May is the month for Mary King's Ghost Fest in Edinburgh, a festival focusing on the dark side of Scotland's capital city
Mary Kings’ Ghost Fest, the award wining paranormal festival, returns to Edinburgh in May with a host of events focusing on the darker side of Edinburgh.
Scotland’s capital city is famed for its dark and murky past – and is filled with tales of macabre activities and strange paranormal activity. This is the city where the body snatchers Burke and Hare once operated, and the city that inspired books like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and today’s Inspector Rebus.
The festival takes its name from Mary King’s Close, a real street that is one of a warren of alleyways buried beneath the busy Royal Mile. These underground alleys would originally have been narrow walkways, with houses on either side stretching up to seven storeys high. They were situated in what is now called Edinburgh’s Old Town, the medieval part of Edinburgh. For centuries the city was enclosed by defensive walls and as the population grew, the only solution to the housing problem was to build upwards. The wealthiest people lived in townhouses or large apartments on the top floors, where there was more light and the air was relatively fresh. In contrast, the poor would live at the bottom, where it was dark, cramped and smelly.
After Union with England there was a great deal of redevelopment. The top floors of the tenements were demolished, while the lower sections were left intact and used as the foundations for grand new buildings. However the old closes remained accessible, and people continued to live and work there right up until 1901. You can now visit Mary King’s Close – and many have reported ghostly experiences in there. One ghost is thought to be an 8 year old girl called Annie, who died of the plague.
Events at Mary King's Ghost Fest in 2007 included:
Ground breaking scientific research into haunting experiences at Mary King's Close with resident Most Haunted parapsychologist, Dr Ciaran O'Keeffe and Steve Parsons, who tried to discover if haunting experiences truly are an inexplicable phenomenon - or if low level sound waves known as infrasound are responsible
Macabre tours of The Royal College of Physicians, where ‘Victorian’ guides divulged the stories of age-old medical practices.
Literary tours and talks across the city from authors who have been inspired by Edinburgh's dark and shadowy tales
Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) workshops at some of Edinburgh's most haunted locations.
Overnight vigils and paranormal investigations at the notoriously spooky, Blair Street Vaults.
A chance to discover the troubled secrets that Edinburgh's oldest dwelling, John Knox's house, preserves.
For full event details for 2008 visit www.edinburghghostfest.com. Read about the Scottish Italians
