Niddry Street Vaults

The Niddry Street Vaults in Edinburgh are built under the South Bridge just off the Royal Mile. On the opposite side of the bridge are the Blair Street Vaults. Both make the claim of being the most haunted and both say they are home to a resident poltergeist that attacks visitors.

My exploration of these vaults could only be accessed via an Auld Reekie ghost tour. So my son Luke and I stood by the large tour sign outside of Tron Kirk on the Royal Mile to choose one of the three tours they had on offer. As the Ghost and Torture Tour was about to start, we joined this one.

Our tour guide was a woman called Reagan who led a group of six people, including Luke and I on a quick tour of the Royal Mile. Having been on a number of tours in this area the content had become predictable. We must have heard the story of the "Garde loo", where citizens of the houses that line the Royal Mile would twice-daily throw from their windows the contents of their buckets which contained all manner of human waste. A cry of "Haud yer han" may prevent you getting a sewage shower by warning the people above to wait a moment until the passer by gets out of the way. No matter how good the guide is though, the story has lost its original 'urgh' factor. But, the rest of the tour would turn out to be a lot more interesting.

This tour incorporated the Niddry Street vaults as a large portion of its history walk. These vaults are under the South Bridge, hidden from sight by buildings on either side of the arched bridge and in turn form dark, cold rooms and chambers.

These vaults are different to Blair Street's in that it has one long corridor that runs the entire length of the bridge, parallel with the street, with all the arched rooms on one side. The other difference is that Niddry Street has a witches temple in one of the rooms that is still in regular use by modern day witches who still practice witchcraft. It also claims to have a dark and morbid history of death and suffering going back hundreds of years caused not only by mischief and murder but masses of deaths caused by illness and disasters like the great fire.

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As we'd chosen the Ghost and Torture Tour we were introduced to what this company claimed to be one of the best preserved collection of genuine torture implements from the last few hundred years that were used to cause all kinds of dreadful suffering to both adults and children. The guide delighted in telling us every gory detail of each bone breaking, skin shredding, and fingernail-removing device lovingly displayed in cabinets around one of the rooms. There was also cages, spikes, clamps and racks that brought a chill to your spine at the prospect of knowing a person had met their death in these horrific contraptions.

Once Reagan was satisfied that she'd provided enough gory history, it was time to move into the vaults themselves. Reagan asked us health and safety questions incase the sheer terror of being in the vaults would cause us so much harm as to induce a serious incident. We all reassured her we could cope with what lay ahead. After a few steps we all stood in the gloom of a long passageway that stretched about 60meters or so ahead of us. To the left of this passageway right along the length was large vaulted rooms. The first of which had been turned into a witches temple though this was off limits to us. We could still see the room through a barred window in all its witchcraft glory.

Reagan took us into each room and gave us more details of death and suffering. Strangely the battery on my camera was flashing low yet it was being used for the first time after being fully charged the night before! I snapped away hoping to capture some evidence. Our guide continued to delight us in the horrors that took place in these once lost vaults from mass deaths from the great fire to murders and attacks. There is also a poltergeist said to roam the vaults that has been known to attack visitors. I hoped for something to happen tonight but I also felt quite at home here so maybe nothing would.

One of the vaults had a circle of stones on the floor. Reagan was adamant that no one stepped inside the circle until she gave us the story connected with it. Basically anyone who stood within the circle would suffer bad luck either directly or someone close to them would. Reagan went on to describe a number of cases where people were injured or hurt not long after entering the circle. Needless to say, no one took the chance and we all moved to the next room.

This room had no illumination at all. Reagan gave us a big build up prior to entering and said that under no circumstances was anyone to take photos or use electrical devices in the room while we were in there. Too many times people had been hurt in this room and power is drained from all devices. We all went inside. Reagan exchanged her torch for a candle and while inside the room she relayed further ghost stories. I felt quite comfortable in the room but the others watched her quite intensely. As the talk drew to a close a man in a hooded cowl jumped into the room and shouted in an attempt to scare us. Apparently this is to relieve the tension people feel by making them laugh. Personally it annoyed me and spoiled the end of the tour.

We were led to the exit at the far end of the passageway. After a few steps and doors we found ourselves in the Nicol Edwards pub where the tour officially ended with a reduced price drink of your choice.

I would have liked the freedom to explore the vaults without the restrictions and the guide who ushered us along to avoid an overlap with the next group who waited to enter. But it was a good 90 minutes and I recommend you take the tour if you're in the area.

I felt a certain atmosphere in there that remained illusive with the constant pace of the tour moving towards its conclusion. I would like to go again but on the 18+ version of the tour, called the Terror Tour, as this one starts later in the night and ends with a free drink in the bar.

Links

• Auld Reekie’s Tours
• Niddry Street Vaults Photo Gallery

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