Multi-Sensory Haunted Underground Vaults Tour in Edinburgh
Recommended by 93% of travelers
Badge of Excellence
Edinburgh, Scotland
- 1 hour 15 minutes (approx.)
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
The Blair Street Vaults shouldn’t be missed when visiting Edinburgh—especially for fans of the spooky and macabre. But independent visits aren’t allowed, so you’ll need to a guide to gain access to this restricted underground area. On this ghoulish walking tour, descend into the darkened depths of the vaults and hear vivid retellings of torture, murder, and body snatching from your guide.
- Enjoy a personalizedexperience, limited to 18 people maximum
- Ideal for those intrigued by the paranormal, this spooky tour is sure to scare
- Listen to gruesome tales of torture, murder, and body snatching
- No manufactured frights, ensuring everything you experience is genuine
What's Included
- Exclusive multi-sensory experience; with master Storyteller guides
- Small group experience
- Exclusive access to the famous Blair Street Underground Vaults on this high-spirited tour
- Enhanced with hand-picked sounds of Edinburgh and delivered through TourTalk audio devices
- Take home an exclusive ghost story gift!
- Listen to the Exclusive Sounds Of Edinburgh Tour Playlist
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- Mercat CrossHigh St, Edinburgh EH1 1RF, UK
Mercat Cross, High St, Edinburgh EH1 1RF. Look for the 8 sided monument with white Unicorn on top. You will find a member of our visitor services team waiting here to check you in. They will be dressed in black, holding an iPad, wearing an orange lanyard & holding a black & orange umbrella.
End point
- 28 Blair St, Edinburgh EH1 1QR, UK
Mercat Tours, 28 Blair Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1QR. This tour ends after a visit to our Blair Street Underground Vaults.
Itinerary
At an afternoon departure time to suit your schedule, greet your guide at a central location. Following your cloaked guide, weave your wicked way through the shadow-shrouded streets of Edinburgh’s Old Town and gain insight into Edinburgh’s dark history.
After the spooky scene has been established, descend to the vaults beneath Blair Street and feel a morbid chill permeate the air. Tentatively wander through darkened passages and hear gruesome tales of torture, murder, and body snatching.
Ghost stories galore, you are sensitive to a cold breath on the back of your neck and the flicker of a candle in the distance. Return to daylight and bid your guide farewell.
After the spooky scene has been established, descend to the vaults beneath Blair Street and feel a morbid chill permeate the air. Tentatively wander through darkened passages and hear gruesome tales of torture, murder, and body snatching.
Ghost stories galore, you are sensitive to a cold breath on the back of your neck and the flicker of a candle in the distance. Return to daylight and bid your guide farewell.
1
Mercat Cross
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
2
Edinburgh Old Town
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
3
Mercat Tours
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Please note that we cannot accept babies or children under the age of 5 on this tour.
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Service animals allowed
- Near public transportation
- Most travelers can participate
- Tours are guaranteed all year round, so please dress for the weather, with comfortable shoes.
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 18 travelers
Supplied by
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
4.7
based on 1,850 reviews
Sort by: Most insightful
Our guide Sophie was amazingly talented and did a great job making a memorable experience for the whole group!
No ghosts were seen but we enjoyed the stories and the history of the vaults, I would recommend to someone with a taste for scary things
A complete waste of an hour! It could have been finished in twenty minutes. I spent £35 + £35 (for an 8/2026 visit) on a few square meters of an underground "city." It wasn't worth the price at all. The 2 stars are solely for the young woman who gave the presentation and for the upkeep of the site.
The tour guides are excellent but it got advertised wrong.fully sensory but we just got told scary stories and history.we were just hoping to get shivers, Boring event.
Our Haunted Underground Vault Tour with Mercat was amazing! Lena and Kirsty (our guide) were absolutely wonderful - the immersive and informative experience was truly a joy to be a part of! You can absolutely tell when someone loves what they do, especially when it’s to scare the pants off of you and have you duck for cover over a citizen yelling Gardyloo! The creepy storytelling aspect of this experience melded with interesting historical information made it all feel grounded and real. Edinburgh is a romantically beautiful city but the dark secrets from its past emerge slowly as you begin to unravel how things went wrong in the underground. No spoilers, but watch your back!
Easy to find, fun facts about the darker history of Edinburgh, underground tour was spooky but not too scary for kids.
Our tour guide was wonderful! Mirana was energetic and a great storyteller!
We had an incredible time on the Multi-Sensory Haunted Underground Vaults Tour in Edinburgh, and Ash made the experience unforgettable! She struck the perfect balance between making the tour genuinely haunting while keeping it fun and engaging. Her storytelling was captivating, and it was clear she has an incredible depth of knowledge about the history of Edinburgh’s underground vaults and Scotland’s past.
