Mary King’s Close

Our first night in Edinburgh, we toured the underground remains of Mary King’s Close. A close is, quite simply, a narrow alley: in some places only shoulder width apart. There are many closes that are still at street level in Edinburgh, but Mary King’s is under the city chambers.

The close and the rooms/apartments off the close are remarkably intact. They are like caves, with only an entrance in the front, and no windows. It was very depressing to think of the people packed into the small rooms about the size of a bathroom. Edinburgh was very over crowded in the 17^th century, and the city built both up and down since out was not an option due to geographical constraints. Some buildings in the closes were 14 stories high, with many more layers below ground, dug into the soft stone. Due to this overcrowding, the area was very susceptible to disease, and in 1645 the plague swept through, eliminating roughly 50% of the population.

Since so many of the former inhabitants living on Mary King’s close had died, the neighborhood gained a reputation for being cursed or haunted, and people refused to live there. There were even rumors that the victims of the plague had been boarded up inside the close and left for dead. This wasn’t true; they were cared for by plague doctors, but most died anyway. By the mid-1700s, the neighborhood had become rundown and derelict; the government did in fact brick it up and use it as construction material. They built the present city chambers over top of the existing close, much like the necropolis under St. Peter’s basilica.

Underground, the temperature is pretty constant, and it was warmer than outside. It was damp and filled with stale air, the kind that gave way to irrational worries about catching century old diseases. The walls were stone, and because of the dim lighting, the whole place looked as though it were under a sepia filter.

The only way to access the close is with the tour company, and it was completely opposite of the Jack the Ripper tour. Our guide was a ghost; the shadow of a fictional man who lived on the close during its heyday. He had a lantern and was costumed, and there were various gimmicks throughout the tour designed to startle you. The tour did contain a lot of history and the guide knew what he was talking about, but I think the whole tour would have been better if it were more straightforward. 

Useful Links!
Mary King’s Close Tour
Mary King's Close at Wikipedia