The nightman’s tour: not yet reviewed
Why there is no rating on this page
A new listing has no file. Writing a star rating for it, or inventing a sentence from a satisfied customer, would be the easiest lie on this site and it would poison everything else. So: nothing. When reviews appear on the listing, this page will report them. The booking panel below shows the live figures, which is the honest place for a number that does not exist yet.
What can be said is that the same operator runs the guided ghost walk, which holds 5.0 across 14 reviews and is praised in every one of them for the telling rather than the theatrics. That is provenance, not evidence. It says something about the house style and nothing about this particular walk.
The subject, which is the strongest on the site
The natmænd — also called rakkere, skøjere and kæltringe — spent three centuries at the absolute bottom of Danish society. They did the town’s sanitation, emptied the latrines, removed dead animals, and assisted the executioner, which included dismembering the bodies of executed criminals. Struensee and Enevold Brandt were executed on 28 April 1772 with a right hand severed, then beheaded, drawn and quartered; somebody had to do the rest of that work and it was not the executioner.
They were counted uærlige, dishonourable, because the work involved filth and carrion. The stigma was inherited and enforced: it barred them from marrying into respectable families and excluded them from ordinary community life, and they formed a parallel society with its own rules and its own language. Who the nightmen were sets it out in full, and the execution record carries the dates their work attached to.
This is documented social history rather than ghost story, which is the most interesting thing about the listing. Most of what a visitor can book in Copenhagen after dark is legend with an archive footnote. This one is the archive.
The language, which decides it for most readers
It runs in Danish only, and no English version is listed. That removes it from most visitors’ options before quality enters the conversation. The realistic English-language shortlist in this city is one guided ghost walk, two self-guided hunts and one daytime walk out of town — the honest English-language picture lists them and does not pad the list.
Included
- Seventy-five minutes on foot with a guide, in Danish
- A meeting point at the statue of Absalon on Højbro Plads
- Three centuries of the natmænd, their work and their standing
- The same operator that runs the English-language ghost walk
Not included
- Any review, rating or quote — there are none yet
- English, or any language other than Danish
- Darkness between roughly May and August: when it gets dark
- Food, drink, or entry to any building
Who should book it
People who speak Danish, or who understand it well enough to follow seventy-five minutes of continuous narration outdoors in traffic noise. Copenhageners, which is plainly part of the intended audience. Visitors from Sweden and Norway who read Danish comfortably. Anyone who cares more about what the city did to its own people than about who is said to walk its corridors at night.
Who should not. Anyone who does not follow spoken Danish, without qualification: this is not a walk you can enjoy on atmosphere alone, because it is all narration. Anyone who wants a rating to lean on, since there is none. Anyone looking for a fright, which no walk on this site provides. The English-speaking alternative that comes closest in subject matter is the guided ghost walk, which starts on Nytorv where the scaffold stood — what happened there.
Check the listing
Live availability and the current review figures are below. If a rating has appeared since this page was written, the panel is right and the page is behind. The full walk page has the rest of the detail, and the meeting-point page has Højbro Plads.
What you can book in English instead
Lantern and black cloakCopenhagen: Guided Ghost Walk through Haunted City
A killing in 1899Copenhagen: Murder Mystery Hunt by The Round Tower
Six trolls in the woodsCopenhagen: The Six Forgotten Giants Hunt and Nature Walk
Frequently asked questions
How many reviews does the nightman’s tour have?
None. It is a new listing with no rating and no written reviews, and this site does not invent either. The booking panel shows the live figures if that has changed: the walk page.
Is the nightman’s tour available in English?
No. It runs in Danish only, as does the folk-legends walk from the same operator. What does run in English is set out on the English-language page.
Who were the natmænd?
The men who did Copenhagen’s sanitation, removed dead animals and assisted the executioner. They were counted dishonourable for it, barred from marrying into respectable families and excluded from community life. The full account.
Is there an English walk on the same subject?
Not directly. The guided ghost walk starts at Nytorv, where the scaffold stood from 1627 to 1761, and covers the execution history from the other side: the ghost walk review.