There are dozens of locations in Edinburgh's Old Town where brutal crime and murders took place giving the capital its name as one of the most haunted places in the world.
Many dark cobbled closes trailing off the Royal Mile are notorious for their ghost stories and not somewhere you'd like to be out alone on a dreich dark night in the city.
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But there is one unassuming close that has a modern appearance different from the rest, and this one is where one of the capital's most brutal killing sprees took place.
Tanners Close located just off West Port in Grassmarket is home to modern flats and a stunning view of the Castle but it was once home to Edinburghs worst murderers Burke and Hare who killed 16 people back in 1827.
An Edinburgh social media creator has shared the shocking story from Tanners Close going into all the frightening details.
In the fascinating TikTok the presenter behind history account Auld Edinburgh says: "Welcome to day seven of Edinburgh's creepy closes.
"I'm currently standing on Tanners Close which may look pretty modern in relation to some of the more ancient closes shown over previous TikTok's, but on this close nearly 200 years ago the worst killing spree in Edinburgh's history took place.
"Tanners Close was once the home of William Hare of the infamous Burke and Hare who killed no less than 16 people and then sold their bodies onto Dr Robert Knox for medical research at the University of Edinburgh."
He continued: "The pair would often get their victims drunk and then murder them by burking or smothering them to death. Eventually they were caught and William Hare took King's evidence which meant he pinned it all on William Burke.
"He was then executed in front of a crowd of around 20,000 people. His skeleton is now on display at the National Museum of Scotland until the end of October."
Plenty has been written about the notorious, Burke and Hare, Edinburgh’s most celebrated serial killers, who murdered a number of people for the purpose of selling their bodies for dissection at the anatomy school of Dr Robert Knox.
William Burke was born in 1792 in Urney, County Tyrone, as one of two sons to middle-class parents. In 1818, he deserted his wife and family, moving to Scotland, where he became a navvy helping to construct the Union Canal, settling down near Falkirk with his common-law wife Helen M’Dougal.
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Moving to Edinburgh, he became a hawker selling old clothes to impoverished people, before trying his luck as a cobbler.
Little is known about his partner in crime, William Hare, except he was an illiterate Irish lad who turned up in Edinburgh in the mid-1820s, living in a small lodging-house off Tanner’s Close, West Port, run by a man named Logue. When this individual died, Hare moved in with Logue’s Irish-born wife Margaret.
In 1827 Burke and Hare both worked as agricultural labourers in Penicuik; they became friends and it has been suggested that Burke and Helen M’Dougal moved into the Tanner’s Close lodging-house as well, drinking and carousing, and leading a riotous life.
It was in 1828, William Burke and William Hare embarked on the murder spree that was to shock the civilised world to its core.
The story of the pair's brutal killings went on to become one of the most famous tales from Edinburgh's past. When Burke was executed a death mask was created to be shown in the Surgeons Hall Museum where many of their victims ended up.
The 200-year-old artefact is still on display today and you can even see the noose marks on his neck. You can find out more about visiting the Royal Surgeon's Hall Museum here.
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