Edinburgh, Ghost Stories
Horror Stories - Edinburgh, Ghost Stories
I have had a few paranormal experiences, the latest being last night! One of the most frightening encounters occurred in Edinburgh, at Greyfriar's Cemetery, which featured on The Scariest Places on Earth. I'll tell you a few now.
The first was 11 years ago, not long after My Son was born. We were living with My Mum and Dad at the time, and our son's cot was in our room. One night I suddenly woke up and looked over to the cot, somebody was standing at the foot of the cot, leaning over slightly, I couldn't pick out much in the 1-2 seconds it took me to hide under the covers but I'd say it was probably a man.
When I looked back there was nobody there. It didn't feel threatening, I was just shocked, and I think it was my Granddad, who died when I was 5. My Dad also says he once heard somebody saying shhhh when my son was crying even though there was nobody else in the house.
Another time, I was at work on my own. I work at a residential college for people with special needs and in the holidays there is only a skeleton staff dotted around. The area I was working at is like a dormitory, a long corridor with about 10 bedrooms either side, a laundry room at the top with a kitchen to the right, then another corridor to the left with more bedrooms and a lounge. I was in the laundry room ironing when I saw somebody out of the corner of my eye going to the kitchen.
I had been standing in the middle of the room and would have seen and heard somebody coming down the corridor, there were no entrances from the other end, apart from some fire doors in some bedrooms but they were all locked, so somebody would have had to come that way and they would have seen me and shouted hello or something.
So I went into the kitchen and there was nobody there. I only saw it out of the corner of my eye so couldn't describe it clearly but it was definitely a human figure. I felt stupid mentioning it but other people said they had seen things too. This place has been in use since World War 1.
This was at work too, in a different area, I was on my own again in the holidays and was working on the bungalows which is accommodation for more independent students. It was a Saturday night and I had nothing to do, I was finishing for my holidays soon so I'd done all my work. I just decided to take a DVD in.
I was sat in the front room when all of a sudden I felt very scared and panicky, I could just tell there was something there somewhere, I was practically frozen with fear for about 10 minutes, I couldn't move. I finally plucked up the courage and grabbed my bag and the keys and ran into the kitchen and out of the back door.
I went to another bungalow and calmed down and stayed there for the rest of my shift, but later on when I was waiting for my taxi I could feel somebody watching me. Another time at work, I was working with a colleague, there were students there as it was term time I walked past the bathroom and somebody had left a tap running at the sink. I turned it off. A few minutes later my colleague said, who's left the tap running?
I said I had not long turned it off and hadn't seen anybody going into the bathroom, But it was running again. This happened 4 times more. We thought it was a student playing tricks on us, but they were all out. The plumber looked at it the next day and said it was fine. My colleague has also heard footsteps in the middle of night and thought it was a Student going to use the bathroom, And when she's got up to look there was nobody there. A few other things have happened too but you get the idea.
I have heard other staff say other areas of the College are haunted too; it has been there for years. It was originally used as workshops for soldiers injured during WW1 and to provide care for them too. We have a Fete every year, and one day we were in the stores which is a very old part of the college, sorting out stuff to sell on the stalls and what needed chucking away.
In amongst all the junk we found an old black and white photo of people in military uniform in wheelchairs or otherwise injured, it had been taken here at the college. I wonder if any of the People in that photo are still hanging around?
Recently, I went to see at band In Birmingham, The venue was quite old, (1900's) and had originally been a Methodist Chapel, then a Civic Hall and now a Music Venue. I went to use the toilets before the band started. When I went in there were 3 girls just about to leave, all the other toilets were empty as the doors were wide open. I went into the first cubicle and I heard the three girls go out.
All of a sudden I heard a really loud bang, followed by more loud bangs, It sounded like somebody slamming all the doors shut, I could hear them slamming back open and hitting the wall, I finished very quickly as mine was the other door that was already shut and I was terrified. I hurried out and all the doors were open, and not moving. There was nobody else in the room, I would have heard anybody coming in or going out of the main door as it was right opposite me and seen under the door. Nobody came in.
Last weekend my partner and I went to Edinburgh for a weekend, whilst there we decided to find the statue of Greyfriar's Bobby. For those of you not in the know, he was a Scottish terrier who, after his owner died, stayed at the grave for 13 years until he himself died. We found it and it was rather unimpressive, but right next to it was Greyfriar's Cemetery.
I had seen it featured on The Scariest Places on Earth years ago so we decided to go and have a look. The history of the place is fascinating; Burke and Hare operated here bodysnatching until they cottoned on that it was easier to make their own corpses.
