THE MACKENZIE POLTERGEIST
'One of the most CONVINCING SUPERNATURAL CASES of all time’ Richard Felix, Most Haunted.
Over the last several years, one small tomb in Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Cemetery has become famous as the lair of a malevolent paranormal entity. The tomb is known as the ‘Black Mausoleum’ and is located behind the high walls and locked gates of an area known as the Covenanter’s Prison. The entity has been named ‘The Mackenzie Poltergeist’.
I will admit to having a soft spot for Mackenzie. I’ve already written two books about it - The Ghost that Haunted Itself & Father Figure.
I used to live in a house in the graveyard across from the Covenanter’s Prison. Not that I’m weird or anything like that – the rent was cheap.
I even started City of the Dead Tours to explore the entity.
Sounds obsessive but, honestly, it isn’t. Most authors who write about a famous supernatural case (should they be crazy enough) are unfamiliar with the location, the people involved and the more intimate details of the situation. Here I was living a few feet away from a paranormal case that was attracting massive media attention. It was too good an opportunity to turn down. Not long after the initial sightings of the Mackenzie Poltergeist, the Covenanter’s Prison was locked by City of Edinburgh Council. I obtained permission to set up tours that would unlock and enter the site, to see if anything unexplained happened.
It also gave me access to every witness of any paranormal phenomena. And they are legion.
‘One of the SCARIEST EXPERIENCES in Scotland’ Daily Record
The Black Mausoleum differs from Edinburgh’s other haunted locations for two reasons. One is the frequency of the poltergeist sightings.
The other is the severity of the incidents. The period between the first recorded sightings in 1999 and the present, have seen thousands of documented ‘attacks’. I now have hundreds of pages of eyewitness accounts and there are probably many more people who encountered the poltergeist but were too embarrassed to write me with their stories.
Over the years, there have been numerous reports of hot spots, cold spots and cuts, bruises and burns on witnesses’ bodies – often under their clothes. Hundreds of photographs have been taken of these marks, as well as many pictures of an unidentified shape in the tomb. There have been unexplained smells, and auditory anomalies – including knocking noises under the ground and inside the tomb itself. Dead animals are found, unmarked, in front of the Black Mausoleum. People have complained that an unseen apparition has pulled their hair, grabbed their legs and arms and hit them. One or two have even claimed to be possessed. The area has been exorcised twice – both times unsuccessfully. Poltergeist activity has been reported in four different houses around the graveyard and the area is plagued by fires.
Eventually, my house and the tour company offices, both overlooking the graveyard, burned down. It destroyed years worth of letters, photographs, records and statements concerning the Mackenzie Poltergeist, as well as every possession I had. None of the surrounding properties were damaged and an official cause for the fire was never established. So I started again. I’ll not be outsmarted by something that hangs around a tomb.
Mind you, I live in Australia now.
‘Extremely SPOOKY. Very ATMOSPHERIC’ Good Morning Television
I don’t know what the Mackenzie Poltergeist really is. I don’t know if it’s a supernatural entity, a pheromone cloud, a demon or a set of psychosomatic and hysterical reactions. All have been suggested. But it has become the best documented supernatural case of all time and probably the most conclusive.
Let me put it this way – if the Mackenzie Poltergeist isn’t a genuine supernatural entity then I don’t think there’s any such thing.
Not anywhere in the world.
Jan-Andrew Henderson.
Over the last several years, one small tomb in Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Cemetery has become famous as the lair of a malevolent paranormal entity. The tomb is known as the ‘Black Mausoleum’ and is located behind the high walls and locked gates of an area known as the Covenanter’s Prison. The entity has been named ‘The Mackenzie Poltergeist’.
I will admit to having a soft spot for Mackenzie. I’ve already written two books about it - The Ghost that Haunted Itself & Father Figure.
I used to live in a house in the graveyard across from the Covenanter’s Prison. Not that I’m weird or anything like that – the rent was cheap.
I even started City of the Dead Tours to explore the entity.
Sounds obsessive but, honestly, it isn’t. Most authors who write about a famous supernatural case (should they be crazy enough) are unfamiliar with the location, the people involved and the more intimate details of the situation. Here I was living a few feet away from a paranormal case that was attracting massive media attention. It was too good an opportunity to turn down. Not long after the initial sightings of the Mackenzie Poltergeist, the Covenanter’s Prison was locked by City of Edinburgh Council. I obtained permission to set up tours that would unlock and enter the site, to see if anything unexplained happened.
It also gave me access to every witness of any paranormal phenomena. And they are legion.
‘One of the SCARIEST EXPERIENCES in Scotland’ Daily Record
The Black Mausoleum differs from Edinburgh’s other haunted locations for two reasons. One is the frequency of the poltergeist sightings.
The other is the severity of the incidents. The period between the first recorded sightings in 1999 and the present, have seen thousands of documented ‘attacks’. I now have hundreds of pages of eyewitness accounts and there are probably many more people who encountered the poltergeist but were too embarrassed to write me with their stories.
Over the years, there have been numerous reports of hot spots, cold spots and cuts, bruises and burns on witnesses’ bodies – often under their clothes. Hundreds of photographs have been taken of these marks, as well as many pictures of an unidentified shape in the tomb. There have been unexplained smells, and auditory anomalies – including knocking noises under the ground and inside the tomb itself. Dead animals are found, unmarked, in front of the Black Mausoleum. People have complained that an unseen apparition has pulled their hair, grabbed their legs and arms and hit them. One or two have even claimed to be possessed. The area has been exorcised twice – both times unsuccessfully. Poltergeist activity has been reported in four different houses around the graveyard and the area is plagued by fires.
Eventually, my house and the tour company offices, both overlooking the graveyard, burned down. It destroyed years worth of letters, photographs, records and statements concerning the Mackenzie Poltergeist, as well as every possession I had. None of the surrounding properties were damaged and an official cause for the fire was never established. So I started again. I’ll not be outsmarted by something that hangs around a tomb.
Mind you, I live in Australia now.
‘Extremely SPOOKY. Very ATMOSPHERIC’ Good Morning Television
I don’t know what the Mackenzie Poltergeist really is. I don’t know if it’s a supernatural entity, a pheromone cloud, a demon or a set of psychosomatic and hysterical reactions. All have been suggested. But it has become the best documented supernatural case of all time and probably the most conclusive.
Let me put it this way – if the Mackenzie Poltergeist isn’t a genuine supernatural entity then I don’t think there’s any such thing.
Not anywhere in the world.
Jan-Andrew Henderson.
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