A torsionally driven cavity has been used to examine the influence of elasticity on the swirling flow of constant-viscosity elastic liquids (Boger fluids). A wealth of phenomena is observed as the degree of inertia, elasticity and viscous forces are varied by using a range of low- to high-viscosity flexible polyacrylamide Boger fluids and a semi-rigid xanthan gum Boger fluid. As the inertia is decreased and elasticity increased by using polyacrylamide Boger fluids, the circulation rates for a ‘Newtonian-like’ secondary flow decreases until flow reversal occurs owing to the increasing magnitude of the primary normal stress difference. For each polyacrylamide fluid, the flow becomes highly unstable at a critical combination of Reynolds number and Weissenberg number resulting in a new time-dependent elastic instability. Each fluid is characterized by a dimensionless elasticity number and a correlation with Reynolds number is found for the occurrence of the instability. In the elasticity dominated flow of the polyacrylamide Boger fluids, the instability disrupts the flow dramatically and causes an increase in the peak axial velocity along the central axis by as much as 400%. In this case, the core vortex spirals with the primary motion of fluid and is observed in some cases at Reynolds numbers much less than unity. Elastic ‘reverse’ flow is observed for the xanthan gum Boger fluid at high Weissenberg number. As the Weissenberg number decreases, and Reynolds number increases, counter-rotating vortices flowing in the inertial direction form on the rotating lid. The peak axial velocity decreases for the xanthan gum Boger fluid with decreasing Weissenberg number. In addition, several constitutive models are used to describe accurately the rheological properties of the fluids used in this work in shear and extensional flow. This experimental investigation of a complex three-dimensional flow using well-characterized fluids provides the information necessary for the validation of non-Newtonian constitutive models through numerical analysis of the torsionally driven cavity flow.