Mary Kings Close
Scottish Paranormal Charity Event
13th March 2010
Personal Feedback by,
Mary Cunningham, SP Co-founder/Investigator.

 

 

Investigators in Attendance:

• Mary Cunningham SP Co-founder/Case Manager/Investigator
• Jim Cunningham SP Co-founder/Investigator
• Mark Smallman Investigator/Technical/Webmaster
• Claire Doherty Investigator/first aider
• Andy Kirkham SP Technical support.

Equipment used:

• DVR system
• 7 IR cameras
• 3 laptops (Windows/Mac)
• 1 Windows desktop computer.
• 4 Temperature probes
• 1 EMF meter
• 3 Sony night vision camcorders
• 10 Clip boards for constant note taking.
• 2 Data loggers
• 2 Target experiments, one using wind-chimes with the data logger inside plastic dome, digital recorder plus old coins, the other one with miniatures of alcohol and data logger plus digital recorder.
• 1 Digital thermal laser gun
• Various torches
• 3 Digital recorders.
• Sound mixer/microphone.

---

Mary Kings Close:

Hidden beneath the Royal Mile lies Edinburgh’s deepest secret: a warren of hidden ‘closes’ where real people lived, worked and died. For centuries they have lain forgotten and abandoned… http://www.realmarykingsclose.com/experience/video.htm

Scottish Paranormal arrived at Mary Kings Close at around 9:30pm Saturday 13th March and introduced ourselves to MKC staff and placed our equipment in a safe room until set-up time. During this time the group that we were assisting for the night were already down inside the close being given an informative tour before we started our investigation.
Once everyone came back from the tour Scottish Paranormal introduced themselves to the group and gave a brief talk about SP protocols to ensure their safety in the close and to also give a them a guideline on what to expect on this investigation, with that completed we made our way down into the close itself.

Base Room

Walking into our base room which was the central point to the location and the best area to set up our control center, I handed out clip-boards and pens to everyone to make sure they took note of any experiences they may have. Everyone in the group was given a chance to use SP equipment if they wished under the guidance of either myself (Mary) or Jim Cunningham, one of our SP team members.

The Laiche Room.

Everyone was excited as we entered the Laiche room which is situated at the top of the close and is said to be one of the more desirable accommodations in the close, usually inhabited by the people who were of a higher status and better off money-wise. As this room was at the top it was almost free from the constant running stench of human faeces and urine amongst other nasty stuff thrown out of windows onto the street below by less fortunate residents, this was performed on a daily basis using an old wooden bucket. It does not surprise me in the least that there was so much disease lurking around here in the close, the plague being the major disease that unfortunately killed all the men women and children who were living in Mary Kings Close at that particular time and of whom died in total despair and pain.
With all the previous discussions of disease and dying during the previous tour remaining in everyone’s mind, the group tried to settled down by making themselves comfortable before beginning to call out and asking for some response to their questions. Calling out didn`t come easy to some members of the group as they had never done anything like this before and felt awkward about it but, with some guidance from myself this was soon overcome and then we were off. Not long after calling out some of the group reported the temperature dropping by about 2 degrees or more and also some footsteps were heard outside in the close which I myself heard, I was standing with my back to the door entrance and the close. I did go checkout to see if anyone was there making these footsteps but found nobody there. I thought this was strange as at least one other person heard this too and also saw a figure at the same time, we both turned around at the same time (although I didn’t see anything) we were actually expecting someone to walk into our room….strange indeed!

The Murder Room:

As soon as we went in here we were confronted with models recreating a murder scene, something of which has an interesting story behind it. Alexander Cant a prominent merchant was murdered by his wife and Mother in law in his townhouse (Blackhall) said to be the finest in Edinburgh in Craig`s Close.

In this room, Rob-a group member- told us he was feeling quite sick which seemed to be coming and going so I asked if he would rather leave to get some fresh air and have a break…he declined and wanted to continue on regardless. Other members of the group including myself felt quite at ease in here with nothing much to report.I asked for one of the sceptics in the group to try some calling out which one of them did,he wanted to find out for himself if there really was anything here with us and to prove to him that someone apart from all of us in this room was present. Nothing of any significance happened except that when Jim asked for a response to him knocking on the floor, I heard something behind me. I was sitting with my back to the opposite end of where the models were and heard distinctly a loud knocking noise come back. Only one other member of the group heard this along with me as she was sitting right beside me at the time. I went into the corridor where the base room was to ask who may have made the noise in response to Jim’s question but nobody had made a sound like the one we heard, it wasn’t the floorboards as someone suggested, it was a more distinct knocking on wood sound… another strange one.

