The Company
Founded 1 July 2011 - Hidden Aberdeen started life as a photographic group encouraging people to submit images of the distinctly non-tourist side of Aberdeen; the group had over 1,000 members and over 2,000 images, some documenting the most recent changes in the city including the building of Union Square shopping mall; the refurbishment of Marischal College and the unveiling of the new statue of King Robert the Bruce. Others have shared historical images from local books and authors including the work of George Washington Wilson, perhaps the city's most famous photographer.
Now we offer regular themed walking tours which highlight Aberdeen's forgotten and hidden history. We now have a huge array of events including history walks, "ghost tours" and our indoor storytelling events.
Site-Specifc Theatre
Working with local actors via the community theatre company, "Taezali Players", Hidden Aberdeen has developed a number of dramatic "re-imaginings" of historic events which are usually included in our "ghost tours", but have also created one-off promenade theatre shows which have been performed over the last few years at Halloween. All the characters from the city's past who are portrayed speak - where appropriate - in their native Doric dialect. The Scots dialects of NE Scotland are very distinctive in comparison to the rest of the country, thus we celebrate Aberdeen's Doric in the voices of our characters - hence we employ local actors who speak Doric naturally. We give opportunities to local drama students and encourage them to embrace the dialect which many have had educated out of them!
Ghost Tours
Hidden Aberdeen Tours has a number of "ghost tours" which are run monthly during our active season. We don't go ghost-hunting or study the paranormal, our "ghosts" are the spirits of the city's past - our team from Taezali Players aim to bring some of the city's most terrifying, comedic, charming and tragic characters back to life. Tours run on a specific route covering various themes with drama sections at relevant points. Our "spooks" interact with our customers as they take you back in time to their eras. Season 2017 has three ghost tours on offer.
We can offer ghost tours to private groups, but due to staff costs, we ask for a minimum of 20 in a group, or a minimum charge of £200.00.
Blood & Granite: The Murder History Tour
The original crime history tour! Beginning in Aberdeen’s Victorian Trinity Cemetery, this tour follows a route including the city’s earliest site of execution and the sites of some horrific murders. Includes the tale of Aberdeen’s last hangman, Johnny Milne, a darkly comic personage who almost resigned at his first hanging; the tragic fate of Captain Beaton of the Gordon Highlanders; the 60s love-triangle which ended in the death of all parties, and the last ever hanging in Scotland; the poisonous marriage of Catherine Humphrey and the gory tale of James Harrow, the Butcher of the Saltoun Arms, who, due to his unstable mental health, believed his workmates at the Wales Street abattoir were plotting to kill him, instead he stabbed two of them to death in the pub in 1901. There are two versions of this tour which we run alternatively.
Starts: Trinity Cemetery, Park Road Gate, near Aberdeen FC’s South Stand
Ends: Justice Port Flats, opposite the Saltoun Bar - or - corner of Constitution Street.
Ghosts & Ghouls of the Aultoun: Old Aberdeen's Spooks
The ghosts of the Aultoun are apparently more innocuous than those in New Aberdeen… the shadowy suffragette who wanders across High Street, Priest Gordon, the friendly Catholic chaplain from St Peter’s haunted his old home in Constitution Street; But, who is the tragic Hermit of Powis? Why did Thomas Mudie, 18th century medicine play a trick on Sacrist Downie, the university’s most unpopular eighteenth century janitor? And what did the students do when the prank went badly wrong? How did Mrs Baird, minister’s wife in the Chanonry deal with the restless spirit in her son’s old bedroom? What is the connection with Edinburgh’s ‘Psychic College’? Find the answers to all these questions by joining us on the tour!
Starts: Kings College Entryway, High Street, directly next to the bus stop and the Chapel signboard
Ends: Chaplainary, The Chanonry, Old Aberdeen
Burkers & Bodysnatchers: Murky Medical Misdoings in Aberdeen
Learn of the murky medical doings of the surgeons, students and professional resurrectionists in the city from the 1800s to the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832 which put an end to the theft of bodies from cemeteries and legalised the supply of corpses to medical research. Featuring: the great riot of Hospital Row, when Dr Andrew Moir’s anatomy theatre was torn to the ground by angry citizens; the tale of the half-anatomised man who didn’t quite live to tell his side of the story; the tale of Twice-Buried Mary, the bride who wasn’t quite the corpse! Meet Satan Sangster, the graverobber of Spital Kirkyard who doubled as a nightwatchman at the Gallowgate Port - find out why he had such a nasty nickname! This and other gruesome goings-on inspired by the deeds of the “burkers” of Aberdeen are shared on this city-centre route.
Starts: Marischal College, next to Robert Bruce's Statue
Ends: Littlejohn Street, across from Six Degrees North craft beer pub