So I will be visiting Edinburgh for the weekend. There are several ghost tours there, 2 of which have caught my eye. City of the Dead tour http://www.blackhart.uk.com/ and the Auld Reekie tours. Both of these are supposed to be genuinely haunted (Mackenzie Poltergeist and South Bridge Poltergiest respectively) and stories online seem to confirm some pretty frightening and downright malevolent stuff.

Have any of you heard of or had any experience with either tour or ghost?

The best tours are the ones which go down the Niddry Street vaults. I'd suggest Mercat Tours - they seem to be the best. Not done an Auld Reekie tour before so can't comment on them. I've done a City of the Dead tour and it was okay, but more an entertainment tour as oppose to one with good ghost stories.

Did an Auld Reekie tour - the guide was a great storyteller and the atmosphere great theater, but it was very much that, theater. Take one for the fun of it, but expect a lot of giggling tourists and a guide who is just telling stories. My experience was that they didn't know much beyond the script. Was fun though!

Yeh the Ghost Tours are fun but just that, fun. I am not sure how much fact lies beyond the tales they tell and I am sure that a lot of what is encountered on the tours may be down to suggestion. Not done one of the Edinburgh ones in years but thought it was a great laugh and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ooh, Edinburgh... I've been on a few ghosts tours, well two! I've got to add that I'm a real scaredy cat though, if you go BOO I will definitely go SCREAM! Anyway, my partner and I went to York a few years ago and went on a ghost tour there. Some spooky stories, all very light hearted and we had a fabulous time. Back in Scotland, we told friends about it and then decided to go on a ghost tour in Edinburgh together. I booked with Mercat Tours but I didn't realise that they would take us into the vaults, which are apparently one of the most haunted locations in Britain. I was seriously scared down there and we did hear a few things but to be honest, I don't know if it was paranormal activity or just noise coming through from the streets and the club next door.

I'm also just thinking of something that a friend told me about a while ago. He was playing a gig in the night club next to the vaults and I believe there are several little rooms that originally belonged to the vaults too. He walked into one of them and saw a little woman huddled into the corner and he said he's convinced she was a ghost. I wasn't surprised really but then again many people know about the vaults and the alleged hauntings so maybe if you expect to see a ghost, your mind may play some tricks on you.

The other ghost tour we went on was at Mary Kings Close. It was very entertaining and scary too, although it's a real tourist trap. It still is worth going though, if only for a giggle.

Inghinn