The Cattle Shed:

This to me is one of the more interesting places in the close. As soon as we walk into the cowshed we can still, after all these years, smell a very pungent smell and the plague room isn`t much better being that it`s right next to it where we can look in because it has no door. A  resin sculptured model of a mother sits on a hard filthy bed with a dying child in her arms while a young boy lays dying on another bed opposite from open sores caused by the plague. The dark cloaked figure of a doctor stands over him wearing a grotesque mask with a long beak where he would put a scented substance inside to mar the smell of the seeping rotting flesh. Not a very nice scene to say the least but it brings to us a small insight of what it must have been like for those poor souls.
I spent most of the time we had in the plague room with a few members of the group that were keen to experience this room for themselves while Jim stood in the cow shed with a few who didn`t want to come into the plague room with us, they didn`t like it.We got ourselves settled down after demonstrating the effects on the EMF meter and why the needle was going off scale.The overhead pipes and cables was causing this because they were running right along the center of the ceiling, this was only to be expected, a natural occurrence and therefore makes me aware that it may possibly have an affect on some of the group who might develop feelings of nausea ,the ceiling in the plague room is pretty low.

Although most members of the group found the smell horrible it didn’t stop them from continuing with the investigation and were willing to give it their best shot.Not long after we entered the plague room 2 members heard what they described as a loud breath right beside them,one person was perched on the edge of the bed where the model of the little boy was laying and the other member of the group were standing beside her.The breath seemed to come in between them both. I had previously placed a digital voice recorder on top of the bed frame (in between the two group members) so I’m hoping this will be picked up on it. Another incident happened as Jim was talking, three of us, myself being one of them, heard what we thought was a child’s voice. Rob suggested that it was someone’s mobile phone but no mobile phones were turned on for the duration of the investigation. I’m sure this voice has been captured on the camcorder that Claire was using when she also heard the voice. At the moment I am keeping an open mind until we can rule out all other possibilities for this voice. Sounds of footsteps from outside in the close were heard by Claire and a few others so I decided to leave the plague room and have a look around then stand quietly in the close by myself for a while…later I was joined by Claire using the camcorder but nothing further happened that we could see or hear.

Annie`s Room:

As Annies room was so small we decided that it would be best if the group were to be split up. Jim took some of the group members to test out placing their hand in the hole in the wall where it`s said a young boy was bricked up and left to die to see if they could feel anything.It`s alleged that the little boy will touch your hand. All who tried this felt nothing and having tried this on numerous occasions myself I have never felt anything…maybe I didn`t feel anything because personally I`m not sure if the boy was really bricked up here in the first place. The remainder of the group sat quietly in Annie`s room taking notes of any temperature changes and anything they might experience. Some drops in temperature were recorded with the temp probe but nothing to get excited about and it could be explained away by the presence of open fireplace close by in the room. A strange light on a small grey teddy bear which was sitting on top of the many toys that visitors leave behind was witnessed by Claire, although nobody else sitting in the room saw this. I have looked over the camcorder footage and I cannot see what Claire describes actually happening.

Mr Chesney`s House:

This house on the close belonged to a Mr Andrew Chesney who apparently was the very last resident to leave Mary Kings Close.He didn`t want to go but with the dire situation regarding the plague he was forced to.He took with him his front door knocker and handle I`m told by Mary Kings Close manager Nigel, it was kind of sad I thought, no wonder Mr Chesney is said to be a mean bad tempered man, he did not think much of women either so I`m told. So it was with this in mind I wanted some of the group to perform solo vigils in here but, none of the women in the group were brave enough to do it alone so they went in with others. With three women performing a vigil downstairs in Chesney`s house you would probably expect Andrew Chesney not to be too pleased about that.
The vigil begins by one of the women asking out if he was here with them, a long period of silence then two knocks can be faintly heard. Another long period of silence again but the women keep trying by asking again for a sign of somekind ,they then hear something like someone dropping something upstairs where Mark was sitting at the top of the stairs but after asking Mark if it was him he said no.This was picked on the camcorder which I will place on the forum for opinions.We are still looking at footage to try and come up with a logical explanation for this noise but at the moment we haven`t found one… yet.

---

Scottish Paranormal would like to thank Amanda Irvine for inviting us along and also staff at Mary Kings Close for their kind help in making this investigation possible, it was for a very good cause and helped to raise money for DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee) Haiti.

The target of £1,000 was surpassed which we are very pleased about and also thank everyone who donated to this worthy cause.

---

Scottish Paranormal do not claim that these audio clips are paranormal but, we do like to post anything unusual for opinions only.
Audio 4.

Mr Chesney`s House,
Mary Kings Close March 2010
This clip has not been put through any software for enhancement.
While monitoring the target experiment of the miniture alcohol bottles,three women including me (Mary) stand waiting for a response to the question “Do you like gin?” no reply was heard at the time and no men were present.