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

Edinburgh’s witchcraft story is best heard while walking the old Royal Mile, where closes, churches, and stone lanes give the subject a real sense of place. This self-guided audio tour takes you from the Palace of Holyrood to Castle Hill, covering suspected witches, forced confessions, John Knox, Major Thomas Weir, and the last witch of Scotland.

I like the story-first narration by Kat, which keeps the facts lively instead of sounding like a school lesson. I also like the freedom to pause, walk at your own speed, and use the app offline, with no group and no fixed departure time.

The main drawback is that this is an outdoor walking route, not a museum visit or a guided tour with a person beside you. You need your own smartphone and headphones, and the non-refundable $9.99 cost is best suited to visitors who want a focused story walk rather than a broad introduction to Edinburgh.

Key points at a glance

• Holyrood to Castle Hill route: Walk a central section of the Royal Mile from the Palace of Holyrood to the top of Castle Hill.
• Kat’s professional narration: Expect storytelling that gives the facts a human shape without becoming too textbook-like.
• Nine atmospheric locations: Hear about Bake House Close, John Knox House, St Giles’ Cathedral, Victoria Terrace, and other key points along the way.
• Witchcraft and punishment: The tour covers the Scottish Witchcraft Act and torture methods used to extract confessions from suspected witches.
• Offline access: Download the audio, map, and geodata through the VoiceMap app before setting out.
• Private by design: You walk only with your own group, with no meeting time beyond arriving at the starting point.

A witchcraft walk along Edinburgh’s oldest spine

This tour uses one of Edinburgh’s most useful walking routes: the Royal Mile between Holyrood and Castle Hill. That matters because you are not being sent across town from one isolated point to another. The story unfolds as you move uphill through the Old Town.

The full walk takes about one hour to one hour and 30 minutes. Your exact time will depend on how quickly you walk and how long you pause at the stops. I would allow the full 90 minutes, especially if you want to look around rather than hurry from one audio point to the next.

The route begins outside the Palace of Holyrood. The opening section explains how to use the app and what to expect. That practical start is useful, particularly if you have not used a VoiceMap tour before or want to check the route before moving into the busy Old Town streets.

From there, the audio leads you up the Royal Mile toward Castle Hill. It is a simple route to understand, but the steady climb matters. The walk finishes near the Esplanade, just before the entrance area at the top of Castlehill, so you can continue with other sightseeing afterward.

Starting beside the Palace of Holyrood

The Palace of Holyrood provides a strong starting point for a tour about power, religion, law, and fear. You begin at Edinburgh EH8 8DU, outside the palace area, then receive instructions about the app and the walking plan.

The experience does not include entry to Holyrood Palace, and you do not need a museum ticket to take the tour. That keeps the price low, but it also means the audio uses the city streets themselves as the setting. If you want to visit the palace, parliament, cathedral, or another attraction along the route, those costs are separate.

At this point, you will want your phone charged and your audio ready. The VoiceMap app provides offline access to the sound, map, and geodata, which is particularly handy when you do not want to depend on a mobile signal. Headphones are not supplied, so bring your own.

The Scottish Parliament and the first change of mood

The route passes the Scottish Parliament soon after the start. You hear a short explanation as you walk, giving the modern political setting a place in the older story of the Royal Mile.

This stop is not presented as a separate interior visit. You remain outside and continue along the route. That makes the walk easy to fit into a day of sightseeing, but you should not expect an extended political tour or a guided look inside the parliament building.

The changing surroundings help the audio work. You move from the area around Holyrood into the older High Street district, where the subject of witchcraft begins to feel less abstract. The route is not simply a list of names and dates. It uses the buildings and lanes around you to keep the story connected to Edinburgh.

Bake House Close and the city’s narrow lanes

The audio takes you into Bake House Close, where you hear about the close itself and the early history of witches before continuing. This is one of the more atmospheric parts of the route because a narrow close gives you a sharper sense of how different the Old Town feels from the broad ceremonial stretches of the Royal Mile.

