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Continuing our 40th anniversary retrospective series. In Part 1, Robin Mitchell recalled meeting co-founder Colin Macphail and their first steps as a fledgling tour enterprise. In this next instalment, Robin recounts the business's coming of age, and how The Cadies came to add "... & Witchery Tours".
February 2024 marked 40 years of our wee business - The Cadies. In the first of a three-part series, co-founder Robin Mitchell recounts the genesis and early days of the business.
Having created and launched our walking tours (The Cadies) in Edinburgh 40 years ago in 1984, we participated in two small business competitions sponsored by BP and Shell, becoming runners-up in the Shell Livewire competition. Our success was spotted by the BBC, who invited us to appear on the topical TV show Pebble Mill at One.
Thursday 7th of September 2023 marks exactly 35 years to the day since we purchased at auction a small calling-card case made out of the skin of the notorious "body-snatcher" William Burke.
The 17th of February 2023 marks 20 years' trading from our wee shop at 84 West Bow (Victoria Street) in the heart of Edinburgh's Old Town. We entered our new lair after searching high and low for several months, seeking a suitable ghostly abode. Of course, our walking tours had been operating since February 1984, but prior to securing access to our permanent base, we were housed in a variety of temporary old town spaces. How time flies when you're having fun, as the over-used homily has it.
While conducting our afternoon walking tours around Greyfriars Cemetery, we have noticed an intriguing new local ritual unfolding before our very eyes. According to a certain Tour Guide (who will remain nameless), it is good luck to "slap the bum tree". A number of tour groups are now pausing at this tree, situated near the Flodden Wall, whereupon the Tour Guide encourages guests to slap the tree three times for good luck. This may sound completely nutty; however, perhaps we do not need to look far beyond the gates of the Kirkyard for clues as to the inspiration of this new custom.
June 2022 marks the 35th Anniversary of our Ghosts & Gore Tour.
On this day in 1590, King James VI of Scotland -- later also James I of England and Ireland -- made landfall at the port of Leith, after a perilous homeward voyage from his unplanned honeymoon in Denmark.
Our ongoing research into the history of Greyfriars cemetery has uncovered a number of fascinating characters buried in the kirkyard, and it's interesting to note that not all of these residents date back to the 17th or 18th centuries. One such later arrival is Leslie Balfour-Melville, who was buried in the graveyard in 1937. In some sporting circles, Balfour-Melville has been described as Scotland's greatest ever sportsman.
Our co-founder Robin Mitchell appeared in the fourth episode of the Channel 5 documentary series Walking Victorian Britain.
