Scotland
Edinburgh
Bodysnatchers, buried streets, and the most haunted kirkyard in Britain.
Edinburgh is built for this. A medieval Old Town stacked on a volcanic ridge and honeycombed with sealed closes and vaults, where plague-era streets were walled up and the poor were buried under the living city. It has a kirkyard grim enough to come with its own poltergeist.
This is the city of Burke and Hare, the bodysnatchers who turned murder into anatomy lessons, and half of gothic fiction was dreamt up in its pubs. Cheap to reach, small enough to walk, and dark by four in winter. Bring layers, the wind off the Forth takes it personally.
Go when Winter, when the haar rolls in off the Forth and the Old Town goes to fog and gaslight. Skip August unless you want the Festival crowds.
Haunt
What to See
Ossuaries, oddity museums, cemeteries, and the odd corners most guides skip.
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Greyfriars Kirkyard
A 16th-century kirkyard of table tombs, iron mortsafes and blackened mausoleums, walled in by the Old Town. The locked Covenanters’ Prison at the back held over a thousand prisoners in 1679, and is now tied to the Mackenzie poltergeist that fills the night tours. Bobby’s grave and the headstones that lent their names to Harry Potter pull the crowds, so go early and drift to the empty corners.
Best shot The Covenanters’ Prison gates and the mausoleums along the back wall, best in winter haar.
- Solo-friendly
- Touristy
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The Real Mary King’s Close
A warren of Old Town streets and houses sealed up and built over in the 17th century, walked now by guided tour beneath the Royal Mile. Part social history, part plague-and-ghosts theatre, and properly eerie in the lower rooms. No photos allowed below, so just look. Book ahead, it sells out.
- Touristy
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The South Bridge Vaults
The sealed chambers under South Bridge, once cellars, then slum dwellings, now pitch-dark stone rooms you enter only on a guided tour. The late-night tours lean hard into the hauntings; the daytime history ones are the better visit. Cold, low and unsettling.
- Adults only
- Touristy
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Surgeons’ Hall Museums
Three centuries of surgery and pathology in a Playfair building: walls of wet specimens and diseased anatomy, and the Burke and Hare relics, including a pocketbook bound in the murderer William Burke’s own skin and his death mask. Clinical, unflinching, and one of the best medical museums anywhere. Not for the queasy.
- Quiet
- Adults only
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Canongate Kirkyard
The kirkyard halfway down the Royal Mile where Adam Smith and the poet Robert Fergusson lie, quieter than Greyfriars and just as atmospheric. A good place to stand and watch the Old Town rooftops.
Best shot Weathered headstones with the Canongate Tolbooth clock and Calton Hill behind.
- Quiet
- Solo-friendly
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Dean Cemetery
A grand Victorian garden cemetery below the Dean Bridge, full of toppling obelisks, ivy and eminent dead, and barely a tourist in sight. Pair it with a walk down to Dean Village and the Water of Leith.
Best shot Ivy-swallowed monuments under bare trees, soft in morning light.
- Quiet
- Solo-friendly
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Old Calton Burial Ground
A small, steep 18th-century graveyard on the flank of Calton Hill, ruled by the black drum of David Hume’s mausoleum and an obelisk to five political martyrs. The view over the Old Town from among the tombs is the best in the city.
Best shot David Hume’s cylindrical tomb with the castle and Old Town beyond, at dusk.
- Quiet
- Solo-friendly
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St Giles’ Cathedral
The High Kirk on the Royal Mile, crowned by a stone crown spire and dark with medieval gothic inside. Slip into the Thistle Chapel, a tiny riot of carved stalls and gargoyles with an angel playing the bagpipes. Free to enter, small charge to photograph.
Best shot The crown spire against a grey sky, or the carved canopies of the Thistle Chapel.
- Touristy
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The Anatomical Museum
The University of Edinburgh’s teaching collection, home to the skeleton of William Burke, hanged and publicly dissected in 1829, alongside death masks and rows of skulls. Free, but open only a few days a month, so check before you go.
- Quiet
- Adults only
Rest
Where to Stay
B&Bs, haunted old hotels, Victorian piles. No hostels, ever.
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The Witchery by the Castle
$$$$Nine baroque suites at the top of the Royal Mile, all oak panelling, red velvet, gilt and candle gloom, hidden above the theatrical restaurant of the same name. Absurd, opulent, and exactly what you came for.
- Adults only
- Quiet
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Prestonfield House
$$$$A 17th-century mansion under Arthur’s Seat, done in deep tartan, brocade and firelight, with Highland cattle and peacocks on the lawn. Darkly grand and a taxi from town. Have a whisky by the fire even if you don’t stay.
- Adults only
- Quiet
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The Scotsman Hotel
$$$The old Scotsman newspaper headquarters, an Edwardian pile of marble staircases and dark wood straddling the North Bridge. Grand and central, with the Old Town at the door.
- Quiet
Feast
Where to Eat & Drink
Candlelit cellars, dark bars, rooms with history in the walls.
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The Devil’s Advocate
$$A dim whisky and cocktail bar in a converted Victorian pump house down one of the Old Town’s steep closes, bare stone and hundreds of bottles. Tuck into a booth and work through the list.
- Adults only
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The Banshee Labyrinth
$Billed as the most haunted pub in Scotland, built into the South Bridge vaults: black stone rooms, cheap pints, horror films and a cellar bar down in the dark. Loud, silly and a lot of fun after midnight.
- Adults only
- Party scene
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Bramble
$$A cramped basement cocktail bar behind an unmarked door beneath a dry cleaner, low stone arches and some of the best drinks in the city. No sign, no fuss, and worth booking if there are more than two of you.
- Adults only
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The Bow Bar
$A narrow, no-frills old whisky bar on the curve of Victoria Street, a wall of malts and cask ales, no music, no telly, just drinking and talk. The antidote to a theme pub.
- Solo-friendly
Loot
Where to Shop
Vintage, avant-garde black, and oddities to take home. No fast fashion.
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Armstrong’s Vintage Emporium
A Grassmarket institution since 1840, rooms of vintage coats, frocks, tweed and costume packed to the rafters under the castle rock. Dig, and you will find your black.
- Solo-friendly
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Godiva Boutique
A tightly edited vintage and independent-designer shop down at the West Port, less jumble than Armstrong’s, more one perfect piece.
- Solo-friendly
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Curiouser and Curiouser
A small, bright shop on Broughton Street stocked with oddball prints, jewellery and curios by independent makers. Good for taking something strange home that isn’t tartan tat.
- Solo-friendly
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