The 12 most haunted places in Scotland have been revealed as part of a new study ahead of Halloween and Edinburgh Castle is top of the list. The research by Stelrad also named Stirling Castle and Glamis Castle in the top three.
The firm created its own ‘Haunted Score’, having utilised variations of terms to extract average monthly searches per location, Instagram hashtags, and Tripadvisor data consisting of ratings, reviews and the total number of spooky mentions.
Unsurprisingly, castles made up the majority of the list, though Edinburgh's Vaults, Rosslyn Chapel and Culloden Moor also made it.
Edinburgh Castle came out on top thanks to its history of ghosts such as The Grey Lady and the lost boy piper, while Edinburgh, with three entries in the top five, maintained its reputation as Scotland's spookiest city.
Glamis Castle, infamous for its reported monster, and Stirling, which is said to be haunted by its own Green Lady ranked highest, while the islands were represented by Duntulm Castle on the Isle of Skye and Skaill House on Orkney.
Other entries on the list include Cawdor Castle and Dryburgh Abbey Hotel in Melrose.
Ranking 12 of the most haunted places in the Scotland
Rank |
Haunted Place |
Location |
UK Monthly Average Search Volume (name of place) /12 |
UK Monthly Average Search Volume ('Ghost') /12 |
Instagram Hashtags /12 |
Tripadvisor Rating /12 |
Total Number of Tripadvisor Reviews /12 |
Total Number of "Spooky" Tripadvisor Mentions /12 |
Haunted Score /72 |
1 |
Edinburgh Castle |
Edinburgh |
12 |
10.5 |
12 |
7.5 |
12 |
10 |
64 |
2 |
Stirling Castle |
Stirling |
10 |
8.5 |
11 |
7.5 |
10 |
8 |
55 |
3 |
Glamis Castle |
Angus |
8 |
10.5 |
9 |
7.5 |
8 |
11 |
54 |
4 |
Edinburgh Vaults |
Edinburgh |
5 |
12 |
5 |
11.5 |
3 |
9 |
46 |
5* |
Mary King's Close |
Edinburgh |
6 |
0 |
6 |
7.5 |
11 |
12 |
42.5 |
5* |
Rosslyn Chapel |
Midlothian |
9 |
0 |
10 |
7.5 |
9 |
7 |
42.5 |
6 |
Cawdor Castle |
Cawdor |
7 |
0 |
8 |
7.5 |
7 |
5 |
34.5 |
7 |
Culloden Moor |
Inverness |
11 |
8.5 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
26.5 |
8 |
Skaill House |
Orkney |
2 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
6 |
19 |
9 |
Dryburgh Abbey Hotel |
Melrose |
4 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
6 |
4 |
18 |
10 |
Duntulm Castle |
Isle of Skye |
3 |
0 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
17 |
11 |
Ardgowan House |
Inverkip |
0 |
0 |
2 |
11.5 |
2 |
0 |
15.5 |
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