Distillery After Dark: Halloween Edition

Holyrood Distillery is running a Halloween edition of Distillery After Dark on Friday 30 October, starting at 17:30 and running through to Saturday 31 October. It's a guided tour that pairs the distillery's whisky with the darker side of Edinburgh's history, and it's set in a building that's over 200 years old, right next to Holyrood Park.

The evening starts in the Lounge with a cocktail, and from there you're led on a tour that looks at the area's medical past near the University of Edinburgh and Surgeons' Hall. You'll hear the story of the body snatchers Burke and Hare, and then head into the production floor, where you'll taste an Ale Yeast aged new-make spirit and hear about Agnes Sampson, who was accused of witchcraft and executed in 1591. The whole thing wraps up in the Cask Room with tales like the Wee Red Cap, the Wizard of the West Bow, and Deacon Brodie.

For a bit of context on the place itself, Holyrood Distillery is the first single malt distillery in the centre of Edinburgh since 1925, the work of Canadians Rob and Kelly Carpenter and Scot David Robertson, who shared a love of the city, Scotch whisky and interesting challenges. It also produces a range of gins and gin liqueurs and runs daily guided tours throughout the year. The building sits next to Holyrood Park, a setting steeped in local legends of ghosts, grave robbers, witches and sinister medical experiments, which is exactly what this tour leans into.

It starts at 17:30 on Friday 30 October and runs into Saturday 31 October at Holyrood Distillery, 19 St Leonard's Lane, Edinburgh South EH8 9SH. Tickets are £35 per person.