Ready for the haunting of your life? Ghost tours in Edinburgh are sure to satisfy you.
Tours into Edinburgh's haunted past
The Edinburgh ghost tours are among the most popular walking tours of the city. Edinburgh's history spans hundreds of years and the overcrowded Old Town, home of the common and rich alike, became the perfect setting for some of the richest gruesome folklore in Scotland.
Ghost tour guides, haunted tales and historical facts
Most guides doing Edinburgh ghost walks are masters of their craft. With training in history and storytelling, they set the right mood for the legends and horrific stories they have to tell.
Most historical facts are probably accurate, if not a little dramatised, but ghostly stories are based on local folklore and legends. The hauntings are allegedly backed up by psychic experts and some ghost tour companies keep a detailed record of the hundreds of independent sightings reported by tourists.
Ghost tours times and ticket prices
Historical tours around the Old Town take place during the day, while the really scary tours with ghosts and paranormal activity for adults take place late in the evening.
The day walking tours are suitable for children although the ones that take you underground or in graveyards may be upsetting to them. When you look for a family ghost walk, choose one with a more historical focus. These are very entertaining and children do enjoy them.
A good way to get an overview of Edinburgh's ghostly past is to take one of the inexpensive ghost tours. Most tours last from 1 to 2 hours. Prices vary from company to company but expect it to vary between ￡6 and ￡8. Mercat Tours has several ghost tour options as does Auld Reekie Tours, Blackhart Storytellers Tours and The Cadies & Witchery Tours
Ghost tour with historic focus
Many real-life historical incidents such as tragedies, executions, murders and stories of body snatchers are associated with the Old Town. Some of them are as eerie and chilling as some of the more paranormal tales.
Legends of witches, pagan rituals.He dead and ghosts live to this day and the more interesting ones are included in the walking tours. With such a long and rich history, gruesome characters simply cannot be left out of Edinburgh's folklore.
The ghost tours take two formats. The most common one has a strong focus on the real-life historical stories of the Old Town. A trained historian or history student relates the tales and points out buildings or objects of interest -- such as the grave of John Knox, now a simple mark in a city car park.
The storytelling is entertaining and accurate, with occasional ghostly tales and unexplained sightings and mysteries. On these history-ghost tours you also learn of how real life unfolded in an overcrowded 17th century Edinburgh.
The Old Town in Edinburgh had ten storey-high buildings and many underground closes (narrow streets). The stench of the Nor' Loch nearby and human waste made living here hardly bearable. While you would never want to live in those times, learning about them can be enlightening and these ghost walks are a good way to gain insight into the life of Old Edinburgh.
The tours also tell stories from centuries ago of notorious Edinburgh figures like Deacon Brodie, respectable citizen by day and burglar and murderer by night that inspired Robert Louis Stevenson to write 'Jekyll and Hyde' and who was eventually hung.
Dramatised ghost tours
Some local ghost tour companies put up a complete theatrical show. The tour is led by a 'deceased' guide dressed as a vampire with a flair for the dramatic. The storytelling focuses more on the darker side of spirits and supernatural, bringing to life before your eyes the stories that make Edinburgh, to some, haunted.
The character of the deceased tour guide is also used on Lothian Buses to advertise their Night Bus network so be sure to pay special attention to the words 'When dawn breaks, I catch the Night Bus home'.
An added attraction of these ghost walks are the tour 'jumper-ooters'. A jumper-ooter is someone who intends to scare the living pants out of everyone on tour by jumping out at them at appropriate moments dressed as ghosts, ghouls and other creatures of the supernatural. At night, this can become very scary and the Old Town is known for its occasional screams.
