Mary King's Dead End and Little Annie's Ghost. Mary King's Dead End in Edinburgh. Creepy places on the planet Dead End Mary King Edinburgh
The Bringing of Mary King in Edinburgh
There are several places in old England that are well known to tourists for their mystery and mystical past. One such place is Mary King's Dead End, home to Scottish ghosts that you can encounter right in the middle of the street. The history of Mary King's Dead End, dating back to the 17th century, is inextricably linked with many deaths.
Thousands of people experienced their death throes at this place many years ago. In the 17th century, during the plague, people who fell ill with a terrible disease were closed here. Even when planning the ancient streets of Edinburgh, it was planned to create a separate small area, reliably isolated from the rest of the main Scottish city
All the narrow streets of the most mysterious area of Edinburgh are located in the lowlands, so it seems that they are located not on the surface, but under the ancient city. In the 17th century, this area was surrounded on all sides by impregnable walls, so people who lived here could not leave its boundaries and go to other places in Edinburgh. This area is called Mary King's Dead End; it was here that all the residents of Edinburgh who fell ill with the plague were brought, and none of the townspeople saw them again. Among the sick was a little Scottish girl named Anne, whose ghost still walks around Mary King's cul-de-sac. The little girl, doomed to death, was sent to an area for plague patients by her parents, who said goodbye to their daughter forever.
There is a legend that in 1645, parents left a girl at this place to die, who soon died from martyrdom, after which the ghost of Annie settled forever among the stone streets of the city.
Rumor has it that very often you can feel how little Annie touches your hands or her spirit flies among the rooms of the building.
By the way, one of the exhibits for tourists is Annie’s room. Also here you can see exhibitions of the lives of people of that time and in what conditions they had to die from the plague.
After a while, a new house was built on the site of the dead end, and since 2003 they began to conduct mass excursions for foreign tourists who are interested in mystical stories about spirits and ghosts.
Mary King's Dead End in Edinburgh has always been considered a place full of poltergeists and ghosts. Many people died at this place, whose ghosts wander among the streets of the city, frightening passers-by with their invisible touches.
The dead end reminded Mary King of its secrets a century after the terrible plague that killed many residents of Edinburgh. A huge building was erected on the site of the ancient streets, and the stone labyrinths turned into a mysterious dungeon, but every person who, by the will of fate, found himself in a large building, encountered paranormal phenomena, mystical events, or simply felt the presence of something otherworldly.
Ghosts in Mary King's Dead End have been seen more than once, and in 2003 the authorities of Edinburgh opened the mystical area to tourists who want to come into contact with a parallel world and learn the bleak history of old Edinburgh. During a guided tour of Mary King's Dead End, a guide will take tourists into the terrifying dungeon. Descending the ancient narrow stone stairs, tourists seem to find themselves in the 17th century, when the plague raged in Edinburgh.
Even if you don’t believe in otherworldly forces, during an excursion it always seems that someone is standing over your shoulders, and a slight breath of wind, which can be mistaken for the touch of a ghost, can frighten even the most courageous people.
No one may see your fear, but the fact that you will feel it is a fact.
Life in 17th century Mary King's End in Edinburgh was extremely unsanitary. People lived on narrow winding streets, huddled in apartment buildings up to seven floors high. There was no sewage system; residents simply dumped waste into the street from their windows. Rats - carriers of infectious diseases, in particular the bubonic plague, calmly walked along the dirty streets.
The plague epidemic, or as it is also called the “Black Death,” that broke out in Scotland became a huge disaster for the residents of Mary King’s Dead End. When the Black Death first appeared in the British Isles, it initially seemed to be a problem limited to English territory. The Scots joyfully called the disease “The Dirty Death of the English.” But soon, rats, fleas and bacteria made their way to Scotland. During the epidemic, the country lost a quarter of its population. For Puffin Mary King, the disease was especially devastating.
There is a persistent myth that in order to ensure quarantine, the city authorities of Edinburgh, in 1644, closed the city, as a result of which about 600 residents were doomed to death.
In reality, the city council cared for the plague victims. Families who were healthy enough were brought to the Burgh Muir area. Those who were unable to move signaled to city council workers by hanging white flags in the windows of their houses, and food and coal were delivered to their doors.
Then he arrived in town Doctor Plague, George Ray, dressed from head to toe in a leather cloak, with a strange, bird-head mask to protect himself from illness. To save the life of a plague victim, Ray opened the ulcer and cauterized the wound with a hot poker. A terrible method, but it really saved lives.
