"Got to check out a couple of graveyards and learn about the spookier aspects of Edinburgh— the plague, witch trials, etc. Good way to spend an evening and learn some history!"
Royal Mile · Canongate Kirkyard · Old Calton
Edinburgh Ghost Tour: Plague, Witches and Body Snatchers
A two-hour ghost walk through Edinburgh's Old Town with a local guide: the plague years, the witch trials, Burke and Hare, and two of the city's old burial grounds after dark.
Top rated
From
$27
per person
Free cancellation
- 4.6 / 5 2,834 Reviews
- 2 hours Duration
- Two Kirkyards Canongate & Old Calton
- Local Guide Old Town Storyteller
- Free Cancellation
The Experience
What Makes This Edinburgh Ghost Tour Unmissable
Plague doctors, witch trials, Burke and Hare and two of the Old Town's burial grounds: what the walk covers.
Highlights
- Stroll down winding alleyways in the center of Edinburgh
- Learn about Burke and Hare, known as the Westport Murderers
- Discover the witch and warlock trials that took place in Scotland
- Visit Scotland's most haunted graveyard, Old Calton Cemetery
- Hear stories, myths and funny anecdotes from your local guide
What's Included
- Tour guide
- Walking tour
How the Edinburgh Ghost Tour Works
Four stages of the two-hour walk, from the meeting point to the last kirkyard.
Meet your guide in the Old Town
The meeting point is on your ticket and depends on the language you book: English, German or French. Arrive ten minutes early; the tour leaves on time.
The closes and the plague years
Walk the narrow closes off the Royal Mile and hear how the city lived through the plague, including the doctors who treated the sick.
Witches, warlocks and body snatchers
Your guide tells the stories of Scotland's witch trials and of Burke and Hare, the West Port murderers who sold bodies to the anatomy school.
Canongate Kirkyard and Old Calton
Finish among the graves of two old burial grounds, with views across the city. The walk takes about two hours in all.
Photo Gallery
Edinburgh Ghost Tour — Through the Lens
The closes, kirkyards and the Royal Mile after dark, photographed on the walk.
Book Your Experience
Check Availability & Prices
Select your preferred date and time. Cancel up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund.
Old Town Walk, Vaults or Ghost Bus: Which Edinburgh Ghost Tour?
Three ways to spend a dark Edinburgh evening, compared on what you see, how long it takes and who it suits.
| Feature | MOST NEW REVIEWS Old Town Ghost Walk | Vaults & Greyfriars | Ghost Bus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Format | Two-hour walk through the closes, Canongate Kirkyard and Old Calton | 90-minute walk through Greyfriars Kirkyard, then inside the South Bridge Vaults | Comedy horror show on a black vintage double-decker |
| Underground | No, it stays above ground | Yes, the South Bridge Vaults | No |
| Burial grounds | Canongate Kirkyard and Old Calton | Greyfriars Kirkyard | Seen from the bus |
| Tour Length | 2 hours | 1.5 hours | 75 minutes |
| Style | Storytelling history with dark humour | History with paranormal accounts | Scripted comedy and frights |
| Ages | No age limit listed; not for wheelchair users | Suggested 12+; no under-2s | Family-friendly |
| Free Cancellation | Up to 24h before | Up to 24h before | Up to 24h before |
| Starting Price | From $27/per person | From $35 per person (October 2026) | From $28 per person (October 2026) |
| Check Dates | See the Vaults Tour | See the Bus Tour |
More Options
Compare More Edinburgh Ghost Tours
Six more ways to spend a dark Edinburgh evening: vault tours, the ghost bus and Mary King's Close. All with free cancellation.
GHOST BUSEdinburgh: Comedy Horror Ghost Bus Tour
Experience Edinburgh’s spooks and ghosts on a guided bus tour, riding to the dark side on board an elegantly refurbished vintage double-decker bus. A strange conductor will tell stories of executions, murders and still-occurring hauntings.
