Mary King's Close
Encyclopedia
Old Town, Edinburgh
The Old Town of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is the medieval part of the city. Together with the 18th-century New Town, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has preserved its medieval plan and many Reformation-era buildings....
area of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. After being used as a close, partially demolished and buried under the Royal Exchange, and later being closed to the public for many years, the complex became shrouded in myths and urban legends; tales of ghosts and murders, and myths of plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
victims being walled up and left to die abounded.
However, new research and archaeological evidence has revealed that the close actually consists of a number of closes which were originally narrow streets with tenement houses on either side, stretching up to seven stories high. Mary King's Close is now a commercial tourist attraction.
Plague
During ChristmasChristmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
1644 the plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
, probably brought by ship from Europe via the port of Leith
Leith
-South Leith v. North Leith:Up until the late 16th century Leith , comprised two separate towns on either side of the river....
, and spread by fleas carried on black rats, erupted across the land. It took hold first in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, then spread west and north, and over the following 18 months killed a substantial part of the Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
population.
Despite the enduring myth, plague victims were never walled up in the closes and left to starve. In fact, there had been a long tradition of organized quarantine
Quarantine
Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....
in the town. Over many previous outbreaks, those infected with the plague enclosed themselves in their house and indicated their plight by displaying a small white flag from the window. In response, bread, ale, coal and even wine were delivered to them daily, and a plague doctor would visit to drain bubos - the pus-filled lymph nodes, which threatened to rupture and kill the patient through septicaemia. Some people were quarantined in wooden huts or ‘ludges’, outside the town at Sciennes
Sciennes
Sciennes is an area of Edinburgh, Scotland, just outside the city centre to the south of the Meadows, with Newington to the east. Sciennes shares a Community Council with Marchmont, to the west....
, Boroughmuir
Burgh Muir
The Burgh Muir was an area to the south of Edinburgh city centre upon which much of the southern portion of the city now rests, following expansions of the 18th and 19th centuries...
, or in the King’s Park, for anything from two to six weeks or until death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
, whichever came the soonest.
With the limited and often dangerous medical treatments of the time, doctors could do very little to help. Like others, they would have worn herb-filled, beak-like, masks to try to protect themselves; but many died. John Paulitious
John Paulitious
John Paulitious was Edinburgh's first plague doctor. He died in June 1645 after only brief employment, presumably of the plague. His successor, George Rae, was promised a huge sum of money for the position, as it was expected that he, too, would die before he could collect; however, Rae survived,...
, Edinburgh’s first official plague doctor, was one such victim. However, the risks were not without compensation. Paulitious' salary had risen from £40, first to £80, and then to an incredible £100 Scots
Pound Scots
The pound Scots was the national unit of currency in the Kingdom of Scotland before the country entered into political and currency union with the Kingdom of England in 1707 . It was introduced by David I, in the 12th century, on the model of English and French money, divided into 20 shillings...
a month by the time his successor, Dr George Rae, replaced him on 13 June 1645.
Dr Rae dressed from head to toe in thick leather, a bird-like mask (with the "beak" filled with herbs which were thought to act as an air filter), long leather cloak and gloves when visiting plague victims. At the time, it was believed the plague was spread by miasma - what was thought to be 'bad air' - and the doctor's cloak was designed to prevent miasma from reaching his skin. It has since been shown that the plague was actually spread by flea bites, and that the leather prevented the patient's fleas from biting the doctor.
By November, Dr Rae had negotiated a further £10 Scots per month but by the autumn of 1646 the worst was over in Edinburgh, though it took longer elsewhere, and the Council had second thoughts about paying him. Ten years after the last major outbreak of the "foul pestilence" in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, George Rae was still fighting to be paid. He eventually won and claimed an unprecedented yearly pension of £1,200 Scots.
Mary King's Close today
Mary King's Close was re-opened to the public in April 2003. Now a commercial tourist attraction, it is being displayed as a historically accurate example of life in EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Mary King's Close is also the organisation which funds and manages the annual Mary King's Ghost Fest in Edinburgh. This unique and popular award winning, 10 day city wide festival has become a regular favourite on the Edinburgh festival circuit with its strange and quirky events attracting visitors from throughout Scotland, the U.K. and overseas in May each year. This unusual, off-peak festival sets out to explore and uncover more about the dark tales and strange paranormal
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
activity for which Edinburgh is internationally renowned.
Mary King's Close in television
- Mary King's Close was featured on Series 4 of Most HauntedMost HauntedMost Haunted is a British paranormal documentary reality television series. The series was first shown on 25 May 2002 and ended on 21 July 2010. It was broadcast on Living and presented by Yvette Fielding. The programme was based on investigating purported paranormal activity...
, a British television programme based on investigating purported paranormal activity. - Mary King's Close appears on the Most Haunted Live Halloween 2006 show, a British television programme based on investigating purported paranormal activity.
- Annie's room and Mary King's Close both appear in Episode 6 of Billy Connolly's World Tour of Scotland.
- Mary King's Close appears on the History Channel's 2007 program "Cities of the Underworld" Episode 04 Scotland's Sin City.
- Mary King's Close was also featured on the Discovery Channel India show Discovery's Biggest Shows (aired at 8:00 pm Indian Standard Time on Sunday, October 7, 2007)
- Mary King's Close was also featured in an episode of Ghost Hunters InternationalGhost Hunters InternationalGhost Hunters International is a spin-off series of Ghost Hunters that airs on Syfy. The series premiered on January 9, 2008...
which first aired in the U.S. on January 9, 2008 on the Sci Fi ChannelSci Fi Channel (United States)Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
and in the UK on 1 June 2008 on Living2. - Mary King's Close was featured on the Discovery KidsDiscovery KidsDiscovery Kids is an American website owned by Discovery Communications, Inc. created for children. Until October 10, 2010, it was an American digital cable specialty channel, owned by Discovery Communications with television programming for education of children. It was launched in October 1996...
original series Mystery HuntersMystery HuntersMystery Hunters is a Canadian Documentary television series aimed at a Young audience. It aired on YTV in Canada and on Discovery Kids in the United States. It was also dubbed in Japanese and aired in Japan on NHK....
on the episode King's Close and Winchester House. - Mary King's Close was featured on an episode of Lost World "Jekyl and Hyde" History InternationalHistory InternationalH2 , formerly History International , is a digital cable and satellite television channel that features historical documentaries, traditionally with an international focus...
(2007) Rerun September 4, 2011
See also
- EdinburghEdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
- Royal MileRoyal MileThe Royal Mile is a succession of streets which form the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland.As the name suggests, the Royal Mile is approximately one Scots mile long, and runs between two foci of history in Scotland, from Edinburgh Castle at the top of the Castle...
- PlagueBubonic plaguePlague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
- Black DeathBlack DeathThe Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
- Ring a Ring o' Roses
- Plague doctorPlague doctorA plague doctor , was a special medical physician who saw those who had the bubonic plague. They were specifically hired by towns that had many plague victims in times of plague epidemics. Since the city was paying their salary they treated everyone, the rich and the poor...