Edinburgh Underground City of the Dead Tour: Exploring Damnation Alley's Haunted Tunnels

Uncover the secrets of Edinburgh’s haunted underground city on this award-winning guided tour. Explore Damnation Alley’s haunted tunnels and hear chilling stories of the city’s dark past.

Duration: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • City of the Dead Tours - This tour ventures into the most haunted section of Edinburgh’s legendary Underground City, where a population once lived in utter misery. Black as Satan’s jammies, with a fascinating history to match, these vaults were forgotten for centuries and only recently unsealed.
    This part of the South Bridge Vaults is known as…
What's Included
  • Local, expert guide
What's Not Included
  • Transportation to/from attractions
Additional Information

Join us on this award-winning guided stroll through the spookiest section of the historical Underground City in Edinburgh, often referred to as ‘Damnation Alley’. For centuries, this place lay forgotten, once acting as a ‘home’ to men, women, and children subjected to unbearable living conditions.
Delve into the grim history of Edinburgh below its city…

Location
St Giles' Cathedral
High Street
All tours leave from the "Tree of the Dead" outside St Giles Cathedral on the pavement facing the Royal Mile. Please arrive at the meeting point 15 minutes prior to departure.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.6
(258 Ratings)
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Sherpa02124779087
Sep 30, 2025
Ben was great! - Ben was a great tour guide! Informative and with a great sense of humour, enriched our stay with edimburgh facts and underground stories that made us feel the vaults without being corny and was always attentious towards the guests. Marvelous experience!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
T821sqchrisf
Sep 9, 2025
Really enjoyed it! Excellent guide - Really fun experience! Lots of info given by our tour guide Joshua (who honestly made the whole thing perfect), very friendly vibe, kept it quite simple and spooky! Well worth the money spent.
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Ubrack
Aug 26, 2025
Scare in the Vault - Our guide Alister took us on an exciting and creepy journey under the South Bridge, perfectly combining historical facts and creepy stories. Bravo!
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Sterre
Aug 13, 2025
Funny yet absolutely terrifying - I would absolutely recommend this tour to everyone who is looking for an authentic, funny and genuinely scary experience in Edinburgh. Despite it being the first tour he gave by himself, Charlie was the best tour guide we could have wished for. He knows everything about the city and its dark history, and has a disarming sense of humor. This made the tour so much fun, even though some seriously disturbing stories were told, and we might even have had an encounter with one of the terrifying ghosts who live inside the vaults.
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Forestl993
Jul 30, 2025
good mix of history and ghost stories - Fiona was a great guide! The tour was a good mix of history and spooky stories. We were warned that if we didn't leave a review, we'd be haunted by one of the ghosts... And sure enough, one of my travelmates started losing items and had a bunch of toiletries fall into the toilet. So we are leaving our review to break the curse! Thanks Fiona! :)
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Alexissm3539nm
Jul 29, 2025
Spooooky! - This tour was equal parts fascinating and entertaining. Our tour guide Fiona was very informative and quite entertaining. A few chills, and a good scare thanks to another group who was behind us who Fiona wasn't expecting 😆. We will definitely be doing this again when we come back to Edinburgh.
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Climber50847112361
Jul 18, 2025
- Désirée did a excellent tour not just through the history of Edinburg but also through the vaults underneath it. Her enthusiam and the way of her storytelling was very catching. I can highly recommend the tour and also Désirée as a guide!
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Hitoshic2025
Jul 6, 2025
S+ Tour guide - Our tour guide was fantastic, i personally found it fascinating and just the right amount of spooky. Would highly recommend
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Audreycgl
Jun 21, 2025
Great experience - Very interesting tour. The guide was nice, knowledgeable and funny. The tour was engaging and intertaining. Really recommend.
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681sonyab
Jun 14, 2025
Good fun - Great walking tour, it was informative & great fun. Rebecca was our tour guide & she was brilliant. Really enjoyed it, hard to believe all that is under the city
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