By Laura Tait
While most of us hate to be frightened out of our wits, we also kind of love it at the same time. Strange but true. If you’re after something a bit more hands-on than a horror film – and fancy a history lesson at the same time – here are our favourite ghost tours across the UK.
City of the Dead Haunted Graveyard Tour, Edinburgh
Nightly, 8.30pm/10pm
£9.50 Adults, £7.50 OAPs/Students (children must be accompanied by an adult)
The undead are making a killing in the Scottish capital – it’s packed with groups of ghost walkers bumping into each other in its old atmospheric streets and alleyways. They all have their unique selling points though, and the City of the Dead Haunted Graveyard Tour’s USP is the MacKenzie Poltergeist - now regarded as the best documented supernatural case of all time. The tour takes you to Greyfriars Cemetery – home to the tomb now famous as the lair of a malevolent paranormal entity, as well as the Covenanters Prison where there are many documented cases of apparent ‘attacks’ by the spirit.
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The Original Ghost Walk, York
Nightly, 8pm
£4.50 Adults, £3 Concessions/Students/Children
Getting in there before other cities started jumping on the ghostie bandwagon, York has been hosting this haunted tour of the city since 1973. It’s not just the oldest, it’s also one of the most authentic, aiming to be an accurate exploration of folklore, legend and dreams. All of Ghost Walk guides are City, County (Blue Badge) or Equity Qualified – one with a degree in Yorkshire history – and they’re all fantastic storytellers. Their stories include that of ‘the lost boy’, a dirty and barefoot ragged child of a ghost, who haunts some of the city’s Victorian buildings.
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Ghost Walk, Belfast
Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, 7.30pm
£8 Adults, £5 Children
Exploring 16th century taverns, ancient churches, cobbled streets and a labyrinth of narrow lanes and alleys, guests on this eerie tour are in for a treat. If you consider being spooked out a treat. More ghastly tales of disease, murder and body snatching than you can shake a stick at, covering all sorts of history, from Jack the Ripper (and his connection to Belfast) to the history of Titanic and the men who built her, and other supernatural tales of the city. The tour starts at Belfast City Hall and wraps up in The Four Corners – the oldest part of the city, where apparently a famous Lord escaped death all thanks to a ghost.
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Hope Street Shivers, Liverpool
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 7pm/8.30pm/10pm
£15 Adults, £10 Children
There’s a sinister side to the history of Liverpool's cultural quarter, which this tour takes you through. Ghosts you may bump into on this walk include Bernie Brown, former inmate at the Liverpool workhouse who threw himself to his death from the walls (he haunts Metropolitan Cathedral, which stands on the site where the workhouse once stood) and Scotsman Will MacKenzie, who apparently gambled his soul in a game of poker and now haunts the 19th century St Andrew's church where he’s buried. Many spirits are also thought to hang out in the Philharmonic Pub, including a banshee in its alley.
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Whitby Ghost Walk, Whitby
Regularly, 8pm (see website for specific dates)
£5 Adults, £3 Children
Harry Collett (aka the Man in Black) leads this tour of the North Yorkshire port of Whitby, and though a winning combination of history, legend and humour he has a whole host of strange and supernatural tales of murder, mystery and suspense to get through. If you’re more of a fan of the vampire form of the undead as opposed to regular old ghosties then catch his alternative tour; 'In Search of Dracula'. Bram Stoker wrote the Victorian saga in Whitby. St Mary’s Church and Graveyard, which feature in the novel, and also in both tours.
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Steel City Ghost Tour, Sheffield
Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 7.30pm
£5 Adult, £4 OAPs/Students, £2.50 Children
Supernatural stories of Sheffield are thoroughly researched for genuineness and told with dramatic flair by the mysterious black-cloaked Mr Dreadful. Though we’re not entirely convinced that’s his genuine name. The thrice-a-week tours all start at The Sheffield Town Hall Steps but have a different theme each day – Monday’s are good old fashioned classic ghost stories, Wednesday’s stories are a mixture of gruesome and ghoulish (not one for the squeamish) and Thursday’s has a mixture of ghoulish and traditional tales of the Campo Lane area of the city centre of Sheffield.
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The Llandaff Ghost Walk, Cardiff
Thursday and Saturday, 8.30pm
£4 in advance, £5 on the night (over 10s only, and under 16s to be accompanied by an adult)
Cardiff may be a bustling modern city, but within it lies Llandaff – all narrow streets and crumbling ruins. Throw in an ancient cathedral and you have the perfect atmosphere for a ghost tour, and its history – from wars and tragedies to murders and suicides – gives it the perfect stories. Incidents along the way aren’t uncommon, including temperature changes, peculiar smells, weird feelings and inexplicable sounds and images. Some have even been captured in audio recordings or on camera. Don’t worry if you have an ‘experience’ though – there are plenty of pubs en route if you want to calm yourself with a Welsh Whisky.
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Ghost Walks, Bath
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 8pm
£7 Adults, £5 Children/OAPs/Students
Another old, historic city... - and it would appear that where there’s age and history there’s also paranormal goings on. Bath is no exception. This tour shows you the sights, introduces you to their ghosts and tells you their story, from the beautiful and (unusually for a ghost) smiling and happy singing lady who treads the stairs of the Royal crescent to the Man in the Black Hat who strolls around The Assembly Rooms - one of the tour’s most sighted ghosts. The recently refurbished Theatre Royal is also a magnet for the undead, particularly its Garricks Head pub.
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