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Edinburgh Vaults

On the why was it in gaelic strand...

my family had an ongoing long car discussion about languages in scotland - and how many "the Family" could rustle up if pushed.

I /think/ we eventually decided that there were, historically (and so not pict or whatever), 6 or 7... and that on a good day we could manage 4 of them.... there was an ambition to "marry in" to one of the others :)


anyone want to guess what we thought they were? and which ones we could do?


there's no right answer really of course.

Kath
 
Haunted Edinburgh Vaults

Just thought I would post this here and see what you guys thought about what happened there. None of this was made up or exagerated in any way whatsoever in case you were wondering :)
 
I have been down into the Vaults 3 times. The first was as part of the experiment in 2001. I was in one of the rooms that was supposedly haunted. It was obviously spooky, standing in a room on my own for 10 minutes, Nothing much happened - just the odd breeze or noise; nothing particularly interesting. But, I was quite glad when my 10 minutes were up.

The second visit was as part of a tour. The guide hyped it all up, telling us all about the ghosts that were there, and they ways in which they interacted with punters. Again, it was spooky. Nothing happened, but I spent most of the tour *expecting* something to happen. Again, I was quite glad to get out.

The final visit was as part of "Doors Open Day" earlier this year. This is an annual event when various historical buildings (as the name suggests) open their doors to the public. The tour was pretty quick, with no guides as such, just people in each room to answer questions. No mention of ghosts was made at all, and there was no "spooky" atmosphere. Just people walking around in underground rooms. Frankly, it was a bit dull.

This makes me wonder how much of what people experience is actually due to an external source (i.e. a ghost) and how much of it is produced by the mind in response to the "atmosphere" created by a tour guide, or by standing alone in a dark underground room for 10 minutes.
 
If you expect something to happen then I suppose things you would otherwise dismiss then take on a new importance. The thing is that most of the above experiences happened BEFORE the guide started talking about things that had happened in the various rooms, the smell of whisky for example was smelled before she mentioned it and with no prior knowlege that it was something supposidly ghostly... and it wasnt somebody else on the tour lol.
To be honest we were there as much for the history as the supposedely "haunted" status.

The second time I went was not as good, it was during the day and a ned family decided to go and pissed us all off by messing around and things...grrr, why go if you are going to piss about? The only happenings then was I detected a warm spot on one wall, where it should have been pretty cold and we have a picture of somebody that nobody remembers being on the tour and we are pretty sure he wasn't in the shot as we remember the picture just being taken of the doorway. odd that.
 
So what do you guys think of these events?

Anybody else experienced anything strange here?
 
I visited the vaults last August and experienced nothing unusual at all in most of the rooms. It was a very atmospheric place. The only exception to this occured in one room (not sure which one exactly, other than it's described below.)

Our group was directed into a room painted white - And for some reason I felt I didn't want to go in. I was thinking "I don't like it, I don't like it" but made myself go in anyway, as the guide told us the room had been used as a storeroom and made no mention of it being haunted. It wasn't until she finished telling us about that part of the vaults that she announced that this particular room was reported to be the most active and was home to the vaults' most malevolent spirit. I got out pretty sharpish after that! :shock:
 
Didn't the University of Hertfordshire's parapsych department put together a virtual vaults tour?

I seem to remember the professor chappie - who's name escapes me - saying that the spooky feelings in the vaults were largely environmental in nature and can be explained by lighting, cold (and probably infrasound, but I stand to be corrected) and that the virtual tour would help demonstrate this somehow.

Anyone got any more information?
 
It's definately a very atmospheric place and undoubtedly spooks people out, especially feeling like you are deep underground as it is. To be honest though, I've been in quite a few "scarier" and spookier places than that so it didnt bother me too much that way.

I am under the impression that there are at the least some very weird eloctromagnetic disturbances (which might explaint he non-functioning torches and lighting as wella s some other things) down in the vaults.