There is a part of the cemetery that is locked away, called the Covenanters Prison. When the Scottish reformation was happening, people who refused to convert were put there and made to lie outside in the freezing cold. If they moved, they were shot. If one attempted to escape, 10 others would be rounded up and shot as punishment.
The guy in charge of all this was called George McKenzie, delightfully nicknamed Bloody McKenzie. Some years ago, a tramp broke into George McKenzie's tomb and fell through the floor into a chamber below, which was full of human remains.
Since then the place has been plagued with poltergeist activity. We walked around the graveyard for a bit and then decided to go to the pub. The pub we went to is reputedly the most haunted pubs in Edinburgh; half of it is in the old vaults, which are a series of underground vaults originally used for storage for shops. But back in those days it was illegal to be homeless in Edinburgh so soon families were living in them too. They became quite crime filled places and very overcrowded. They were eventually sealed off and forgotten about until they were rediscovered in the 1980's.
Whilst sat in the pub, I suddenly became very, very cold, but only on the lower half of my body, I remarked to my boyfriend who laughed it off. It was warm in the pub, and it was a warm sunny day outside for once in Scotland, and the top half of my body was warm. After about 2 minutes, my temperature returned to normal, and then a couple of minutes later, my boyfriend experienced the same thing.
Then my boyfriend pointed to my hand and said what have you done to your hand? I looked and on the back of my hand was a cut about half a centimetre long and bleeding profusely. There was also one on my thumb. I never thought any more of this until later when I looked up Greyfriar's cemetery on my phone.
There have been reports of people being scratched by an invisible entity there, some people noticed at the time, some afterwards. I know I had not scraped my hand on anything and the cut was not there before I went into the cemetery. I was pretty freaked out by this and it obviously happened in the cemetery or in the pub.
When we returned home, I never mentioned it to my 11 year old son, but the following morning he told me he had seen a ghost in his room. He said it was a black shadow in the shape of a man, standing by his door, looking at him. My son looked away and the figure had moved slightly away from the door, and then vanished.
This happened for 3 nights and actually really freaked me out, I also heard things in the night like somebody moving around but that may have been my imagination, but there was also an atmosphere in the house, I don't know how else to describe it.
Do you think I may have bought something from Edinburgh with me? I am quite sensitive to ghosts and have seen many over the years but never in my house and have never sensed anything there even though it's an old house.
The first was 11 years ago, not long after My Son was born. We were living with My Mum and Dad at the time, and our son's cot was in our room. One night I suddenly woke up and looked over to the cot, somebody was standing at the foot of the cot, leaning over slightly, I couldn't pick out much in the 1-2 seconds it took me to hide under the covers but I'd say it was probably a man.
When I looked back there was nobody there. It didn't feel threatening, I was just shocked, and I think it was my Granddad, who died when I was 5. My Dad also says he once heard somebody saying shhhh when my son was crying even though there was nobody else in the house.
Another time, I was at work on my own. I work at a residential college for people with special needs and in the holidays there is only a skeleton staff dotted around. The area I was working at is like a dormitory, a long corridor with about 10 bedrooms either side, a laundry room at the top with a kitchen to the right, then another corridor to the left with more bedrooms and a lounge. I was in the laundry room ironing when I saw somebody out of the corner of my eye going to the kitchen.
I had been standing in the middle of the room and would have seen and heard somebody coming down the corridor, there were no entrances from the other end, apart from some fire doors in some bedrooms but they were all locked, so somebody would have had to come that way and they would have seen me and shouted hello or something.
So I went into the kitchen and there was nobody there. I only saw it out of the corner of my eye so couldn't describe it clearly but it was definitely a human figure. I felt stupid mentioning it but other people said they had seen things too. This place has been in use since World War 1.
This was at work too, in a different area, I was on my own again in the holidays and was working on the bungalows which is accommodation for more independent students. It was a Saturday night and I had nothing to do, I was finishing for my holidays soon so I'd done all my work. I just decided to take a DVD in.
I was sat in the front room when all of a sudden I felt very scared and panicky, I could just tell there was something there somewhere, I was practically frozen with fear for about 10 minutes, I couldn't move. I finally plucked up the courage and grabbed my bag and the keys and ran into the kitchen and out of the back door.
I went to another bungalow and calmed down and stayed there for the rest of my shift, but later on when I was waiting for my taxi I could feel somebody watching me. Another time at work, I was working with a colleague, there were students there as it was term time I walked past the bathroom and somebody had left a tap running at the sink. I turned it off. A few minutes later my colleague said, who's left the tap running?
