In The Shop
Keep your treasure in a Celtic warrior's skull!
Many moons ago, Scottish actor Kevin McKidd (Trainspotting, Rome, Grey’s Anatomy) worked with Edinburgh’s Witchery Tours. This is unique footage of Kevin playing the part of ghostly tour guide Adam Lyal (deceased) on a wet winter’s night in 1994. It was shot on a steam-powered video camera by film enthusiast Derek Stores. The ‘jumper-ooter’ that evening was the legendary Witchery Tours stalwart Brian Mitchell.
Do you like ghosts and cereal?
Witchery Tours stalwart Cameron Pirie has made a a 60-second short film as part of the Dorset Cereals Film competition. He has included two characters that appear on our walking tours within his film, namely the Mad Monk of the Cowgate and Agnes Fynnie the Witch. At this stage of the competition Cameron needs to garner as many votes as possible. Can you help?
To vote, click on the following link to view the film. Scroll down the large list to HAPPY GHOSTS and click on VOTE. It’s as easy as that!
The happy ghosts thank you in advance.
Take a glimpse behind the scenes of the Murder & Mystery Tour with a little film we made, entitled Jumper-Ooter. The curious title is the name given to our hardest-working staff: those who run around the Old Town all evening in a range of outlandish guises, always staying one step ahead of (or behind) our unsuspecting guests. In the film, top ghouls Liam and Euan reveal a little of what it takes to put the frights into a Witchery Tour.
Click below to have a look, and be sure to leave a comment on the YouTube page for Jumper-Ooter or drop us a line to tell us what you think!
It’s Adam Lyal (deceased) on the plinth!
The sculptor Antony Gormley has invited people from all over the UK to help create an astonishing living monument. He is asking the people to occupy the empty Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in London, a space normally reserved for statues of Kings and Generals.
Every hour, 24 hours a day, for 100 days without a break, a different person will make the Plinth their own.
On Friday 21st August 2009, between 9am and 10am, Robin Mitchell (illustrious founder of the legendary Cadies & Witchery Tours) in the guise of the pale-face highwayman Adam Lyal (deceased) will take his place on the 4th Plinth.
Pledge your support for the forebear of all Lyals on his One and Other Participants Page and then watch him live on the plinth at www.oneandother.co.uk.
Spread the word!
To commemorate the 180th anniversary of the execution of the notorious William Burke, the Witchery Tours has produced a Limited Edition, high quality reproduction of The Edinburgh Evening Courant, the first Edinburgh Newspaper to publish the details of Burke’s trial at the High Court!
This case remains one of the most terrible in Edinburgh’s long and bloody history, and now you can see it through the eyes of the people at the time in a newspaper published mere hours after the guilty verdict was pronounced.
Now you can own a piece of history, a full replica of the four-page newspaper, which dedicates an unprecedented two pages to covering the bizarre and gruesome case of Burke and Hare, the two men who supplied Edinburgh’s Medical School with perhaps as many as thirty bodies for dissection: a trade which they supplied by murdering the poor and desperate of Edinburgh’s Cowgate slums.
We are launching this unique product in conjunction with the Edinburgh and Lothians Police Information Centre on the Royal Mile, where (in their “Black Museum”) you can also view a business-card holder made from the skin of William Burke himself!
If you can’t make it down there to get yourself a copy, you can buy one here.
‘Tis the season once again to be jolly, indulge in a great deal of food and drink and, most of all, pretend to appreciate that jumper your Gran made for you!
However, once the crackers have been cracked, the presents presented and the sprouts devoured, why not work off those seasonal pounds by taking a walk around the Old Town on one of our tours? Our ghosts are putting their feet up for a few days from Christmas Eve until Boxing Day, but on December 27th we’re back leading our guests through the dark and narrow closes of old Edinburgh!
So, if you’re tired of Panto and you’ve seen The Great Escape more times than you can remember, try something new this Christmas and book a tour! We’ve even got tours on Hogmanay, early enough for you to get to your party afterwards!
Come meet some real Christmas Spirits!