After the plague had passed, people continued to live in Mary King's Dead End until the 19th century, when the entire area was evicted. On this site, the Royal Exchange was built and the Dead End was forgotten. And it would not have been reopened if workers who were digging in the street had not accidentally entered the remains of the winding streets.
Today, Mary King's Dead End is a popular tourist site, with numerous excursions taking place, attracting those interested in its eerie history and tales of supposed existences there. ghosts. One of the most famous ghosts is a 10 year old girl named Annie who died of the plague. Those who believe talk about temperature changes and experience a sense of presence Annie while she is in the room. Many people leaving here leave toys, dolls, and sweets for Annie and her loved ones.
Tours to Mary King's Puffin run seven days a week, all year round, except Christmas Day.
The city of Edinburgh is located in Scotland.
It contains a separate quarter of the old city, which is located in the lowlands of its central part and is called “Mary King’s Dead End”.
The place is permeated with a depressing atmosphere and visiting it does not always bring positive emotions, but it is a popular tourist route.
The name Mary King's Dead End was given in honor of the owner of most of the buildings in this quarter, at the height of the plague epidemic in the 17th century.
Edinburgh's central area was very busy at the time.
All significant institutions were located there, and naturally, outbreaks of terrible diseases such as plague, smallpox, syphilis, which were raging throughout Europe at that time, were recorded in the center.
According to the order of the municipality, citizens whose families were infected were required to notify neighbors about this in order to comply with safety rules.
It was carried out by hanging a piece of white cloth outside the window of one’s home.
After some time, almost every window in the block was decorated with a white fabric symbol, and the epidemic swept through the entire city.
Not understanding how to stop the plague, the magistrate gave the order to isolate all the sick in one place, and take out the corpses of the dead and set them on fire so that the infection would not spread further.
The night collection of corpses was carried out by monks. They took the bodies of the dead by cart outside the city, and then burned them.
A block of the central low-lying part of the city, with massive infections of the deadly disease, later called Mary King's Dead End, became a makeshift infirmary.
The dead end was fenced with a high stone wall and infected people from all over the city were brought into it.
In this “locked city,” the sick lived out their last days, surrounded by the severe suffering of the dying, in the knowledge that the same thing awaited them.
100 years after the epidemic, the old facades of the buildings were dismantled and a new city administration building was erected.
In fact, part of the Mary King cul-de-sac was completely destroyed, and part was walled up and served as the foundation for a new building.
Already in the 21st century, archaeologists uncovered the preserved walled-up part, and the remains of the streets were cleared and converted into a museum.
To get to the Mary King dead end, you need to go down with a guide down a separate communications system, along narrow damp steps.
Having descended, you find yourself at the level of an empty city, extinct from the plague.
Visitors are exposed to underground labyrinths with views of narrow streets buried underground, more reminiscent of tunnels and passages.
There are the remains of stairs, blocked windows, boarded doors, behind which are hidden rooms that have been empty for centuries.
In some houses, wine cellars, stoves, cupboards, chimneys and storage rooms have been preserved. It is not surprising that the underground quarter is home to many ghosts of people who died from the plague in agony, pain and fear.
They wander through dimly lit tunnels and sometimes frighten visitors to Mary King's Dead End. There is one house that is haunted by the ghost of a teenage girl, Annie.
When Annie's parents realized that their daughter was sick, without a moment's hesitation, they isolated her from other children and took her to the “locked city” to die.
They didn’t tell the girl anything about her illness; they deceived her and locked her in one of the apartments in a dead end.
Annie died a painful death without understanding why her family abandoned her, and her soul never found peace. The girl's phantom can be seen often entering the house where her mother has locked her.
A drop in temperature is immediately felt and a particularly depressing state arises. Sometimes Annie is seen with a dog, and sometimes holding a broken doll in her hand.
Some say her face is pockmarked and her clothes are torn and dirty.
Also, visitors to the Mary King dead end claim that they sometimes felt someone’s cold touch, and naturally attribute it to the ghosts of this gloomy place.
There are many mystical and frightening places in the world. Many of them are located in places inaccessible to humans. Deep in the forest, in the open ocean, among mountain peaks, in swamps or dense jungles.
But at the same time, the number mystical places located next to human habitation are no less, and maybe even more. Perhaps the reason is partly that we ourselves create them in different ways?
If you ever come to Scotland and find yourself in Edinburgh, take the time to wander around this amazingly beautiful ancient city.
