Hidden Britain AtlasOpen the map
All places › Gibbets & executions
Execution site

The Hanging of William Burke

Lawnmarket, Edinburgh

The bodysnatcher who was himself dissected.

William Burke and William Hare murdered 16 people in Edinburgh to sell their bodies to Dr Robert Knox for anatomy lessons. Hare turned king's evidence and went free.

Read the full story, see it on the map, get directions and find what else is nearby in the free Hidden Britain Atlas map.

Open The Hanging of William Burke on the mapReport a sighting here
When
28 January 1829
Where
55.9490, -3.1940
Group
Gibbets & executions

Visiting

Surgeons' Hall Museums show Burke's death mask and the skin notebook.

Nearby mysteries