Situated on the edge of Edinburgh’s Old Town, the eerie yet beautiful Greyfriars Kirkyard was inaugurated in the 1600s and is often described as one of the most haunted graveyards in the world. It’s famed as the final resting place of many of the city’s most notorious figures, though one of its most beloved residents is a small, four‑legged companion named Bobby.

The kirkyard is filled with hundreds of fascinating headstones and macabre tombs, but for your first stop, I’d suggest seeking out the black‑domed mausoleum of George Mackenzie on the southern side of the grounds.

In the 17th century, George Mackenzie rose to become Lord Advocate of Scotland and soon earned a fearsome reputation as one of the most brutal and vicious persecutors of the Covenanters (Protestants who resisted the King’s control of the Church). Among his cruellest acts was the imprisonment and torture of hundreds of Scots in a makeshift outdoor prison, still visible today through the locked iron gates in the southwest corner of the graveyard. Many of those held there died in horrific conditions and are believed to lie in a mass grave within the kirkyard. Mackenzie’s gruelling campaign earned him the nickname George “Bluidy” Mackenzie, and he is thought to have been responsible for more than 15,000 deaths during the dark era known as ‘The Killing Time’.

In 1998, a homeless man decided to seek shelter within the mausoleum, causing part of the floor to collapse, unearthing the bone pit beneath. According to legend, this unleashed Mackenzie’s restless poltergeist! Since then, the site has become steeped in ghost stories, with hundreds of reports of strange encounters and unexplained phenomena surrounding the tomb.

Beyond its frightful fables, Greyfriars is rich with dark carvings and striking examples of memento mori. One that particularly caught my attention was the tomb of the anatomist James Borthwick of Stow, located at the eastern end of the kirk (the Scots word for church). The master surgeon’s tombstone features a full‑length skeleton that appears to be dancing while holding the “book of life,” symbolising the good deeds of the departed. A weathered scythe suggests the harvesting of souls, and the side panels display an array of surgical instruments, depicting his profession.

My final tale from this hallowed ground is that of Greyfriars Bobby, the little Skye Terrier who famously kept watch over his master’s grave for 14 years. Though many urban legends surround the story, it’s widely believed that the loyal hound guarded the resting place of the city policeman day and night until his own death in 1872. A year later, a memorial statue of Bobby was erected just outside the graveyard, standing proudly at the junction beside Candlemaker Row.

Tip: Make sure to look out for the Mortsafes (the graves which had bars put over them to stop grave robbers from snatching the bodies back in the day).