And if your goal is to find truly frightening, interesting and mystical places, then you should visit
The number of legends and rumors about this place is enormous. Many of them are known throughout Britain and even beyond its borders.
According to eyewitnesses, several ghosts live in this alley at once (or perhaps it is one ghost taking several forms?).
Any passerby crossing this street at almost any moment can encounter them.
The first mystical mentions of this place date back to the 17th century. The fact is that it was then that the Plague epidemic was raging in the city and this alley became an isolated part where the infected were located.
The natural and terrible consequence of this isolation was an enormous amount of suffering and death concentrated in a relatively small area. And now the first reports of ghosts are heard, the number of which only increased over time.
Add to this special architecture Puffin Mary King and several adjacent, low-lying narrow streets isolated from most of the city.
There you get a strong impression that you are no longer in the city itself, but underneath it, and a feeling of mysticism and some anxiety will overwhelm you at the moment of your first visit.
Among the people who usually appear in this place is a little girl. Her name is Anne, they say the girl was transferred to the infected area by her parents and she eventually rested there, but never found peace.
It is interesting that today the streets of this dead-end street themselves have become a real underground labyrinth, above which a huge building rises. And paranormal events can be found not only under the building, but also in it itself.
And although most mystical manifestations here are limited to the feeling of a touch, pinching a leg or holding a hand. Cases when the ghost of a little girl or a number of other people were seen by one or several people at once are not uncommon.
It’s true that it didn’t bring them any harm other than fright. But having visited, nevertheless, you can be quite scared. The atmosphere here is so oppressive in itself.
And if you meet their otherworldly inhabitant. Moreover, only a very brave person will not be afraid.
Scotland has long been known for its cheerful people, abundance of beer, and it is also famous for its mysticism. One of the strangest and mystical places can be found in Edinburgh. Mary King's dead end is deservedly recognized as such. This is where you can meet real Scottish ghosts right in the middle of the road. The history of this place begins in the 17th century. It was in this area that a lot of people died who were isolated from society during the plague epidemic. Their life behind the walls was a sentence of death row. Therefore, it is not strange that even now this place is famous for its anomalous phenomena, which cannot be explained without coming to the conclusion that otherworldly forces are at work here.
Edinburgh was deliberately laid out so that there was a securely separated area within the city on all sides. The network of small streets of the mysterious area of the main Scottish city is located from the inside in such a way that it gives the impression that this part of the city runs underground. In the 17th century, this area of the ancient city was surrounded by high and rough walls that could not be overcome, so the people doomed to live here no longer had any hope of getting out. This part of town is called the Mary King cul-de-sac. During the plague, the dead end was used to isolate infected people from the rest of the population. The city's inhabitants were placed inside the walls and were never seen again.
Among those unfortunates who were doomed to live out their days in torment and suffering in Mary King's cul-de-sac, there was a little Scots girl named Anne. The ghost of the little girl still walks around the dead end. The girl was sent to an isolated area by her parents because she also fell ill with the plague. She lived her last days in agony and imprisonment.
A hundred years after the terrible epidemic, a huge building was erected on the site of an isolated part of the city; the narrow streets of the area turned into a mysterious and gloomy dungeon. Since then, anyone who has been to this place feels the presence of otherworldly forces here, witnesses anomalies or mystical events. Ghosts have been seen in the dungeon many times. Taking advantage of the fact that the place became famous for its mysticism, in 2003 the city authorities opened the area to tourists. During the tour, the guide takes guests of the city through a terrible dungeon, where everything looks as if it is still the 17th century and outside the building the plague continues to mow down innocent souls.
The room in which, according to this terrible legend, Anne once lived, was also restored. There are no windows through which light could penetrate, the ceiling is very low - all this has a depressing effect on the psyche. The room contains only an old table, two stools and a chest that was used as a bed. To complete the decor of the room, you can see a large antique lantern.
This room clearly shows the conditions in which plague-stricken Edinburgh residents were forced to live. Before they died, they were in a terrible prison from which it was impossible to escape. During a tour of the dungeon, you also cannot help but notice a corner that is filled with a variety of dolls. These toys are brought here by local residents who sincerely feel sorry for the girl, whose ghost still cannot find peace. Others bring dolls to appease the spirit, as they believe that it is endowed with power and can influence the destinies of others. Residents of Edinburgh are sure that Anne's ghost likes to look at this abundance of beautiful toys. They say that she not only appears and allows herself to be seen, but can even grab the hands of tourists passing through dark corridors and even pinch their legs.