On our 39th birthday, we look back at the decades of stories that have come out of Edinburgh’s Blair Street Underground Vaults since their rediscovery. Storytellers Scott and Veni share some of their experiences.
If you've been on one of our Edinburgh ghost tours before, you'll know that we don’t do jump scares. The flickering of candles might make you see shapes dancing on the walls, neighbours might lead to unexplained sounds.
But sometimes, even Storytellers can't explain everything. Even we can be left speechless.
A young Des Brogan, co-founder of Mercat Tours.
A tale of the unexplainable
For one such unexplainable event in the Blair Street Underground Vaults, I want to take you back to March 2020. I was taking a group through the vaults during a Doomed, Dead & Buried tour and had just entered the Wine Vault.
While explaining to my group what the room was once used for, the nearby fire exit sign lit up with a bright white light that engulfed the entire group for no more than ten or fifteen seconds before going dark again, leaving us all stunned.
One member of the group wondered if it was something to do with them, since they just thought they wanted more light for a picture. After a few moments, we summoned our courage and continued.
A truly magnificent archive find featuring three versions of Frances.
After the tour had finished, I asked my colleagues if they had shone a light into that room while checking the vaults, but they explained that they were nowhere near our group at the time of this event taking place.
I went to check and see if the fire exit light was broken and found it was working as intended. This could have a reasonable explanation, a warning that it was needing new batteries or a slight power surge, but I can’t be sure of that.
The fact that we were down in the vaults only by candlelight leads me to believe that there could have been something else to this event. One thing is for sure: I won’t forget about it any time soon and I am sure the visitors on that tour won’t either.
The shadow in the vaults
While leading one Edinburgh Vaults tour, I saw a shadow moving past and then behind me while all of the group were stood stationary facing me. I was fairly familiar with the vaults at this point and couldn’t think of anything that would have created the shadow and the way it had moved.
Regardless, it felt inappropriate to interrupt the tour to mention it and potentially create panic, so I kept it to myself and continued.
I was surprised, however, at the end of the tour when one visitor approached me to say she had seen a shadow pass by me in that very same room, at the same time that I had.
It was reassuring to know that someone else had witnessed it and yet unnerving at the same time–what could it have been?
Celebrate 39 years (and centuries more!) of stories with us by joining us on a history or ghost tour of Edinburgh.