City Of The Dead: Accounts

The following are all excerpts from actual emails and letters sent by people who encountered the Mackenzie Poltergeist on the City of the Dead tour between 2002 and the present.

These accounts are included in the book Edinburgh: City of the Dead by Jan-Andrew Henderson. A list of Mackenzie Poltergeist sightings from 1999 - 2002 can be found in the book The Ghost That Haunted Itself by the same author.

"I undertook a City of the Dead tour and it has changed my life ... I am an experienced police officer who has attended numerous scenes of murder and fatal accidents and have what I believe is a good common sense ... I noticed a young girl at the front right (of the Black Mausoleum) ... She seemed to be getting distressed and the assembled crowd heard her state 'I must get out of here.' ... I must admit I thought the young girl was suffering from claustrophobia and preconceived fear ... After the tour my wife Gillian and I decided to go back to our hotel room ... I was glancing occasionally at The Ghost That Haunted Itself [the story of the Mackenzie Poltergeist] ... I subtly felt a sharp burning sensation on the right hand side of my neck ... There were at least five deep scrapes ... Gillian had nodded off to sleep ... Suddenly I heard what appeared to be a woman's voice crying 'Brecky' or 'Becky'. Gillian sat up behind me and exclaimed, 'What was that, did you hear that?' She said the voice had woken her up ... About two hours later, still not sleeping, I heard a horrible almost whispered voice of a woman who sounded as if she was shivering violently, saying 'Help me, help me.' ... I whispered the Lord's Prayer out loud, which for a non-churchgoer and general non-believer was a vain attempt at some divine assistance! ... On returning home that morning I went straight to my mother's house with Gillian and told her my tale, along with handing her the book The Ghost That Haunted Itself, which I had decided I did not want in my home. My mother is a remarkably practical Belfast born mother of four ... yesterday I phoned her and asked her what she thought of the book. Remarkably she was just examining 5 large scratches just under her Adam's Apple and amazingly, identical to my own. My mother stated as she woke up she felt a 'burning sensation' and, on examination, discovered the same five scratches I had received location ... I am not the sort of individual who frightens easily but, hand on heart, I am very frightened now. The phenomenon you have in that graveyard prison is very real ..."
Excerpts from a nine page letter

"I started reading the book (The Ghost That Haunted Itself) ... I started to feel there was another person in the room, and I felt really cold ... ... 'Somebody' said NO out loud ... that was the night that I decided not to read the book anymore. Also I had scratches on my chest and arms ... .and I still don't know how they got there!"
Verena Toornent, Holland

"Firstly may I say that Cara is an excellent guide. Very polished and professional. Keep up the good work. Secondly, I'm writing regarding something that happened to me in the Black Mausoleum last night ... .I began to feel a cold spot down the left hand side of my body ... I alerted my friend, who put her hand into the cold spot and confirmed that she felt it too ... I became aware of something trying to take hold of my mind. It's difficult to describe, but it was like someone reaching inside my head and enveloping my brain ... The cold spot then moved round to my right ... I then felt something pushing in on the backs of my knees as though trying to force me down ... .That probably sounds incredible, but it's true ... I'm really writing to let you know that this morning I woke up with a scratch mark across my chest and bruising on the backs of my knees."
Jennifer McGregor

"The tour was absolutely amazing and the guide that night was excellent ... All has been fine until tonight ... After taking a bath, and drying myself, I started feeling this burning sensation on the right side of my back. I called on to my partner asking him to check what was the cause of this, and he discovered 15 scratches across the right side of my back all grouped in 5 (as if 3 hands had scratched me) ... We went through all the possibilities of the cause of these marks but we could not find one incident that could have resulted in those scratches."
Celine Jacques

"The bruise marks that appeared on my shoulders still puzzle me as I was definitely attacked by some force ..."
Laurie Sinclair

"I went on the City of the Dead Tour, which I thoroughly enjoyed. When I went into the tomb, I noticed a rotting smell as I crossed over the entrance, which made me step back ... Later that night, having gone to bed and fallen asleep when I was suddenly awoken at 2.10am feeling an unbearable burning on my legs ... It felt as if something was biting me all over. As I turned on the light to see what was going on my legs were red raw with a rash and I had intermittent bites ... .In addition, I found some bruises around my knee, which are still there."
Lynsey Rodgers

"I first want to say how much my boyfriend and I enjoyed your tour ... lo and behold, when I returned to my hotel that same night, I found a burn mark on my shoulder in a geometrically clean and distinctive pattern of two thin rectangles. I am still trying to figure out how I could have gotten a burn in this shape, when and from where - without ever feeling it ... It's getting darker now; the skin is peeling; so it was definitely a burn ... But it didn't hurt when I got it, and it hasn't hurt since."
Stephanie

