Some say ghosts walk with you as you peruse their haunts in Great Britain
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Twilight begins to fade behind crumbling stone walls and shadows creep down narrow alleyways, murmuring memories of an ancient world. This is the time when someone who knows where to look may glimpse the past as it flickers to ethereal life. This is the moment when strange secrets are whispered through the ages to those who will listen.
Take the enigma of Stonehenge, the bloody battlefields of the Scottish Highlands and mysterious Irish folk tales, sprinkle in some tales of greedy body snatchers, add the unsolved Jack the Ripper murders and a pinch of Black Death, then top it all off with forbidden lovers whose fate was sealed with bricks, and you have the recipe for some titillating ghost walks in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
What exactly is a ghost walk? Is it only for people who believe in the supernatural? Is it for people who enjoy being regaled with gore? Is it just another tourist attraction?
“Our customers are from all walks of life, from all over the world,” said Gordon Stewart of Mercat Tours in Edinburgh, Scotland. “We give tours to local people and foreign visitors who are interested in history and/or the supernatural, and most of them are surprised at what they learn.
“Ghost walks typically last about 90 minutes and are cheap alternatives for a night out on the town that’s suitable for the whole family. We try to have a healthy balance of walk and talk, and keep the stories detailed and lively, so people can hear, see and feel the past.
“A good ghost tour uses real history and genuine reports of the supernatural, rather than making stories up. With a history like Edinburgh’s, we have no need!”
Indeed, many visitors to Edinburgh may marvel at the medieval castle and the ancient architecture without ever knowing that an older city lurks beneath the cobbled streets.
Even during the 17th century, Edinburgh was quite a metropolitan area, but during these tumultuous times, many residents felt unsafe living outside the protection of the city walls. Since the perimeter of the walls only ran so far, residents chose to build up instead of out, creating the world’s first “high rise” buildings. Some even chose to build down, tunneling beneath the city to create a labyrinth of streets and villages unto themselves.
When the Black Plague struck, it was common practice to quarantine houses, streets and even villages full of people once one of the inhabitants became ill, to prevent the spread of the disease.
One of the streets in Edinburgh, known as Mary King’s Close after the woman who owned some of the houses located there, was one of these places to be sealed off during a time of panic and terror, leaving everyone there to die. The painful wails of the deceased were said to echo there for years, making it a place only the desperate would inhabit. Long after the disease, those sick in mind continued to plague the place, until it became too tragic for anyone to enter.
Mary King’s Close remained empty for more than a century, until ghost walks were allowed in with special permission of the city. Through an insignificant-looking iron door amid the bustle of city businesses, visitors enter a City of the Dead — peering into apartments where families lived, and died, treading the packed earth of old market areas, immersing themselves in a world unchanged by the centuries.
But for all the doom and gloom of each ghost tour, there are usually as many laughs as there are frights. The “ghost” of Adam Lyal, a highwayman who was executed in Edinburgh’s Grass Market in 1811, now hosts tours for The Witchery Murder and Mystery Tour Co. in Edinburgh, leading his groups through the dark courtyards of Old Town telling tales of witchcraft, plague, tortures, hangings, body snatching and more.
This is one ghost, though, whose death did not get in the way of his life’s aspirations. As a public gag in 1999, Lyal turned his pursuits from poltergeists to politics, and stood for Scottish Parliament. His policies included a campaign to reduce members of Scottish Parliament’s salaries from 40,000 pounds a year to 3.60 an hour and a pledge to wear white makeup for the full term of the Parliament. He gained 1,184 votes, finishing ninth out of the 17 registered parties!
Those who would rather avoid politics and practical jokes and simply sit back and enjoy a ride can hop on the Ghost Bus Tour in Dublin. This tour takes place on the upper saloon of a specially designed double-decker bus and includes stops at certain sinister sites.
“The windows have curtains which allow us to either show certain streets or not and thereby focus the audience’s attention, and the interior design and sound system enable us to create an atmosphere more conducive to storytelling,” said Dan O’Donoghue, manager of Ghost Bus Tour.
“This way everyone has a good seat for the tour and gets to use both their imaginations and their senses to explore the supernatural world.”
Whether it’s demons in Dublin, banshees in Bath, cutthroats in Cambridge or imps in Inverness, adventuresome tourists who peer into the abysmal depths of time, beware — sometimes the past stares back.
“We were at the second churchyard on my tour and I was talking about the punk rock bands who used to practice in the crypt there, when the lamp post light went out, a wind blew up from nowhere and a woman in the group said she was looking at the ghost of a woman holding a baby,” said Glenda Clarke, host of the Brighton Ghost Walk in Brighton, England.
“The story behind that churchyard is that restoration work during the 1800s unearthed underground catacombs that spanned well beyond the church property, and no one knew who was buried there or why,” Clarke continued. “What was even more odd than the anonymity, though, was that nearly 400 of the 500 bodies entombed there were those of babies, again, with no explanation as to why.
“But when the woman and child were spotted, I hadn’t yet spoken about any of that. They disappeared just as suddenly, the wind dropped as soon as it had begun and as we left the light came back on.”
When Richard Jones worked as a mailman in London, he would walk by many old buildings and want to know the stories behind them. His desire to know more grew through the years until he finally took two years to study London’s “horrible histories” and write several books about haunted London, Britain and Ireland.
“One of my favorite stories is that of Elizabeth, the shoemaker’s wife, who was buried wearing her wedding dress and ring,” Jones said. “A church warden wanted to steal her ring, but when he opened her coffin and tried to cut the ring off, she awoke screaming.”
Jones used his passion for the paranormal to create the London Ghost Walk. This tour not only takes visitors through the darkest places among the city’s folklorists, it features recreations of psychic phenomenon, such as mind-reading, telekinesis, extra-sensory perception, spirit writing and poltergeist activity, all using methods that have been used by “miracle workers” and “psychics” for centuries.
In fact, some ghost walk hosts not only study their city’s haunted history, but also investigate hauntings that continue to this day.
Gary Goldthorpe, the “Ghost Detective” of York, England, uses special equipment, such as infrared cameras, temperature gauges, ultra high-frequency sound recorders and more to test reports of paranormal occurrences and incorporates these experiences in his tours.
“One woman on a tour of mine saw a man with a top hat and Victorian clothing standing in the distance on more than one occasion, which she felt was ‘definitely a ghost,’ ” Goldthorpe said.
“On another walk, an elderly gentleman saw a little boy in rags hiding around a corner, watching us all very intently, and in another location on the same tour, a little girl saw a strange black shadowy object move into a position behind my right shoulder and then vanish.
“I don’t know how much we can ‘prove’ these occurrences to be any more real than anything else, but I suppose at the end of the day, it’s down to the audience.”
Though ghost walks are available throughout the world, the United Kingdom and Ireland have a great concentration of them in a surprising number of towns.
Those interested in finding out just how haunted England, Scotland and Ireland are should call the local tourism bureau of the city they plan to visit, or can check online for details at www.afallon.com/walks.htm, which has links to the walks mentioned here, and many others.
Capt. Erin E. Bradley is a public affairs officer at 3rd Air Force Public Affairs at RAF Mildenhall, England. E-mail her at Erin.Bradley@mildenhall.af.mil.
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