as a burial ground in 1562 on land that had belonged to a Franciscan friary, the Grey Friars. Greyfriars Kirk, finished in 1620, was the first church built in Edinburgh after the Reformation, and in 1638 the National Covenant was signed here. After the Covenanters' defeat in 1679, hundreds of prisoners were held in an open field at the back of the kirkyard, today the walled and gated Covenanters' Prison.

Walking among the carved tombs, you see iron mortsafes, cages set over graves to stop body snatchers stealing fresh corpses for the anatomy schools. The guide explains why many call this the most haunted graveyard in the city and shares the legends of the Black Mausoleum. Is Greyfriars Kirkyard worth visiting? By night with a guide it is the most atmospheric stop in the Old Town; by day it is a peaceful place with fine views of the castle.

The Edinburgh Vaults beneath South Bridge

South Bridge was completed in 1788 to link the High Street with the university district across the Cowgate valley. Nineteen great arches carry the road, but only one is visible today; the others were built into and closed off by tenements, creating a hidden warren of vaulted rooms. Cobblers, cutlers and other traders rented the chambers as workshops and stores, until damp, flooding and darkness drove them out within a few decades.

The poorest people of the city then moved in, along with illicit trades, before the vaults were filled with rubble and forgotten. They were rediscovered in the 1980s. The Edinburgh underground vaults tour is the climax of this walk: by lantern light you explore the cold stone rooms while the guide recounts the lives lived and lost there. Visitors often report strange sounds and sudden chills, so it is the moment to stay close to your group.