# Burke and Hare Murder Tours in Edinburgh — Body Snatchers of the Old Town
In 1828, William Burke and William Hare murdered 16 people across Edinburgh's Old Town, selling the bodies to anatomist Dr. Robert Knox — and today, their story draws true crime travellers from around the world to the cobblestoned closes and candlelit wynds where the killings took place.
The Crime That Defined a City
Burke and Hare did not dig up graves. That distinction matters. While body snatching was rampant across Britain during the early 19th century, Burke and Hare went further — they created fresh corpses on demand. Their method became so notorious it entered the English language: *burking*, meaning suffocation that leaves no visible marks on the body, making victims appear to have died of natural causes.
Over the course of a single year, the two Irish immigrants lured vulnerable people — lodgers, prostitutes, the destitute — to Tanner's Close lodging house in Edinburgh's West Port district. Once dead, the bodies were transported along High School Wynd to Dr. Knox's Anatomy School, where no inconvenient questions were asked. Knox paid well, and the operation ran smoothly until the autumn of 1828, when lodgers at Tanner's Close discovered the body of a woman named Marjory Docherty hidden under a bed.
William Hare turned King's evidence and received immunity from prosecution. William Burke was hanged on 28 January 1829 before a crowd estimated in the tens of thousands. In a fitting irony, Burke's own body was handed over to the Edinburgh Medical College for public dissection.
Where to Walk the Trail
Three main operators currently run dedicated Burke and Hare experiences in Edinburgh.
West Port Tours runs *The Burke and Hare Murder Tour*, which focuses tightly on the West Port area where the crimes actually occurred. The tour is listed on Tripadvisor and has accumulated verified reviews as of 2026. Contact West Port Tours directly for current scheduling and pricing.
Cadies & Witchery Tours, based at 84 West Bow on Victoria Street, offer Edinburgh dark history tours that include the Burke and Hare story within the broader context of the city's criminal past. Victoria Street itself is one of Edinburgh's most atmospheric settings — curved, cobbled, and flanked by coloured shopfronts that give way quickly to the grimmer closes nearby.
SANDEMANs offers evening and night walking tours departing from 130 High Street on the Royal Mile. Their tours run approximately two hours and incorporate the Burke and Hare murders alongside other chapters of Edinburgh's dark history. For current pricing and availability across all Edinburgh crime tours, browse the full listings on Viator, where options are listed and bookable in one place.
Key Locations to Visit Independently
If you want to explore the geography of the case on your own time, several sites remain accessible.
Tanner's Close no longer stands in its original form, but the West Port area retains the character of a 19th-century working-class neighbourhood. Walking it at dusk makes the mechanics of the murders — the proximity of lodging house to anatomy school, the darkness of the closes — immediately comprehensible.
The Grassmarket was the primary hunting ground. The White Hart Inn at 32 Grassmarket is one of Edinburgh's oldest surviving pubs and is directly associated with the period. Victims were lured here before being taken to Tanner's Close.
Greyfriars Kirkyard, while better known for its associations with body snatching in the broader sense, provides essential context for why Edinburgh's anatomy schools were so hungry for fresh cadavers. The iron mortsafes — cages placed over fresh graves to prevent removal of bodies — are still visible in the kirkyard today.
Practical Information
All tours operate in Edinburgh's Old Town, which is walkable from Waverley Station. Evening tours are recommended for atmosphere; cobblestones and uneven closes mean flat, sturdy footwear is advisable. Tour availability varies by season — contact operators directly or check Viator for real-time scheduling.
Pricing for Edinburgh crime tours on Viator has been listed in the range of $34–$58 depending on the tour, though specific Burke and Hare tour pricing should be confirmed at the time of booking, as rates change.
For anyone serious about the history of forensic medicine, criminal justice, or the social conditions that made Burke and Hare possible, Edinburgh's Old Town remains one of the most legible crime scenes in Europe — the geography largely intact, the story still told on street corners after dark.