I said I had not long turned it off and hadn't seen anybody going into the bathroom, But it was running again. This happened 4 times more. We thought it was a student playing tricks on us, but they were all out. The plumber looked at it the next day and said it was fine. My colleague has also heard footsteps in the middle of night and thought it was a Student going to use the bathroom, And when she's got up to look there was nobody there. A few other things have happened too but you get the idea.
I have heard other staff say other areas of the College are haunted too; it has been there for years. It was originally used as workshops for soldiers injured during WW1 and to provide care for them too. We have a Fete every year, and one day we were in the stores which is a very old part of the college, sorting out stuff to sell on the stalls and what needed chucking away.
In amongst all the junk we found an old black and white photo of people in military uniform in wheelchairs or otherwise injured, it had been taken here at the college. I wonder if any of the People in that photo are still hanging around?
Recently, I went to see at band In Birmingham, The venue was quite old, (1900's) and had originally been a Methodist Chapel, then a Civic Hall and now a Music Venue. I went to use the toilets before the band started. When I went in there were 3 girls just about to leave, all the other toilets were empty as the doors were wide open. I went into the first cubicle and I heard the three girls go out.
All of a sudden I heard a really loud bang, followed by more loud bangs, It sounded like somebody slamming all the doors shut, I could hear them slamming back open and hitting the wall, I finished very quickly as mine was the other door that was already shut and I was terrified. I hurried out and all the doors were open, and not moving. There was nobody else in the room, I would have heard anybody coming in or going out of the main door as it was right opposite me and seen under the door. Nobody came in.
Last weekend my partner and I went to Edinburgh for a weekend, whilst there we decided to find the statue of Greyfriar's Bobby. For those of you not in the know, he was a Scottish terrier who, after his owner died, stayed at the grave for 13 years until he himself died. We found it and it was rather unimpressive, but right next to it was Greyfriar's Cemetery.
I had seen it featured on The Scariest Places on Earth years ago so we decided to go and have a look. The history of the place is fascinating; Burke and Hare operated here bodysnatching until they cottoned on that it was easier to make their own corpses.
There is a part of the cemetery that is locked away, called the Covenanters Prison. When the Scottish reformation was happening, people who refused to convert were put there and made to lie outside in the freezing cold. If they moved, they were shot. If one attempted to escape, 10 others would be rounded up and shot as punishment.
The guy in charge of all this was called George McKenzie, delightfully nicknamed Bloody McKenzie. Some years ago, a tramp broke into George McKenzie's tomb and fell through the floor into a chamber below, which was full of human remains.
Since then the place has been plagued with poltergeist activity. We walked around the graveyard for a bit and then decided to go to the pub. The pub we went to is reputedly the most haunted pubs in Edinburgh; half of it is in the old vaults, which are a series of underground vaults originally used for storage for shops. But back in those days it was illegal to be homeless in Edinburgh so soon families were living in them too. They became quite crime filled places and very overcrowded. They were eventually sealed off and forgotten about until they were rediscovered in the 1980's.
Whilst sat in the pub, I suddenly became very, very cold, but only on the lower half of my body, I remarked to my boyfriend who laughed it off. It was warm in the pub, and it was a warm sunny day outside for once in Scotland, and the top half of my body was warm. After about 2 minutes, my temperature returned to normal, and then a couple of minutes later, my boyfriend experienced the same thing.
Then my boyfriend pointed to my hand and said what have you done to your hand? I looked and on the back of my hand was a cut about half a centimetre long and bleeding profusely. There was also one on my thumb. I never thought any more of this until later when I looked up Greyfriar's cemetery on my phone.
There have been reports of people being scratched by an invisible entity there, some people noticed at the time, some afterwards. I know I had not scraped my hand on anything and the cut was not there before I went into the cemetery. I was pretty freaked out by this and it obviously happened in the cemetery or in the pub.
When we returned home, I never mentioned it to my 11 year old son, but the following morning he told me he had seen a ghost in his room. He said it was a black shadow in the shape of a man, standing by his door, looking at him. My son looked away and the figure had moved slightly away from the door, and then vanished.
This happened for 3 nights and actually really freaked me out, I also heard things in the night like somebody moving around but that may have been my imagination, but there was also an atmosphere in the house, I don't know how else to describe it.
Do you think I may have bought something from Edinburgh with me? I am quite sensitive to ghosts and have seen many over the years but never in my house and have never sensed anything there even though it's an old house.
