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Edinburgh's Haunted Vaults

16/2/2016

4 Comments

 
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Last Saturday evening my family and I stood outside the Tron Kirk on Edinburgh's Royal Mile with a group of strangers, waiting for our Ghost Tour to begin. As the church bells chimed eight, our guide bounded on to the stone steps of the Kirk. 'Hands up those who believe in ghosts!' My hand stayed firmly down by my side but as I looked around our small group I was surprised to see my son's hand in the air.

Filled with excitement, we followed our guide, Darren, through the narrow streets of the Old Town and listened carefully as he explained the difference between a close and a wynd, and told us how, in the past, poorer residents never left the confines of the city walls because they couldn't afford to pay to re-enter. Thereby the area inside the Netherbow Gate became known as World's End to these residents, which explains the name for the well known pub.

So far, our evening was proving interesting but what about the fear factor? I'd promised my kids some terror.


Darren led us down on to the Cowgate and showed us the one visible arch of the South Bridge (completed in 1788 and built to link the Old Town to the Southside). The remaining eighteen arches are enclosed behind tenement buildings and contain 120 vaults. Originally intended as storerooms for the shops above, these dark, stone rooms proved too damp for storing valuable tobacco or cloth and merchants soon left, allowing the brothels and criminals to move in until the vaults were finally sealed in the early 19th Century.

The description of this dark, underground world was told by dim torchlight inside one of the damp vaults but apart from raising a couple of hairs on the back of my neck I was still feeling okay, and I  laughed along bravely with the rest of the group at Darren's ghost stories.

He then showed us a locked vault with elaborate costumes hanging on the stone walls and a circle of wooden stools with embroidered cushions placed around a large pentagon drawn on the floor. It looked like a set from a horror film.


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Darren explained that the Wiccan temple was used by the 'Source Coven of the Blue Dragon' and although we could view it, we weren't allowed inside.

We then followed him along a narrow corridor, up a small set of steps and into another vaulted room. This room immediately felt much colder than any of the others and the sound of water dripping from the ceiling could be heard above our hushed whispers. Our small group lined the edge of the room, facing inwards, towards a large circle of stones. This was the room where the Wiccan coven worshipped when they first moved into the vaults but they left after a few weeks. The reason for their move? They felt a malevolent presence in the room. The high priest did his own research and discovered a dark and bloody past.

This was more like it! 

We listened carefully to tales of the horrific murders which took place on this spot several hundred years before. The High Priest stayed in the room overnight, intending to perform healing rituals but as the night progressed he discovered the entity was beyond his capabilities and he fled the room, vowing never to enter again. Upon leaving, he insisted that the stones be left in place and warned that no-one should ever set foot inside the circle or grave harm may come to them.



"So is anyone feeling brave enough?"
Silence.
Is he serious?
"Come on. There's always someone who wants to have a go."
I stare at the circle of stones and realise I'm genuinely scared.
"No-one?"
My son (that's right, the same one who professed to believe in ghosts!) jumps inside the circle.
Damn it. Now I'm going to have to do it.
I lift my right foot and it hovers over the stones.
"It's got to be both feet or it doesn't count," shouts my son.
My two feet barely touch the damp earth before I jump back out again.

Am I disappointed that nothing happened to me inside the circle? I'm still not sure, but I'd love to hear if any readers have ever been brave enough to step inside.  And, if so, did anything happen to you?


I'd like to thank Darren from Auld Reekie Tours for our guided tour!

4 Comments
Laura
16/2/2016 06:49:00 pm

Amazing work!! You're such a good writer!

Reply
Yvonne McColm
16/2/2016 08:07:49 pm

I did one of these haunted vault tours a few years ago. I think I was the only one who put their hand up to say I definitely didn't believe in ghosts and came out thinking exactly the same! It sounds slightly different though as I don't remember a stone circle. I remember some people getting out machines to feel vibes and funnily enough nothing happened! I'm the same with fortune tellers and the like.

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Louisa
21/1/2017 12:44:19 am

I experienced the same tour as yourself and absolutely refused to set foot inside the circle, however, earlier i had set foot on the heart of midlothian as a joke with my friends but later in the tour at the final vault i felt 3 pokes on my right shoulder. The whole night the tour guide had spoke about "the holy trinity" and the mocking of it from supposed "ghosts" that lived in the vaults. this immediately terrified me and as i began to panic, another member of the group fainted. I am absolutely terrified after this night and it has thoroughly reassured my belief in the hauntings of the vaults.

Reply
Howard day
20/11/2017 07:21:15 pm

Hi Emma what IAM about to tell you is the truth.and this is the first time I have written about our misfortune ,July 2009 we as a family visited Edinburgh, and cutting to the chase I jumped into the middle of the stone circle, the only one within our group of around 25.nothing happened although I sensed I wasn't alone. Since 2009 we as a family and particularly myself have experienced a unnormal amount of bad luck !!! which continues to this day death huge financial loss illness always seems to come in threes and has been devastating to us ,my wife and have spoken to a religious colleague who really offers nothing . I can only continue asking forgiveness , and now feel unlessI I revisit the place and seek a way out of this situation our luck will not change, this is perhaps a warning for others,. Howard.

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    Emma Mooney is a writer of Scottish contemporary fiction and is the author of A Beautiful Game. and Wings to Fly.

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