Mistral - I think i know the room you mean, i think its interesting that the 3 reported most active rooms reported by the Edinburgh Ghost Project research corresponded to the room Mercat considers the 3 most haunted rooms, something the investigators and researchers did not know. I just think it's odd that both sets of people got the same rooms in the same exact order of "hauntedness."
 
i think its interesting that the 3 reported most active rooms reported by the Edinburgh Ghost Project research corresponded to the room Mercat considers the 3 most haunted rooms, something the investigators and researchers did not know. I just think it's odd that both sets of people got the same rooms in the same exact order of "hauntedness."
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Can you confirm that that's right, many angled one? Were the later researchers really unaware of the previous 'results'?

(it's quite important really, otherwise you have to consider the powers of suggestion, as Ratbiter mentioned)
 
taken from:
http://www.mercattours.com/companyinfo/ ... roject.htm

Dr Wiseman decided to investigate the Underground Vaults because of the number of sightings of ghosts over the last 6 years. He asked Mercat Tours Research Director Fran Hollinrake to grade the rooms in advance, according to the paranormal activity, but NOT to tell him or any of the investigators. At no point during the experiment did any of the investigators or the members of the public know the order of ‘hauntedness’ of the rooms.
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After all the data was collected, Dr Wiseman then asked Fran Hollinrake (who didn’t yet know the results of the experiment) to give him the graded list of the rooms, starting with the most haunted first. Mercat Tours' most active rooms were room 4, room 9 and room 1. According to the participants in the experiment, the most active rooms were ALSO rooms 4, 9 and 1. This was by some margin – over 50% of the experiences were in these three rooms – the rest were distributed randomly throughout the other rooms. This does not necessarily prove that the vaults are haunted or that ghosts exist. It does show, however, that there is something about these rooms that makes people experience strange things.
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Admitedly this link is from mercat tours itself but I would imagine it is entirely accurate, due to the possibility of being sued etc if they messed with the results reported. [/quote]
 
When I popped down to the Vaults a few months ago for a mini vigil nothing much happened, which I’m fine with. One of the staff told us that there was a collation between the rooms that are haunted and the rooms that are made out of fired bricks.

MX
 
When I was on the tour they said that a sizeable portion of the vaults was build with "reclaimed" medieval materials.

If you have ever seen the film The Stone Tapes (I think) or heard the theary that sometimes stone can sort of ..record.. images, noises etc like a low-grade videotape and occasionally "broadcasts" (like when its got enough energy etc) then this might make the fact it's built with a lot of medieval material explain some of the hauntings.
 
If anybody is still interested, it seems that Edinburgh will be havign a ghost festival this year, including an overnight vigil in the Vaults... I might give that a go myself, should be interesting.
 
Very interesting - I thought they'd stopped overnight stays in the vaults (they told us that we'd be one of the last, if not the last group to go down there).

Then again, it might be another Ghosts-UK ploy to entice people down there with bullshit!
 
Many_Angled_One said:
I am under the impression that there are at the least some very weird eloctromagnetic disturbances (which might explaint he non-functioning torches and lighting as wella s some other things) down in the vaults.
."
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unfortunately that's exactly what's down there. There was a program on a couple of years ago and they had some equipment down there showing traces of electromagnetic lines zig zagging all over the place, and in exactly the posititions where people said things like 'i felt something brush against my leg'. and on the monitor you could see their leg pass through one of these lines etc. then I think, if memory serves me correctly they sort of superimposed where these lines where and the lines corresponded with all the sensations reported. I think atmospheric conditions also apply, ie, particularily damp or dry or something, as to when these lines are most effective.

I mean, if you think about it, you're in a room with stone walls. electromagnetics are gonna be bouncing off all over the place. And when you get so many visitors all you do is feed it. Next time you're there, my advice would be check the visitors roster and correlate that against people having 'experiences'. What room they occur in also might be best correlated against the dimensions of the room and all aside contributing factors, such as how many people in each room at anyone time etc.
 
