10 Most Haunted Places in Edinburgh
The nights are drawing in, the haar is rolling up from the Forth and there's a definite chill creeping through the closes of the Old Town... Halloween is almost upon us, and there's no more fitting city in which to spend it.
Edinburgh has a reputation as one of the most haunted cities in the world, and it takes only a casual glance at its history to understand why.
Beneath its elegant spires lie forgotten vaults and buried streets once ravaged by plague. Its kirkyards were plundered by resurrection men, its squares saw riots and the occasional massacre, its Grassmarket gallows drew crowds in their thousands, and its hilltops once blazed with the fires of the witch trials. Few places on earth have packed quite so much murder, mystery and misery into just a few square miles!
At Escape The Past, we've spent years digging into the city's darkest chapters to bring them to life in our escape rooms. So, we've put together our countdown of the 10 most haunted places in Edinburgh, ranked from 10 to 1 in order of "hauntedness".
We've weighed up the number of recorded sightings, the paranormal investigations each place has attracted, and how long its legend has endured in Edinburgh literature and lore.
For each one, we'll tell you exactly where to find it, the real history behind it, and the hauntings that's made it famous. Read on... if you dare!
10. Surgeons' Square
Where exactly:
Surgeons' Square is an easy spot to miss. It's a quiet courtyard tucked behind Infirmary Street and Drummond Street, now nestled within the University of Edinburgh's High School Yards campus, and only about five minutes' walk from our own front door on Nicolson Square. You can wander through it today, but don't go looking for number 10: Dr Knox's building was demolished long ago but the original Surgeons' Hall building can still be found here.
The history:
In the early 19th century, this little square was the beating heart of Edinburgh's medical world. Old Surgeons' Hall was built here as an anatomy theatre in 1697, and by the 1820s the surrounding streets held one of the greatest concentrations of private anatomy schools in Europe. The most famous of them all was at number 10, where from 1826 Dr Robert Knox ran his hugely popular lectures in anatomy and dissection.
There was just one problem. Knox's classes needed as many as 90 cadavers a year, and the only legal supply was the bodies of executed criminals - even these were mostly snatched up by the city's University. There simply weren't enough murderers reaching the gallows. Supply went from bodies donated (more or less) willingly, to bodies stolen from fresh graves by so-called "body snatchers", and finally to bodies that had never been allowed to die naturally at all.
Enter William Burke and William Hare. After selling Knox their first body, an elderly lodger who had died of natural causes while owing them rent, the pair realised there was money to be made. Their subsequent "donations" were delivered right here to Knox in this very square. Their last victim, Marjory Campbell Docherty, was murdered on Halloween 1828. When the truth came out, public fury turned on Knox almost as much as the killers, and Edinburgh's children even skipped to a rhyme about burning him in Surgeon Square.
The haunting:
Here's the strange thing: we couldn't find a single recorded ghost. A square that saw dissections, surgical hospitals and later a fever hospital, and yet it remains eerily quiet.
Its only ghost story is fiction. In The Body Snatcher (1884), Robert Louis Stevenson imagined two of "Mr K—'s" assistants driving a stolen corpse back to Edinburgh by lamplight, only to discover the body is that of a man they had murdered and dissected long before. It may be the one Edinburgh ghost story that most deserves to be true. Not officially haunted, then... but certainly haunting.
Want to walk in Burke and Hare's footsteps? Surgeons' Square is one of the stops on A Trail of Burke & Hare, our award-winning outdoor escape game, which delves much deeper into the story of Edinburgh's most infamous murderers. Or step inside a 19th-century anatomist's study for yourself in The Anatomist, at our venue just around the corner.
9. The Festival Theatre
Where exactly
The Festival Theatre stands at 13–29 Nicolson Street, a mere stone's throw from our home on Nicolson Square. Its striking glass frontage dates from the 1990s, but the auditorium behind it occupies the site of the old Empire Palace Theatre, and the story begins there.
The history
Theatres are places of smoke and mirrors, but none more so than this one. On the evening of 9 May 1911, the illusionist Sigmund Neuberger, better known to the world as 'The Great Lafayette' and the highest-paid performer of his day, was coming to the end of his show at the Empire Palace. His finale, The Lion's Bride, was the talk of the town. A very real, very live lion appeared to leap at a princess who had entered its cage... until the lion's head was torn away to reveal Lafayette himself.
But, as the act ended, a lantern above the stage smashed, setting the scenery ablaze. The fire curtain came down and the audience escaped unharmed, but the stage door had been locked, trapping everyone behind it. Lafayette is said to have gone back into the blaze after his beloved horse. Eleven people died, including Lafayette and ten members of his cast and crew, along with the lion and the horse.
And then came the final illusion. The body first identified as Lafayette, wearing his unmistakable costume, was cremated. But a few days later a second body was found beneath the stage, dressed identically and wearing the magician's diamond rings. The first had been his body double. The real Great Lafayette was finally laid to rest in Piershill Cemetery in Edinburgh, his urn placed between the paws of the memorial to his dog, Beauty, a gift from Harry Houdini, who coincidently had died just days before him.
The haunting
The Festival Theatre doesn't shy away from its ghosts. Staff have reported cold spots that come and go in seconds, heavy doors swinging open in empty auditoriums, and figures walking in the basement. A tall shadowy figure has been seen everywhere from the wardrobe room to the upper circle, and some say they've caught the glint of diamond rings in the wings, the very rings used to identify the remains of the real Lafayette.
Strangest of all, in the dead of night the theatre says the distant roar of a lion has been heard echoing around the empty auditorium. Spooky...
If you'd like to pay your respects, Lafayette and Beauty still lie together at Piershill Cemetery in the east of the city. And if you're catching a show on Nicolson Street this autumn, our escape rooms are just around the corner for a pre-or post-theatre puzzle.
Check back tomorrow for the next location in our countdown!
Explore Edinburgh's haunted history this Halloween
From the old anatomy theatres of Surgeons' Square to the poltergeist of Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh wears its dark past remarkably close to the surface. Whether you believe these places are haunted or not, every one of them is steeped in real stories of real people, and at this time of year, with the leaves turning and the mist settling, every one is rich in autumnal atmosphere.
Many of these places you can visit for yourself, while others are the exclusive domain of organised walking tours. But if you'd rather step inside Edinburgh's past in a more immersive way, we've got you covered.
The Home of Edinburgh's Halloween
Escape The Past is the perfect place to celebrate halloween. Just around the corner from Surgeons' Square, The Anatomist invites you into the study of a 19th-century anatomist, where the bodies on the slab didn't all arrive by honest means.
Or to outwit Edinburgh's most notorious double-dealer in The Deacon's Cabinet before the noose tightens.
Or take to the cobbles on A Trail of Burke & Hare, our outdoor escape game that leads you through the very streets where the city's most infamous killers stalked their victims. It's perfect for couples, families or big groups of up to 30.
Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, and it's always a busy night in the capital, with the Samhuinn Fire Festival lighting up Calton Hill and ghost tours running late into the night, so book early to avoid disappointment.
And if you know someone who can't get enough of Edinburgh's darker side, our gift vouchers make a treat worth hiding from the trick-or-treaters...
Happy haunting!
