Click here to view some of the photographs taken that night in the vaults

Ghost Finders Edinburgh Vaults Sleepover Saturday 30/10/04

Mark Turner, one of our founder members here at Ghost Finders, was invited to take part inacelebrity sleepover in Edinburgh Vaults in aid of an Edinburgh based charity called Streetwork UK. The sleepover took part in the South Niddry Street vaults, which lay claim to a gruesome past. Streetwork Uk is a fantastic charity that works to help the homeless on the streets of Edinburgh. View their website at www.streetwork.org.uk

Attending the sleepover was current Miss UK title holder Nicola Jolly, Radio Forth DJs Jill McLean and Mark Martin, two representatives from the Scottish Society of Psychical Research, the Director of Streetwork UK Tam Hendry, and of course Mark Turner of Ghost Finders.

Mark’s account of the night

The night began with a tour and brief history of the vaults with stories of past Paranormal activity. We were then requested to hand over our mobile phones and watches before being issued with sleeping bags and informed that we could sleep virtually anywhere in the vaults that we chose. We found a suitable area to leave our sleeping bags, all lights and candles within the vaults were extinguished by one of the guides and that was us, cold, dark and very isolated, so near to the bustling Saturday night crowds of Edinburgh, but yet so far away.

Having been left to our own devices, we decided to tour the vaults on our own to search for suspected paranormal activity. I set up various pieces of equipment to record any strange events, a digital camcorder was set up in an empty part of the vaults and left to record in our absence before we took off deeper into the vaults armed with two digital camcorders, two digital still cameras, two EMF meters and a digital thermometer.

Throughout the vaults we recorded abnormally high readings on our EMF meter with no apparent cause, a sure sign that there was some spiritual activity around us. We also captured many photographs of orbs (spirit lights), they seemed to be following us around, which made us decide to stop in one area of the vaults and try to summon some spirit activity, we were not disappointed.

Mark Martin of Radio Forth was using the EMF meter as we tried to summon a spirit to communicate with us, the meter started to fluctuate rapidly as Mark held it still. We started to ask questions, “are there any spirits in the room with us….”, the meter reading shot off the scale, “are you a male spirit……”, the meter shot off the scale, “are you a female spirit…….”, the meter stopped completely, “did you die here…..” the meter once again shot off the scale, never before have I witnessed such readings on my EMF meter, we had struck up a definite communication with one of the spirits. We continued to question the spirit for fifteen minutes with absolutely startling results, we were all, including the sceptics, absolutely speechless. Mark Martin who was holding the EMF meter was going through spells of being very hot, and then suddenly freezing cold, he also commented on feeling the sensation of someone blowing on his neck, and then felt as if he a had been nipped on the back of the leg. We also heard very heavy footsteps which appeared to be coming towards us from one of the corridors, they were heard by all of us on three separate occasions. Having had some previous knowledge of the spirits that allegedly haunt the vaults, and through our questioning of the spirit, we discovered that we were communicating with a man nicknamed “Mr Boots”, an apparently nasty individual not known for his kindness.

We then found ourselves communicating with another spirit with the same startling results, a woman this time, we asked if this was Maggie Dickson, a spirit that we knew allegedly haunts the vaults, we were answered with an emphatic “yes” on our meter. In the same manner as before we questioned the spirit, each answer very clear on our meter. Mark Martin, still holding the EMF meter described himself as feeling absolutely elated as this spirit communicated with us, a feeling which he claimed had suddenly just come over him.

When the communication had apparently ended, we made our way back to our sleeping area in total awe of what we had just witnessed.

Throughout the rest of the night we continued to tour the vaults, we recorded various fluctuating EMF readings, many photographs that contain orbs, chilling feelings, and heard more footsteps echoing through the area.

As morning arrived, and with no sleep whatsoever, we were alerted to the arrival of our breakfast brought in courtesy of a local Hotel. A quick bite to eat, group photographs taken with Edinburgh’s Lord Provost, and it was time to say our goodbyes after a truly wonderful night in aid of a fantastic charity. I departed the vaults and began my journey to meet with the rest of the Ghost Finders team so that we could head for Tulloch Castle in Inverness, the location of our Halloween investigation that coming night.

Take part in ghost vigils at Edinburgh Vaults. Click here for details.