When I was there, a woman collapsed in a faint for no reason when we entered the central room. She was standing opposite me, and I just saw her buckle and her friends catching her. She came around again rapidly, but the guide and the tour wanted to leave the spot quite rapidly.

Also, one of my friends on the same tour (but at a different time) actually witnessed a small boy poking his head around a corner - it was a dead end and no boy was to be found.

One story told to us by our guide was about the point of the tour where they turn off the light jsut to scare everyone. Apparently, once she was giving a tour when after about ten seconds of having the light out, one of the people there gave a little yelp. She turned the light back on and asked what had happened, to which the motheer replied that her son had been squeezing her hand so hard that it hurt.

Her son wasn't there, and was standing in the corner of the room. When the mother asked what he was doing there, the boy said that she had led him there. Although it's a great story, it is just too perfect.

Whsitle Binkies is a club/bar attached to the vaults, and another one of my friends used to work as a barmaid there. Apparently (and she saw him) there was a ghost who entered the bar area and stood at the end of bar. Apparently he seemed to disappear and reappear, and didn't seem to be particularly malevolent.

It is a particularly scary place.

The other ghost tour I've been to up here was the graveyard tour, the one with the poltergeist. I was with my gilrfriend, and when a jumper-outer jumped out at us in a Scream mask, grabbing my shoulder and screaming in my girlfriend's face, my natural reaction was to swing a punch. Fortunately, I managed to stop myself just in time.

Strangely enough, it was a couple of nights after visitng that place that I had my first and only experience of sleep paralysis and a night visitor (a hooded figure).
 
Ah the tour in the Greyfriers graveyard? That would be the City of the Dead tour then, I didnt find that tour very good to be honest. The only bit I really liked was the story about the homeless guy breaking into a tomb to sleep and falling through rotten floorboards into a bone pit below and running out screaming, scaring the guard.
We were int eh Coventaners prison where the poltergiest is supposed to be and they were wittering on about it being fueled by everybodies pheromones!!!! WTF??? I was under the impressiont they were chemical signals.
Funnily enough when the jumper-outer appeared all the men in room wanted to run forward and smack him, but it seems they usually put all the taller people at the back leaving all the wee girls and small women at the front so that didnt happen.
 
I went on an investigation to edinburgh vaults last february.
It was an amazing night for the history and feel of the surroundings and all in all the place of which we were investigating.
Nothing much paranormally speaking happened on the night though a few of the sensitives in the group came out with the correct information and some names which were researched and proven to be correct.
The vaults are a magnificent place and i would love to investigate them once again in the near future.
 
SuziSpooks said:
I went on an investigation to edinburgh vaults last february.
Nothing much paranormally speaking happened on the night though a few of the sensitives in the group came out with the correct information and some names which were researched and proven to be correct.
The vaults are a magnificent place and i would love to investigate them once again in the near future.
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...or they had looked up the info before hand? ;)

I idn't think the vaults were allowing groups to do overnight stays in there anymore. Ghosts-UK were the last, last year. Allegedly.
 
I was there last weekend. My parents had previously been on a Mercat tour and my dad sent me some interesting pics appearing to show orbs (well, or dust!). So mewe went last weekend, horrible night - torrential rain so we were standing round outside the meeting point wondering whether to forget it and go back to the hotel, glad we didn't.

Got led down into the vaults and after wanting to go there for so long, I was quite disappointed in a way that I didn't feel anything strange at all. No 'heavy' atmosphere, I stood with my camera at the back, more looking around than listening to the guide, it was undoubtedly a bit spooky but I was surprised how comfortable I felt in there. Took a few pictures, gazed into the dark looking for nothing in particular, and shuffled along with the rest of the group.

We were told a lot of stories, the nasty 'get out!' bloke, the cobbler, the small child who holds peoples hands (I took a glove off and dangled my hand down but predictably, nothing!), and a few more. I have to admit I caught a strange smell at one point. Not even sure what - entered a room, smelt something quite strong very briefly, then it was gone. I didn't really think about it until I started typing it just now. Also heard some quite loud bangs from above me, but could have been anything really.

