Postcard From ... Edinburgh, Scotland: Mary King's CloseToday, I traversed 400 years of history that have been buried –- literally -– under the streets of Edinburgh –- and what a journey it was. They’re actually still underground but they’ve been brought back to life in an attraction that resurrects Mary King’s Close, which during the 17th century was a busy thoroughfare and lively street of pubs, shops and residences on Edinburgh’s High Street –- and which since has been hidden well below ground, shrouded in myth and mystery.
It was eerie meandering up and down a labyrinth of circuitous unpaved, darkly lit passageways and beaten down earth floors. I wandered past room after room, each with its own story to tell. The many characters are based upon real people who lived in the Close during the 16th-19th centuries. I almost felt like an intruder into a shadowy past -– made all the more so by the dim lighting. You’ve heard of the Bubonic Plague, right? Well, it ravaged Edinburgh in 1645, claiming the lives of more than half the city’s population. Mary King’s Close was the area hardest hit. As I rounded one curve around a narrow alleyway, a large window appeared, lit by a gloomy, greenish, unhealthy light. A strange scene emerged. This doctor was tending to bed-ridden figures, covered with sores, boils and diseased skin. Supposedly the home of John Craig, a grave-digger who had already succumbed to the “visitation of the pestilence,” his body awaiting “collection” and burial. His wife and three sons suffered varying stages of the deadly malady. You could even watch the Doctor lance a boil on the eldest son, Johnnie, with a hot iron to seal and disinfect the wound. Sounds creepy, but it wasn’t. It was so real I could smell the vomit from the family chamber pot -- admittedly, a tad more “reality” than even today’s TV had prepared me for. I felt part voyeur and part family member. And this was just one of many re-enactments of families who once lived there.
The experience was unlike any I’d had before – a combination of real-life history, drama and intrigue to which I felt like an on-the-spot eyewitness. I think you will, too. If you want to learn more about Mary King’s Close, check out www.RealMaryKingClose.com
Fyllis Hockman is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance travel writer. She writes regularly for The Washington Times, is syndicated by the Copley News Service, and is a feature columnist for several online travel magazines. Ms. Hockman's travel stories also have appeared in the New York Post, Memphis Commercial Appeal, Providence Journal, Halifax Herald, Boston Herald, Gazette Newspapers, Asbury Park Press, New Hampshire Sunday News, Buffalo News and many other publications. She is the author of AAA Guidebook: A Photo Journey to Washington, D.C. and co-author of the Pelican Guide to Maryland. Ms. Hockman is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers and Travel Journalists Guild.
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Now They’re back! All the inhabitants -- ranging from those gracing a grand 16th century townhouse to the plague victims of the 17th century to the third-generation saw makers who departed in 1902, when the last section was finally buried -- are not composites of might-have-beens. The lives recounted -- and trust me, they’re not all as depressing as the Craig family -- are based on real people and information obtained from documents written at the time and preserved in official Scottish archives. I know you’d be fascinated by the realism of it all.
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