The Real Mary King's Close (The Real Mary King's Close (Edinburgh))

Member Name: Nic25

Product:	The Real Mary King's Close (Edinburgh)
Date:	12/01/09 (85 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliant atmoshere, really unusual

Disadvantages: Quite scary, maybe not suitable for kids

A year or so ago I found myself in Edinburgh for the weekend with a friend and her daughter, and, having found we had a spare evening, decided to look for something a little different to do. Edinburgh is famous for it's many 'Ghost Tours' and 'Haunted Walks' but we were worried these might be a bit too scary, so were pleased when we stumbled across information for 'The Real Mary King's Close'. Although not actually associated with ghosts, this was still in-keeping with the scary sort of evening entertainment we were looking for!

You have to phone ahead and book to get onto one of the tours, as they are very popular, and each tour has limited numbers. I believe they are open all day, and tours can be taken in the morning or afternoon, but for the best experience and atmoshere, I'd definately recommend booking an evening tour. Our tour started around 7pm, which was a good time, although I believe you can book later again.

We went in and met our guide, who was dressed (and acted as!) a charater from the time of the Close, which was a nice touch.
She was lovely, and very nice, albeit with a slightly spooky air to her!
She explained the history of the close, and then took us downstairs to start the tour.

Basically, Mary King's Close is an underground street, a set of houses which were sealed up and built on top of in the 1750s. They were inhabited during the Plague, and a lot of people died in the close. This has led to many ghost stories, which the guide was brilliant at explaining to us.

You are guided round the old houses and work buildings, which are still mostly intact - it's amazing to see the different rooms in the houses, and the old work-places. These have some (scarily life-like!) models put in to hel you imagine how people lived.
The atmsphere is brilliant, very electric, due to the huge number of reorted ghost-sightings. This is helped along slightly by the guide - at one point the tour were ushered into a room, in pitch darkness, and a ghost story told, along with sound effects - we were terrified!!

Another very interesting point was in one of the houses, where there apparently lived a little girl called Annie. Her ghost has been sighted many times, and it is said she's sad because she lost her doll. Since this was found out, many people have brought little dolls and toys for her, which they leave in her room to make her happy again. This room had the strongest atmoshere, and some people in our tour didn't even want to enter it, if I remember correctly.

Overall, I was very impressed with the attraction, and would quite like to go back and visit again. It was qujite good value for money, with an adult ticket costing around £10. There is also a good little gift shop when you go back upstrairs again, full of lovely unusual little things!

This was an absolutely fabulous tour, definately one not to be missed if you're going to be in Edinburgh.

Summary: A brilliant tour, perfect if you're looking for something a bit different!