Edinburgh's Underground City Tour: Exploring City of the Dead Vaults

Uncover the secrets of Edinburgh’s Underground City on this award-winning guided walking tour. Explore the haunted tunnels and hear chilling stories of the city’s dark past. Book now!

Duration: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • City of the Dead Tours - This tour ventures into the most haunted section of Edinburgh’s legendary Underground City, where a population once lived in utter misery. Black as Satan’s jammies, with a fascinating history to match, these vaults were forgotten for centuries and only recently unsealed.
    This part of the South Bridge Vaults is known as…
What's Included
  • Guidance by a local expert
What's Not Included
  • Transportation to/from attractions
Additional Information

Venture into the creepiest part of Edinburgh’s famed Underground City on this celebrated guided stroll. Referred to as ‘Damnation Alley’ and deserted for many years, these corridors once served as the grim dwelling for destitute men, women, and children.
Delve into the sordid history of Edinburgh as you hear the real narratives of what actually occurred…

Location
St Giles' Cathedral
High Street
All tours leave from the "Tree of the Dead" outside St Giles Cathedral on the pavement facing the Royal Mile. Please arrive at the meeting point 10 minutes prior to departure. Please contact us if you are unable to join your tour.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.7
(95 Ratings)
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Trevorcarey1
Mar 22, 2025
Stranger Things - Thanks to Rebecca for a captivating tour showing us the darker side to Edinburgh! There may not of been any 'knockouts' in our group (tour lore for previous fainters) but it was still a knockout experience.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jacobmg787dy
Mar 22, 2025
A Must! - Rebecca was an amazing tour guide! She was very enthusiastic and had some great stories to send chills down our spine! The tour was spooky and informative, a great way to learn some of the darker history of Edinburgh
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Robinlw1993sk
Mar 22, 2025
Spooky yet satisfying! - We had such a good time! The vaults are a must see and Rebecca the tour guide was brilliant. It's not for the faint-hearted!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Natalia_p
Mar 22, 2025
Amazing experience! - On March 19th, 2025, our small lovely group led by charismatic guide Joshua descended into the dark and mysterious vaults of old Edinburgh. I was rather sceptical - until Joshua started telling us his bone-chilling stories, in the complete darkness, illuminated only by the faint light of a lantern. I still get goosebumps when I remember that strange sensation of being in the presence of something dead and ghostly! The frightening reality of the past intertwined with horror. A brilliant and fascinating tour, played out like a small performance. Bravo, Joshua! For the first time in many years, I went to bed that night with the lights on!
Review provided by Viator
Catherine
Feb 20, 2025
City of the Dead underground vaults tour - Brilliant. Our guide, Ben, was simply excellent. Very knowledgable about the city and the vaults. He made the tour and framed the experience. Highly recommend
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Nicolast5045us
Feb 1, 2025
Underground vaults with Rebecca - Me, my partner and my son (13) went down to the vaults with our guide Rebecca. Was a very informative and entertaining tour, Rebecca was brilliant even picked out my partner who isn't great with jump scares and give him a few frights, which personally entertained me. Finding out the history of the place was great and being in the vaults was a very surreal experience, my partner experienced a cold chill go past him as did my son. In the second vault my heart started pounding really fast, had to concentration on not passing out! Honestly a really good tour excited to do more! Rebecca paints a picture and makes history fun! Love her!
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Faraway10952303781
Oct 12, 2024
Underground city tour is a must experience! - Absolutely amazing tour full of history and paranormal! Our guide Chloe was fab. Definitely worth a go! Will go bk and book the other tour
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Marionlj1609lt
Sep 17, 2024
A Very Interesting Experience - What an interesting experience. I have lived in Edinburgh for years and I didn't know the underground vaults where there. It's a fascinating world from a different era. Our tour guide Fiona was great. She brought the place alive with stories from the past. I would definitely recommend this tour.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Passport47964300104
Sep 10, 2024
Highlight of my week abroad! - Absolutely loved the tour, definitely the highlight of my week. Our tour guide, Jamie, is an excellent storyteller! 👍👍
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B2015qmallisonh
Apr 13, 2025
Okay, especially if you're into spooky stories - This was okay. The meeting point at St Giles church was very crowded and noisy and it was difficult to hear our guide's introduction/comments. It would be useful for her to have a mic. It was quite a large group - maybe 30 people - and that made it hard for everybody to hear properly. It took some time - maybe 45 minutes - before we actually went 'underground' into the vaults of the South bridge. My main issues were that our guide didn't seem to have enough information about the history of the structures and those who used and lived in them. She was more into telling 'spooky' stories and trying to get people in the mood to be scared of noises etc but it just didn't work for me. I think most of the others in the group seemed to enjoy it. The engineering of the vaults is incredible and I'd like the guides to share more about that aspect. I was also concerned about the safety aspect - we had a member of our group who used a walking cane and I was worried he would slip in the dark on the rocky floor. There should have been a safety briefing at the start.
Review provided by Tripadvisor