The stop also helps set up the main subject. Before the tour moves into laws, religious pressure, and punishment, you get a closer look at the places where the stories took shape. I like this kind of pacing because it gives the larger subject a physical anchor.

You should keep your expectations practical. The tour does not list an entry ticket or interior visit at Bake House Close. You are hearing the narration while walking through or near the location, not joining a staged historical performance.

John Knox House and the Scottish Witchcraft Act

The route passes John Knox House, one of the Old Town’s best-known historic buildings. Here the audio introduces John Knox and his fierce support for the Scottish Witchcraft Act.

This section gives the tour a useful political and religious angle. Witchcraft stories can easily become a string of spooky tales. By bringing in legislation and a major religious figure, the narration shows how accusations were tied to wider beliefs and authority.

The house itself is not included as an attraction ticket. If you want to enter it, that would be a separate visit and expense. The audio tour simply uses the building as a point along the walking route.

That distinction is important for planning. At $9.99 per person, the experience is priced like a low-cost audio guide, not a full attraction package. You are paying for the route, narration, and app access. You are not paying for admission to museums or historic interiors.

High Street stories without a fixed group

As you continue through parts of High Street, the audio adds more detail about witchcraft in Scotland. This is where the self-guided format is most useful. You can stop at the edge of the street, let the narration finish, and continue when you are ready.

There is no live guide setting the pace and no group to catch up with. That gives you privacy and flexibility, especially if different people in your group walk at different speeds. The experience is private, meaning only your group participates.

The trade-off is that you must manage the walk yourself. If you miss an instruction, pause the audio and check the app map. The directions are designed to guide you, and the map and geodata work offline, but a self-guided tour still asks you to pay attention.

The narration style is one of the strongest reasons to choose this particular route. Kat’s delivery is professional and built around storytelling. The facts are not treated as dry textbook material, which suits a subject that can otherwise become grim or overly academic.

St Giles’ Cathedral and the hard facts of confession

The tour goes around the outside of St Giles’ Cathedral. During this section, you hear more about witches and witchcraft, including torture methods used to force confessions from suspected witches.

This is the point where the subject becomes darker. The tour is not only about legends or eerie streets. It also addresses the harsh methods used against people accused of witchcraft. That gives the route more weight, but it may not suit anyone looking for a light ghost walk.

Because the route stays outside St Giles’ Cathedral, entrance to the cathedral is not part of the experience. You can treat the audio stop as a short pause in your walk, then decide for yourself if you want to visit the building separately.

I appreciate that the route includes the uncomfortable material rather than smoothing it over. A witchcraft tour has little value if it turns real persecution into a collection of spooky jokes. The narration appears to aim for a sensible balance: engaging storytelling, but with attention to what happened to suspected witches.

Victoria Terrace and the Wizard of West Bow

The walk passes over Victoria Terrace, where you hear the story of Major Thomas Weir, also known as the Wizard of West Bow. This is one of the route’s more distinctive character-based sections.

A named figure gives the story a sharper focus than a general explanation of witchcraft. You are not only hearing about laws and accusations in the abstract. You are following the tale of a particular person connected with Edinburgh’s old streets.

Victoria Terrace also gives the route another change in setting as you move toward Castle Hill. The walk remains compact, but the sequence of closes, High Street, cathedral, terrace, and hill keeps the hour from feeling like one long stretch of road.

The tour does not promise theatrical effects or actors at the stops. Its strength is the combination of real places and an audio narrator who keeps the story moving. If you prefer a live guide who can answer questions, this format will feel limited. If you prefer to listen privately and avoid a crowd, it is a good fit.

Castlehill and the last witch of Scotland

The tour ends at the top of Castlehill, just before the Esplanade. As you climb the street, the audio tells the story of the last witch of Scotland.

