Edinburgh has been on my short list of places I would love to visit for ages and ages now.  Its  tumultuous history and incredible architecture are what personally call to me, but in recent years, I have discovered another reason I wouldn’t mind making a visit: Mary King’s Close.  As a person who is fascinated by the paranormal, I can hardly disregard the numerous stories about this purportedly very haunted location.

A Bit of Background

A Close, as the word is used in Scotland, means an alleyway or courtyard that is enclosed on all sides and has only one entrance.  The Closes in Edinburgh were generally named for the owner of the tenements within that Close, and there are plenty of them around.  Running off the historic Royal Mile in Edinburgh from the 1400s to the 1900s, the Closes consisted of businesses and tenement apartments, often several stories high.    

In 1645, a particularly virulent strain of the bubonic plague took hold in Scotland, killing off more than half of Edinburgh’s inhabitants, and legend has it that Mary King’s Close was heavily hit by the epidemic.  

Over a century later, when many of Mary King’s Close old tenements were crumbling and decaying, the city knocked down the upper portions of these multi-story buildings, and used the lower portions as the foundation for the building now known as the City Chambers.  What they created, then, is an underground ghost town, quite literally, which has recently been renovated based on historical documents and archeological evidence to try to reflect the community that once thrived there and its inhabitant’s living conditions. It is now open to the public for tours and plays host to an annual Ghost Fest.

 Myth v. Reality

Until recently, it was said that Mary King’s Close was hit so hard by the plague that its inhabitant were walled up within the close and left to die, which added an intersting and morbid twist to the ghost stories that surrounded the neighborhood.  It has been uncovered that this was a fiction.  Mary King’s Close was hit particularly hard, but historical evidence shows that it was placed under a strict quarantine, and not that its inhabitants were captives left to die. 

A Little About the Tour 

The tour creators have gone to great pains to show what life was like during the plague, including depicting deceased bodies, food and supplies left outside of quarantined homes, and even foul smelling “vomit” in the family chamber pots.  Sounds like you might want to eat before you go visit.  Other stops on the tour include the living room of Mary King, whom the Close was named after, recreated with items that were listed in her will, and a recreation of a murder that occurred there when the widow Allison  Rough disagreed with her son-in-law, Alexander Cant, over a dowry agreement.  Cant, in this case, was the victim of the crime.  The tour also uses the same methods of lighting that the original inhabitants had available to them, so it is very dark.  Apparently, tourists can get a torch to help light the way if they ask.

A Little About the Ghosts

The first ghost sighting reported in Mary King’s Close goes all the way back to 1685.  A family, named the Colthearts, moved there after the plague had cleared up, and reported seeing “spectors and nameless terrors”. More recently, a “worried man” has been sited as well as a woman in black, and sounds of the old neighborhood have also been reported.  Noises that sound like a party or a tavern have been heard, and sounds of scratching have been heard coming from a chimney where a young chimney sweep is said to have gotten stuck and died. 

Probably the most famous spirit inhabiting Mary King’s Close is that of a five to eight-year-old girl dubbed Annie.  Annie was a victim of the plague.  In 1992, a visiting psychic was overcome with grief in the room where Annie passed away, and when she tried to leave, she felt a tug on her leg.  The psychic claims that she saw this little girl, dirty and in rags, and learned that she was upset because she had lost her family, her dog, and her doll.  The psychic returned with a doll for Annie, in an attempt to help sooth her suffering, and in doing so, the psychic started a major trend.  Since then, people from all over the world who take the tour come and leave trinkets and toys for little Annie.  During paranormal investigations of the Close, investigators will sometimes remove the toys in an effort to provoke Annie into action (mean old investigators!).

Toys for Annie

Numerous paranormal investigations have been conducted at Mary King’s Close, including a televised one done by the British show “Most Haunted,” though I would hardly call that a professional investigation.  They tend to be a little too high strung to accomplish much in the way of a standard investigation.  Several high profile psychics have also come to experience the Close, and Ghost Hunters International also did a show there.

For more information and to get an idea of what a tour of the Close might be like, check out this site.

Here’s a little YouTube EVP video to give you the creeps and to help you visualize the scene at the same time:

Until next time -

GhOsTwRiTeR KiM

Sources: http://www.realmarykingsclose.com/ http://www.stuckonscotland.co.uk/edinburgh/royal-mile-closes.html http://www.realtraveladventures.com/unbelievable/mary_king_s_close_in_edinburgh__scotland.htm  http://www.ghostevents.co.uk/mary_kings_close.html 

In keeping my paranormal studies close to home these days, I was recently reminded by my very own mother that she has been working at a haunted location for over twenty years.  She is an instructor at Haskell Indian Nations University, a four-year college in Lwrence, KS, specifically for registered members of Native American tribes.  Haskell is well known locally for its haunts, and the school has even conducted ghost tours of the haunted areas around Halloween in years past.

Some of the phenomena reported on campus include a young man, said to be dressed as though he had lived during the 1940s or 1950s, who sits in the Haskell Auditorium and reportedly bothers no one, and a playful spirit nicknamed “Libby” who likes to push books off of shelves in the library at Tommaney Hall.  Others speak of Hiawatha Hall, which is the oldest building on campus and was used to ”bring christianity to Native Americans”.  Part of its basement has been sealed off for unknown reasons, doors open and close of their own accord, and people walking past the building often report a feeling of being watched from the bell tower.

Haunted Hiawatha Hall

Pocahontas Hall, a girl’s dormitory, is said to be haunted by the ghost of a girl who hung herself.  The building was also the home of the infirmary during the years when the campus was a boarding school, and the cries of children are said to be heard here, as well as at other locations on campus.  The campus also has a cemetary that dates back to Haskell’s early years, and many small children were buried here, alone and away from their families.

Children Marching at Haskell Institute

Haskell’s early history is believed to account for much of the paranormal activity on campus.  Starting back in 1884, Haskell was a boarding school for Native American children, bent on providing an agricultural education for kids from first through fifth grade.  One of the school’s primary objectives was to force assimilation on Native Americans and to teach them how to function in a “white” society.  By 1894, there were 606 students at the Haskell Institute, and it had expanded the age group of the children the school served.  Many of these children there were forcibly taken from their parents, and reports of abuse at the school were rampant, including for offenses as minor as speaking in one’s native tongue.  Many children died during this time, and it is their experiences that many believe linger on the campus to this day.

The Modern Haskell Campus

Over the years, the school began serving as an industrial training school, and in 1970, it started a junior college program.  Haskell graduated its last high school class in 1965 when its focus shifted to higher education.  Later, four-year programs were instituted.  In 1993, the school was renamed “Haskell Indian Nations University,” and the university, rather than promoting assimilation, now has programs in Native American culture and studies, and has over 1000 students each year, some of whom are still running into the ghosts of Haskell’s past.

There are those on the campus who do not mind this mingling of the past and the present.  Most native cultures view the spirit world as simply another realm of existence, and the fact that the two realms cross paths sometimes should be expected and appreciated rather than feared.  I would have to say that makes perfect sense to me.

Until next time,

yours in this life and the next!

GhOsTwRiTeR KiM

Sources:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskell_Indian_Nations_University; http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/oct/29/haunted_haskell/; http://www.unsolvedmysteries.com/usm391124.html; http://www.haskell.edu/about.html