Edinburgh University: The Burke and Hare Anatomy Ghosts

Edinburgh University, founded in 1583, is one of Scotland’s four ancient universities and was the intellectual powerhouse of the Scottish Enlightenment. David Hume, Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, and Alexander Graham Bell all studied here. But Edinburgh’s medical school—one of the finest in the world—has a dark history. In 1828, William Burke and William Hare murdered 16 people and sold their bodies to Dr. Robert Knox for anatomical dissection. The victims’ ghosts, along with the tortured spirits of countless dissected bodies, haunt the Old Medical School and the university’s historic buildings.

Edinburgh’s medical school created revolutionary advances in surgery and anatomy, but before the Anatomy Act of 1832, there were no legal sources of bodies for dissection. Grave robbing was common, and Burke and Hare took it further—they killed to supply corpses. The university’s complicity in this trade, the suffering of murder victims, and the violation of bodies in the anatomy theatre have created one of Britain’s most ethically troubled hauntings.

The Hauntings

The Burke and Hare Victims

The 16 murdered for dissection:

• Figures in ragged 1820s clothing
• Appearing in the Old Medical School and anatomy areas
• They look confused and terrified
• Most were poor, elderly, or disabled—vulnerable targets
• Some appear with injuries from the murders (suffocation)
• The most commonly seen is Mary Paterson, a young woman
• She appears in the dissection room where her body was displayed
• Witnesses report overwhelming grief and violation

Mary Paterson

The most tragic victim:

• A young woman murdered in April 1828
• Her body was considered particularly “fine” for dissection
• Medical students drew and studied her extensively
• Her ghost appears in the anatomy theatre
• A young woman in early 19th-century dress
• She seems to be searching for something—perhaps her dignity
• Often seen crying silently
• The exploitation she suffered in death creates intense haunting

Dr. Robert Knox

The anatomist who bought the bodies:

• Never prosecuted for his involvement
• His career was destroyed by the scandal
• His ghost appears in the Old Medical School
• A figure in Victorian medical dress
• He seems to be fleeing or hiding
• Witnesses report feeling guilt and fear in his presence
• He was complicit in murder, whether he knew it or not
• His ghost may be seeking absolution he never received in life

The Anatomy Theatre

The Old Medical School’s dissection room:

• The most intensely haunted location
• Multiple apparitions from different eras
• The sound of sawing and cutting
• The smell of formaldehyde and decay
• Shadowy figures on the dissection tables
• Students from every era watching demonstrations that aren’t happening
• The accumulated trauma of thousands of dissections
• Bodies violated for science, dignity destroyed for knowledge

The Grave Robbers

The “resurrection men”:

• Burke and Hare weren’t the only suppliers
• Grave robbing was common before 1832
• Ghosts of the disturbed dead appear throughout Edinburgh
• Figures missing body parts taken for study
• The anger of the desecrated
• Many were robbed from Greyfriars Kirkyard nearby
• They walk between the graveyard and the university
• Still seeking the rest they were denied

The Medical Students

Generations of students haunted by what they witnessed:

• Figures in academic dress from different eras
• Many committed suicide due to the psychological toll
• The pre-anesthesia era was particularly traumatic
• Students forced to dissect people they might have known
• Some appear in the library, still studying
• Others in the anatomy areas, reliving their trauma
• The weight of medical education’s dark history

David Hume

The Enlightenment philosopher:

• Student and professor at Edinburgh
• His ghost appears in the Old Quad
• A portly figure in 18th-century dress
• He seems to be deep in thought, walking and thinking
• Hume was a religious skeptic—ironic that he returns as a ghost
• Most commonly seen near the Hume Tower named in his honor
• He appears benevolent and engaged in philosophical contemplation

The Old Quad

The historic heart of the university:

• Multiple ghosts from 400+ years of history
• Students from every era crossing the courtyard
• Gowned figures attending lectures
• The atmosphere particularly strong at dusk
• The Quad has witnessed plague, religious conflict, and revolution
• All these traumas layer upon each other

The Edinburgh Seven

The first women medical students (1869):

• Faced violent opposition from male students
• Sophia Jex-Blake and her colleagues were attacked
• The “Surgeons’ Hall Riot” of 1870
• Some report seeing Victorian women in academic dress
• They appear determined and defiant
• Witnesses report feeling their courage and anger
• They fought for women’s right to study medicine
• Their spirits still walk the halls they fought to enter

Greyfriars Bobby Connection

The loyal terrier’s story intersects:

• Bobby guarded his master’s grave in nearby Greyfriars Kirkyard
• Many of the bodies stolen for Edinburgh’s anatomy school came from Greyfriars
• Bobby may have been protecting his master from grave robbers
• The connection between the kirkyard and the university is strong
• Ghosts walk the route between them

The Infirmary Ghosts

The old Royal Infirmary adjacent to the university:

• Medical students trained there
• Countless deaths in the pre-antiseptic era
• Joseph Lister developed antiseptic surgery in Edinburgh
• Before his work, surgery was often fatal
• The spirits of patients who died on operating tables
• Surgeons who lost patients still trying to save them
• The infirmary and university hauntings overlap

The Skeleton Controversy

Burke’s skeleton is displayed in the Anatomical Museum:

• His body was dissected and preserved after execution
• His skeleton and death mask are exhibited
• Some believe his spirit is tied to his remains
• The irony—he became what he provided
• Strange phenomena reported near the display
• Burke got his own medicine in death

Modern Activity

Edinburgh University’s hauntings continue:

• Students report regular experiences, especially in medical buildings
• Staff acknowledge the phenomena
• The university’s dark history is now taught
• Ghost tours include the Old Medical School
• Each generation adds new accounts
• The medical school has moved, but the old buildings remain haunted
• Burke and Hare’s victims have never found peace

Ethical Haunting

Edinburgh’s ghosts raise questions:

• Can institutional evil create hauntings?
• The university benefited from murder and grave robbing
• The victims were exploited in death as in life
• Does the institution owe the ghosts something?
• The hauntings as eternal protest against violation
• Science advanced through unethical means—the cost persists

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Edinburgh University has been a center of learning for over 440 years. Its medical school made groundbreaking advances in anatomy and surgery, but the cost was high. The victims of Burke and Hare, the violated dead from robbed graves, and the traumatized students all haunt the Old Medical School and the ancient university buildings. In Edinburgh, the Enlightenment’s dark underbelly refuses to be forgotten. The dead still demand acknowledgment of what was done to them in the name of science.