Unlock the Secrets of Edinburgh: Two Ways to Experience the City’s Dark Past with Escape The Past

Beneath Edinburgh’s iconic skyline lies a story worth discovering — one of secrets, scandal, and spine-tingling mystery. For those who want more than just a guided tour or a photo at the castle gates, Escape The Past (visit the Escape Room Edinburgh website) offers an experience like no other: two distinct adventures that plunge you deep into the city’s most chilling chapters.

Whether you choose to venture into the atmospheric depths of their award-winning indoor escape rooms, or explore the winding streets on an outdoor city trail, Escape The Past invites you to see Edinburgh through a darker, more thrilling lens.

Choose Your Adventure: Indoors or Outdoors — Or Both

1. Immersive Indoor Escape Rooms
   Step off the busy streets and into a time capsule where history comes alive. Escape The Past’s indoor escape rooms aren’t just games — they’re fully immersive theatrical experiences. Set in historically inspired locations, complete with authentic props, lighting, sound design, and even live actors, these rooms thrust you into high-stakes stories pulled straight from Edinburgh’s past.

Solve intricate puzzles and race against time, as you’re pulled into dark tales of grave robbing, malpractice, and hidden conspiracies. With up to 15 players per session, these experiences are ideal for families, tourists, couples, and teams looking for an hour of adrenaline-fueled fun wrapped in rich storytelling.

2. A Trail of Burke & Hare – Outdoor City Trail
   Prefer fresh air with your mystery? Escape The Past also offers a unique outdoor escape room: A Trail of Burke & Hare. This two-hour self-guided walking adventure takes you across 4–5 kilometres of Edinburgh’s Old Town, tracing the morbid legacy of Scotland’s most infamous murderers.

Armed with a satchel of clues, authentic maps, locked boxes, and your smartphone, you and your team will visit real historical sites, unraveling a new mystery that echoes the grisly crimes of Burke and Hare. Designed for groups of up to 30, this city trail is part escape room, part scavenger hunt, and part chilling walking tour — all wrapped into one unforgettable experience.

Two Formats, One Vision

What unites both experiences is Escape The Past’s unwavering commitment to historical storytelling. Every narrative is carefully researched and rooted in Edinburgh’s true past. You’re not just solving puzzles for fun — you’re stepping into the shoes of detectives, doctors, victims, and villains from the city’s real history.

• Live Actor Storytelling in indoor rooms offers direct interaction with the story.
• Tactile Props and Physical Puzzles in both experiences provide a hands-on connection to the past.
• Real Locations and Landmarks in the city trail connect fiction to fact, bringing history out into the open.

Whether inside a dimly lit Georgian study or outside on Edinburgh’s cobbled streets, the line between past and present blurs — and you become part of the story.

For Every Kind of Group

From curious tourists to birthday parties and corporate teams, Escape The Past caters to a wide range of audiences:

• Tourists seeking a deeper, more interactive way to explore Edinburgh
• Families and kids wanting fun with an educational twist
• Couples looking for a memorable, unconventional date
• Corporate teams in need of meaningful team building
• School trips where students don’t just study history — they live it
• Locals who think they already know their city (they’re usually surprised)

Private bookings, flexible start times, and options to pause outdoor trails for breaks make both offerings easy to fit into your plans — whether you’re visiting for a weekend or looking to rediscover Edinburgh on your doorstep.

History Isn’t Just for Museums

At Escape The Past, history isn’t something you observe — it’s something you inhabit. Their unique combination of immersive escape rooms and interactive city trails offers a rare opportunity to feel the past: its tension, its urgency, and its humanity.

Whether you’re racing to stop a modern-day copycat killer or solving a deadly mystery behind locked doors, Escape The Past invites you to go beyond the usual and experience Edinburgh like never before.