Eerie Edinburgh’s Wayne Gilbert talks to JOHN TANTALON about his love of hauntings, spooky history and Edinburgh’s ghostly legends
Founded in 2020 during the COVID lockdown, EerieEdinburgh.com is Wayne Gilbert’s passion project dedicated to unearthing the city’s forgotten ghost stories. Through YouTube episodes, books, and meticulous research, Wayne has brought more than 80 chilling tales to life, shining a light on hauntings that might otherwise have been lost to time.
Wayne shares his lifelong fascination with hauntings, forgotten ghost stories, and the eerie side of Scotland’s capital.
Wayne Gilbert Eerie Edinburgh Interview
JOHN TANTALON: Please tell us a bit about Eerie Edinburgh. Its origin and your motivation for creating it.
EERIE EDINBURGH: I’ve always loved spooky stories, for as long as I can remember the only things that truly held my attention, even though they terrified me, were scary tales. I can still remember hearing my first one: the story of the Queensberry House Cannibal told to me by my Uncle Jim.
I love them and since then I bought book after book on the subject, particularly relating to Edinburgh. We have so many incredible stories in the city, that I’ve noticed over time are being overlooked due to the focus on the Vaults and Greyfriars.
So, in the summer of 2020 during COVID, while everyone was baking banana bread, I decided to do something to help keep these lesser-known tales alive. I launched the Eerie Edinburgh website, and by December of that year, I’d recorded my first YouTube episode, about a haunting in the ‘Bible Land’ area of the Canongate.
A couple of years later, I’ve now covered over 80 stories on YouTube, written three books, and have a few more in the pipeline.
The videos on the website are fantastic and feature an abundance of ghostly tales. How do you discover these events?
Some stories have been passed down through family and friends, but most come from a combination of offline and online research. I’ve built up a large collection of books over the years, with favourites including works by Peter Underwood, Ron Halliday, Alan Murdie, Rob Kirkup, Graeme Milne, and of course, John Tantalon.
I often use these as a starting point and when something catches my interest, like the Blacket Place account, I dig deeper.
For Blacket Place, a story I first read in Alan Murdie’s Haunted Edinburgh, I went through the SPR (Society for Psychical Research) archives and found original letters written by family members at the time of the haunting. The SPR archive is an absolute gold mine if you’re willing to put the time in.
And then there are stories that come directly from the people involved. A good example is the haunting of Parliament Square, which I first heard about in 2024 from the main witness — a conflict photographer who had experienced the events firsthand. Her account was later supported by a respected BBC journalist, someone I spoke to directly.
Cases like that are the ones that excite me the most.
Have you ever had a personal ghostly encounter?
I have — I’ve had a couple, actually.
The first strange thing happened when I was around 16 and working a part-time job. It was a Friday night in winter, and both my parents were still at work when I got home. I sat down in the living room, about to switch on the TV with the remote, when I noticed a reflection in the TV screen.
There was someone standing in the doorway to my left. They were dressed in what I could only describe at the time as ‘Humphrey Bogart’ clothes: a trench coat and a fedora-style hat. I watched this figure in the reflection for a few seconds as they stood there, only about two feet away, before they turned and walked out of the room.
I ran outside and waited until my parents got home, then immediately checked the doors and windows, but everything was locked.
The second — and far more unusual — experience happened on the Isle of Gigha in 2006, during a family holiday with my then wife and nine-month-old son. I write about it in detail in Hidden Haunts: Scotland, but even now, I still can’t explain what happened.
It involved toasters moving on their own, shadows passing across doorways, and what may have been… a human apport.
Onto the books. Please tell readers a bit about them.
The books grew out of the research I was already doing for Eerie Edinburgh. I kept coming across stories that didn’t fit the usual ghost tour routes or had been forgotten over time — and I didn’t want them to disappear.
The first book, Hidden Haunts: Scotland, focuses on those overlooked stories, with each chapter combining local history and reported sightings.
That was followed by Ghostly Tales of the NC500, which is part ghost book, part travel companion for anyone exploring the Highlands. It follows the route of the North Coast 500, stopping at key locations along the way and uncovering the stories tied to them. Everything from roadside apparitions and cursed lochs to haunted castles and ancient legends.
There are over 50 accounts in the book, and many were sourced from local folklore, historical records, or passed down through families. The aim was to create something that travellers could bring with them on the route, but also something that stands on its own as a collection of Highland hauntings.
After that, I released the second in the Hidden Haunts series, this time focusing on England — again aiming to highlight stories that haven’t had much attention or have been buried in local memory.
I’m currently working on Hidden Haunts: Ireland, due out in October. Like the others, it focuses on overlooked and often more personal cases, many of which were shared with me directly or came out of deeper research. A few are ones I haven’t seen covered anywhere else.
All of the books aim to strike a balance between history and the paranormal, with a focus on storytelling and credibility rather than sensationalism.
Edinburgh is a city steeped in history. Can you relay a favourite tale from your city?
I’ve always loved the first ghost story I remember hearing that I previously mentioned — the Queensberry House Cannibal — but since starting the channel, there are two stories that have really stayed with me: the Blacket Place haunting and the Parliament Square case. For me, they’re among the best ghost stories in the city and some of the most fascinating accounts I’ve ever come across.
Parliament Square is more of a ‘traditional’ haunting in the sense that it involves apparitions and poltergeist activity — but the details are anything but typical.
The main witness described things like a knife embedded up to the hilt in a wall above her head, tennis balls somehow stuck to the ceiling, her flatmate seemingly being attacked by an unseen force and the moment that truly chilled me: ghostly feet dangling through the ceiling, as if someone had been hanged from the rafters above and their feet were pushing through the floor.
It’s an astonishing case, and there’s much more to it than I can cover here — but I’ve told the full story on the channel, and it’s well worth a watch.
