Frequently Asked Questions

We're presently operating a public evening walk entitled The Witchery Ghosts & Gore Tour. We also offer a private daytime Greyfriars Cemetery Tour.

You're led around the Old Town of Edinburgh by a deceased tour guide who regales various ghoulish tales of Edinburgh's murky past. En route you will meet our infamous "jumper-ooters": costumed ghostly characters employed to appear at inopportune times in an attempt to surprise you. Let's hope they appear on cue…

The Witchery Tours take a light-hearted look at Edinburgh’s darker side including tales of witchcraft, grave-robbing, plague, torture and more! The tour information is gathered from city records, library documents and historical archives.

Some people say they are, others say they're not. Judge for yourself. We reckon the tours are more funny than scary, although we do state: "You come on our tours at your own risk!"

The Ghosts & Gore Tour is normally wheelchair-accessible with a minor route alteration (please let us know in the Extra Information box when booking). However, on some nights in July and August, Edinburgh Military Tattoo performances or music concerts on the Castlehill require us to change to a route that is not wheelchair-accessible. Please contact us if you wish to check a desired date.

Unfortunately we're unable to offer a wheelchair-accessible route for the Greyfriars Cemetery Tour.

Yes. You can pay by cash, cheque, credit or debit card in our wee shop, or book online.

Walk-ons are not permitted: you can only join a tour by booking in advance.

Not at the moment! We are currently limiting tours to one public Greyfriars Cemetery Tour at 2pm and one public Ghosts & Gore Tour at 7pm, Wednesday to Sunday.

The Witchery Ghosts & Gore Tour and the Greyfriars Cemetery Tour operate all year, apart from 24-26 December.

Both our tours are outdoor walking tours visiting the closes and alleyways in the Old Town of Edinburgh. We won't reveal the whole routes, but let's just say we recommend sturdy and comfortable footwear for a good reason…

Our private Greyfriars Cemetery Tour does indeed, as you might guess, visit a graveyard. Our Ghosts & Gore Tour does not visit any graveyards, but the guide is a cemetery director.

No. Ghosts don't like being underground, for some reason.

No; because none of those things exist!
You may be thinking of Mary King's Close, a close (alleyway) running off the High Street that was blocked off in the 17th Century and subsequently built over, which is now a visitor attraction; or the Vaults, a series of cellars located under the North Bridge, which have no major historic significance but are very dark and creepy (a number of other tours visit them for just this reason).
Okay, admittedly there is a witches' temple in part of the Vaults; dating from as long ago as the 1990s!

Yes, the tour is open to all ages. Even young children are very rarely upset by our ghosts' antics, though we advise parental discretion if you think your child is of a particularly nervous disposition.

Normally the Ghosts & Gore Tour starts at 7:00pm, and the Greyfriars Cemetery Tour at 2:00pm (Wednesday to Sunday). The times may vary depending on the bookings that we already have and the time of year. We take reservations in advance so we can control the number of people attending each trip. If the standard times are fully booked we will always try to offer additional times to meet demand.

On our Booking page, you can use the calendar on the booking form to see exactly what tours are available for your chosen date; this information is updated constantly, so should be accurate at time of booking; if it isn't, we will contact you and see if we can arrange an alternative that suits you before we take payment.

The Witchery Ghosts & Gore Tour and the Greyfriars Cemetery Tour both last approximately 90 minutes.
Note these times are approximate: if the group size is quite small the tour may finish a few minutes early, and if there are any hold-ups en route (or the guide talks too much!) then it may be a little longer. If you must be finished bang on time, please advise your guide at the start of the tour.

Our public Ghosts & Gore Tour commences outside The Witchery restaurant, 352 Castlehill, The Royal Mile, Edinburgh EH1 2NF.

The restaurant is right at the top of the Royal Mile, just before Edinburgh Castle. We're opposite the Camera Obscura and beside The Scotch Whisky Experience.

There are a couple of exceptions. When the Castlehill is obstructed due to performances of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo (Monday-Saturday for three weeks during August) or a one-off concert (usually a couple of nights during June and July), the tours meet outside our shop at 84 West Bow, Victoria Street, Edinburgh EH1 2HH. We will advise you of this when we confirm your booking; or, if we discover later that we need to relocate, we will advise you of this immediately using the contact details you supplied when booking.

Our Greyfriars Cemetery Tour always commences outside our shop.

Maps showing both locations can be found on our Book A Tour page.

No, we are a separate operation; they are old friends who kindly let us assemble groups outside their premises (so you can smell their tasty cooking before we spirit you away into the night!).
For all dining enquiries, please call the restaurant on +44 (0) 131 225 5613. The Mad Monk can cook something that looks a bit like lasagne, but it's not very good.

We currently limit each tour to 25 persons (Ghosts & Gore Tour) and 8 persons (Greyfriars Cemetery Tour).

Yes, where possible we can arrange a bespoke daytime tour. This will typically be charged at our Private Tour rate; please contact us for further details.

Our booking form only supports Tesco ClubCard voucher codes: if you have such a code, you can enter it on the first page of the checkout, where its value will be deducted from your order before proceeding.

Any other promotional schemes are not currently supported by the checkout. However, just contact us and we will take your booking. You'll be asked to provide contact details and any other details specified by the promotion instructions, and to re-confirm with us the evening before the tour. Be sure to mention which promotion you are claiming under when booking, as some schemes may have additional requirements.

Yes, provided they are kept under close control to ensure the safety and comfort of our staff and of other guests. If your dog, ferret or hippopotamus disturbs others' enjoyment of the tour, you may be asked to leave and no refund will be given.

Please note that our Ghosts & Gore Tours feature "jumping-oot" which may distress or provoke animals; if you feel that this may affect your pet to any extent, we recommend you do not bring them.

No. As a small company, mainly performing for a multinational audience, it is unfortunately not practical for us to offer tours in other languages.

If you are thinking of bringing a large group for a private tour, we suggest bringing an interpreter: our guides are all well accustomed to performing with an interpreter, so the performance can still "flow" nicely for the audience.

When you book a tour, there are a whole lot of questions we need to ask you that are different from when you buy goodies. We think it's simpler for you and us if the two are kept separate.

If you really want to pay for a booking and some goodies at the same time, just contact us and we can accept your payment over the phone instead.