Description: Hidden beneath the Royal Mile, lies one of Edinburgh's deepest secrets - Mary King's Close. Back in the 1600’s, Mary King’s Close and neighbouring Closes were at the heart of Edinburgh’s busiest and most vibrant streets, open to the skies and bustling with traders selling their goods to the Old Town’s residents. These Closes consisted of a network of four streets stretching down from the Royal Mile with houses reached up to seven storeys high.
The Royal Mile sits on a spine of rock stretching from the Castle to Holyrood Palace. A series of lanes and alleyways falling away to either side of the street sprang up. These are the ‘closes’. During modernising of the old town in 1753, the lower floors acted as the foundation for The Royal Exchange, built in 1753 (now The City Chambers) to bring its floor up to the level of the Royal Mile. For over 250 years this warren of hidden 'closes' where people lived, worked and died, lay largely forgotten until during the war years they served as an air raid shelter. In 2003 they opened as a visitor attraction.
Mary King’s Close provided a historically accurate example of life in Edinburgh between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Documents show that Mary King was a prominent businesswoman in the 1630’s. She was a widow and a mother of four, who traded in fabrics and sewed for a living. That the close bears her name indicates her standing in the town. With a costumed character tour guide based on a one-time resident, we explored the underground streets as he brought to life the many real stories behind the Closes.
In 1645 a year after Mary King died the life of the close shattered. The plague struck this little community and there is a myth that the local council decided to contain the plague by incarcerating the victims by bricking up the close for several years and leaving those inside to die. During periods of plague those infected actually enclosed themselves in their house and signalled their plight by displaying a small white flag from the window. In response neighbours delivered bread, ale, coal and even wine 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.
Doctors dressed from head to foot in thick leather, gloves and wore a herb-filled, beak-like, mask to try to protect themselves when visiting plague victims but many died. However, the risks were not without compensation. Salary rose from £40, first to £80, and then to an incredible £100 Scots a month. Although doctors didn’t know the plague spread through flea bites, the leather prevented the patient's fleas from biting the doctor. They followed correct procedures but for the wrong reasons.
The guide takes you back in time to experience the home of a gravedigger whose family died of the 'black death'. You see the workshop of the saw-maker Andrew Chesney, who was the last resident to leave the street, and the home of the famous Close's namesake, the wealthy widow and merchant seamstress Mary King.
Visitors also get the chance to visit the 'Shrine Room' where you see the colourful pile of toys left for the wee 'ghost' girl Annie, who used to live there. She suffered from the plague and is heartbroken at losing her favourite doll. Generous visitors have left tens of thousands of pounds, dolls and toys for little Annie, which are every year donated to the Sick Kid's Friends' Foundation at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh.
During the tour some real ‘live’ ghosts shatter the peace. It all adds to the experience. This tour is well worth while but book in advance for it was only by so doing that I finally managed to get on this ghostly tour.
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