Ending with this story gives the walk a clear finish. You begin near Holyrood, move uphill through the Old Town, and close near Edinburgh Castle’s outer approach. The route has a natural sense of progress, both physically and in the way the subject develops.

The exact endpoint is on the Esplanade side of Edinburgh EH1, before the Esplanade itself. This is useful if you want to continue sightseeing around the castle area, though no castle entry is included.

You may also find the ending convenient for a later meal or another Old Town activity, but the tour itself provides no food, drink, or transportation. Plan those separately. The route is compact enough to combine with other plans, provided you leave room for the full one to one and a half hours.

What $9.99 gets you

At $9.99 per person, this is a modest-cost way to add structure to a walk you might make anyway. The price includes lifetime access to the English-language tour, the VoiceMap app for Android and iOS, and offline access to the audio, map, and geodata.

The lifetime access is useful if you want to listen later or repeat the route. It also means you are not paying for a one-time live departure. You can use the tour during the stated operating period, from September 15, 2021 through February 16, 2027, with opening hours listed as Monday through Sunday, 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM.

The value depends on how you like to sightsee. I think the price is fair if you want a focused story, clear directions, and the freedom to walk privately. It is less attractive if you want included admissions, a personal guide, or a broad survey of Edinburgh’s many historic sites.

No transportation is needed or supplied. The route begins at Holyrood and ends near Castle Hill, so the main cost beyond the ticket is simply getting yourself to the start and bringing a phone and headphones.

Who should choose this audio tour

I would choose this experience if you enjoy history with a slightly unsettling edge and want to explore on your own. It also suits couples, families with older children, and small groups who prefer not to join a public walking tour.

It is especially useful for someone already planning to walk the Royal Mile. Instead of crossing the same ground without context, you get a clear theme that links the stops together.

You should think twice if you dislike walking uphill, find discussions of torture upsetting, or want a guide who can answer questions in real time. The audio format is private and convenient, but it cannot adapt to your interests in the way a live guide can.

The tour is offered in English only. Most people can participate, but the supplied information does not give further details about accessibility, so you should check the route and your own needs before booking.

Small practical details that matter

Download the audio, map, and geodata before you start. Offline access is included, but preparation avoids wasting time at the first stop.

Bring headphones and a charged smartphone. Neither is included. Food and drink are also not included, and there are no transport arrangements or attraction tickets along the route.

Allow more than the bare minimum hour if you want to absorb the narration. The walk itself may be manageable in an hour, but the upper estimate of 90 minutes gives you breathing room for pauses and directions.

The experience is non-refundable and cannot be changed after booking. That makes it wise to book only when your Edinburgh plans are firm.

Should you book it?

Book this tour if you want a low-cost, private walk through Edinburgh with a clear subject and strong storytelling. The route covers the Royal Mile’s most useful stretch, and Kat’s narration is designed to keep the material interesting without making it feel like a lecture.

Skip it if you want interior visits, a live guide, or a lighter ghost-story outing. For the right visitor, though, $9.99 buys a thoughtful hour to 90 minutes of walking, listening, and seeing Edinburgh’s old streets through the uneasy story of witchcraft.

FAQ

Where does the tour begin?

The tour begins outside the Palace of Holyrood in Edinburgh, at Edinburgh EH8 8DU, UK.

Where does the tour end?

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

How long does the audio tour take?

The tour takes approximately one hour to one hour and 30 minutes.

What language is available?

The tour is offered in English.

Is this a private tour?

Yes. Only your group participates, and there is no public group joining the walk.

What app is used for the tour?

The tour uses the VoiceMap app, available for Android and iOS devices.

Can I use the tour offline?

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

Do I need to bring anything?

You need your own smartphone and headphones. Food, drink, transportation, and entrance tickets are not included.

Can I enter the attractions along the route with this tour?

No entrance tickets are included. The route passes the Scottish Parliament, Bake House Close, John Knox House, St Giles’ Cathedral, and other locations, but any museum or attraction admission must be arranged separately.