Edinburgh  Today

Edinburgh Ghost Festival

at Mary King's Close, Royal Mile, Edinburgh  -  May 12-21, 2006

A Public Arts Event

The second Edinburgh ghost festival, the Mary King Ghost Fest, is to be held from 12 to 21 May, 2006.

It will include:

- overnight vigils in Mark King's Close.  The close is beneath the Edinburgh City Chambers in the Royal Mile.  It  was closed ,due to a plague, from 1644 to 1646 and not re-opened until guided tours of the area began in 1995.

- group investigations in underground vaults beneath Niddry Street and Blair Street in Edinburgh Old Town.

- electronic voice phenomenon workshops which will record and analyse any ghostly noises that are heard in Mary King's Close.

- looking back on the history of witchcraft and witch-hunting, storytelling, clairvoyant gatherings, tarot nights and a psychic fair.

Edinburgh Evening News   -   February 21, 2006:  p10

Mark King's Close

Mary King's Close is one of a number of closes, or narrow streets, linked together and hidden below the Edinburgh City Chambers, opposite St Giles Church in the Royal Mile.  There were originally houses up to seven storeys high on either side of these closes.

In 1763, the Royal Exchange, now the City Chambers, was built on this site.  The houses above ground level were demolished, but those below ground level were left as foundations for the Royal Exchange - then forgotten, until around the 1990s when they were re-discovered and opened as a visitors' attraction in the Royal Mile.

Tours of Mary King's Close include the home of the grave-digger's family, the saw-maker's workshop and other rooms.  For further details, including some photos taken in these closes, see the Real Mark Kings' Close web site.