The streets of Edinburgh were deserted, a slight mist fell, the only light coming from the glare of the moon in the smooth streets … No, my night of ghosts in Edinburgh did not start with an atmospheric walk scripted in the streets. Curiously, it was a beautiful sunny and warm day and in the middle of the summer when I walked from my hotel Castle Street Down Princes Street and at the Royal Mile, around 7 o’clock, to meet the guide of my double dead tour with City of the deadOne of the main ghost travel companies in Edinburgh, it was still light. But never leave the light and tranquility of a summer evening to be mistaken!
The Double Dead tour
The Double Dead tour is the best tour in Edinburgh! The tour takes you to two of the most haunted places in the world, the underground vaults and the Covenanter prison in Greyfriars. Do you want to hunt ghosts in Edinburgh?
A crowd gathered instead of a meeting near the Saint-Gile cathedral in front of us was held a tall and thin man draped in a black trench and solid black boots which anchored it in the present, but all that I could think is how he reminded me of a strangely modern but confident Ichabod palette. He brings us closer to his instructions and his card game from which we have taken one, a magical spectacle that it will not be. With his dominant and thunderous voice, he guides us far from the safety of the animated streets of Edinburgh and takes us to our first stop, the chests.
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The chests are the consequences of the 19 arches of the south bridge that all except one, Cowgate, are now locked up. These about 120 rooms or vaults were built and used for the first time in the 18th century by businessmen as cellars and storage workshops, but as the conditions began to deteriorate. Due to the bad construction of the bridge, the vaults have become wet in the infiltration of rainwater and the darkness has become the poorest and most miserable people. The murder and other horrible crimes tormented the chests, even Burke & Hare, the famous murderers of Edinburgh, would have tracked victims.
Damnation alley
The chests have become known as the Damnation Alley. Were we damned to enter its haunted depths? We entered the chests, at our risk, through a discreet door in an alley and were immediately surrounded by a wet, dark and strange passage which would lead us deeply into the chests. Shirling, perhaps cold in the air after leaving the heat of the summer night or perhaps because of our minds which are already starting to play tips on what can be hidden in the corners.
Our guide led us by Torchlight to one of these famous strong boxes where he told us morbid stories of what had happened here hundreds of years ago, but also approached strange events that haunt modern residence above our heads and even foreign stories of what happened to these, like us, to pursue ghosts in these ruins. After a warning, he cut the light, murmurring, everyone nestled. And the light turned prematurely when an older gentleman became weak, as if something stole the precious air of the living and had to sit. He found his composer and was fine.
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Ghosts in Edinburgh in Grayfriars
After a smooth and mixed pancake through the chests, we are again removed to clean the fresh air and started our walk for the Grayfriars cemetery. The Grayfriars cemetery, where the church is literally built on bodies, is from the 16th century. Sir George Mackenzie, an Scottish political minister at the time, imprisoned 1200 Presbyterian covenanters in a small field south of the cemetery. Some have been executed but hundreds died of mistreatment, famine, poor condition and because of the treatment by Mackenzie des Covenanters, he was nicknamed Bloody Mackenzie.
Through the doors of the Greyfriars cemetery, we rushed with anxiety. Walking in cemeteries always brings a feeling of discomfort, but as the Grand Ole ‘Tomb of Mackenzie himself was, there was a silence on us. Our guide told us the nasty story of “Bloody Mackenzie” and how this cemetery area as well as the Covenanters prison are known as the benchmark of Mackenzie Poltergeist.
This Poltergeist is now the best documented supernatural case in history, responsible for 100 “attacks” of burns and countless other events. This is why the part of the cemetery known as Covenanters prison is now locked. But we entered the doors of the Covenanters prison one by one, abandoning our card and encloses and we wondered, we will get alive and intact …
As the brochure says, “Not just a tour. A phenomenon.
I was a guest of City of the Dead Tours in exchange for this criticism, but as always all opinions are mine
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