The city offers family-friendly ghost tours that promise spooky fun for all ages.
View of Edinburgh under darkness.(Image: Getty Images)
Looking for family-friendly thrills that will keep everyone on edge? A historic Scottish city with plenty of horror stories in its lore has got everyone covered.
Lonely Planet has highlighted seven of the best family-friendly spooky experiences around the world this season and one standout is Edinburgh, Scotland, where ghost tours offer chills suitable for all ages. In particular, the travel publication cited Mercat Tours, which offers a special Gory Stories tour that is also kid friendly.
Lonely Planet notes: “So you thought all ghost tours would take place well after the kids’ bedtime? Think again.
“Edinburgh has Gothic written all over it, and kids can travel back in time with atmospheric yarns spun on historic tours conducted in broad daylight.
Edinburgh Castle, perched on the Castle Rock, is popular among horror enthusiasts for its stories of prisoners and hidden underground tunnels.(Image: Getty Images)
“Edinburgh’s haunted walking tours for kids are sure to give them a fright, and there are also tours at Edinburgh Castle, supposedly one of the most-haunted edifices in Scotland – made even more macabre when the weather’s looking a little shabby, which, let’s face it, can be a lot of the time in Edinburgh.”
The castle, perched on Castle Rock, is steeped in paranormal lore. Beneath its walls lie hundreds of secret tunnels, while former prisoners are said to haunt the dungeons.
Lonely Planet assigns a fright factor of six, describing the tours as “full of terrible tales, but the family-oriented tours add a bit of camp, lively fun.”
Among the castle’s most tragic ‘ghosts’ is a mysterious 16th-century noblewoman. Some believe she is Janet Douglas, Lady Glamis, accused of treason by King James V despite evidence that the charges were false.
She was burned at the stake outside the castle on 17 July 1537, in front of her son.
Others speculate the ghost could be Marie de Guise, mother and regent of Mary Queen of Scots, whose corpse was kept at the castle for months in a lead coffin after her death in June 1560.
Visitors have also reported a foul-smelling male ghost, thought to be a prisoner who attempted to escape in a wheelbarrow of muck. Tragically, the wheelbarrow tipped over the battlements, ending his life on the castle’s jagged slopes.
Military ghosts are a recurring theme at the fortress. One tale tells of a regimental bagpiper who explored an underground tunnel while playing, but he vanished halfway down the Royal Mile near the Tron Kirk.
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Another is the headless drummer, first seen warning of danger in 1650 before an attack by Oliver Cromwell, now regarded as a harbinger of peril.
Elsewhere, Lonely Planet highlights additional family-friendly spooky experiences. In the United States, visitors can tour the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, or join haunted tours with tales of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.
Internationally, there are the subterranean skulls of Les Catacombes in Paris, France, and the land of the dead at Cementerio de la Recoleta in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Families can also participate in Hong Kong’s Hungry Ghost Festival or explore vampire legends in Whitby, England.