Eerie Edinburgh

From Edinburgh's historic streets to medieval abbeys, old coaching inns and even a modern fire station, Scotland has a long history of reported encounters with ghostly monks.

In this episode of Eerie Edinburgh, we explore some of the country's most intriguing accounts of hooded apparitions, examining the history behind the locations and the experiences of those who claim to have encountered them.

Who were these mysterious figures, and why do they continue to be reported centuries after Scotland's monasteries fell into ruin?

#EerieEdinburgh #GhostlyMonks #ScottishGhostStories #HauntedScotland #GhostStories #Paranormal #ScottishHistory #Edinburgh #HauntedPlaces #Ghosts #Supernatural...

Join me this Halloween for a night of Victorian ghost stories, as we travel back to 19th-century Scotland to explore three strange and rather disturbing accounts.

Our first story takes us to Perthshire in 1874, where a mysterious figure dressed entirely in black began appearing beside a railway line near Ballinluig. The sightings frightened local travellers, until a group of young men decided to confront the supposed phantom.

Next, we visit Dundee in the 1880s, where an Irish clergyman and his wife spent a night at an old inn. What began as an unpleasant smell coming...

In this episode we investigate several strange accounts from the popular Nottinghamshire holiday village.

A couple reportedly wake in the middle of the night to find a hooded figure moving across their bedroom, before watching it disappear through a wall.

Another guest describes waking with the sensation of someone standing at the foot of her bed, followed by the frightening feeling of something holding her ankles.

And then there's the family whose holiday became increasingly disturbing. Mysterious tapping at the windows, footsteps outside an isolated lodge and a series of incidents that eventually...

A little while ago, I was chatting with Rob from How Haunted and Icy Sedgwick, and somewhere along the way we came up with an idea - why don't the three of us get together and have a proper chat about ghosts?

Many of you will already know Icy from her brilliant Fabulous Folklore podcast and her work exploring folklore, history and the supernatural, while Rob is the man behind the excellent How Haunted? podcast.

I've known both of them for a while now, and we all approach the subject from slightly different directions, so...

In 1859, Scottish writer Catherine Crowe published a remarkable story said to have been told to her by a sheep farmer named Sandy Shiels.
Decades earlier, on an isolated farm in the Lammermuir Hills, a young farm servant named Rob set out through the winter landscape for the village of Gifford.

He never came home.

But in the months that followed, Rob’s disappearance became connected to the strange behaviour of his sheepdog, Coullie. 

This episode explores Catherine Crowe’s The Sheep-Farmer’s Story - a haunting 19th-century account of disappearance, suspicion and a remar...

In 1835, Captain Molesworth and his family moved into a house in Trinity, Edinburgh.

Not long afterwards, strange noises began to be heard around the property. Knocks, footsteps and other disturbances were reported, and before long the case had drawn in neighbours, military officers and the landlord himself.

At the centre of it all was Molesworth’s daughter Jane, who was already seriously ill. Her sister Matilda had died only a short time before the disturbances began, and some came to believe there might be a connection.

What followed became one of Edinburgh’s stra...

The Canongate is one of the oldest parts of Edinburgh, a street with a history stretching back almost nine centuries. Behind its familiar buildings and closes lies a remarkable collection of ghost stories.

In this episode of Eerie Edinburgh, I return to the place where the channel began almost three years ago: Bible Land, home to one of the Canongate’s strangest supernatural traditions.

But that story is only the beginning.

From centuries-old accounts of apparitions and unexplained encounters to stories that survived into the twentieth century, we follow the Canongate through some of...

Perched on a cliff at the northern edge of the Isle of Skye, the ruins of Duntulm Castle are home to some of the island's darkest ghost stories.

Once a stronghold of the MacDonalds of Sleat, Duntulm's history is filled with clan rivalry, violence and tragedy. 

There are tales of strange sounds, slamming doors, disembodied voices and figures moving through the castle - and an old tradition claiming the disturbances eventually became so unbearable that the MacDonalds abandoned Duntulm altogether.

