Scottish Paranormal Investigations

Greyfriars, now home to the congregation of Greyfriars Tollbooth and Highland, stands in grounds that had belonged to the Franciscan convent in the Grassmarket – hence the name Greyfriars. It was the first church built in Edinburgh after the Reformation. In 1562 Mary Queen of Scots had granted the land, which was then on the outskirts of the city, to the Town Council for use as a burial ground. The Flodden Wall and later Telfer Wall can still be seen in the Kirkyard. By 1602 building had started re-using stonework from the Dominican convent at Sciennes. Progress was slow, and the new church did not open until Christmas Day 1620.

In 1638 the National Covenant was presented and signed in front of the pulpit. This was a document of great importance in the history of Scotland. (An original copy is displayed in the Visitor Centre.) During Cromwell’s invasion of Scotland Greyfriars was used as a barracks from 1650 to 1653. Little of what you see survives from the original church, a simple six -bay building in late Gothic style, with side aisles and pillars forming arcades. Worshippers either stood or brought their own stools, and the only furniture would have been the pulpit, which has been restored to its original position.

Entrances were from the east (still visible from outside), south (behind the pulpit), and north. The old north door now forms one of the main entrances to the church inside the porch. The oak doors and the cherub’s head as a decorative piece in the door-frame still survive. Above them you can see the oldest extant example of the city’s coat of arms, depicting a portcullis. The church originally ended where the great west arch is now, above the organ. Beyond that was a small, squat tower, where the Town Council kept its gunpowder. In 1718 it blew up. The west end of the church was reduced to ruins and a new west wall was built, two bays into the church. On the western side a new church was created by adding two further bays in the same style, so that Greyfriars housed two separate congregations, back to back. The porch, added on the north side in 1721 provided access to both churches’

Historically, the term ‘Covenanter’ applied to Scots Presbyterians who rejected the ecclesiastical modernisation’s of King Charles I of England. This took the Episcopalian view that a hierarchy of bishops, plus various changes in religious practise govern the church. Ultimately, this precipitated the anti-covenanter ‘Bishops Wars’ which proved financially disastrous for Charles I, culminating in the English Civil War in which a Covenanter army fought. Following the restoration of the Monarchy in1660, the Covenanters began their period of martyrdom.

The covenant was declared illegal and for the next 25 years the signatories suffered brutal persecution. Attempts to restore their religious beliefs resulted in three rebellions in 1666, 1679 and 1685, all were viciously suppressed. The Covenanters Prison in Greyfriars dates from 1679, when some 1200 Covenanters were imprisoned within the churchyard awaiting trial. During the reign of Charles II, George MacKenzie, as king’s advocate, conducted his prosecution of the Covenanters for their refusal to conform to the established church with such zeal that he became known as “Bloody MacKenzie.”

George MacKenzie’s earthly remains, ironically, lie within a vault just out with the black, iron gates of the Covenanters Prison. MacKenzie’s fearsome reputation was richly deserved, known as a hanging judge; he took particular delight in consigning dozens of Covenanters to the gallows.

In the Kirkyard lie the remains of many distinguished Scots. The collection of 17th century monuments is the finest in Scotland and one of the best in Britain.

Paranormal Activity

The motivation behind this investigation was created by a steady stream of newspaper articles concerning bizarre occurrences at Greyfriars Kirk. The reports alleged that ‘evil spirits’ had caused poltergeist type attacks on upwards of fifty visitors within the confines of the churchyard, particularly the old Covenanters Prison.

This recent paranormal activity is not an isolated occurrence, the churchyard has been the scene of alleged psychic phenomena over the centuries, some witnessed by more than one person. The term ‘Covenanters Prison’, also, perhaps gives a slightly misleading picture of the area, conjuring up the impression of a vast gloomy edifice. In fact, the ‘prison’ is an open rectangular area, which, although slightly smaller than previously, is still around 100 meters long and perhaps 12 meters wide. For its entire length it is lined on both sides with tombs and vaults, most of them open to the elements. Only three have a roof: one is left open and the other two, one of which is the scene of the alleged attacks, are locked.

One of the victims, a college lecturer experienced feelings of suffocation, as if a hand had been placed over her face. She also claimed to have been left with large bruises on her neck and face. She had been taking part in a guided tour of the area when, abruptly, she found it difficult to breath. She started to feel dizzy and passed out. Regaining consciousness, she found herself sitting on the ground; other people on the tour helped her to her feet and asked if she was OK. According to the victim, she would not re-enter the churchyard again.

