"Over the last five years one small tomb in Greyfriars Cemetery has become famous as the lair of a malevolent paranormal entity. The tomb is known as the 'Black Mausoleum' and is located behind the high walls and locked gates of the area known as the Covenanters Prison.
The entity has been named 'The Mackenzie Poltergeist'.
The Black Mausoleum seems to differ from Edinburgh's other haunted locations for two reasons. One is the frequency of the poltergeist sightings. The other is the severity of the incidents. The period between the first recorded sightings in 1999 and the present, have seen over 450 documented 'attacks' in the Black Mausoleum and Covenanters Prison. Of these attacks, an astonishing 140 have caused the witness to collapse."
- From http://www.blackhart.uk.com/
Of course, I just had to go on this tour.
Our medium-sized tour party, led by Derek, the tour guide, set off from near the Mercat Cross. There was some storytelling first, about the history of Edinburgh - witches and soforth, then it was off to Grayfriars.
We were told the true story of Greyfriars' Bobby, the nice little 'family' part of the tour. Then we were told of the Covernanters, and how they were imprisoned in the back of the churchyard - this prison was our next stop.
The prison was just a large, empty, walled space when it was in use, and later, mausoleums were built inside it's confines. The 'Black Mausoleum' was were we spent 20 minutes or so of the tour. It was black indeed. As it had gone 9pm, the light outside was fading, but it was light enough for you to have a little stroll around the town without the fear of getting beaten up.
However, inside the tomb, it was pitch black. All you could see was the light coming from the barred doorway. The acoustics were bizzare - the sound of Derek talking was amplified, and it seemed to come from all directions.
Anyway, about halfway through, my left arm felt burning hot for a second, and it felt like someone had scratched it. With no way of being able to see what had happened, I just brushed it off.
When we did leave the tomb, it was still fairly light outside. I thought I'd have a look at my arm. 'There won't be anything there', I told myself. How wrong I was.
On my arm, there were four raised scratches, bleeding slightly. I thought I might have scraped my arm against the wall of the tomb, as I was standing right at the back. I quickly debunked this theory, as there were no marks at all on the sleve of my jacket. Surely if I had scratched my arm that badly on the wall, it would have affected my jacket too.
So, when I got back to the caravan *snicker*, I took some photos of my arm. The tour finished at about quarter to 10, and I didn't get back until 11, thus the scratches had gone down a bit. But still, they looked bad.
There's too much shadow here, but you can see how 'raised' he scratches were.
And here's another. Lovely.
So, to me, that was the clinching evidence to prove to me that something is out there, may they be poltergiests or ghosts, or something else.
