Uncover what lies beneath
Drawn to the dark side? Many of us clearly are as Edinburgh’s The Real Mary King’s Close has just been voted Best Visitor Attraction in the UK and the 11th best in all of Europe in TripAdvisor’s Traveller’s Choice awards, which are based on guest reviews.
The tour – which takes guests beneath Edinburgh’s Royal Mile to discover the city’s long-forgotten 17th century streets – came ahead of London attractions including Tower Bridge, the British Museum and Tower of London to take the top spot.
Following a record-breaking year – the Close attracted more than a quarter of a million visitors in 2023 – the enduring attraction has used its success to invest in preserving the past, as well as adding some exciting new features. Throughout July, Mary King’s Close is running a new Medical History Tour every Saturday. This deep delve into the darkest days of Edinburgh’s history travels back in time to the plague outbreak of 1645 and examines how the city dealt with the epidemic.
This hour-long tour also looks at how mental health was treated during the 17th and 18th centuries. “Melancholy” was a common diagnosis and often associated with black humour. The tour examines the case of Robert Ferguson and how he was treated up until his death in 1774.
You’ll also be enlightened as to the strange case of Dr Arnott, once one of the wealthiest residents of Mary King’s Close. His favoured methodology for examining his patients’ health was by a close study of their urine: he would analyse its colour, its smell – and its taste.
The tour also highlights midwives – known as “howdies”, these women relied on ancestral knowledge passed down the generations from mothers to daughters to help women. Edinburgh was the first university in the world to establish a chair in midwifery, in part due to their knowledge.
True crime buffs will also want to make a note in their diary: new for August, on Fridays and Saturdays, investigations will begin into real-life offences committed on Mary King’s Close.
This one-hour social history tour confronts themes of addiction, eviction and a criminal lack of legislation that facilitated the exploitation of Edinburgh’s Old Town residents. Discover what the rise of the witch trials meant for ordinary people living on the closes.
You will also learn of the intriguing link that Mary King’s Close has to the infamous character that is likely to have inspired Robert Louis Stephenson’s novel The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde. Reality ultimately proves far darker than any fiction, and this tour promises to be suitable for only the bravest visitors.
And then there is the renovated Burgh Courtroom, which is now a gift shop that has been inspired by the site’s historical purpose. As conceived by interior specialists Lumsden Design – which has also worked on the V&A in Dundee and various Harry Potter retail outlets – the space takes its cue from the Luckenbooths, Edinburgh’s original 17th-Century market stalls.
The Luckenbooths were the city’s first permanent shops and were originally situated near Mary King’s Close before the street was hidden beneath the City Chambers in 1753. As well as being a retail space, the courtroom also extends the site’s experience for visitors, as this is the first time the history of the room has been available to the public.
The Real Mary King’s Close, which was opened in 2003, is operated by Continiuum Attractions, whose chief executive Juliana Delaney was delighted with its win in the TripAdvisor Traveller’s Choice Awards.
“Our attraction is truly unique,” she said. “Being able to bring the centuries-old stories of Edinburgh’s dark past to life in such an engaging and fun way is testament to our brilliant team of storytellers who capture the imagination of our guests.”