Visiting Scotland: Edinburgh's ghosts

Underneath Edinburgh's Royal Mile, is a series of 'closes' narrow streets with houses on both sides. Originally, they would have been 7 sotries high, the richest people living at the top, away from the worst of the smell. Around 1753 Edinburgh Burgh Council tore down the houses to build the Royal Exchange which is now the City Chambers. They left the lower parts, the lower homes intact and used them as foundations.

The Continuam Group was larger responsible for this archaeological find and now you can actually tour the closes in the company of guides. This is a great tour with a lot of historically accurate information showing life of real people in Edinburgh from the 16th century to the 19th century.

Witness the highs and lows of sixteenth century townhouse living.

Meet some of the people who lived here in the seventeenth century.

Visit the home of a grave-digger's family to discover the truth about how the Burgh Council dealt with the plague epidemic of 1644 - 1646.

See one of the best examples of seventeenth century housing in Scotland.

Peek inside the nineteenth century sawmaker's workshop.

Walk in seventeenth century footsteps along Mary King's Close.

You will be guided through the underground closes by one of the characters from the past whose life touched Mary King's Close. Your guide will reveal dramatic episodes and extraordinary apparitions from the past, including ghost stories over 300 years old.

The Real Mary King's Close is funded by the City of Edinburgh Council and operated by Heritage, part of The Continuum Group.

Join us on the first overnight public investigation of The Real Mary King's Close in five years, fittingly on the spookiest weekend of the year.

Working with the experienced Ghost Events Scotland team, you will investigate this unique site using mediumistic and scientific research methods, assisting the team in their on-going research of the underground streets and houses.

What REALLY lies beneath the Royal Mile - join us on this UNMISSABLE night and you may just find out!

Time: 11.30pm - 5.00am
Date: Saturday October 30th 2010
Cost: £70 per person

Price includes a Real Mary King's Close goodie bag and light refreshments. Investigation equipment will be supplied, however please feel free to bring your own camcorders, EMF readers etc

Your kit for the evening should include: comfortable, flat shoes, layered clothing (it is warm in some areas of the Close), snacks and a torch.

TO MAKE YOUR BOOKING CALL 0131 225 0678 between the hours of 9.30pm - 5pm, Monday to Friday or email halloween@realmarykingsclose.com and a member of our events team will get back to you. Online booking will be available soon.

Full prepayment is required at the time of booking. Cancellations may be made up to 7 days prior to the event without charge. Tickets are non refundable and non transferable after that time.

Please note that participation in any paranormal event is at your own risk. The Real Mary King's Close does not allow the use of oujia boards or permit any activity that may damage the historical integrity of the site. This event is for over 16 year old's only.

There's been some kind of settlement on the site of Edinburgh for over a thousand years now. So it's only to be expected that some ghost stories have collected over the years.

If you beleive in ghosts, you will enjoy reading some of the stories here on this site. If you don't, you can always have a laugh slagging off all the idiots chasing imaginary zombies round a graveyard.

Some of Edinburgh's ghosts have become famous worldwide, mostly due to tourists and ghost tours. For example, the Mackenzie Poltergeist is a major celebrity, even if it is dead. But there are hundereds more ghosts lurking in the shadows of the Old Town- and the rest of Edinburgh- that are barely known to residents of the city.

THE DARK, claustrophobic streets running off the Royal Mile lead away from the light and downhill into the shadows. These half-forgotten reminders of Edinburgh's insanitary past provide a perfect setting for a suitably spooky atmosphere. Largely built upon the ruins of centuries gone by, it is not just those of a sensitive nature who feel a certain frisson when they walk past.
Admitting to a spine-chilling creepiness is one thing, but deciding that you believe in ghosts is quite another.

You never know who might appear on the close. There are few places better situated to debating paranormal phenomena than Mary King's Close, Edinburgh's notoriously haunted spot below the City Chambers. The close was inhabited during the 16th and 17th centuries before the plague ravaged families living in the tightly packed tenement buildings. A century after the illness broke out, the city partly sealed the abandoned homes and alleyways, prompting chilling stories about paranormal sightings of previous inhabitants.

The celebrity of the close's supernatural resident is Annie, a ghostly pre-teen who (so the story goes) scared the daylights out of a Japanese psychic in 1992. This lady had been unimpressed by the tour until she arrived at one of the many small rooms. There she was suddenly struck by an overwhelming feeling of sickness, hunger and cold and, when she tried to leave felt the ghastly tug of a ghostly hand on her leg.

Poor Annie's spectral life has now been fleshed out and it is believed that she had been left to die by her family. Since then, people from round the world have come to "Annie's room". Many have told tour guides of seeing impressions of the spirit in the room; some visitors, treating the room as a shrine, have left gifts for the little girl out of affection.