As the evening sun begins to set, your tour of Edinburgh’s spirited sites and horrific history begins. Meet your guide – Edinburgh’s infamous (and dead!) 19th-century cemetery director, Mr Clapperton – on the Royal Mile and brace yourself for a fiendishly funny walk through the dimly-lit cobbled streets and courtyards of old town Edinburgh.
As you admire the nocturnal nature of the capital city, listen to Mr Clapperton’s spooky tales of witchcraft, torture, plague and invasions. You will meet some colourful characters from the city’s past in the form of ‘jumper-ooters’ such as the Mad Monk of the Cowgate, a monk badly burned in a 17th century monastery fire, and Agnes Fynnie, a witch burned at the stake in 1641. You will also learn about invasions to Edinburgh coutsey of Rhuari McLeod, a wild and bloody Highlander, and Jimmy Tamson, a young man known for burying lots of dead bodies during the 17th-century Black Plague.
As well as meeting a lively array of ghoulish characters from Edinburgh’s past, you will once again witness public demonstrations of spine-tingling torture devices that ‘enjoyed’ centuries of common use. A few ‘volunteers’ will be required! By the end of this light-hearted 80 minutes, you’ll look at Edinburgh’s darker history in a very different way!
To remember your experience, you will take home a complementary copy of the fascinating ‘Witchery Tales’ book by Adam Lyal (deceased).