EVENING UNDERGROUNDEdinburgh: Evening Underground Ghost Tour
Discover the chambers beneath the streets of Edinburgh at the Edinburgh Vaults. Hear true tales of murder and witchcraft on a spooky ghost tour of the Old Town. Visit Greyfriars Kirkyard, and venture down some of the small alleys off the Royal Mile.
VAULTS + GREYFRIARSEdinburgh: Haunted Underground Vaults and Graveyard Tour
Expect to get shivers on a tour of the haunted sites of Edinburgh and visit the Greyfriars Kirkyard and Edinburgh Vaults.
MOST REVIEWEDEdinburgh: Underground Vaults Tour
Enjoy a guided walking tour of the vaults beneath Edinburgh's Old Town. Listen to tales from your guide about murders, witches, and the people who inhabited this supposedly haunted location.
ADULTS 18+Edinburgh: Late-Night Underground Vaults Terror Tour
Venture underneath Edinburgh's Royal Mile for terrifying ghost stories on this guided tour of the city's underground which includes the Edinburgh Vaults, stone circle vault, and a torture exhibition.
MARY KING'S CLOSEEdinburgh: Real Mary King's Close Guided Tour
Explore Edinburgh’s hidden history beneath the Royal Mile on a fully-guided tour of the Real Mary King's Close. Discover what it was like for the people who lived, worked, and died on the Close.
Before you book
Edinburgh's Ghost Tours, Compared
Which one to book, what each costs this month, and what the stories are really about.
The short answer
For a first evening, book the Dark Secrets of the Old Town walk. It is two hours on foot with a local guide through the closes and two of the Old Town’s burial grounds, Canongate Kirkyard and Old Calton, and it covers the stories Edinburgh is known for: the plague years, the witch trials and the Burke and Hare murders. It gained more new reviews in the first half of October 2026 than any other ghost tour in the city, it is rated 4.6 out of 5 from 2,834 reviews, and it costs from $27 per person (checked October 2026).
Check dates for the Old Town ghost walk
The walk stays above ground. Guides are storytellers rather than actors, so expect history told with some dark humour, not people jumping out of doorways. The tour runs in English, German and French, and the meeting point depends on the language you book.
If you want to go underground
Two places under the Old Town can be visited, and only with a guide. The South Bridge Vaults are the chambers built into the arches of South Bridge after 1785. They were workshops and stores, then shelter for the city’s poorest, then filled in and forgotten until the 1980s. Auld Reekie Tours runs three strengths of vault tour from the Royal Mile:
Vaults and Greyfriars
Haunted Vaults and Graveyard Tour
Greyfriars Kirkyard first, then down a spiral stair into the vaults. Suggested for ages 12 and up.
See the tour →Shorter, day or evening
Underground Vaults Tour
The most-reviewed tour in Edinburgh. Without the torture exhibition option it is suggested for ages 5 and up.
See the tour →Adults only
Late-Night Vaults Terror Tour
Later at night and strictly 18 and over, with the torture exhibition and the stone-circle vault.
See the tour →Prices, ratings and review counts from GetYourGuide, checked October 2026; operators change prices by season, so treat them as the shape of the market, not a quote.
The other underground site is the Real Mary King’s Close, a 17th-century street that was built over when the Royal Exchange, now the City Chambers, went up on top of it from 1753. It is a daytime social-history tour rather than a ghost tour, but it is where the plague stories happened. Prices, times and what it feels like inside are in the Mary King’s Close tickets guide.
A buried 17th-century street
The Real Mary King's Close
A guide in character leads you through the closes beneath the Royal Mile. Children under 5 are not admitted.
See tickets →With children
Comedy Horror Ghost Bus
Actors on a black vintage double-decker. As many laughs as frights, and no cobbles or vault stairs.
See the bus tour →Prices, ratings and review counts from GetYourGuide, checked October 2026; operators change prices by season, so treat them as the shape of the market, not a quote.