"I was the tall chap whose friend passed out in the Black Mausoleum ... It was just to let you know that last night was one of the most frightening experiences of my life and that it didn't stop after the tour did! When we were in the Mausoleum, I too felt an extremely cold icy chill on my right leg and as I moved it went away ... When I got home to bed I was woken around 03.00am and suddenly felt an icy cold feeling all over my body, at the same time, I had an uncontrollable feeling of DREAD and that I was being watched."
Stephen C. Given

"As we went through the door of the mausoleum I felt my heart do a little jump which I wrote off as the fear factor again ... But as I walked up the prison I started to feel numbness across my right cheek bone as if I'd been whacked by a stick or had an injection at the dentist ... As we were walking out of the cemetery I could taste blood in my mouth."
Debs Downham

"Firstly I wish to comment that our tour guide, David Pollock, was highly entertaining & both of us really enjoyed his style of story-telling. He got the crowd very much involved in his stories & his role-plays were very amusing indeed! On my entrance to the Covenanter's Prison, I did not feel scared at all. I am not one to feel 'spooked out' over horror/scary films ... However, after a minute of being in the 'Black Mausoleum I felt that something was happening to me ... I felt a bit creeped out by the blank space to my right, as if something might be there. I moved my right arm (which was folded) down to the empty space & within seconds felt pins-and-needles moving up my arm. Then I began to feel cold sensations again & began to feel nauseous. I wanted to yell to the tour guide, but felt I couldn't. My breathing got extremely heavy & I dropped to the floor."
Aoife O'Sullivan, Ireland

"I have never been so amazed and excited in my whole life ... my girlfriend said she saw what looked like a white bird that was floating in between 2 gravestones just to the right of us then she said she started to feel really sick and light headed.. She then fell back and lay on the ground."
James Anderson

"I was hearing rustling noises, sort of like someone moving about, so I kept looking back to see if there was anything there, but there was nothing. However when the party started moving forward I heard the noises again so looked back and saw a small white "thing" moving very quickly. Another friend caught a glimpse of whatever it was out of the corner of his eye ... Thanks for the cool tour!"
Peter Morrow

"Something caught my eye. It was a small ball of orange light bouncing along the grass."
Louise Early

"My mother admitted that, in the mausoleum, her right hand went numb. The next morning I had long, soft scratch marks on the side of my neck and a bruise on my right calf."
Levi Taltos

"On my first tour I was part of the 'mass poltergeist attack' where the whole tour heard knocking and both myself and another girl fainted. The second time I heard knocking again ... and again I fainted. I felt something kneel beside me, actually touching my leg ... I was terrified and was crying but felt I was unable to open my eyes."
Debbie Stephen

"As you might know there have been a number of attacks/strange happenings on the 10 o'clock tour last Saturday ... Two men and a woman collapsed and remained unconscious for a minute or so, while people inside heard weird noises ... Being a huge sceptic I find it hard to believe these people could have been actors ... If they were, then they were damn good ... To be honest, while standing inside in the back, I felt something like cold spots on my legs. That's when I left ..."
Jeroen Remmerswaal

"Brilliant tour ... Your tour guide made it a night to remember ... One of the girls had 2 scratch marks down her right side, which she showed us the next day ... Both times I was on the tour I collapsed ... We had not been in the Black Mausoleum long when we started hearing knocking noises coming from beneath us, which steadily grew louder and seemed to move up and round the walls ... I was standing at the back and I felt the temperature drop, even though it was a very warm night ... I started physically shaking, even though I was wearing several jumpers, and had pins and needles in my feet and arms ... .I then felt myself go freezing cold and the next thing I remember is waking up lying on the ground ... My friend had also collapsed ... The next morning, I woke up to find that I had three deep scratches on my stomach - there is no way this could have caused by my falling, as I was wearing several layers. My friend Lewis also had scratches on his arm ... I decided to go back again, this time with a group of different friends. I experienced the same sensations - the feeling of cold, pins and needles and shaking, followed by the inevitable black-out and scratches on my arms the next morning ..."
Camilla Davidson

"I thought you might like to add this experience, as I was so spooked I'm afraid I fled without really speaking to any of your colleagues ... . I'd been on the tour the previous August and experienced a feeling like something placing its hands on my chest and pushing me gently backwards inside the Covenanter's Prison, and then I'd been the centre of a cold spot inside the mausoleum ... Again when we went inside the prison, I felt the sensation of being pushed backwards ... without warning something tugged on the end of my watch strap, hard ... I was wearing a jacket that covered my watch, and my arm was wrapped around my friend - if it was someone trying to mess about, for them to have found their way inside the cuff of my jacket and then found the end of my watch strap, without either myself or my friend feeling something would ha"