A History of Witchcraft in Edinburgh: A Self-Guided Audio Tour

Edinburgh’s witchcraft story is best understood on foot, and this tour gives you a clear route through the Old Town while explaining how suspicion, religion, torture, and fear shaped Scottish society. You’ll walk from Holyrood Palace to Castlehill, hearing about places such as Bake House Close, John Knox House, St Giles’ Cathedral, and Victoria Terrace along the way.

I like the story-led narration, voiced by Kat, which keeps the subject human rather than turning it into a dry list of dates. I also like the offline access, since your phone can carry the audio, map, and route without needing a live connection. The main drawback is that this is a walking route with no guide beside you, so you’ll need to manage your own pace, phone, and navigation.

Key points to know

• The route covers the Royal Mile from Holyrood to Castlehill, with stops near major Old Town landmarks.
• Kat’s narration focuses on storytelling, including the case of Major Thomas Weir, the Wizard of West Bow.
• The tour takes about one to one and a half hours, depending on your pace and how often you pause.
• Offline maps and audio are included, useful in the narrow, busy streets of the Old Town.
• The tour ends before the Castle Esplanade, not inside Edinburgh Castle.
• At $9.99 per person, it is a low-cost way to add historical context to a walk you may already plan to take.

From Holyrood Palace to the Royal Mile

The tour begins outside the Palace of Holyrood, at Edinburgh EH8 8DU. This is a sensible starting point. You are at the lower end of the Royal Mile, with the old city rising ahead toward Edinburgh Castle.

Before you set off, the audio explains how to use the app and what to expect. That opening matters. A self-guided tour works best when the route is clear from the start, and this one gives you the basic instructions before the storytelling begins.

You’ll need your own smartphone and headphones. The VoiceMap app works on Android and iOS, and the tour includes offline access to the audio, map, and geodata. Downloading the material before you walk is a smart move, especially if you do not want to rely on mobile data.

The route is open all day, every day, during the stated operating period. In practical terms, that gives you plenty of freedom. You can walk in the morning, later in the afternoon, or at night, though the atmosphere and comfort of the Old Town will change with the hour.

The full route takes about 60 to 90 minutes. Your time will depend on walking speed, traffic on the pavements, and how long you pause at each location. I would allow the longer estimate if you want to look around properly rather than simply follow the audio from point to point.

Witchcraft beside the Scottish Parliament

The early part of the walk passes the Scottish Parliament. The tour uses the building as a chance to give you some background before moving deeper into the older streets.

That contrast is one of the route’s useful features. You are not being taken to a single museum room where the past is sealed off from modern life. Instead, the narration connects today’s Edinburgh with the streets where earlier disputes over religion, law, and belief played out.

The Scottish Parliament also helps you get your bearings. From Holyrood, the route heads uphill along the Royal Mile. You can listen while walking, rather than stopping for a formal presentation at every point.

This is still a city walk, not a staged historical performance. You will encounter ordinary pavement conditions, other people, traffic, and the need to keep an eye on your surroundings. Keep the volume high enough to hear, but not so high that you lose awareness of the street around you.

Bake House Close and the shape of old Edinburgh

The route turns into Bake House Close, where the audio explains the close and begins building the wider story of witchcraft in Scotland.

Old Edinburgh’s closes are important because they show how compressed the medieval and early modern city could be. A close is not simply a shortcut. It gives you a sense of the tight urban setting in which people lived, worked, heard rumors, and watched one another.

The tour’s stop here adds texture to the subject. Witchcraft was not an abstract idea floating somewhere outside daily life. Accusations developed within communities, and the city streets help you picture the setting in which fear and suspicion spread.

You will not enter a museum or pay an admission fee at this point. The value comes from the location and the narration together. If you prefer tours with interiors, displays, or objects to examine, this stop may feel limited. If you like hearing a story while standing in the setting where the city’s past unfolded, it works well.