Today, little more than atmospheric ruins remain above the sea.

But a...

Culross Palace is one of Scotland's most remarkable surviving buildings from the 17th century - but behind its distinctive yellow walls are stories that suggest some of its former occupants may never have entirely left.

In this episode, we travel to the historic Fife village of Culross to explore the palace built by wealthy merchant Sir George Bruce and investigate the strange experiences reported within its rooms.

Culross Palace is a building with more than four centuries of history behind it. How much of its folklore can be explained - and how much remains rather...

What if one of Scotland's strangest ghost stories turned out to be more than just a legend?

In this episode, we travel to the beautiful Glen Lyon in Highland Perthshire to explore the haunting of Meggernie Castle - a place where history, folklore and eyewitness testimony have become closely intertwined.

According to local tradition, a jealous laird murdered and dismembered his wife, concealing part of her body within the castle before burying the rest elsewhere. Over time, stories spread of a ghost unlike any other in Scottish folklore - not a full apparition, but only...

In 1953, a family moved into a remote Highland sporting lodge near Loch Ness, expecting nothing more than a fresh start.

Within weeks, they began hearing footsteps crossing the landing above their heads. Then came the knocking. Always measured. Always deliberate.

But the most disturbing encounter belonged to the housekeeper, Mrs MacDonald.

Late one night she awoke to find an elderly woman crawling slowly along the upstairs corridor, carrying a candle. The figure vanished before anyone else could see her - yet the footsteps and knocking continued, witnessed by everyone in the house.

In 1954, on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, an ordinary croft became the centre of one of Britain's strangest alleged poltergeist cases.

It began with peat moving beside the fire. Then glasses cracked without being touched. Crockery shattered, household objects floated from room to room.

Was it an elaborate hoax? A rare psychological phenomenon? Or could there be another explanation?

In this episode, we explore the extraordinary events of what became known as The Lewis Poltergeist Case - one of Scotland's most remarkable and least-known paranormal mysteries.

If you...

Deep within the woods near Edinburgh lie the forgotten ruins of Woodhouselee - a place haunted by one of Scotland's oldest and most tragic ghost stories.

In this episode, we trace the legend of Anne Hamilton, a woman said to have been driven from her home during the Marian Civil War, before exploring more than four centuries of reported paranormal activity linked to the estate.

From mysterious knocks heard by two Victorian sisters, to wartime sentries repeatedly challenging a ghostly woman on the grounds of a prisoner-of-war camp, and a strange apparition witnessed shortly before...

Castle Fraser is one of Scotland's most beautiful castles - and one of its most haunted.

In this episode of Eerie Edinburgh, we explore the ghostly legends of Aberdeenshire's Castle Fraser, from the mysterious Lady Blanche Drummond and phantom footsteps in empty corridors to the chilling tale of the Green Room and the bloodstained spiral staircase.

Are these simply stories passed down through generations, or is something still walking the halls of Castle Fraser?

#Ghosts #CastleFraser #Scotland #HauntedCastle #Paranormal #EerieEdinburgh #ScottishHistory #ghoststories #ScottishGhosts #TrueGhostStories #HauntedScotland #ClanFraser #Aberdeenshire #CastleCountry #HauntedPlaces #GhostHunting #Supernatural #HistoricScotland #DarkHistory...

For centuries, Edinburgh has been home to murderers, body snatchers, executioners, occultists, and some of Scotland's most famous ghost stories. Today, one figure dominates the city's paranormal tourism scene - Mr Boots. But long before Mr Boots became Edinburgh's unofficial ghostly mascot, there was another name people feared encountering after dark.

This week, we're exploring the forgotten legend of Johnny One-Arm - the restless spirit said to be that of John Chiesley of Dalry, the man who assassinated Scotland's most powerful judge in 1689 before suffering one of the most brutal executions in Edinburgh's history.

From...

The case of Lurancy Vennum is often described as America’s strangest possession case.

