The Greyfriars Poltergeist

Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh, Scotland

In the Black Mausoleum at Greyfriars, the most physically aggressive poltergeist in recorded paranormal history has left over 450 documented victims bruised, burned, unconscious, and in one case, dead.

Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh is one of the most haunted locations in Britain by any statistical measure. The hauntings centre on the Black Mausoleum — the tomb of Sir George Mackenzie — in the south-west corner of the graveyard. George Mackenzie was the Lord Advocate who prosecuted the Covenanters in the 1680s. Following the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679, 1,200 defeated Covenanters were imprisoned in the kirkyard itself, in an enclosure still known as the Covenanters' Prison. They starved, froze, and were executed in large numbers. Mackenzie oversaw these proceedings with notable enthusiasm, earning the nickname 'Bloody Mackenzie.' For three centuries after his death, Greyfriars was considered eerie but otherwise unremarkable. In 1998, a homeless man broke into Mackenzie's mausoleum seeking shelter during a storm. He reportedly fell through the floor into a pit of plague victims. He fled. From that point on, the incidents began. Visitors to the Black Mausoleum began reporting physical attacks: unexplained bruising appearing during visits, burns with no heat source, hair being pulled, collapses. Since records began being kept, over 450 people have reported physical symptoms following visits. At least one death — unproven to be related but unexplained — followed shortly after a visit. An exorcism in 2000 appeared to have no effect. The mausoleum is now on the main tourist route, which has not reduced the incidents.