Halloween 2026
Halloween falls on a Saturday this year. The walks and vault tours all run that weekend, so book the evening you want first and check the cancellation terms on the listing if plans change. The clocks go back on Sunday 25 October, and by Halloween the sun sets at about 4:35pm, so even the early tours start in the dark.
The Beltane Fire Society holds its Samhuinn Fire Festival on Calton Hill on 31 October, from 6:30pm to 10:45pm. Tickets are sold only through the society’s own box office, which showed them sold out, with a waiting list, when we checked on 22 October. The Edinburgh Halloween guide covers the Halloween edition of the Old Town walk and how to fit a tour around the festival.
What the tours cost this month
| Tour | Length | From | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dark Secrets of the Old Town walk | 2 hours | $27 | 4.6 (2,834) |
| Haunted Vaults and Graveyard | 1.5 hours | $35 | 4.6 (7,503) |
| Underground Vaults Tour | 1 hour | $32 | 4.5 (12,693) |
| Late-Night Vaults Terror Tour, 18+ | 75 minutes | $35 | 4.6 (4,723) |
| The Dark Side walking tour | 2 hours | $29 | 4.8 (1,566) |
| Witches and haunted history walk | 75 minutes | $24 | 4.8 (1,436) |
| Comedy Horror Ghost Bus | 75 minutes | $28 | 4.5 (4,891) |
| Real Mary King’s Close | 1 hour | $38 | 4.7 (4,574) |
Prices, ratings and review counts from GetYourGuide, checked October 2026. Treat them as the shape of the market, not a quote.
What the stories are about
Most of what a good Edinburgh guide tells you happened to real people, and the best tours treat it that way.
Plague reached the city in 1645. In the closes off the High Street, families were shut into their homes and the sick were moved out to huts on the Burgh Muir. Mary King’s Close, named after a cloth merchant who died in 1644, still has the rooms where some of them lived.
Scotland’s witch trials ran from the Witchcraft Act of 1563 until its repeal in 1736. The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft records 3,837 people accused, most of them women, and many of those convicted in Edinburgh were executed on Castlehill, at the top of the Royal Mile. A small bronze fountain there, the Witches’ Well, has marked the spot since 1894, and in March 2022 Scotland’s First Minister made a formal apology to those accused.
In 1828 William Burke and William Hare killed at least 16 people in their West Port lodging house and sold the bodies to the anatomy school. Their last victim, Margaret Docherty, was killed on Halloween night, 31 October 1828. Burke was hanged on the Lawnmarket in January 1829, Hare walked free after giving evidence, and the case led to the Anatomy Act of 1832.
The ghost stories sit on top of that history. Whether you believe them is your own business; the dates, names and places are real.
Ages, stairs and walking home
- Old Town walk: two hours on cobbles and slopes, not suitable for wheelchair users.
- Vault tours: a two-foot step at the entrance and a spiral stair inside, so not for wheelchair users or anyone who struggles with steps. Under-2s are not admitted, the Graveyard tour is suggested for ages 12 and up, and the Terror Tour is 18 and over.
- Mary King’s Close: 58 steps down and 38 back up, dim light, no under-5s.
- Ghost bus: the easiest option for young children and anyone who would rather sit.
Tours start and finish in the centre of the Old Town, where the Royal Mile, South Bridge and the Grassmarket stay busy late into the evening. Use the same care you would in any city centre at night and you will be among plenty of other people.
Read next
- Greyfriars Kirkyard tours: Greyfriars Bobby, George Mackenzie and the Harry Potter names, by day or at night
- Mary King’s Close tickets: what it is, how long it takes and whether it is scary
- Edinburgh at Halloween: what is on this year and which tour to book
- Ghost tour, ghost walk or ghost bus: the three formats side by side
- The history of the Edinburgh Vaults
- The best time of year for a ghost tour and what to wear
Guest Reviews
What Ghost-Tour Guests Say
4.6/5
from 2834 verified Edinburgh travellers
"it was amazing, really interesting our tour guide was called Ignas, he was brilliant, full of some amazing history and facts, and was very funny too! Overall a brilliant experience"
"What a great night! It was a blast hearing about Edinburgh's darker side while also picking up some local history and seeing the landmarks. Gavin was a fantastic guide, super friendly and easy to talk to. Thank you so much for a really interesting evening!"
"The tour was fantastic! Very interesting with information about the history of Edinburgh. The tour guide Gavin was great, very knowledgeable and friendly. Thank you for this tour, I highly recommend it!"
"Sonia had so many interesting things to say about Edinburgh. We was so entertained. She is very professional guide. We will recommend your tour to our friends and we'll be back for another tour in future. Many thanks Sonia."
Read all 2834 verified reviews
See All ReviewsWalk the Old Town After Dark
Two hours with a local guide through the closes, Canongate Kirkyard and Old Calton. Free cancellation up to 24 hours before. Starting from $27 per person.
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Find a tour that fits your schedule. Dates and cancellation terms are on each listing.
Edinburgh Ghost Tour Questions
What people ask before they book a ghost tour in Edinburgh. Prices checked October 2026.
For a first evening, the Dark Secrets of the Old Town walk: two hours through the closes, Canongate Kirkyard and Old Calton, covering the plague, the witch trials and Burke and Hare. It gained more new reviews in the first half of October 2026 than any other ghost tour in the city. If you want to go underground, take the Haunted Vaults and Graveyard Tour instead, and with young children, the Comedy Horror Ghost Bus.
Yes, for most visitors. The stories are mostly true history about real people, told where it happened, and the vaults can only be entered with a guide. On GetYourGuide most tours cost from $22 to $35 per person for 75 minutes to two hours (checked October 2026). Visitors who rate them lower usually expected jump scares; these are storytelling tours.
The Late-Night Vaults Terror Tour. It runs later at night, is strictly 18 and over, and includes the torture exhibition and the stone-circle vault. The standard Haunted Vaults and Graveyard Tour is atmospheric but suggested for ages 12 and up.
Not in the jump-scare sense. It is a one-hour social-history tour of 17th-century streets beneath the City Chambers, led by a guide in character. The setting is dim and enclosed, and the tour stops in Annie's room, the best-known ghost story in the close. Children under 5 are not admitted. See the Mary King's Close tickets guide.
One hour. Tickets are for a set time, and the entrance is at 2 Warriston's Close on the High Street, opposite St Giles' Cathedral.
No. The South Bridge Vaults can only be entered on a guided tour. The best-known vault tours are run by Auld Reekie Tours, from 300 Lawnmarket on the Royal Mile, and by Mercat Tours. The vaults history guide explains why they were sealed and how they were found again.
Some are. The Ghost Bus is family-friendly. The daytime Underground Vaults Tour without the torture exhibition is suggested for ages 5 and up, and the Haunted Vaults and Graveyard Tour for 12 and up; neither admits children under 2. The Late-Night Vaults Terror Tour is strictly 18 and over. Mary King's Close admits children from age 5.
On GetYourGuide, the main walks and vault tours cost from $22 to $35 per person, the Ghost Bus from $28 and Mary King's Close from $38 (checked October 2026). There are also tip-based walks on the Royal Mile, which stay above ground.
The tours start and finish in the centre of the Old Town, where the Royal Mile, South Bridge and the Grassmarket stay busy into the evening. Take the same care you would in any city centre at night. Wear shoes with grip: the cobbles and closes are steep and slippery when wet.
Flat shoes with grip for the cobbles and vault floors, a warm layer for the vaults, and a waterproof from October to April. See the what to wear guide.
Often, but evening tours fill up in October, and Halloween 2026 falls on a Saturday. Booking ahead costs nothing extra, and cancellation terms are on each listing. See the Edinburgh Halloween guide.
Still have questions? Email us at info@edinburghghosttour.com
More After Dark
Ghost Tours by Bus and Underground
The comedy-horror ghost bus through the New Town and Old Town, and the tours that go beneath the Old Town streets.