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Offered languages
- English
On Christmas Eve 1828, a jury was locked into an Edinburgh courtroom and not released until it decided who would hang. Tonight, that jury is you. Sworn in beneath the floodlit castle, you carry the name of a real victim through the dark side of the Old Town as your storyteller unravels the West Port murders. Stand where Burke and Hare's lodging house stood. Climb the Vennel to the old city wall for the best night view of the castle. Follow the money to the anatomy schools that paid cash for bodies and asked no questions, and pass the building where William Burke's skeleton stands in a case tonight. On a silent street the ghost tours never find, hear the roll of the Sixteen called through the gates of Old Surgeons' Square. Then take your place where the real trial ran all night and cast your verdict on the man the law let walk free. A ghost tour told straight: real hauntings, real history, no costumes leaping from closes. Every stop is in the open air, and somehow that makes it worse.
What's Included
Meeting and pickup
We meet at the west end of the Grassmarket, on the West Port corner, directly opposite the castle rock. It is open, well lit and easy to find on any map app, under the castle. Please arrive 10 minutes before departure.
The tour ends on the Lawnmarket, by Brodie's Close, at the top of the Royal Mile. You are two minutes from the Royal Mile's pubs and about five minutes from the Castle Esplanade, the Grassmarket and the main taxi ranks.
Itinerary
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1Grassmarket
The tour begins at the west end of the Grassmarket, under the floodlit castle rock, where you are sworn in as a juror and handed the name of one of the sixteen West Port victims. You return along the square's south side to hear who those victims were, and the story of the Grassmarket gallows.
12 minutes • Admission ticket free -
2Flodden Wall
The heart of the case. You stand on West Port, where Log's lodging house and Tanner's Close once stood, then climb the Vennel steps to the last great fragment of Edinburgh's 1513 city wall and the finest night view of the floodlit castle on the tour.
13 minutes • Admission ticket free -
3University of Edinburgh
At the Old Medical School gates on Teviot Place you hear the demand side of the story: 1828 Edinburgh as the anatomy capital of the world, seven hundred students, and a legal supply of one hanged body at a time. Behind these gates, in the University's Anatomical Museum, William Burke's skeleton still stands in a case. Viewed from the street, no entry.
7 minutes • Admission ticket free -
4
The corner of Chambers Street at Old College, two stories on one site. Beneath it lies Kirk o' Field, where Lord Darnley was found strangled in 1567, Edinburgh's oldest unsolved case. On the same ground in January 1829, Professor Monro publicly dissected William Burke before a crowd of thirty thousand.
6 minutes • Admission ticket free -
5Edinburgh Old Town
The climax of the case, on deserted Infirmary Street at the gates of High School Yards, looking into the dark ground where 10 Surgeons' Square stood: Dr Robert Knox's dissecting rooms and the delivery door where sixteen bodies were carried in and paid for in cash. Here the guide calls the Roll of the Sixteen through the gates and the guests holding those names answer. The group stays on the public street throughout.
12 minutes • Admission ticket free -
6Parliament Square- Edinburgh
The courtroom. Behind St Giles', on the flagstones over the old kirkyard, you stand outside Parliament House where Burke's trial ran twenty four hours straight from Christmas Eve 1828. Here the jury votes: guilty or not proven, slate tokens into the bags, counted aloud. Then the truth about what the law actually did with William Hare.
15 minutes • Admission ticket free -
7Royal Mile
The tour ends on the Lawnmarket at the top of the Royal Mile, by Brodie's Close, at the execution site marked in the setts where twenty five thousand people watched Burke hang in January 1829. What remains of the case, and where the sightings still get reported. Tokens and cards are collected here.
6 minutes • Admission ticket free
Additional info
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Tags
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Cancellation Policy
- 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.
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
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