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Edinburgh Dark Side Tour: Ghosts, Murders, Legends
4.8
3,874 Ratings
Edinburgh
Uncover the dark secrets of Edinburgh on this 2-hour walking tour. Explore chilling cemeteries, hear tales of witches and vampires, and discover the city’s gruesome history.
Uncover the dark secrets of Edinburgh on this 2-hour walking tour. Explore chilling cemeteries, hear tales of witches and vampires, and discover the city’s gruesome history.
Duration:
2 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
- Royal Mile - Begin your journey with a guide on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, the central street of the Old Town, and embark on a walking tour exploring the city’s mysterious side. Edinburgh is teeming with peculiar happenings, with stories of murderers, vampires, monsters, and even cannibals that locals share with a shiver.
- North Bridge -…
- Royal Mile - Begin your journey with a guide on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, the central street of the Old Town, and embark on a walking tour exploring the city’s mysterious side. Edinburgh is teeming with peculiar happenings, with stories of murderers, vampires, monsters, and even cannibals that locals share with a shiver.
- North Bridge - Accompany your guide through shadowy courtyards and spooky alleys, listening to chilling tales of executions, murders, torture, ghosts, and witchcraft. Proceed to the North Bridge, known for its own daunting history, before ascending Calton Hill.
- Calton Hill - Experience a spine-tingling sensation as your guide recounts true stories of horror and gruesomeness, including the witch trials that occurred here. Learn how the site is still used for pagan rituals like the Edinburgh Beltane Fire Festival, and enjoy panoramic views of the city’s skyline.
- Old Calton Burial Ground - Continue to the Old Calton Burial Ground, one of Edinburgh’s eerie cemeteries. Observe the grand mausoleum marking the final resting place of David Hume, rumored to have bargained with the devil, and perhaps hear about the notorious body snatchers Burke and Hare.
- Canongate Kirk - Alternatively, explore the Canongate Kirkyard cemetery, dating back to the 17th century. Rest assured, this tour features no staged theatrics, monster masks, or fabricated stories.
- Edinburgh Old Town - After approximately two hours, the tour concludes at a local pub near the Royal Mile, where you can purchase a pint of beer or a dram of whisky to calm your nerves after this captivating and fascinating tour (own expense).
What's Included
- Professional guide
- Professional guide
What's Not Included
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
Additional Information
Discover the dark corners of Edinburgh. The horrifying and the majestic. The supernatural and the horrifying. This 2-hour journey is an enticingly thrilling walk through the eerie and obscure side of Scotland’s capital. Step into the spots known for legends of murder, horrifying creatures, and chaos, and make a stop at Old Calton Burial Ground or…
Discover the dark corners of Edinburgh. The horrifying and the majestic. The supernatural and the horrifying. This 2-hour journey is an enticingly thrilling walk through the eerie and obscure side of Scotland’s capital. Step into the spots known for legends of murder, horrifying creatures, and chaos, and make a stop at Old Calton Burial Ground or Canongate Kirkyard, two of Edinburgh’s eeriest graveyards. Listen to actual stories of witches, grave-robbers, vampires, cannibals and more shared by your captivating guide throughout the tour.
- The independent guides who employ us to market their tours have your best interests in mind; while the tour usually includes the sites & stories mentioned and lasts about 2 hours, your tour may vary depending on what your guide thinks is best for your group
- We unfortunately do not advise guests in wheelchairs to join the Dark Side Tour, due to the narrow stairways and steep hills. We apologize for any inconvenience or disappointment caused.
Location
130 High St
High Street
The tours starts at 130 High Street (The Royal Mile), on the corner with Stevenlaw's Close. Look for the guide with the SANDEMANs red name badge.
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.8
(3874 Ratings)
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Northstar785552
Aug 23, 2025
Thoroughly enjoyable - Thoroughly enjoyable evening with Ross as our guide on the Dark side tour of Edinburgh. Brimming with local knowledge, and a sense of humour, Ross was excellent. Highly recommend.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Danielavlt7
Mar 25, 2025
Interesting - A really interesting tour, thanks mainly to our guide Claudia who told us 1000 anecdotes related to superstitions, beliefs and supposed ghosts that populate some places and buildings of the city.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Emun_e
Dec 30, 2024
Best Edinburgh tour! - Our guide G was entertaining and authentic. A fantastic tour! We walked around the old town, explored closes and graveyard. An hour and a half well spent!
Review provided by Viator
Pamela_p
Oct 26, 2024
A good tour to do at dusk . - Our guide Niamh was a great performer with lots of stories to tell . She was an excellent host . The tour was great fun and very informative.
Review provided by Viator
Sheila_s
Oct 11, 2024
Great walking tour! - Charles was great! He was very knowledgeable, humorous, and the walk was at a nice pace. The tour lasted nearly 2 hours. Only small parts of it were up steep incline/stairs.
Review provided by Viator
Marijana_m
Jan 7, 2026
Great tour but very large group - A great tour with the super friendly Clara, who told everything in a very exciting way! Horror stories that really happened – the city is full of ghosts, simply fascinating.
The only thing that really bothered me was the very large group of 38 people. At the beginning we were so annoyed that we even thought about leaving after 10 minutes because it was hard to hear her while she was speaking. Later, many people left, the group became smaller (around 20 people), and it was much better.
My advice: please don’t accept such large groups. 38 people is really too many – 15 to a maximum of 20 would be perfect.
Review provided by Viator
Kayla
Jun 14, 2025
Great guide - Our tour guide, Belle was awesome! She was very knowledgeable and even gave extra facts after the conclusion of the tour. I just wish the size of the group was a bit smaller as the large group got us off track several times. Belle has more patience than me though because she was able to laugh off the annoying boys in the group. Even though we ended 30 minutes past the expected end time, we overall enjoyed the history, sites, and stories that were shared.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Vivek_r
Dec 14, 2025
This tour is good only... - This tour is good only for people interested in gory stories of Edinburgh...The guide should carry a mike as it was not possible to hear all the stories and in the end we had to go back without completing the tour as we could not understand the stories well.
Review provided by Viator
Brid_f
Nov 2, 2024
Edinburghs dark side tour, halloween night - The guide announced he was not taking us up Calton hill in Edinburgh even though this was a main part of the walk. The group was 34/35 so way too large and he wasted around half an hour of the walk getting everyone to introduce themselves and say what they were Afraid of. The guide then made a dig at me about how I was dressed ‘ in black shapeless clothes’ as he didn’t like when I said I had wanted to go up Calton hill. He said at another point ‘this tour sucks’ . Dreadful experience so we left with an hour of the tour to go.
Review provided by Viator
Samtheseagull
Oct 31, 2024
Could not find start point phone number +1 American - I travelled a long way to see a bit of Edinburgh so was very disappointed as I could not locate the start of the tour. Phone number is in the states. So no tour.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