Is it that time already? The silly season of the Edinburgh Festival is only just behind us, but there’s barely time to put our feet up with a mug of cocoa and a jelly-baby sandwich before it’s time to start gearing-up for the most important night of the year for us spooks: Halloween.
It’s no surprise that All Hallow’s Eve, or Samhainn to you ancient Celts out there, draws more guests to the gloomy closes of the Old Town than any other night (although Friday the 13th also tends to be quite popular for some reason). As well as the many new faces we see making the pilgrimage to Edinburgh for our special night, we’ve even gained a loyal following of “super-fans” who strive to enjoy our festive frights every year. The costumes our most ardent acolytes turn up in sometimes put our own phantom fashionistas to shame!
Of course, we’d be churlish if we didn’t try to play our part in making this a very special night for everyone. To allow us to satisfy as many guests as possible, we make each tour a little shorter than usual on Halloween (65 minutes, down from 75). To compensate, as well as our regular cast of characters, we’ve rattled a few more tombstones to summon even more frightful ex-residents to join the fun. No hints – the final roster remains a closely-guarded secret to avoid leaks to the press – so if you want to know, you’ll have to go.
Halloween falls on a Friday this year, and places are already going fast, so if you’d like to join us for the freakish festivities, we strongly recommend you book now to avoid disappointment.
Over the years, the Cadies have spread the word about our evening exploits via an ever-expanding range of media, from publishing our own books to our web presence and TV and radio appearances. Many visitors and locals will, however, have first heard about us by picking up one of our leaflets.
Throughout our history, the leaflet has been an integral part of our pitch to people arriving in local hotels and passing our signage on the Royal Mile. Always eye-catching but never showboating, it gives a typically humorous and irreverent preview of what to expect from our tours. The design has evolved through many versions, and in recent years has come in two editions: “Winter” dealing only with the Murder & Mystery Tour; and “Summer” which also squeezes in the Ghosts & Gore Tour.
The dual-leaflet strategy had its drawbacks, though: it’s nearly impossible to ensure that every hotel and guest-house in Edinburgh is showing only the correct version for the time of year, and inevitably some visitors would end up seeing the wrong one and contacting us looking for an out-of-season tour. We eventually decided that it was time to end the confusion with a single, general-purpose offering that worked all year round.
The “strategy boutique” came up with a masterplan that included some bold and innovative touches:
The other major departure with the new leaflet is that it was designed entirely by Cadies staff. Artistic champ Andrew Henderson took the photographs, composed the layout and wrote the copy, with the whole team submitting feedback on his draft designs. When the final draft was agreed, IT manager and DTP old-hand Robin Bankhead converted Andrew’s work into a format ready for printing.
We’re delighted with the result, as are new cover stars Kev and Ewan. We hope you like it too: if you’d like your own copy, send a stamped addressed envelope to the usual address, or pick one up at any Edinburgh hotel or outside The Witchery restaurant.
Yes, it’s that time again… Ashen-faced phantom Adam Lyal (deceased) steps up to the stump once again to contest the Lothians regional ballot in the upcoming Scottish Parliament Elections. This time, the man behind the mask* is Euan MacInnes, a fresh face with a new and dynamic outlook and an insatiable thirst for making Adam Lyal’s Witchery Tour Party the first in the Parliament’s history to bring real change to the people of Scotland.
From his campaign headquarters in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town, MacInnes reaffirmed his pledge to uphold the party’s key pledges. If elected he will:
Euan says, “This is no joke. I’ve built up good support for my campaign, and if the word continues to spread, it’s conceivable I’ll be the first pale-faced phantom to be elected to the Scottish Parliament.” He encourages all Lothian voters to ‘give the ghost a chance’ and choose Adam Lyal’s Witchery Tour Party on their regional ballot paper.
Adam Lyal’s Witchery Tour Party can be found online at http://www.myspace.com/adamlyal/.
*We’ve just been informed it’s not a mask. He really is that good-looking!
Tour guide Euan MacInnes is declared the institutional winner of the Student Employee of the Year (SEOTY) competition, making him the hardest-working student at Edinburgh University.
We were hoping he’d get a cup or something, but apparently the kudos and respect of his fellow students is reward enough.
