Family: 'Even if you don't scare easily, a ghost walk around Edinburgh's Old Town might chill you somewhat'

Halloween used to be quite an event in our house. Painted faces with blood dripping from their mouths, clad in black and armed with a bag for their loot, the children would go off to try and scare the neighbours into parting with sweets.

As teenagers it isn't seemly to carry on, but their blood-lust hasn't abated with the years and so it was no trouble getting them along for a ghost tour in the Old Town.

Gathering at the Mercat Cross on the High Street on a Wednesday evening, they were obviously not the only ones who like their stories gory. It was quite a crowd of us who followed Emily, our guide, and listened to her terrible tales.

At the Cross itself she extracted two members of the group and re-enacted a cat o' nine tails lashing upon them, as this was the punishment for toasting the king during Cromwell's reign. Behind St Giles' Cathedral she told us we were standing upon the old burial site for the people of Edinburgh - a graveyard that became so full that after a heavy shower various limbs of the departed often poked through the soil.

As we wended our way down towards South Bridge, the stories continued; in 1645 a terrible plague hit Edinburgh (hardly surprising when you hear of the sanitary conditions) and the council's way of dealing with this was to brick up the victims in their tenements. Needless to say problems arose when they tried to re-house people in the once infested flats and those who did move in had some fairly strange experiences.

The best bit of the tour is definitely going through the vaults under the bridge. Originally built as a sort of 17th-century shopping centre, the project soon went awry when the merchants realised that the rooms weren't waterproofed. It's certainly not a place for those with claustrophobia. Even if you aren't squeamish you'll feel the occasional chill - quite literally as, although the caves should be a constant temperature and totally sealed, we all felt a breeze every so often. In one room we could see Emily's breath as she began talking. Spooky or what?

In the final, tiny cellar-like room I crept up behind my son and squeezed the back of his neck. I thought the poor boy was going to have a heart attack, such was his reaction. It's the best laugh I've had for ages.

Mercat Ghost Tours, 0131-225 5445, www.mercattours.com

Ghosts and Ghouls tour, 5 children, 9 adults, 23 family ticket.

Spin Halloween magic with this spider outfit (www.marksandspencer.com

9.50

This article was first published in The Scotsman, 30 October, 2010