Founder of Elgin Ghost Tours is something of a local treasure
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“When walking through Elgin High Street, have you ever looked up?”
This is a question posed by Lynda Dean, an Elgin local who has made it her life’s mission to share a centuries-old story of people and change that is emblazoned above the shop fronts of the town centre.
So, every week, she shares these historical treasures with tourists and locals alike via Elgin Ghost Tours.
Founded in 2008, Lynda’s self-devised business provides people with the opportunity to immerse themselves in the architecture of the often overlooked town. These include, but are not limited to, guides to Elgin’s witch trials as well as excursions inside and outside the cathedral, in the town’s closes and its west end.
“All people see in this area is whisky and golf,” Lynda explained, “For goodness sake, between Aberdeen and Inverness there are over 220 castles and fortified houses. There’s so much here.”
Despite the name of the business, Lynda’s tours encompass a wide range of local history, spanning from early mediaeval to pre World War One. Each route has one or two ghost stories incorporated in, but it is predominantly composed of local history.
Lynda’s love for history began during her childhood when she accompanied her mother to work. Lynda’s mother was the private cleaner to Kurt Hahn, the founder of Gordonstoun School.
When Lynda and her brother would play in the estate’s grounds, the owner’s sister-in-law would ask if they wanted to hear stories. Kurt Hahn, and sister-in-law, Lola Hahn-
Warburg, were both founding members of the German Kindertransport – the organisation which rescued thousands of children from Nazi-controlled territory.
“When she ran out of family stories, she started telling me stories about the estate.
When you look into the history of the Gordonstoun estate, that invariably leads to Duffus Castle, Spynie Palace and Elgin Cathedral,” Lynda detailed.
“By 10 years old, I was constantly asking about every single building I could find. That’s what started my local history bug.”
The majority of her historical knowledge came from her time at Grant Lodge. The building used to be a goldmine of historical archives in Moray, but it was burnt down in 2003, taking most of its documents and artefacts along with it.
“I was two years off sick because I was stuck in a wheelchair. I was bored out of my
skull, and Grant Lodge is where I did the bulk of the research that forms the tours now.”
Due to her expansive knowledge of the area’s history and her connections with academics in the field, it seemed plausible to think she would write a book with her expertise. To Lynda, this seems like it will be a natural progression that’ll keep the work accessible in a new format.
“It’s in the works,” Lynda enthused, “I have a few conditions which I know are going to
put me back in a wheelchair at some point. When it gets to the point where my body will
no longer let me do the tours, it will all be coming out in books.”
To date, Lynda has hosted tourists who come from countries that stretch from Argentina
to the Netherlands.
“I had a bunch of campervan enthusiasts from Australia and New Zealand just as the
Covid restrictions were lifted. They had been sat at Stonehaven for basically a year because of lockdown.
“I have two coach tours this summer coming from the States. One is actually coming from Salem to do my witches tour.”
On account of her expertise and the public’s enduring fascination around Elgin’s witch trials, Lynda’s tours have become widely acclaimed.
An unknown fact, Lynda said, is that there were more witches trialled in Elgin than in Salem.
She continued: “In Elgin there were over 300 witch trials and 40 executions.
“The last person they executed was an 84-year-old. I think what they did to a frail old lady turned the locals against it all.
“During the first few years of the witchcraft hysteria, we were horrendously brutal in this area with what we did.”
Despite the witches tour’s popularity, which led to her doing it 17 times in the week of
Halloween, Lynda prefers the more underrated offerings. In particular, she favours the High Street and closes tour due to their focus on how the people of Elgin once lived.
Generally speaking, many people are unable to separate the myths from the truth when
it comes to Elgin’s history and Lynda is always keen to dispel a common misconception.
“A lot of people think Elgin was named after Helgen the Viking,” she said.
“Elgin was already here before the Vikings were. So it is not named after Helgen, he just
happened to have a rather lucky name when he came here.”
Another fact she eagerly shared was about the tourist attraction Spynie Palace and the
fact that it had actually once been an international trading port.
She explained: “When excavations were done, they found treasures from countries including China and Egypt. They had even found half a tonne of whitby jet from England, and a range of international coins from the 1600s onwards.”
To people who have never been on a tour before, Lynda encouraged those thinking about it to give it a go.
“It's absolutely worth it if you’re interested in the town,” she declared, “It'll make you see
it in a different light.”
For those looking to get involved, tours can be booked through Lynda’s Facebook
(Elgin Ghost Tours), or alternatively through TripAdvisor.