In 1877, in the small town of Watseka, Illinois, a young girl began falling into violent trances. She spoke in unfamiliar voices, claimed to see dead people standing in her room, and seemed to lose awareness of the world around her.

What followed drew physicians, spiritualists, sceptics, and newspaper reporters from across the country.

But this wasn’t a medieval witch trial or local legend. It happened in front of witnesses. Doctors documented it. Families opened their homes to investigators. And...

It was meant to be empty.

After closing time, with the doors locked and the building cleared, staff began noticing things that didn’t quite fit. A face appearing briefly above the bar, as if someone had lifted themselves just enough to look over before dropping back out of sight. A glass shelf, fixed securely in place, shifting in a way that didn’t make sense.

Nothing dramatic. Nothing that could be easily explained either.

These weren’t stories told years later or passed through word of mouth. They came from people who worked...

Scotland is home to more than two thousand recorded castles.

Some are well known. Others are easy to miss - broken walls in the landscape, visited by only a handful of people at a time.

In this episode, we’re focusing on three of those lesser-known sites: Auchindoun, Drumin, and Kildrummy.

All within the same part of the country. All tied to the same stretch of history. And all connected to experiences people have struggled to account for.

From reports of a child crying within the ruins of Auchindoun, to unexplained fo...

When people think of Scotland’s major battles, places like Bannockburn or Culloden usually come to mind.

But just outside the town of Crieff, there’s another battlefield that doesn’t get the same attention - Sheriffmuir.

In 1715, two armies met there during the Jacobite rising. By the end of the day, neither side had won. Both claimed victory, but the outcome settled nothing. The campaign stalled, and what followed wasn’t a clean retreat or a clear defeat - it was something far less defined.

And that aftermath didn’t stay on the battle...

In 1878, in the small town of Amherst, Nova Scotia, a series of strange events began inside the home of a young woman named Esther Cox.

At first, it was the sound of knocking. Then objects started to move. Fires broke out without warning. What began as a private disturbance quickly became something much larger, drawing in neighbours, reporters, and even men described at the time as “scientific gentlemen,” all trying to make sense of what was happening inside the house on Church Street.

Some believed Esther was at the centre of it. Others thought something else...

Hospitals are built around routine, vigilance, and care. By day they are busy, practical places filled with staff, patients, and visitors moving constantly through corridors and wards.

But the atmosphere can change after midnight.

Lights are dimmed. Visiting hours end. Activity narrows to smaller teams carrying out the steady work of monitoring, observation, and care through the night.

It’s during those hours that many of the strangest experiences reported by medical staff seem to occur.

In this episode, I share a series of first-hand accounts from people who have worked ni...

In this episode, we look at the 1897 Greenbrier Ghost case - the only known instance where a mother’s account of her daughter’s haunting helped reopen a murder investigation - and the 1925 Chaffin Will incident, where a family dispute took an unexpected turn after a son claimed his late father had returned with instructions.

These aren’t the usual stories about figures in corridors or unexplained noises. They’re cases where something people couldn’t easily explain ended up shaping real decisions - the sort that left traces in court papers and official records that still exis...

This episode is an original fictional ghost story written for Icy Sedgwick’s Christmas podcast.

You can find Icy Sedgwick’s podcast, Fabulous Folklore with Icy Sedgwick, here:

https://www.icysedgwick.com

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/fabulous-folklore-with-icy/id1450546036 

https://open.spotify.com/show/3ayMEjrJuqkkSwk4pQF3aQ?si=2dd0f22c01724b5d 

If you enjoyed this original story, you can find more real ghost stories, folklore, and historical hauntings here on Eerie Edinburgh.

Hidden in what is now one of Edinburgh’s most genteel neighbourhoods once stood a house that few people today remember - and fewer still ever saw.

Grange House was demolished in 1936, but long before that it had acquired a reputation that set it apart from other old Edinburgh estates. Built on the site of a medieval monastic grange, expanded over centuries, and eventually used as both a private home and a school for young women, the house sat quietly on the edge of the city while stories slowly gathered around it.