The Blacket Place haunting is one of the creepiest I’ve featured. It’s a late 19th-century case involving multiple witnesses who frequently saw a woman in white moving through an Edinburgh townhouse, strange bangs and crashes, the appearance of a glowing blue figure, and even a yellow-faced “demon” that terrified one of the family members who lived there.
The exact location wasn’t known for years, but between myself and John Tantalon, we think we’ve identified the building — and it turns out a woman was found dead in the bath there shortly before the haunting began.
That full story’s also up on the channel.
There are many paranormal groups, authors and investigators out there. Are you in touch with many, and who would you recommend?
One of the best things about doing what I do is getting to know some absolutely amazing people. I’ve become friends with people I’ve looked up to for years, and over the past couple of years I’ve had the chance to meet some of my favourite authors and investigators.
I’ve already mentioned a few names like Graeme Milne and John Tantalon, who I’m lucky enough to call friends. There’s also Scott Lyall, who produces the brilliant Wulverstane magazine, and Kerrie, who works alongside John as part of the fantastic North Edinburgh Nightmares team.
Further afield, I’ve become good friends with Nat Doig from the BBC Sounds award-winning podcast Weird in the Wade, and Emma Holohan from Ghost Catcher Isles. There’s also Rob Kirkup from the How Haunted? podcast, Icy Sedgwick from Fabulous Folklore, and Bethan Briggs-Miller from Eerie Essex.
I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting Evelyn Hollow and Danny Robins, whose work I’ve admired for a long time. We ended up going for a drink together, and it was one of those moments where you realise how passionate and down-to-earth people in this field really are.
There are probably too many to list, but the paranormal community — at least in my experience — has been nothing but supportive, generous, and genuinely inspiring.
Have you ever taken part in a paranormal investigation, and if so, were there any results?
Yeah, I have. I’ve been on a couple, though I’m not sure I’d call them full investigations — they were probably better described as experiences.
The first was an overnight in the Edinburgh Vaults, which was great fun. I learned to use dowsing rods and even took part in my one and only Ouija board session. I’m not 100% convinced by anything that happened that night however.
I was told during the dowsing session that I’d win the lottery (still waiting!) — and there were so many people there that it didn’t feel all that authentic. But it was a good introduction to that side of things.
The second was a few hours at Bannockburn House near Stirling in 2023. It was a fantastic opportunity to explore parts of the building that aren’t normally open to the public, but the investigation itself was, if I’m honest, a bit of a letdown.
I won’t name the company, but the medium they brought in didn’t feel particularly credible and that kind of tarnished the whole experience.
That said, I was shown a video taken at Bannockburn earlier that year — footage that, to this day, is probably the most convincing I’ve seen. The only way I can describe it is like the lower half of the Predator walking across one of the house’s most notoriously haunted rooms.
So, the night wasn’t a total flop by any means.
What are you currently working on? Any new books for 2026?
I’m currently putting the finishing touches to Hidden Haunts: Ireland, which will be out around Halloween. I’m also working on a new book that brings together some of the darker and more unsettling accounts I’ve featured — stories that stand out because of the tone, the intensity, or the themes running through them.
That book explores those underlying threads, whether it’s trauma, psychological disturbance, or a lingering sense of consequence.
Looking ahead, I’d really like to create something similar to Ghostly Tales of the NC500, but focused on the West Highland Way. I covered it in an episode back in 2023 and I’ve come across a few new accounts since then.
I think there’s a really strong book in that route, especially given the landscape and the history it passes through.
I’m also currently developing an audio drama based on real paranormal cases, blending fictional storytelling with the kinds of themes I explore in my non-fiction work.
And I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a full-length fiction book — something inspired by one of the real locations I’ve covered but told as a novel. It’s early days, but I think there’s a lot of potential there.
Edinburgh is home to some famous haunted pubs. Please tell us about a few of them.
I think just about every pub on the Royal Mile has some spooky story attached to it, but when I first started Eerie Edinburgh, I was contacted by a witness named Patrick who had worked in a number of Edinburgh pubs over the years.
He shared a series of experiences that really stood out — not just because of what happened, but because of the range of locations involved.
He talked about strange footsteps and unexplained noises at Shandwick’s in the West End, in an area that links directly to a story featured by John Tantalon.
He also described activity at The Mercat Bar in Haymarket, where a staff member twice witnessed the apparition of a man in 1940s clothing. The same spot also triggered constant false alarms with the building’s intruder system and even caused the family dog to refuse to go near it.
Further south, at the Robin’s Nest in Liberton, Patrick reported a more oppressive atmosphere altogether. Staff there experienced a series of personal misfortunes, and he described moments of real unease — including hand dryers switching on in empty bathrooms and what he called “a darkness” that seemed to hang over the place.
All three pubs are near water sources, which some believe could act as a conductor for spiritual activity. Whether that’s coincidence or something more, I’ll leave for others to decide — but the stories are compelling, and you can find the full account on the Eerie Edinburgh website.
What do you think of the new look and regional Spooky Edinburgh? Are you a fan of Spooky Isles?
Absolutely — I think the new regional approach is a great move. There are so many stories tied to specific places, and it’s brilliant to see that getting more focus.
The new look is clean and easy to navigate, and I’ve already spotted a few articles I hadn’t seen before.
I’m definitely a fan of Spooky Isles — it’s one of the sources I regularly turn to when researching new stories. It’s a brilliant platform for anyone interested in ghosts, folklore, and the darker side of local history.
Long may it continue.
What’s your favourite ghost story from Edinburgh? Tell us in the comments section below!
You can find more information about Wayne Gilbert’s Eerie Edinburgh articles, videos and books at www.eerieedinburgh.com.
