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Edinburgh's Dark Side Walking Tour
Edinburgh

From body-snatching graveyards to the real haunts of Inspector Rebus, seven stops tracing the murders, doubles, and dark secrets that forged Edinburgh's literary soul.

7 stops · 4.1 km

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GPS-guided · Works offline · No signal needed

Every Stop Has a Story

The Covenanters & Body Snatchers

The mausoleum of "Bloody" Mackenzie, persecutor of the Covenanters, stands in a kirkyard still dotted with iron cages from the age of the body snatchers.

The Heart of Rebus

The real police station that served for years as Inspector Rebus's base, and still a working station today.

The Hidden Slums

Subterranean vaults where bootleggers hid and the city's poorest once lived, forgotten for over a century before their rediscovery in the 1980s.

Deacon Brodie: The Real Jekyll & Hyde

The respected councilman by day, burglar by night, whose double life inspired Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

The Writer's Museum: The Gothic Collection

A 1622 townhouse with a warning carved over its door, now home to Stevenson's riding boots and a wardrobe made by Deacon Brodie himself.

The Noir Pub

Ian Rankin's Rebus drinks at this tiny New Town pub, and so does Rankin himself.

The Philosopher's Tomb & The Resurrectionists

David Hume asked for a modest monument "leaving it to Posterity to add the Rest," and his friend Robert Adam gave him this towering Roman tomb.

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