In this episode, I...

On the southern edge of Edinburgh, Comiston looks like any other quiet residential suburb. But beneath its pavements, paths, and housing estates lies a much older story - one filled with prehistoric burial sites, lost landscapes, folklore, and a figure that has been reported for over a century.

The White Lady of Comiston is a woman in pale clothing, seen along the same route, across different generations.

From Robert Louis Stevenson’s 19th-century account, to the school sighting in 1965, and later reports in the 1980s, the White Lady of Comiston has appeared across generations along th...

Tucked away in a remote village in Jämtland, Borgvattnet Vicarage has been linked to unexplained activity for nearly a century. From ghostly figures and sudden chills to diary entries from clergy who lived there and couldn’t explain what they saw.

In this episode, I explore the history behind one of Sweden’s most well known hauntings.

From phantom footsteps to attacks on Priests, in this episode you'll find out why this was once described as the "Most Haunted House in Sweden"

Also, apologies in advance for t...

Not all Christmas ghost stories have frightening apparitions or ghostly chaints rattling.

Sometimes these stories begin with something simpler — a sound beneath a room, figures moving across a field, or a moment that only makes sense later on.

In this Christmas episode, I explore two Scottish Midwinter hauntings recorded in the nineteenth century, both linked to Christmas and both rooted in firsthand experience rather than folklore built up over time.

The first takes place at the historic Cortachy Castle, where guests and travellers reported hearing unexplained drumming during the Christmas period - a so...

Peggy the Doll isn’t an old legend pulled from folklore, or a relic tied to some distant tragedy.

She’s a modern case - one that unfolded in real time, among investigators, witnesses, and viewers who found themselves reacting in ways they couldn’t easily explain.

First brought to wider attention in 2015, Peggy became associated with reports of physical and emotional reactions - headaches, nausea, anxiety, and a deep sense of unease - sometimes experienced simply by seeing her, even through a screen. At the centre of the case was paranormal investigator Jayne Harris, known...

Lochmaben Castle is one of Scotland’s most historic strongholds. It's a site tied to the Bruces, medieval warfare, rebellion, and some of the strangest stories to come out of Dumfriesshire.

In this episode, we explore the history of the castle before looking at the modern accounts that have made Lochmaben one of the area’s most talked-about haunted locations.

From the 12th-century tale of a medieval revenant, to legends of a phantom drummer boy, a ghostly horseman patrolling the loch’s edge, and the chilling modern encounter reported by investigator Tom Robertson in 1991, the site h...

Tonight’s story comes from my new book Hidden Haunts: Ireland - a collection of lesser-known ghost stories, local legends, and accounts that have rarely, if ever, been written down.

This episode takes us to Woodstown House in County Waterford, a place better known for its famous guests than its ghosts. But behind the grand rooms and local reputation lies something far stranger - a series of experiences shared by several people who lived and worked there.

You’ll hear Chrissie’s account of strange activity in the kitchen, the sense of being watched in the an...

The final chapter in a chilling true story of a haunting that refused to be left behind.

In this concluding episode, we follow John - a down to earth, practical man - as the strange disturbances that began at a remote industrial site grow darker, more personal… and more violent.

What started with flying stones and cryptic messages soon evolved into something far more invasive: objects moved on their own, threatening notes appeared from nowhere, and witnesses began to feel - a presence they couldn’t explain. And then came Jonathon.

A name scra...

In this feature length episode, we look at real historical cases from Scotland where possession was recorded - not the Hollywood kind, but the kind found in parish records, court transcripts, and old ministerial accounts.

Some of these cases are deeply unsettling: people who claimed to see spirits, to be tormented in their sleep, to speak with voices not their own. Others sit somewhere between faith, fear, and mental collapse. Through a modern lens, they might be seen as illness or trauma - but at the time, they were believed to be evidence of possession.

