Ghost Tour Pictures
Hello again! If you’re here, it means you’ve just finished my Dark History tour, and would like some visuals on what the hell I was talking about. If, for some reason, you’re here by accident - maybe they’ll entice you to book the tour? Either way, enjoy!
Edinburgh’s Old Town pre-Enlightenment (pre-1767) with the Nor Loch to the North, filling the northern post-glacial valley.
The Maiden - Edinburgh’s precursor to the guillotine (left - the Maiden exactly as it still stands in the National Museum of Scotland; right - an execution at the Maiden).
Plan of Edinburgh (1817) - the fishbone design of the Old Town with the Royal Mile in the middle, and the organised New Town at the top of the map. Notice how cramped the streets of the Old Town are in comparison to the New Town - no space to move, breathe or exist. It’s no wonder as soon as the New Town became an option, all the rich inhabitants moved down there, and the poor stayed behind, taking to living underground as a last resort.
The layout of the vaults underneath South Bridge, used as living and trade quarters between 1785 and 1867, when they were sealed up. They were forgotten about and only rediscovered in 1985. The line running downhill represents Blair and Niddry St., two alleys running parallel to the bridge, and the larger arch at the bottom is still visible today from the Cowgate (street running parallel to the Royal Mile).
Inside the vaults. Notice the lack of daylight, ventilation and sanitation. Now imagine these lamps burn using fish oil, and the floor is covered in human excrement - and that tiny chamber fits about 30 people - and you have an idea of how miserable it must have been.
Thumbscrews - one of the devices used for witch torture. Small, but deadly. Oftentimes, you only needed to use them once. The pain was so severe that when the victim was faced with being subject to the thumbscrews again, or confessing a crime, they chose the latter, because the memory of the pain was worse than the pain itself.
Wallet bound in William Burke’s skin in the Cadies & Witchery Tours exhibit on Victoria Street. The book bound in his skin, as well as the skeleton and the death mask, are in the Surgeons’ Hall Museum.
