Mary King's Close

While these ghosts are all from places which are no longer available to be seen, there are tales of ghosts in places that are still very much accessible to this day, too - most of which are in parts of the old Underground Edinburgh that has often been forgotten by history, but has always remained below the surface of the Old Town. There are two areas in which people can gain access to this underground world. The first is Mary King's Close. Long ago discovered again, this close runs directly underneath the City Chambers building on the High Street.

In 1645 a terrible plague gripped Edinburgh. Out of 40,000 occupants, only 60 citizens were deemed fit to guard the city and bear arms. In dramatic attempts to curb the spread amongst the walled in city, many areas were quarantined and the dying left inside to their fate. This was the case with Mary King's Close, and after the sick had all died off, the city moved in to dismember the bodies, which were all transported to and buried under what are now the Meadows, on the south side of town. Over forty years later, Edinburgh's overcrowding problem was at a peak and so the close was re-opened for occupation. Thomas Coltheart, a lawyer, and his wife were the first to move in, upon which their maid very promptly resigned, fearing the legendary ghosts who now roamed the passageways.

One night, not long into their stay, the Colthearts came across these ghosts… and then some. Mrs Coltheart was surprised to see the sudden appearance of a disembodied head above her husband, which he somehow managed to miss. Her begging for him to leave with her went unanswered. Later that night, however, as the couple sat in bed, Coltheart was to see the head himself, which sent him straight to his knees and into furious prayer. This seemed only to draw more ghostly figures, with first a small child and then a disembodied arm, which seemed intent on shaking hands with the couple. Coltheart entreated the ghosts to tell him what they wanted done and he would make right their grievances, but they seemed to want nothing other than to harass the poor couple. Further children, animals, including a cat and a dog, and other body parts joined the scene until eventually there was no floor to be seen for ghostly shapes. Then, suddenly, there was an awful and resonant moan, and the ghosts were gone.

Now, you would think that most people would take that as a sign that they were not welcome, but not Mr Coltheart. He was determined to stay on and stay he did, without further reported interference, until the day of his death. At which time it seems that, on the moment of his shuffling off the mortal coil, a friend living on the south side of the city was visited by a cloud, which took the form of Coltheart before dissipating. Coltheart had seemingly gone on to join his spectral neighbours in the afterlife.

Today, there are many reports of ghostly activity still going on. A young boy is rumoured to have died, trapped in one of the closes' chimneys, and can be heard trying to scratch his way to freedom. The ghost of a small girl named Sarah has also been frequently seen haunting the kitchen of the old Royal Exchange Coffee Rooms, where it has become a tradition to leave a doll for her to make her happy. The main ghosts seem to be mostly at rest these days though, with the occasional exception, like the party of nurses who spent the night in the close for charity and complained of no ghosts, but that the party in the pub upstairs had kept them awake all night. Of course, they were directly below the City Chambers, which was locked up tight for the night and completely abandoned.

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