Our audio tour of about Aberdeen’s dark history ‘Witches, Child-snatching and Mary Queen of Scots: 500 years of Crime and Punishment’ is now available on VoiceMap, an audio walking tour app. The app is available for download from iTunes and Google Play, but you can also listen to the tour via VoiceMap's website. 

TOUR DESCRIPTION

From bodysnatching and beheadings to witchcraft and whippings, we share real life stories of crime and punishment from the last 500 years.

Along the way you’ll see major Aberdeen landmarks, from Marischal College to the Mercat Cross, and learn how they were witness to some of the most shocking moments in the city’s past. In this audio guide we’ll bring to life tales from the darkest chapters in Aberdeen’s history, shedding a light on the baffling and often unjust laws of the last five centuries – and revealing that past is not as far away as we think.

THE NITTY GRITTY

This audio tour takes you on a 3 km walk around the city centre of Aberdeen, taking in many of the oldest surviving parts of the city. It takes 45 minutes without stopping but you can pause the tour whenever you choose. The audio plays automatically at exactly the right time and place using your smart phone's GPS and the VoiceMap mobile app, which also works offline.

COST OF TOUR

$6.99

MAJOR LANDMARKS

Castlegate, Mercat Cross, Salvation Army Citadel, Marischal College, Kirk of St Nicholas

DIRECTIONS TO STARTING POINT

Start outside the Tolbooth Museum on Union Street. It is 8 minutes' walk from Union Square, which is next to both the bus and train stations.

TIPS

Places to stop along the way:

Attractions: The Tolbooth Museum, Maritime Museum

Food and drink: There are plenty of eateries along Correction Wynd and The Green (which you reach at around the ¾ mark). I would particularly recommend Café 52 and their fried parsnip chips.

Best time to walk:

The tour is best started before 4pm so that St Nicholas Graveyard is still open when you get to it. If you want to visit the Tolbooth Museum at the start of the tour, it shuts at 5pm Monday to Saturday and at 3pm on Sundays. The Maritime Museum, which you can visit near the end of the tour, has the same opening hours.

Precautions:

Every effort has been made to make sure that this tour is as safe as possible. Aberdeen is regularly ranked as one of the safest cities in Scotland and the UK. Having said that, be careful with your valuables and if you feel uncomfortable in a situation, get out.

Please also use all designated crossing points and take every care while crossing the road or walking on uneven surfaces.