Edinburgh Darkside Walking Tour: Mysteries, Murder and Legends

Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh Darkside Haunted Walking Tour Mysteries Murder and Legends

From $26.32

Select Date and Travelers

up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)

2 hours
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

Journey through Edinburgh’s grisliest tales on a haunted walking tour. Experience the ghastly histories of monsters, madness, and murder that cast a dark shadow on the capital city. Discover the stories and sites of witch trials, pagan rituals, and executions, and hear about local monsters that live in urban myth. Then visit the chilling Old Calton Burial Ground or Canongate Kirkyard cemetery to learn about body-snatching and some of the infamous interred.

Walking tour of Edinburgh’s murky past and present, led by a knowledgeable guide
Explore the eerie, cobblestone streets of Edinburgh’s Old Town
Climb Calton Hill, the site of witch trials and pagan rituals, and take in panoramic views of the city
Visit Old Calton Burial Ground or Canongate Kirkyard cemetery and learn about body-snatching, vampires and more
Discover the capital’s gruesome past through the guide’s gripping commentary

What's Included

Professional guide

Hotel pickup and drop-off

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

130 High St, Edinburgh EH1 1QS, UK
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.

Start time

06:30 PM

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

What To Expect

Your ghostly adventure starts in the evening on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile in Old Town. Meet your local guide and steel yourself for a walk through the dark recesses of Edinburgh’s haunted history, hearing stories of murder, monsters, cannibals and other local oddities. Cross your fingers that you encounter (or not encounter!) a spooky character at one of the venues to come.

First wind through shadowed alleys and cobbled streets to North Bridge and Calton Hill, where you get panoramic views of the city and a dose of gruesome history. Explore the monuments perched high above the city and learn about the grisly witch trials that occurred here. Still a sacred area for many, Calton Hill continues to host pagan rituals like the Edinburgh Beltane Fire Festival.

Afterwards, continue to one of Edinburgh’s famous cemeteries. Stop at the 17th-century Canongate Kirkyard cemetery or Old Calton Burial Ground, where David Hume is buried. Hear about his fabled deal with the devil, as well as the history of Burke and Hare, body snatchers who made a killing (so to speak!) by selling corpses to medical science.

Between stops, hear other creepy stories of execution, murder, torture, and hauntings. Your tour returns to the Royal Mile at a local pub. Pop inside for a drink to help warm your chilled soul (own expense)!

Royal Mile

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

North Bridge

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Calton Hill

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Old Calton Burial Ground

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Canongate Kirk

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Edinburgh Old Town (Pass By)

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
Near public transportation
Most travelers can participate

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.
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 20 travelers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.

Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Reviews

5.0

3,351 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

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Showing 1-10 of 3,351 reviews

Great walking tour

Regan_C, May 2024

Sabelle was fantastic! She was fun, vibrant, and engaging. We absolutely recommend the tour and her.

If you're doing only selected tours, select this one!

VarunPratap_S, May 2024

Amazing guide, great tour! Sabela is so engaging and entertaining, we thoroughly enjoyed the tour and recommend it!

Enjoyed it

Samuel_F, Apr 2024

Alasdair was an amazing guide! Really enjoyed it. He was funny and had a cptivating way of telling stories.

Fantastic tour guide with great stories!

Joy_H, Apr 2024

Alasdair was an amazing storyteller and great guide for this tour! Well worth it to take this tour, go up to the cemetery and Calton Hill. Highly recommend

Great evening

Steve_V, Apr 2024

Great stories , enjoyable experience. Knowledge of guide was excellent-many thanks we had a great time on the tour .

Alasdair was amazing!

Tammy_Y, Apr 2024

Alasdair was amazing! Great story teller, very engaging, funny and very informative. I booked this tour last minute and so glad I did. Leaned so much about the dark side and history of Edinburgh, plus some really beautiful photo spots.

Great tour!

Gina_C, Apr 2024

The storytelling by Alister were amazing! learned some old history and some new history all creepy and true!!

This tour was awesome. ...

Neafer_S, Apr 2024

This tour was awesome. Sabella, the tour guide, was very energetic and enthusiastic throughout the entire tour. She had some great stories of the darker side of Edinburgh's history. She also kept us all engaged throughout the tour and was able to answer all tge questions we were asking. I would definitely recommend this tour.

Sabella rocks

GEORGE_C, Apr 2024

Sabella was awesome. We loved her energy and enjoyed every stop of the tour. We particularly like the Loch descriptions and imagining how life in Edinburgh was in the Middle Ages.

Dark Walking Tour

Karen_C, Apr 2024

Great walking tour to hear all the dark stories of Edinburgh. Sabella really did well with her story telling & stops of interest along the way. Was brisk walking with hills & stairs so make sure you’re able. The two hours went by so quickly. Really enjoyed it.

Was expecting psychological thriller and got slasher

Anne_F, Apr 2024

Did an Edinburgh dark history tour last year with another tour company last year and it was brilliant. This one was terrible. The guide seemed to relish in gory details and was proud of making people faint. I was expecting more story and less slasher and was disappointed that some of the itinerary described was skipped.

Tour guide Sabella was great!

Deborah_H, Apr 2024

Just fun and informative! Sabella was a joy and delightful tour guide! I'm being punished for writing the review and having to hit 100 characters..........

No tour guide

Amanda_C, Apr 2024

Unfortunately, our guide never showed up and although we got a full refund, we never got a proper explanation as to why 31 people were left without the tour we all paid for. Very disappointing considering we scheduled our day around it and we only had one day in Edinburgh.

Great Tour!

Brittany_B, Apr 2024

Fantastic, well-thought out tour! Loved our guide, Niamh, who provided a great mix of history and entertainment! Would highly recommend this tour to anyone interested in Edinburgh's 'dark history'!

Great Tour, Great Time!

dustingentry, Apr 2024

Alasdair was a great tour guide. He was very knowledgeable and really got in to the story telling. My friends and I were really glad to have done the tour even with how tired we were from a full day of exploring Edinburgh.

Wanna hear some dark stories?!

jfullerton988, Apr 2024

Our guide, Alisdair (spelling? Sorry if I messed it up), was very knowledgeable and a great story teller. Highly recommend!

Do it

Jessica_K, Apr 2024

This was a great tour! Lots of fascinating info but also funny and we got to see some great spots! Niahm was a fantastic guide!

Great!

MC_C, Apr 2024

Funny, unique and better than most tours! Highly recommended for those that want some unusual and surprising stories about Edinburgh.

Alasdair was great, Edinburgh is an old and spooky place!

Alec_B, Apr 2024

I did this walking tour with a friend and probably about 15-18 others? Alasdair was our guide and really great! He was super personable and engaging with each and every story. He clearly knew and understood the history while having an affinity for the spooky/gory stuff. Alasdair paced the tour well and covered most of the Old Town (and it's history) without making us hoof it everywhere. The length of the tour itself was perfect at about an hour and 45 minutes. Not a critique, just a warning. Please note the name of the tour. Mysteries, Murders and Legends. It is not a GHOST tour. There was a sweet family with a younger child who did not enjoy the particuarly gruesome murder stories (again, in the title) and had to have her airpods in the entire time. I would just stress to people that this is a different kind of tour than ghost stories in a graveyard. This is no fault of Alasdair's in my opinion as I totally expected this content based off the information posted on the booking page.

Gruesome tales of Edinburgh

Doug_G, Apr 2024

Our guide Alastair was a fantastic storyteller. We really enjoyed his gruesome tales about various characters and dark times in the city of Edinburgh.

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