Couple win spooky prize of coffin sleepover in Edinburgh Dungeon

ONE fearless couple will test the strength of their relationship with a spooky sleep-over in a double berth coffin at The Edinburgh Dungeon.
The couple will spend the night in a double coffin in the Torture Chamber at the Edinburgh Dungeon.The couple will spend the night in a double coffin in the Torture Chamber at the Edinburgh Dungeon.
The couple will spend the night in a double coffin in the Torture Chamber at the Edinburgh Dungeon.

As part of their Hallowe’en celebrations the tourist attraction put out a call on social media to find a pair brave enough to spend a full 12 hours in their dreaded Torture Chamber.

The £199 one-off package includes a VIP tour, themed midnight snacks, breakfast and the opportunity to be tucked in to the custom-made coffin with a bedtime story by one of the gruesome characters who dwell in the dungeon. A fixed night camera will capture the experience and any ghostly goings-on that may occur.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

More than 140 applications were received before the lucky couple scooped the scary prize. As a birthday surprise, one of the pair don’t yet know what fate awaits them on the night of October 27.

Stuart Jarman, general manager, said: “They’ll be staying in the heart of the dungeon and filmed by a night camera. It’s quite an open space where they’ll be sleeping so they’ll be quite vulnerable.”

Staff at The Edinburgh Dungeon have had some paranormal experiences over the years with unexplained noises and strange sightings at the East Market Street attraction.

He said: “It’s quite an eerie building with its location right next to the station. There are lots of sounds and bangs that we put down to the structure of the building.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The dungeon’s Hallowe’en offering is a seance-themed month that conjures up the spirit of Madgy Docherty, the last victim of the murderers Burke and Hare. She was killed on October 31, 1828. Eight years later, 17 miniature coffins containing wooden dolls were found on Arthur’s Seat. They were said to have represented the killers’ victims and were believed to be an attempt to lay them to rest.

The nightly show will call up the spirits of the dead and try to solve the mystery of their murders. Grisly stories of the Capital’s haunting history will lull the winners to sleep – if they can sleep in a room adorned with terrifying torture instruments, that is. Two torture cages, an iron chair and heads on spikes will be the couple’s bedfellows, while a member of staff will be on site for the first ever overnight stay in the venue – but some surprises might be planned for the pair, according to Stuart.

He said: “With my imagination I’d find it quite hard, I would be on edge but the winner said that they like to do something different and this will definitely be different.”

The coffin-dwellers will need to be on guard against things that go bump in the night if they need a loo break as the only toilets are on the other side of the venue – through the deafening silence of the Jailhouse room and the Witches’ Chamber.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Stuart said: “We’re looking forward to seeing the footage and their reactions on the night and finding out how they felt. We want them to be spooked – if they’re not we might have to change the course of the evening.”