In summer 2017 I paid a visit to Edinburgh with my wife Karen, our daughter and one of her friends.
Naturally a ghost tour was on the cards.
Edinburgh these days is teeming with ghost tours - mostly the ones that announce themselves to be free and then the guide spends the rest of YOUR time showing you pics of her emaciated puppy and her eviction notice so that you will pay-up. It's a horror story, but not the kind I like.
The long established Mercat Tours should always be your first port of call in Edinburgh.
Our tour of the vaults beneath the city was spooky, gory, funny and packed with history. If I wasn't wracked with jealousy I'd go so far as to say this is the PERFECT ghost tour.
We met our guides Alun & Jenny by the Mercat Cross on the Royal Mile having booked and paid our places in advance - a group of two adults and two ten-year-olds.
Alun (with the spooky dark eyes and mellifluous voice) and Jenny (with her absolutely and totally TERRIFYING shriek!) are expert storytellers in the old tradition - perfect for a tour in the old town of Edinburgh.,
As well as being excellent storytellers, Alun & Jenny are also wonderful hosts. I am an exiled Edinburgh man living in London some 25 years and they made me proud of my home city all over again.
The tour ends with a drink – a whisky, a wine or a soft drink – in the underground bar which is part of the subterranean vaults where the tour takes place. Alun & Jenny regaled us with a few more tales before sending us off quaking (and laughing too) into the Edinburgh night.
I am a sucker for a ghost tour at the best of times. But this one is hard to beat, the best I've ever experienced.
Well done Alun & Jenny, thanks for making our visit so memorable.
Go and see the guys at Mercat Tours next time you are in Edinburgh. Their website is here: www.mercattours.com
Can you recommend a great ghost tour outside of London? Get in touch!
Join me on a Ghosts of the Old City Tour here in London this October. I'm leading the tour on Tuesdays 9th, 23rd & 30th October & Saturdays 6th, 13th & 27th October. Book here…
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