A spooky Scottish attraction has been named the “most haunted” in the world.
With Halloween just weeks away, Scots all over the country will be wondering how best to spend the creepiest holiday of the year. Here in Scotland, we are blessed — or cursed — with more hair-raising castles and abandoned buildings than you can shake a stick at.
However, one destination has topped all of the others when it comes to spooks and scares. As reported by the Scottish Daily Express, Mary King’s Close in Edinburgh has been crowned the top haunted location across the entire globe.
Travel experts at Planet Cruise used TripAdvisor data to compile their list of the spookiest spots worldwide. Out of all the spine-tingling destinations across the world, it was the historic Scottish tourist attraction that clinched the top position.
Nestled beneath the Royal Mile in the Scottish capital, people once lived and worked along Mary King’s Close as far back as the 17th century. It not only boasts the highest number of ‘scary’ and ‘spooky’ mentions (583 and 497 respectively), but it also holds a TripAdvisor rating of 4.5 out of five.
Today, Mary King’s Close is operated as a popular tourist attraction. The Real Mary King’s Close hosts one-hour tours led by character guides around the historic street, with plenty of scares along the way.
As reported by the Daily Record, we previously visited The Real Mary King’s Close in 2023. At the time, we were impressed by the attraction’s fascinating history and unsettling atmosphere.
Elsewhere, the United States claimed the majority of the top 10 spots for the most haunted locations. Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia has the second-highest number of ‘haunted’ mentions in reviews on TripAdvisor, at a whopping 536, as well as 236 ‘spooky’ and 338 ‘scary’ mentions.
Other destinations to be included on Planet Cruise’s list are Colorado’s Stanley Park Hotel, the Saint Augustine Lighthouse in Florida, and Bonaventure Cemetery in Savanna. The final US location on the leaderboard is Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana, with 179 ‘haunted’ mentions and 62 ‘spooky’ mentions.
More information can be found on the Planet Cruise website.
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