Many tourists visiting Edinburgh for the first time have been tempted to sample one or other of the many ghostly tours on offer. A visit to Mary King’s Close is one of the more interesting. The Close is now located below the City Chambers on the Royal Mile but was once open to the skies.It was closed in the 17th Century, some say as a result of the black death but there are other more prosaic explanations. Whatever the reason for being closed off for 300 years, it had before and it still has a history of supernatural sightings. This is a tale of one such incident.
Just before my tour of Mary King’s Close was due to start, a family party rang to say they could not make it. Our guide received the news just as we were being ushered into the depths and did a head count when we arrived at our first stop, which was Mary King’s house.
The temperature seemed to have dropped a few degrees and we all wrapped up as warmly as we could as the count was made, and that was when I spotted him. What drew him to my attention was the way he kept bumping into me. When I finally turned to remonstrate with him, I found myself facing a “hoodie”. His face was totally obscured by his hood so I am only guessing he was a he. I immediately swallowed my complaint and smiled. You can never tell when dealing with a “hoodie” how he will react.
The light remained either low or non existent throughout the tour and during all that time he kept close to me and continued jostling me. As you might imagine, I was really irritated by his behaviour but I had never once seen his face.
Before the tour finished, we were interrupted by a fire alarm so we all hurried out to gather in front of St Giles Cathedral across the road from the City Chambers where another head count was taken. Because we were now out in daylight, I decided this was my chance to see whoever it was had been jostling me all through the tour but I couldn’t see anyone who was dressed as he had been. When our guide smiled and said, ‘all present and correct,’ I asked her if she was sure because I thought we were one short. To humour me she did another count. ‘as I said, all present and correct,’ she repeated. ‘Are you sure someone is missing because as far as I’m concerned, everyone on the tour is here.
I described the missing person but nobody else could remember seeing him.

Bernard Gallivan
April 2019