Mid Lothian Gazetteer

According to tradition, a house on Bell’s Wynd had supposedly stood empty for twenty one years and no-one was aware that the body of Mrs Guthrie, who had died two decades earlier, was still inside. A locksmith who lived either close by or immediately above the Mrs Guthrie’s decided to break in and see why it was empty. Read More »

Caroline Park House dates from 1685. It was commissioned for Sir George Mackenzie, 1st Lord Tarbat (1630 - 1714) and has a reputation for being haunted. In 1683, George Mackenzie had bought the Royston Barony and had originally named this building Royston House. Read More »

The home of Sir Alexander Hay Seton, 10th Baronet Seton (born 14 August 1904 – died 1963) became the focus of the world media after poltergeist like activity possibly linked to a bone taken from an Egyptian skeleton led to speculation that the Baronet’s family were cursed by a mummy. Read More »

The story of the Fairy boy of Leith is relatively unknown today, and doesn't appear to have been recently recounted since its last appearance in the 1970s Reader's Digest compendium, Folklore, Myths a Read More »

The Learmonth Hotel is reputedly haunted by what has been described as a poltergeist . The hotel is on the tree lined 19th Century Learmonth Terrace. Activity in the hotel is said to include doors that open and close by themselves, whistling being heard by staff and visitors in the corridors and interference with electrical devices such as hairdryers and kettles. Read More »

The Dalmahoy Hotel, now part of the Marriott group is a Georgian Mansion dating from 1720 and it is reputedly haunted by the second daughter of the 8th Earl of Morton. The name Dalmahoy refers to the family that held the land from the start of the fourteenth century right up to it passing to the Dalrymples in the mid seventeenth century. Read More »

A close such as Mary King's Close is a narrow lane or passage that runs between two buildings or a route that would give access to the rear of a building. Read More »

Rosslyn Chapel is touted as being one of the most mysterious places in Scotland, especially with the current gloat of books purporting to show how hidden secrets lurk within every crack of stone at this venerated place. Anybody who has ever visited the chapel may feel that it deserves its current status, and I must confess the atmosphere even on a busy day is something to be experienced. Read More »

For three hundred years Dalry was reputedly haunted by the apparition of a screaming (and sometimes manically laughing) man with a bloody stump for his right arm. This ghost was known as ‘Johnny One-Arm’ or, more correctly John Chiesly. John was an unhappy husband who petitioned for a divorce in 1688. Read More »