Greyfriars Kirkyard: Covenanters' Prison and the Black Mausoleum

Edinburgh, Scotland · United Kingdom · Cemetery

Greyfriars Kirkyard: Covenanters' Prison and the Black Mausoleum — Edinburgh, Scotland · United Kingdom · Cemetery

This is Greyfriars. Here in 1638 the document was signed that defied the king's power over the church.

And here, after a defeat in 1679, more than a thousand prisoners were penned into what is called the Covenanters' Prison, under open sky, on a piece of bread a day, for more than four months. Those who survived were put on a ship bound for America that was wrecked off Orkney, and almost all of them drowned. The man who drove the prosecutions against them, the feared Bluidy Mackenzie, lies buried in the Black Mausoleum only metres from his victims.

Since 1998 this has been called the most documented poltergeist case in the world. It began when a homeless man took shelter in the mausoleum, fell through the floor into a burial vault and fled in panic. Since then hundreds of visitors have reported scratches, bruises, burn marks and bites that appeared hours later, cold zones and cameras that stop working. A medium who tried to cleanse the site in 2000 died of a heart attack weeks afterwards. Many of the figures come from the tour companies themselves, so take them with a pinch of salt, but independent witnesses and journalists have experienced the same things. Do not go into the Black Mausoleum alone.

FAQ

Where is Greyfriars Kirkyard: Covenanters' Prison and the Black Mausoleum located?

Greyfriars Kirkyard: Covenanters' Prison and the Black Mausoleum is in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom.

More haunted places in Scotland

Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.

Image: Carlos Delgado · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons