Eerie Edinburgh

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 from a bedroom cupboard developed into one of the most grotesque ghostly encounters I've come across - involving the apparition of a disembodied human head. Finally, we travel to Aberdeen, where a man named Scarfe agreed to spend a night in an allegedly haunted house near Great Western Road. Accompanied by a borrowed dog, he experienced something that would eventually lead to the discovery of a long-forgotten tragedy. Three accounts from Victorian Scotland, each with its own mystery, and each offering a rather different explanation for what witnesses believed they had encountered. So, settle in, turn down the lights, and enjoy A Night of Victorian Ghost Stories. 📖 MY NEW BOOK - THE NIGHT SHIFT If you enjoy the stories featured on Eerie Edinburgh, you might also be interested in my new book, The Night Shift: True Hauntings from Scotland's Hospitals and Care Homes. Drawing on accounts of strange experiences in Scottish hospitals and care homes, the book explores some of the ghostly encounters reported by those who have worked in these buildings. It's available now on Amazon in paperback for £9.99. 👉 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0HNRHB8YH

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 persuaded them to leave early. But just a few miles from Center Parcs stand the ruins of Rufford Abbey, a former Cistercian monastery with its own centuries-old history and stories of a ghostly monk. Could there be a connection between these strange encounters and the abbey's haunted reputation? Join me as we explore the reported hauntings of Center Parcs Sherwood Forest, the history of Rufford Abbey and one of the most recognisable figures in British ghost folklore - the hooded monk.

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 we thought it might be interesting to sit down together, hit record and see where the conversation took us. #GhostStories #ScottishGhostStories #Folklore #ScottishFolklore #Paranormal #HauntedScotland #Supernatural #Ghosts #DarkHistory #EerieEdinburgh #FabulousFolklore #HowHaunted #icysedgwick #robkirkup

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 remarkably loyal dog, set among the remote hills of southern Scotland. Was there something supernatural happening at the Shiels farm, or can the events be explained without it? As always, I’ll leave that for you to decide. #EerieEdinburgh #ScottishGhostStories #GhostStories #ScottishFolklore #CatherineCrowe #LammermuirHills #Paranormal #HauntedScotland #TrueGhostStories #victorianghoststory #hauntedhighlands #hauntededinburgh #edinburghghosts #trueghoststory #scarystories #paranormal #spookyscotland #scottishhistory #scotland #apparition

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 strangest and now largely forgotten supernatural cases. In this episode, I look at the original account, the later additions to the story, and what we can still piece together about the family at its centre.  

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 the hauntings that have become attached to its buildings, closes and streets. Some are well known. Others have almost disappeared. Together, they suggest that few parts of Edinburgh have accumulated quite so much supernatural folklore in such a small area. Welcome back to the Canongate.

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 according to the stories told on Skye for generations, the MacDonalds may not have left Duntulm entirely...

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 more difficult to account for? Join me as we explore the ghosts and strange history of Culross Palace. If you enjoy Scotland's lesser-known ghost stories, haunted places and historical mysteries, please consider subscribing to Eerie Edinburgh.

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 the upper half of a woman silently moving through the rooms of the old tower. Most castle ghost stories remain just that: stories. But during the nineteenth century, two educated visitors - the Reverend E. J. Simmons and Beaumont Featherstone - independently recorded experiences that appeared to match the centuries-old legend in remarkable detail. Were they influenced by local tradition? Victims of suggestion? Or did they genuinely witness something they could not explain? Join me as we examine the history of Meggernie Castle, the legend behind its most famous ghost, and the eyewitness accounts that continue to make this one of Scotland's most intriguing hauntings. 📚 A special thank you to my good friend Graeme Milne, whose excellent book Tales From Haunted Scotland: Volume 2 first introduced me to the story of Meggernie Castle. If you enjoy Scottish folklore, ghost stories and lesser-known history, I'd thoroughly recommend his work. You can find Graeme's books here: Graeme Milne at Waterstones If you enjoy Scotland's forgotten history, ghost stories and carefully researched paranormal investigations, don't forget to subscribe for new episodes every week.

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. Was it grief, suggestion... or something far stranger? Join me as we explore one of Scotland's lesser-known hauntings - the remarkable case of Ardachie Lodge and the legend of The Crawling Ghost. ☕ Support Eerie Edinburgh If you'd like to help me research and produce more Scottish ghost stories, folklore and historical mysteries, you can support the channel here: https://ko-fi.com/eerieedinburgh Every contribution goes towards books, archive access, travel and filming at the locations featured on the channel.