Post by Tricia (SP Crew) on Jul 25, 2008 11:01:34 GMT
Edinburgh Vaults and Mary Kings Close
Edinburgh Vaults, Edinburgh
Saturday 15th November (00.00 - 07.00)
Includes Mary Kings Close Tour (22.00 - 23.00)
£89.00 per person
Nearest Train Station: Edinburgh Waverley
With Ian Lawman
Ian Lawman differs from the normal pre-conceptive psychics, which claimed him the accolade as the Bad Boy of the Psychic world.
Ian has starred on Most Haunted and has recently hit our screens again with his brand new show on Living TV 'Living with the Dead'
Visit Ian's official site - www.ianlawman.org
Mary Kings Close Tour 22.00 - 23.00
Hidden beneath the Royal Mile lies Edinburgh’s deepest secret: a warren of hidden ‘closes’ where real people lived, worked and died. For centuries they have lain forgotten and abandoned…
The Real Mary King’s Close consists of a number of closes which were originally narrow streets with houses on either side, stretching up to seven storeys high. In 1753, the Burgh Council decided to develop a new building on this site, the Royal Exchange (now the City Chambers).
The houses at the top of the closes were knocked down and part of the lower sections were kept and used as the foundations for the Royal Exchange. The remnants of the closes were left beneath the building, dark and ancient dwellings steeped in mystery.
Following research into new documentary and archaeological evidence uncovered by Continuum, for the first time the real lives of some of the people who lived here have been traced and their stories can now be told. At The Real Mary King’s Close you will see an historically accurate interpretation of life in Edinburgh from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
Edinburgh Vaults Vigil 00.00 - 07.00
Edinburgh’s South Bridge is a monumental, albeit fundamentally flawed, feat of 18th century engineering and design. Building work commenced in 1785. The bridge consisted of 19 stone arches, spanning a chasm just over 1000 feet long. At its highest point it stood 31 feet above ground and had foundations which penetrated Edinburgh’s bed rock as far down as 22 ft.
As time passed, space on Edinburgh’s South Bridge started to sell at premium prices; land was fetching more per square foot than anywhere else in Europe. To maximise space further, floors and ceilings were built beneath the blocked-in arches constructing dark, airless, vaulted chambers. These areas were originally used as workshops for the businesses above while the vaults below ground level were used for storage.
Even so, long after the workshops and businesses moved out and its new residents moved in, the vaults started to become completely unusable. A lack of light, air, heat, ventilation and sanitation and a slow, steady seepage of water through the cracks in the bridge made these areas not only impractical, but uninhabitable and within 30 years of the bridge opening, the abandonment of the Vaults was more or less complete.
The vaults were filled in with rubble, both for security for the businesses still operating above on street level and also to discourage squatters making home in what was effectively a place to die, not to live… and so the vaults fell into the dim distant memory of generations past
However, in 1985, these long, lost, forgotten spaces came to public attention after a chance excavation revealed the labyrinthic network of rooms and dwelling spaces contained within. These spaces have lost none of their original atmosphere. They are still dark, occasionally claustrophobic and, when it rains in Edinburgh they can still be very damp. The Vaults today ooze memories of the past, their stones seep water as well as stories, invoking memory and provoking the imagination.
Paranormal Activity
Over the years visitors who experience Mercat Tours’ history and ghost tours have recorded some very curious and unexplained activity. Further excavation over the last 20 years has revealed more of the Vaults secrets and today, groups test their nerve as they descend into what has been described by the BBC as “possibly one of the most haunted places in Britain.”
Event Includes
Tour of Mary Kings Close, Overnight access to the Vaults, tea and coffee served throughout the night, demonstration and use of paranormal equipment, Ghost Walk with Ian Lawman, psychic workshop with Ian Lawman, experienced paranormal investigators, late night vigils and paranormal experiments and post event discussions.
Edinburgh Vaults, Edinburgh
Saturday 15th November (00.00 - 07.00)
Includes Mary Kings Close Tour (22.00 - 23.00)
£89.00 per person
Nearest Train Station: Edinburgh Waverley
With Ian Lawman
Ian Lawman differs from the normal pre-conceptive psychics, which claimed him the accolade as the Bad Boy of the Psychic world.
Ian has starred on Most Haunted and has recently hit our screens again with his brand new show on Living TV 'Living with the Dead'
Visit Ian's official site - www.ianlawman.org
Mary Kings Close Tour 22.00 - 23.00
Hidden beneath the Royal Mile lies Edinburgh’s deepest secret: a warren of hidden ‘closes’ where real people lived, worked and died. For centuries they have lain forgotten and abandoned…
The Real Mary King’s Close consists of a number of closes which were originally narrow streets with houses on either side, stretching up to seven storeys high. In 1753, the Burgh Council decided to develop a new building on this site, the Royal Exchange (now the City Chambers).
The houses at the top of the closes were knocked down and part of the lower sections were kept and used as the foundations for the Royal Exchange. The remnants of the closes were left beneath the building, dark and ancient dwellings steeped in mystery.
Following research into new documentary and archaeological evidence uncovered by Continuum, for the first time the real lives of some of the people who lived here have been traced and their stories can now be told. At The Real Mary King’s Close you will see an historically accurate interpretation of life in Edinburgh from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
Edinburgh Vaults Vigil 00.00 - 07.00
Edinburgh’s South Bridge is a monumental, albeit fundamentally flawed, feat of 18th century engineering and design. Building work commenced in 1785. The bridge consisted of 19 stone arches, spanning a chasm just over 1000 feet long. At its highest point it stood 31 feet above ground and had foundations which penetrated Edinburgh’s bed rock as far down as 22 ft.
As time passed, space on Edinburgh’s South Bridge started to sell at premium prices; land was fetching more per square foot than anywhere else in Europe. To maximise space further, floors and ceilings were built beneath the blocked-in arches constructing dark, airless, vaulted chambers. These areas were originally used as workshops for the businesses above while the vaults below ground level were used for storage.
Even so, long after the workshops and businesses moved out and its new residents moved in, the vaults started to become completely unusable. A lack of light, air, heat, ventilation and sanitation and a slow, steady seepage of water through the cracks in the bridge made these areas not only impractical, but uninhabitable and within 30 years of the bridge opening, the abandonment of the Vaults was more or less complete.
The vaults were filled in with rubble, both for security for the businesses still operating above on street level and also to discourage squatters making home in what was effectively a place to die, not to live… and so the vaults fell into the dim distant memory of generations past
However, in 1985, these long, lost, forgotten spaces came to public attention after a chance excavation revealed the labyrinthic network of rooms and dwelling spaces contained within. These spaces have lost none of their original atmosphere. They are still dark, occasionally claustrophobic and, when it rains in Edinburgh they can still be very damp. The Vaults today ooze memories of the past, their stones seep water as well as stories, invoking memory and provoking the imagination.
Paranormal Activity
Over the years visitors who experience Mercat Tours’ history and ghost tours have recorded some very curious and unexplained activity. Further excavation over the last 20 years has revealed more of the Vaults secrets and today, groups test their nerve as they descend into what has been described by the BBC as “possibly one of the most haunted places in Britain.”
Event Includes
Tour of Mary Kings Close, Overnight access to the Vaults, tea and coffee served throughout the night, demonstration and use of paranormal equipment, Ghost Walk with Ian Lawman, psychic workshop with Ian Lawman, experienced paranormal investigators, late night vigils and paranormal experiments and post event discussions.