Eerie Edinburgh

Deep within the woods near Edinburgh lie the forgotten ruins of Woodhouselee - a place haunted by one of Scotland's oldest and most tragic ghost stories. In this episode, we trace the legend of Anne Hamilton, a woman said to have been driven from her home during the Marian Civil War, before exploring more than four centuries of reported paranormal activity linked to the estate. From mysterious kno...

Castle Fraser is one of Scotland's most beautiful castles - and one of its most haunted. In this episode of Eerie Edinburgh, we explore the ghostly legends of Aberdeenshire's Castle Fraser, from the mysterious Lady Blanche Drummond and phantom footsteps in empty corridors to the chilling tale of the Green Room and the bloodstained spiral staircase. Are these simply stories passed down through gene...

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 legen...

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 f...

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...

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 experi...

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,...

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 gen...

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...

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...

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 c...

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 ho...

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 gene...

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 y...

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 firsth...

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,...

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 mediev...

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 experi...

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 the...

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 fai...

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 o...

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,...

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 althoug...

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 spec...

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 red...