Everyone in the group was in high spirits, taking pictures and enjoying themselves and the guide (Faith) was absolutely brilliant. Loved the bit where a couple of people started talking near where I was, she swung round and snapped 'IS there a problem?!!" and they squeaked. She had to be a teacher in a previous life!

When I looked at the pics on my camera, I did notice quite a few apparent anomalies just like my dad's set from a few months ago, but to be honest I'm sceptical. Will put them on the computer in a bit, have a better look. Haven't got round to it yet.

Very interesting tour though - very much recommended. And Edinburgh's a lovely city too, so much history.
 
many_angled_one said:
Ah the tour in the Greyfriers graveyard? That would be the City of the Dead tour then, I didnt find that tour very good to be honest. The only bit I really liked was the story about the homeless guy breaking into a tomb to sleep and falling through rotten floorboards into a bone pit below and running out screaming, scaring the guard.
We were int eh Coventaners prison where the poltergiest is supposed to be and they were wittering on about it being fueled by everybodies pheromones!!!! WTF??? I was under the impressiont they were chemical signals.
Funnily enough when the jumper-outer appeared all the men in room wanted to run forward and smack him, but it seems they usually put all the taller people at the back leaving all the wee girls and small women at the front so that didnt happen.
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We were quite dissapointed with that tour as well. There's good enough stories without resorting to the cheap scares. My chum was stood at the front in the prison and when the jumpyouter appeared she looked at him with distain and called him a c*** :D
 
Yesterday I met a chap who visited the Vaults quite recently and says he has some very spooky photos.

He claims to have 'caught' a man standing smoking a cigarette, a 'floating sheet' of some kind and an open archway with a woman standing in it. None of these were actually present when the puctures were taken.

He promised to show them on Facebook. I'll try to get them on a disc too if I can. :D
 
Degs is a smoker too! :lol:
 
I did the Auld Reekie vault tour last week and it was a bit disappointing as they seemed to hang all their spookiness on the fact that a bunch of Wiccans set up a temple down there (George Cameron, coven leader, was name checked so often he must be getting commission).

I'm also not sure how many of the facts were actually true.

There was a lame-arse story about the wiccans using the rocks they'd found in one of the the vaults which had previously been used by a hellfire club (rather than the hellfire club who according to the guide were a lovely bunch of fellows :roll: ) plus in the allegedly most haunted vault we were told this very dramatic story about a bunch of people (17 or so) being cooked in there during the great fire in Edinburgh after they'd shut themselves in to escape the flames. They ended up a great big fused pile of fat and yuck. I can't find anything about it at all on t'internet and wondered if anyone else had slightly more credible corroboration.

Also apparently there's a very misogenostic (as Auld Reekie like to spell it in some of their promotional stuff) poltergeist and the spirit of a watchman. Not bad for only four vaults. It seems nice that there are so many ghosts down there that each tour gets to divvy them up and have their own.

The longer the tour went on, I just ended up getting more cynical which was a shame as I started off being really scared. Still, the finger of shortbread and nip of whisky in the torture implements display room were nice.
 
A lot of it does seem to be based on the whole wiccan temple angle, I was on that tour not too long ago as well. There was only 8 of us or so on the tour though which made it a little scarier I guess.

Well I have to say I havent found anything about the huge mass of melted bodies myself on the old internet (but that means nothing in itself for old and very specific information such as that). I assume it's perhaps somewhat exagerrated in the description but based on fact, as the best stories generally are. It's certainly very plausible however, molten lead was running in rivers down the streets the fire was that hot.
 
No ghosts spotted on my Vault tour on the 19th April. The EMF meter did react at one point for one of the women carrying it. Another woman claimed at the end to have felt a tingling sensation on her nose and lips, she didn't react kindly to my suggestion maybe she had a cold sore coming on!
 
I have been on a ghost hunt at the Blair street and niddry street vaults and a tour round greyfriars kirk, none of them was the least bit spooky but it was all very interesting
 
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