Eerie Edinburgh

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...

Every now and then, I like to branch out beyond Edinburgh and Scotland and bring you a case from further afield - one that’s too strange, too unnerving, and too well-documented to ignore. But just as importantly, I want to bring you the stories that don’t always get the spotlight. The ones that risk being forgotten.

This is one of them

In 1889, a remote farmhouse in Clarendon, Quebec became the centre of one of the most unsettling paranormal cases in Canadian history. The Dagg family claimed they were haunted by a presence that move...

In the summer of 1958, something strange stirred in a Glasgow tenement.

Three American students, renting a modest flat on Gibson Street, began experiencing something they couldn’t explain - and would never forget. It started with faint, indistinct voices echoing through empty rooms. Then came the sudden crashes, the faulty radio playing on its own, and the sense that they were not alone.

This was no ordinary haunting.

In this episode, we uncover the account of the Gibson Street poltergeist - a case that left its mark on those who lived through it. Bu...

Hidden deep within a wooded glen near Kilmacolm stands the forgotten ruin of Duchal Castle - a fortress steeped in stories of siege, scandal, and something darker. 

In this episode, we uncover the chilling legend of the Black Robe: a ghostly monk said to haunt the castle’s crumbling walls, watching, waiting, and confronting those who dare enter its halls.

From historical battles and royal intrigue to whispers of ancient rites and supernatural confrontations, this is more than just a ghost story - it’s a tale of power, guilt, and a haunting that refuses to fa...

Somewhere between Gretna and Annan lies a stretch of road that has terrified drivers for decades. Apparitions on the verge. A phantom woman in black. A spectral coach hurtling through the night. And, most chilling of all, a silent procession of pale, tattered figures crossing in the dark.

In this episode, we dive into one of Scotland’s strangest and most persistent ghost stories: the hauntings of the A75. Drawing on real witness accounts from as far back as the 1950s and as recently as the 2000s, we explore what might lie behind the road’s reputation as a...

What if a loved one appeared to you at the very moment they died – even though they were miles away?

In this episode, we explore the eerie and emotional world of crisis apparitions – ghostly encounters from Edinburgh that occurred at the precise moment of a death, accident, or major trauma. These aren’t your typical hauntings. They’re intimate, fleeting, and often deeply personal.

We’ll delve into chilling historical cases, uncanny modern reports, and the theories that attempt to explain them – from the paranormal to the psychological. Are these messages from the beyon...

On a quiet farm in 1695, something woke in the night.
What began as whispers and scratches soon escalated into violence—stones hurled through the air, beds dragged across the floor, children lifted screaming from their sleep. 

The spirit that plagued the Mackie family in Rerrick was relentless, calculated, and cruel.

It bore striking similarities to a more famous case across the sea—Tennessee’s infamous Bell Witch.

But this haunting came a century earlier.

And it spoke with a voice that could be heard by all.

Some called it a po...

Durham is a city steeped in centuries of history, but its past is not always quiet. In this episode, I share the chilling experiences shared with me by Hannah, a former bar worker who encountered something unseen while working in some of Durham’s most historic pubs. From eerie footsteps in empty rooms to a ghostly child watching from the doorway, these are the hauntings that pub staff never forget.

The ghosts of Durham’s inns and taverns don’t just exist in folklore—they are still felt today by those who work behind the bar, lock up at ni...

Perched on the windswept coast of Caithness, the Castle of Mey is steeped in history, royal connections, and ghostly legend. Once a fortress for the Sinclair clan, then a cherished retreat of the Queen Mother, this striking stronghold has seen centuries of life, loss, and mystery. Eerie tales of spectral figures and unexplained encounters have been reported through the years.

In this episode, we delve into the castle’s origins, its place in Scotland’s royal history, and the chilling encounters said to have taken place within its walls. 

Does something unseen still walk the halls...

After a short break, I’m back with a brand-new video, and I hope 2025 is treating you well so far!  

This time, we’re heading to Ballindalloch, a place where history lingers in every stone, and the ghosts seem far too attached to ever leave. Over the years, there have been accounts of ghostly figures drifting through the halls, eerie encounters that send shivers down the spine, and a presence that suggests some spirits still consider this home.  

In this episode we explore the hauntings, legends, and mysteries woven into this fascinating location.

In this episode, we explore a Christmas haunting from 1887 on Rutland Street, Edinburgh. 

Dr. W.A. Jamieson's unncanny encounter with a mysterious, yet familiar apparition is one of the city's lesser-known ghost stories, but it’s one that still fascinates those who know of it. Join us as we explore the history and details of this eerie tale.

Thank you so much for all your incredible support throughout the year - it truly means the world to me. 

I hope you enjoy this wee story and had a wonderful Christmas and are ready for...

This week, we venture into the haunted halls of Abergeldie Castle, a stunning fortress found in the heart of Deeside, Scotland. With centuries of history etched into its walls, Abergeldie is more than just a relic of the past—it’s a place where legend and tragedy collide.  

At the heart of the castle’s story is the tale of French Kate, a 16th-century servant accused of witchcraft and executed on the nearby Creag nam Ban. Her ghost is said to haunt the castle’s cellars and clock tower, with countless reports of strange sightings and unexplained sounds ad...

In this episode, the second and final story I'll be sharing from my upcoming book Hidden Haunts: England, we explore one of the country's most fascinating hauntings—Ash Manor and the mysteries surrounding this historic home.

Uncover the story of Mr and Mrs Keel from 1934, who found themselves entangled in the dark history of Ash Manor, a location that even captured the attention of the legendary investigator Nandor Fodor.

Join us as we piece together the fragments of its chilling legacy and unravel the truth behind one of England’s most intriguing haunted locations. 

Tim...

In this Halloween exclusive, we bring you the most incredible ghost story you’ve never heard: The Haunting of Parliament Square. A story I believe rivals the most incredible ghost stories in the world.

Buried beneath the stones of this historic Edinburgh square lies a dark secret that terrified two flatmates in late 2006, eventually forcing the terrified women to flee the property.

The Haunting of Parliament Square was relayed to me by Anna, a conflict photographer, whose chilling experience was later corroborated by Ruth, a BBC journalist. Both seasoned professionals and not easily rattled, these wo...

In this episode, we explore the chilling history and hauntings of Craigievar Castle, one of Scotland’s most iconic and haunted strongholds. Known for its fairy-tale appearance, Craigievar hides a much darker side—tales of ghostly apparitions and tragic deaths that still linger within its walls. From the Fiddler, who is said to haunt the castle with the sound of eerie music, to the infamous legend of a naked man forced to leap from the tower to his death, Craigievar’s haunted past has terrified visitors for centuries.

A special thanks to Owen Staton, the incredible Welsh storyt...