Scotland's best ghost walking tours

SCOTLAND is steeped in dark history but where can you go to learn more about the ghosts of Scotland.

A ghost walk in Alloway.

There are a host of tours and walks throughout the country.

In Edinburgh there are a number telling the tales of the city’s horrors.

One of the operators, Mercat Tours, have daytime and night tours.

The night walk starts with a tour of the closes and wynds of Edinburgh, as well as a visit into the haunted underground vaults on Blair Street.

They also tell the tale of the ‘Edinburgh mob’, which saw a riot past the Mercat Cross.

The tours, led by a cloaked guide, also tell of gruesome tales of witchcraft and torture.

For those not so brave to venture out in the dark, there is a daytime tour of Edinburgh’s most haunted vaults.

The vaults, the tour operators say, witnessed the deeds of mischief-makers and murderers, vagrants and torturers and is one of Edinburgh’s most haunted sites.

In Aberdeen there are also amazing stories to explore.

There is a walk organised by GoBananas that tells of tales of treachery, witches, and blood spills.

There are tales of ghostly apparitions, witches and history, exploring the grim and gruesome stories that have shaped the city’s darker history.

They also explore frightening ghost stories which have emerged from a city hidden beneath mystery and treachery.

In Glasgow, the Glasgow Ghost Walk tells of serial killers, ghosts, executions, plague, and witchcraft.

In Dumfries and Galloway there are tales from folklore, including a tragic story of a wise witch-woman, hauntings that terrified residents of a local farmhouse and a swan whose image brings death.

Comlongon Ghost Tour takes visitors on a terrifying trip around darkest Dumfries.

The team reveals the drama of a famous court trial, ghostly goings-on in an historic hotel and dark insights into the notorious Killing Times. There are also tales of graverobbers and a horrific execution.

Meanwhile, the Stirling GhostWalk has been running since 1989 as a way of profiling the culture and locations of the historic Old Town area.

There is Stirling Castle, the National Wallace Monument and Bannockburn Heritage Centre, which chronicle the exploits of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce during the Wars of Independence and the glories of the Royal House of Stuart.