There are several explanations for this, all of them more likely than an encounter with a poltergeist. The tour guide Jan Henderson claims that this type of incident occurs an average of once a month, the usual outcome being cuts and bruises. Interestingly, the marks in some instances do not appear until the next day. We have to say, that having attended similar tours, the guide is not above ‘hyping’ the situation for dramatic affect. Our aim was to prove that these ‘attacks’ were merely a result of hysteria or the fact that 50+ visitors are packed into a confined space, where the heat has caused them to faint.

SPI’s Investigation Report

Conditions: Outside – warm & sunny

We arrived at the cemetery and were met by Jan Henderson, a Director of City of The Dead Tours who unlocked the
prison gates for us. It is normally kept locked since, unfortunately, Edinburgh, in common with other cities, has problems with vagrants and people suffering from drink and drug related problems, the rudimentary shelter afforded by the old tombs is better than nothing. Jan then gave us a key so that we could enter & leave the prison area at our convenience. Jan indicated to us where the most ‘active’ area seemed to be. This proved to be one of the tombs on the left hand side of the prison. He also mentioned that the ‘activity’ had actually moved from a tomb nearer the entrance.

After Jan left, the team took a walk around the kirkyard to familiarise ourselves with the layout while it was still daylight. City of the Dead Tours conduct three tours in the evening around Edinburgh Old Town that come to an end in Greyfriars. We decided that as part of this investigation, we would shadow the tours during their time in the graveyard & prison. This would give us the opportunity to observe their reactions to the guide’s stories and also the atmosphere while they are in the black mausoleum.

Observations during the guided tours

During our time at Greyfriars, we shadowed 3 separate guided tours. At no point during the tours did anything paranormal happen. However, we did observe that during the build up to entering the Covenanters Prison area certain participants did start to look and act very nervous. From speaking to them, we ascertained that this was due to the reputation that the Prison area had for paranormal activity.

After the last tour of the night (around 11.30 p.m.) the team started to get set up for the night vigils. Around 15 minutes later, a young man & his female friend approached us outside the Prison area. He stated that he had been on the last tour of the Kirkyard and had retreated to the local pub with a group of his friends to talk over the nights events. It was on sitting down to his drink that his friend noticed some severe scratch marks on his arm. He confirmed that he did not make these marks himself and had not been consciously scratching himself. They had only appeared after he was in the Mausoleum. He did allow us to photograph his arm and as can been seen on the photograph, the scratches were deep enough to draw blood. After a discussion among the group it was decided that although the man’s story was very interesting, we couldn’t rule out a more simple explanation for the marks on his arm.

We conducted investigations in the Covenanters Prison, the mausoleum, and the graveyard

In the mausoleum one of the team members thought that their hair was being touched, this feeling continued as the feeling of intense heat starting at the top right of their head, and as if someone with a soft brush, painted in one downward action, and covered the rest of the right hand side of my face with the heat. Upon leaving the mausoleum marks on the right hand side of this team members face were notice, originally they looked like scratches but it was decided the marks looked more like raised burn marks. After reviewing the video although this team member does touch their face a couple of times during the time in the mausoleum it is not hard enough to cause the marks on their face

Additional Information – E.M.F: No unusual readings were picked up.

Temp: Some slight fluctuations were picked up in the mausoleum area but these can be explained by the open entrance & natural draughts.

E.V.P: No recordings were made.

Conclusion

While we did not achieve any especially dramatic results at this stage of the investigation, we established that we do not have an explanation for what happened to Andy’s face. Andy does not have any allergies or skin irritations that may have caused the marks and we have captured the entire period of time on film.

One observation that we did make was regarding the manner in which the tour guides deal with the people on the tours. It appears that the guides do, as we suspected play up the supernatural aspects of the tour and make a point of mentioning the people who have previously been ‘attacked’. It is therefore reasonable to assume that if anyone on the tour is suggestible, they could well react adversely within the confines of the mausoleum, this is of course the most obvious cause of events attributed to so-called spirits.

Return Vist

We have returned subsequently to Greyfriars, on the 2nd visit the location was quite uneventful, however it is still the belief of the team that this venue does warrant further investigations.