Mary King's Close
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For years the hidden underground closes of Mary King's Close, in the Old Town area of Edinburgh, Scotland, have been shrouded in myths and mysteries. Blood-curdling tales of ghosts and murders, and myths of plague victims being walled up and left to die abounded.[1] However, new research and archaeological evidence has revealed that the close actually consists of a number of closes which were originally narrow streets with tenement houses on either side, stretching up to seven storeys high. Mary King's Close is now a commercial tourist attraction.
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[edit] History
Mary King, after whom the close was named, was born towards the end of the 16th century. In 1616 she married a local merchant burgess, Thomas Nemo or Nimmo, and together they had four children: Alexander, Euphame, Jonet and William. Thomas died in 1629 leaving Mary and her four children alone. Together they moved to what was then known as King's or Alexander King's Close. Alexander King had been a prominent lawyer in the city and was no actual relation to Mary. The name of the close was later changed to her name, Mary King.
By the 1750s, many of the buildings of old Edinburgh, including parts of Mary King's and other closes, were in a ruinous state; the pressures of over-crowding along with political and economic upheaval had taken their toll. So it was proposed that 'a covered place of exchange' should be built over the site, to remove the merchants from the street around the Mercat cross and St. Giles' Cathedral, to store national records, and provide meeting rooms. Subsequently, in 1753, the Burgh Council decided to develop a new building, the Royal Exchange (designed by John Adam). This building is now the City Chambers. The houses at the top of the closes were knocked down and part of the lower sections were kept and used as the foundations for the Royal Exchange.
[edit] Plague
At Christmas 1645 the plague, probably brought by ship from Europe via the port of Leith, and spread by fleas carried on black rats, erupted across the land. It took hold first in Edinburgh, then spread west and north, and over the following 18 months killed a substantial part of the Scottish population.
Despite the myth, victims were not walled up in the closes and left to starve. In fact, there had been a long tradition of organized quarantine in the town. Over many previous outbreaks, those infected with the plague enclosed themselves in their house and indicated their plight by displaying a small white flag from the window. In response, bread, ale, coal and even wine were delivered to them daily, and a plague doctor would visit to drain bubos - the pus-filled lymph nodes, which threatened to rupture and kill the patient through septicaemia. Some people were quarantined in wooden huts or ‘ludges’, outside the town at Sciennes, Boroughmuir, or in the King’s Park, for anything from two to six weeks or until death, whichever came the soonest.
With the limited and often downright dangerous medical treatments of the time, doctors could do very little to help. Like others, they would have worn herb-filled, beak-like, masks to try to protect themselves; but many died. John Paulitious, Edinburgh’s first official plague doctor, was one such victim. However, the risks were not without compensation. Paulitious' salary had risen from £40, first to £80, and then to an incredible £100 Scots a month by the time his successor, Dr George Rae, replaced him on 13 June 1645.
Dr Rae dressed from head to toe in a thick leather mask, cloak and gloves when visiting plague victims. At the time, it was believed the plague was spread by miasma - what was thought to be 'bad air' - and the doctor's cloak was designed to prevent miasma from reaching his skin. It has since been shown that the plague was actually spread by flea bites, and that the leather prevented fleas from the patients biting the doctor.
By November, Dr Rae had negotiated a further £10 Scots per month but by the autumn of 1646 the worst was over in Edinburgh, though it took longer elsewhere and the Council had second thoughts about paying him. Ten years after this, the last major outbreak of the ‘foul pestilence’ in Scotland, George Rae was still fighting to be paid. He eventually won and claimed an unprecedented yearly pension of £1,200 Scots.
[edit] Mary King's Close today
Mary King's Close was re-opened to the public in April 2003. Now a commercial tourist attraction, it is being displayed as a historically accurate example of life in Edinburgh between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.
[edit] Mary King's Close in television
- Mary King's Close was featured on Series 4 of "Most Haunted", a British television programme based on investigating purported paranormal activity.
- Mary King's Close appears on the Most Haunted Live Halloween 2006 show, a British television programme based on investigating purported paranormal activity.
- Annie's room and Mary King's Close both appear in series 6 of Billy Connolly's World Tour of Scotland.
- Mary King's Close appears on the History Channel's 2007 program "Cities of the Underworld" Episode 04 Scotland's Sin City. aka Edinburgh [2].
- Mary King's Close was also featured on the Discovery Channel, India's Show called Discovery's Biggest Shows aired at 8:00 pm (Indian Standard Time) on Sunday, October 7, 2007
- Mary King's Close was also even featured in an episode of Ghost Hunters International which first aired on January 9th, 2008.
The 'hauntedness' of Mary King's Close was attributed to the presence of infrasound (from a natural source).