The close can also be a place where you want to pause the audio briefly. Self-guided tours give you that option. You are not holding up a group, and you can replay a section if a name or detail passes too quickly.

John Knox House and religious pressure

The walk continues past John Knox House. The audio introduces John Knox and explains that he strongly supported the Scottish Witchcraft Act.

This stop gives the tour a useful political and religious angle. The witchcraft story is not presented only as a collection of strange crimes or spooky tales. It also concerns the laws and religious attitudes that made accusations possible and helped authorities act on them.

John Knox House is another point where the surroundings add meaning. You are walking through the historic center while hearing how religious convictions shaped public life. The route asks you to consider how ideas about sin, morality, and social order could turn into legal action against suspected witches.

You should keep in mind that the tour passes by the house rather than including a ticket to enter it. Any museum or attraction entrance along the route is not included. That keeps the tour price low, but it also means you are buying the walking narrative, not an all-access visit to every landmark.

High Street and Scotland’s witchcraft laws

As you move through parts of High Street, the narration adds more detail about witchcraft in Scotland. This section is likely to be the most useful part for anyone who wants historical context rather than only famous names.

The subject can easily become sensational. Stories about witches often get reduced to costumes, curses, and spooky atmosphere. Here, the account is described as sensible and story-focused, with facts presented in a way that does not feel overly textbook-like.

That balance is important. A good audio tour should tell you what happened while also helping you understand why it happened. The narration gives you a moving lesson in the city, using the streets as reference points rather than treating the Old Town as a backdrop for a ghost story.

You’ll also appreciate being able to set your own rhythm. If a section catches your attention, you can stop and listen again. If you already know something about the Scottish Witchcraft Act, you can keep moving. A live guide would have to maintain one pace for the whole group, while this format leaves the decision to you.

The tradeoff is the lack of conversation. You cannot ask Kat a question as you walk, and no one is there to clarify a confusing street or point out something outside the audio route. The app supplies structure, but you supply the attention.

St Giles’ Cathedral and the darker evidence

The route goes around the outside of St Giles’ Cathedral. Here, the audio continues the account of witchcraft and explains some of the torture methods used to force confessions from suspected witches.

This is the most difficult material on the walk, and it is also among the most important. Witchcraft accusations were not harmless folklore. Once suspicion entered the legal system, interrogation and torture could produce confessions that authorities treated as proof.

Hearing this beside one of Edinburgh’s major religious buildings makes the subject feel less distant. The stop connects belief, law, and institutional power. It also keeps the story grounded in the city rather than presenting torture as a sensational aside.

You may want to lower the pace here. The route goes around the cathedral, and the audio gives you time to take in the setting while listening. Since this is self-guided, you can pause if the material feels too heavy or if you want a quiet moment before continuing.

The tour is not a family entertainment ride. The subject includes accusations, torture, and executions within the broader story of witchcraft. Parents should decide for themselves if the content suits younger children.

Victoria Terrace and Major Thomas Weir

The route crosses Victoria Terrace and tells the story of Major Thomas Weir, also known as the Wizard of West Bow.

This is one of the tour’s most distinctive episodes. Weir’s story gives the walk a named character and a change of tone after the discussion of laws and torture. The account shows how a figure could become attached to Edinburgh’s popular memory as a wizard.

Victoria Terrace also gives the route a strong sense of place. You are no longer simply moving along a straight section of the Royal Mile. The tour uses another Old Town location to widen the story and show how different streets carry different associations.

I like this part because it illustrates the tour’s storytelling method. Instead of piling up disconnected facts, the narration uses people and places to make the subject easier to remember. That approach was praised by the reviewer who described Kat’s narration as interesting without becoming dry or textbook-focused.

You can expect a professional, high-quality voice recording, but remember that the experience remains private and self-directed. Only your group participates, and there is no larger walking party around you.

Castlehill and the last witch of Scotland

The final climb takes you toward Castlehill. While you walk up the street, the audio tells the story of the last witch of Scotland.