...

Welcome to The Possession Files - a three-part Halloween series investigating real historical accounts of alleged possession. 

These aren’t tales of spinning heads or Hollywood demons, but stories drawn from documented cases where something darker and far harder to explain seemed to take hold.

In this opening episode, we travel to Romania to examine the extraordinary story of Elenore Zugun - one of the real-life cases said to have inspired the 1973 film The Exorcist. 

Branded ‘The Devil’s Girl,’ Elenore became, between 1925 and 1927, the centre of one of Europe’s most unsettling and well-doc...

The A9 is Scotland’s longest road, stretching through the heart of the Highlands. It’s a route travelled daily by thousands — but it also carries a darker reputation.

In this follow-up to my episode on the haunted A75, Dark Miles, I trace the length of the A9, uncovering ghost stories that cling to the road and the landscapes around it. From death omens in Pitlochry and the witch of Beinn a’ Ghlo, to phantom whistles in Glen Tilt and a modern woman in white near Drumossie Brae, the accounts are as varied as they are disturbing.

Wh...

Blythswood Square sits at the heart of Glasgow’s Georgian New Town - elegant, symmetrical, and steeped in history. But behind the sandstone facades, the square holds a darker story.

In this episode, we explore a haunting said to be tied to one of Scotland’s most infamous court cases: the 1857 trial of Madeleine Smith. Her secret affair with Pierre L’Angelier ended in scandal and death, and although the verdict was “Not Proven,” the questions never truly faded. Nor, it seems, did the presence of those involved.

We look at ghost stories stretching across decades: s...

As featured in Tales from the Crypts of Auld Reekie by John Tantalon

What if one of the most haunted streets in Edinburgh wasn’t in the Old Town, but found just beyond the Meadows — overlooked, residential, and never mentioned in ghost tour scripts?

This episode explores the eerie happenings of Arden Street, a seemingly ordinary road in Marchmont with a long history of unsettling events. From spectral footsteps and phantom dogs to frightening apparitions and a mysterious book of Bruegel prints, these stories draw from real first-hand accounts gathered over years.

I orig...

Beneath the streets of Alloa lies a history far stranger than most realise.

In this episode, we explore the layered past of a small Scottish town once tied to kings, conflict, and industry—and the eerie stories that have emerged from its most forgotten corners. From the imposing walls of Alloa Tower, where ghostly figures are said to appear in dungeons, bedrooms, and echoing stairwells, to the rediscovered tomb of a long-vanished family whose final resting place seems anything but still, this is a journey through places where memory clings to stone.

What begins as a...

In this episode, we turn to Glenburn, a quiet area in Paisley, Renfrewshire—where in the 1980s, a family reported a series of disturbing and unexplained events. What began with strange noises soon escalated into something far more intense: loud crashes with no source, doors slamming, and a deep sense of unease that seemed permeate throughout the property.

Neighbours heard nothing, but friends of Alan - the young boy who lived in the flat - experienced something that nearly ended in tragedy and ultimately brought in the local authorities.

Was it a classic poltergeist case...

There’s something about the land around Sanquhar that feels… different. The fields have an atmosphere to them, as if the place is waiting for something. And when the light starts to fade behind the broken walls of Sanker Castle, the stories don’t just feel like stories anymore - they come to life.

There are accounts from the east stairwell. Of a woman seen at the top - tall, dressed in white, wringing her hands. They call her the White Lady. She’s been part of the local memory for as long as anyone can remember.

In...

While Eerie Edinburgh usually focuses on ghost stories and hauntings, sometimes a different kind of story stands out - strange, frightening, and too rooted in our folklore to ignore.

Scotland has no shortage of the supernatural: water horses in dark lochs, second sight, fairy abductions, witches blamed for failed harvests and sudden storms. But werewolves? That’s something we tend to associate with mainland Europe, not the glens and forests of the north.

But dig deep enough and the stories are there.

In this episode, we look at reports of wolf-like creatures in Sc...