I especially loved that she made parts of the tour interactive, which really brought the stories to life and kept everyone involved. It was also such a pleasant surprise to discover that she’s a fellow American! If it weren’t for her accent, I never would have guessed—her knowledge of Scottish history, folklore, and the underground vaults was so impressive.
If you’re considering this tour, I highly recommend it, and if you’re lucky enough to have Ash as your guide, you’re in for an amazing experience!
The tour was fun and interesting. I enjoyed learning some historical information and being able to explore the underground spaces. Our guide, Sophie, was very animated and made sure to include all guests, young and old, in her stories. The walking pace was perfect for those who need to take a bit more care on the stairs and the hills.
Very interesting way to start our visit to Edinburgh. Bo, our guide, was an excellent story teller. We gather more knowledge about the obscure history of the city. It was spooky but funny at times during the tour. Will recommend. Love it!
Our guide Linda was exceptional. Her enthusiasm brought the tour to life. It is easy to picture the stories she tells.
Really enjoyed this tour. Our guide was wonderful. She was a great storyteller and added in lots of interesting history. Highly recommend.
Nice to see the underground of the city but overall boring, would not recommend especially bat this price
Response from Host, Jun 2026
Hi there,
We're really sorry to hear you didn't enjoy your tour with us.
Our Master Storytellers aim to share the tales of old Edinburgh in a lively, engaging way that connects you with our amazing city.
Thanks for your feedback, we'll keep this in mind when we review how we present our tours.
We hope you had a lovely time in the city.
All the best,
Lots of fun with Ash!
Informative in an interesting way.
Ash is enthousiastic and a great performer!
This was such a fun and engaging experience. Michael was an incredible story teller and made this a great experience for my family and I. Definitely recommend!
Our leader was great with what he had to deal with, nice guy, good story teller, but I wouldn't recommend the tour, cheesy, short, spend your time and money on something else.
This was SUCH a fun tour! Check in was easy and simple. Bo, our guide, was kind and witty. He was very knowledgeable and created the perfect eerie mood! My husband and I were definitely spooked near the end. With that being said, there is no truly scary moments, making this relatively family friendly. Overall, a great, quick tour on a dark and stormy night!
A great and unique way to experience part of the city! Tour guide (Jude) was fun and knowledgeable as we walked through the Royal Mile to the entrance of the vaults. We embraced changing Edinburgh weather by sheltering in the near by Close. Inside the vaults we heard stories of residents from history and about some encounters of other guests. I even discovered an encounter of my own on my hand - spooky!!
Great experience going through the Edinburgh South Bridge's with an marvellous performances from Michael.
Magnificent way of showing Edinburgh story.
Wear good footwear, as the ground is uneven in parts. A torch comes in handy. An interesting lesson on the social history of Edinburgh. Our guide Veni was great. She was very welcoming and passionate about the history of Edinburgh.
I rarely leave reviews. Phenomenal experience. ————————————————————————————————————————————————-11111
The tour was really good, Steph the guide was really chatty before the tour began and slipped effortlessly into character. She was knowledgable about the history and told the tales with enthusiasm and made it fun. I would highly recommend this tour, it’s a good way to spend an hour or so learning about the darker side of Edinburgh.
Great walking tour…fun glimpse into some of Edinburgh’s sordid history. Jude was a fantastic guide and storyteller! Perfect level of creepy for our 14yo.
Shannon was a very good storyteller and made the tour really intriguing! Very interactive tour and had a lot of fun. Thank you!
Our beautiful guide Shannon was full of knowledge and was absolutely intoxicating while telling the stories of the past and bringing to life the ghosts of the vaults.
Steph was amazing such a brilliant storyteller! A fun family friendly activity! Recommend doing with family
Fantastic! Must do. Creepy to say the least. Steph was our guide and she was fantastic. They end the tour in the vaults, it is spooky down there. For a non believer, I ended up believing in those moments. My son did get scared, but Steph was so kind and gentle and gave him a flashlight to “protect” himself from any presence. Definitely a must do!
This was an excellent, ‘off the beaten path’ activity for our family. My two teenagers were delighted by the gore!
This was a fun experience, the tour guide was very passionate about the storytelling and was happy to answer all the questions that you had. If you like history, this one is for you!
Be prepared as there are quite a few narrows stairs to go down. The information given by Mike was amazing.
Our guide Shannon was amazing. Such a great storyteller and brilliant at creating creepy and disturbing imagery. I think this was one of the best Viator tours we’ve booked ever. So unique with taking the group down to the underground vaults, combining real history with haunted tales. Highly, highly recommend if you’re ever in Edinburgh.
Member Pricing
From
$34.65
per personWas $36.48(-5%)
up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
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Multi-Sensory Haunted Underground Vaults Tour in Edinburgh
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1 hour 15 minutes
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