Ending at the top of Castlehill gives the tour a natural finish. You have followed the Royal Mile uphill from Holyrood, moving through several layers of Edinburgh’s Old Town before reaching the approach to the castle.

The tour ends at the top of Castlehill, just before the Esplanade. This detail is worth noting when planning the rest of your day. You are not being led into Edinburgh Castle, and no castle ticket is included. If you plan to visit the castle afterward, you will handle that separately.

The final story also gives the tour a clear arc. You begin with instructions and the broad setting, pass through places tied to law and religion, hear about torture and individual figures, then finish with the last witch of Scotland. It is a compact route, but it has a beginning, middle, and end.

Once you reach the finish, you can continue toward the Esplanade or make your own plans. Since the audio tour does not include transportation, food, drinks, or attraction tickets, think of it as a historical layer added to your Old Town walk.

What $9.99 buys you

At $9.99 per person, this is inexpensive compared with a private guided walk. The price gives you lifetime access to the English tour, along with the VoiceMap app, offline audio, maps, and geodata.

The value is strongest if you already intend to walk the Royal Mile. You are paying for a focused narrative that turns a familiar sightseeing route into a more purposeful history walk. You are not paying for transport, an entrance ticket, or a live guide.

For a couple or small private group, the cost can make sense. You get the same route without arranging a meeting with a guide, and each person can listen through their own phone and headphones. The low price also makes it easy to add this to a day that already includes Holyrood, the Royal Mile, or Edinburgh Castle.

The limits are clear. The tour is offered in English only. You must provide the smartphone and headphones. You also need to install or use the app and manage the route yourself.

The booking is non-refundable and cannot be changed for any reason. That policy matters more here than it might for a flexible attraction ticket, so book only when you are reasonably sure you can use it.

Who should choose this audio walk

I would recommend this tour to you if you like history told through streets and buildings rather than through a formal museum visit. It suits independent walkers who want a planned route but do not want to join a large group.

It is also a good fit if you enjoy dark historical subjects handled with some restraint. The narration includes torture and difficult legal history, but the style is described as sensible and story-led rather than dry or sensational.

You may want something else if you need a live guide, frequent chances to ask questions, or a tour available in another language. You should also look elsewhere if your main goal is to enter the attractions along the Royal Mile. This experience passes by several landmarks, but tickets are not part of it.

Most people can participate, but the route includes an uphill walk from Holyrood to Castlehill. The supplied details do not give a specific accessibility assessment, so anyone concerned about walking conditions should consider the route length and incline before booking.

My booking advice

Book this audio tour if you want a low-cost, flexible way to understand Edinburgh’s witchcraft past while walking the Royal Mile. Kat’s narration, the clear route, and the mix of famous sites with less obvious stories give it more substance than a simple haunted-city stroll.

Skip it if you want a live historian, interior visits, or a tour with transport included. For everyone else, the $9.99 price is reasonable, especially because the audio, map, and route remain available for future use. Download it before you start, bring headphones, and leave up to 90 minutes so the stories do not have to compete with your walking pace.

FAQ

Where does the tour begin?

It begins outside the Palace of Holyrood at Edinburgh EH8 8DU, UK.

Where does the tour end?

It ends at the top of Castlehill, just before the Esplanade, at Edinburgh EH1, UK.

How long does the tour take?

The estimated duration is about one hour to one hour and 30 minutes.

What language is the tour offered in?

The tour is offered in English.

Is this a guided group tour?

No. It is a private self-guided activity, and only your group participates.

Do I need a smartphone?

Yes. A smartphone and headphones are not included, so you need to provide them.

Does the tour work offline?

Yes. Offline access to the audio, maps, and geodata is included through the VoiceMap app.

Does the tour include entrance tickets?

No. Tickets or entrance fees for museums and other attractions along the route are not included.

Does the tour include transportation, food, or drinks?

No. Transportation, food, and drinks are not included.

Can I cancel or change my booking?

No. The experience is non-refundable and cannot be changed for any reason.