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The Haunted Underground of Bern

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Have you ever noticed the underground world of the old town in Bern? Now fancy cafes and shops, there are also tales of secret passageways, hideouts and ghosts beneath the cobbled stoned city. 

When you stroll through the winding lanes of Bern’s UNESCO-listed Old Town, it’s easy to be enchanted by the medieval charm of the sandstone arcades, glacial-blue Aare, and clock towers whispering of centuries past. But beneath this orderly beauty lies a netherworld of darkness: an ancient network of tunnels, cellars, traditional wine cellars called carnotzets, and hidden passages riddled with tales of murder, sorrow, and spectral unrest.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

Most visitors to Bern barely notice these curious doors nestled flush against the cobblestones, or small hatches tucked beside storefronts on Kramgasse and Gerechtigkeitsgasse where every building has one.  Today, many serve as fashionable boutiques and cozy bars. But for every shop that thrives underground, there’s another tunnel sealed shut, padlocked, or lost to memory.

In the 20th century, some of these medieval spaces were reinforced into fallout shelters, reflecting Switzerland’s Cold War-era policy of preparing bunkers for all citizens. Some bunkers, like the massive Sonnenberg facility in Lucerne, could shelter thousands. But in Bern, the older structures hid not only from bombs—but also from the eyes of the living.

And with such hidden depths come stories, and most of them ghost stories. These are some of them penned down mostly by Hedwig Correvon by her collection of ghost stories from 1919 Gespenstergeschichten aus Bern.

Ghosts of the Buried: A House That Breathes the Past

In one Bernese residence, a long-disused underground gallery once served as a macabre burial corridor. The tradition, never officially sanctioned, was whispered only among trusted neighbors: if you had a body—a murder, a shame, or a secret—you took it to that house. Although it mentions the house was in the old town, it never specifies which streets the house was in. 

Over time, the dead grew restless.

Tenants have long complained of phantom footsteps above and below, even when they’re alone. Children whisper of pale faces at the windows. One boy, unable to sleep, claimed he could feel tiny hands pulling the covers from his bed. 

Kornhauskeller Bern: Yves Merckx/Source

A young woman reported being comforted by a blonde-haired girl during a bout of toothache, only to watch her melt away behind a stove. This blonde girl is said to have appeared to more than one tenant of the house over the years. Once, the ghost of this woman was said to have sat down in a chair to listen to a young girl practicing her piano. 

The ghosts are said to walk the galleries and courtyards, creeping through cracks in locked doors and disturbing the peace of even the most rational guests. And when a tenant dares move out because of these hauntings, the spirits rage—doors slam for days, pots fall from shelves, and windows fog with icy breath.

Father Nägeli’s Treasure: A Crypt That Tests the Brave

Many in Bern know of the treasure hidden beneath the Münzgraben, but only a few dare pursue it. To reach it, you must descend into a tight, damp passageway lined with ancient stone underground in the city. Eventually, a faint bluish light glows ahead. That’s when he appears: a snarling, spectral dog, as large as a bear and twice as angry.

Only those who know the sacred password may pass and only the ghost of Father Nägeli is said to could give the key. He is said to haunt the Frick Stairs in the old town. Read More: 

If you survive, you’ll find a gate that opens into a radiant chamber, its light casting eerie shadows over three mysterious sacks. Reach into the sacks and take a handful of earth. Then turn and leave.

But do not look back. 

Read More: The Restless Spirit of Hans Franz Nägeli: The Ghost of the Fricktreppe

Those who hesitate to find their golden treasure have turned to ash. Those who follow instructions return to the surface clutching coins of pure gold—or so they say. Most who go searching for Father Nägeli’s treasure never speak of what they find… if they return at all.

The Locked Away Girls: The Ghost in the Locked Chest

Many of Bern’s old houses once had secret tunnels leading to the Aare River, useful for transporting goods from the river banks into the city, as well as smuggling or darker deeds.

One such tunnel bore witness to an unspeakable tragedy: a young servant girl seduced by her master, then lured into a hidden chest under the kitchen and dropped into the abyss. Her body was carried away by the river. He wanted to cover their affair from his parents. The only witness was the cook who hid in a cupboard, paralyzed by fear, and haunted for life. She had suspected something was going on. She didn’t tell anyone, but waited all day for the girl to return from the tunnels. She never did, and the cook waited all her life. 

Ever since, the house remains tormented and the chest is still there, locked underground. At midnight, groans and moans can be heard throughout the house, like a ghostly wail and a cry for help.

The Children Who Dance in the Mist: The Kindlifresser’s Fountain

Few sights in Bern are more chilling than the Kindlifresserbrunnen—the infamous “Child-Eater Fountain.” Locals call it grotesque, comical, or bizarre. But its true history may be darker than art historians admit.

Legend says the fountain marks the site of a hidden tunnel between two medieval monasteries where one was for monks, one for nuns. Children born in shame, secrecy, or sin were said to be led into this tunnel and lost forever.

The Mysterious Underground Tunnels: All around Bern, it is said underground tunnels down to the Aare river is built, some more hidden and secret than others. This is especially prominent on Kornhausplatz. // Source: Image from 1939:FORTEPAN / Ebner

Some say their cries can still be heard in the fog of Kornhausplatz, especially when the mist wells up between the stones at midnight. And then… they emerge.

Read More: Kindlifresserbrunnen and the Ghosts of the Discarded Children Beneath Bern 

Dressed in flowing white, the ghost children dance—flitting between fountains, pausing by shuttered shopfronts, or sitting silently on cellar steps. For an hour, they play and laugh, seeking one another in joy. But when the final bell tolls one, they vanish back beneath the ogre’s feet—to wait for next time.

Witnesses speak of tiny handprints on cellar windows, giggling voices in empty corridors, and chills that have nothing to do with the weather. Are they still haunting the underground though? The Kornhauskeller at Kornhausplatz 18 is Bern’s most magnificent vaulted cellar and a popular restaurant and bar. 

The Françaisbad: The Aare’s Mourning Wind

High above the bends of the Aare, near the former spa and bath house called Françaisbad, the wind howls in a peculiar way. Where this Françaisbad was exactly is a bit uncertain. Those who listen say it cries out the names of men seduced, robbed, and murdered by the enigmatic Frenchwoman who once ran a decadent spa here.

The bathhouse was rumored to be a haven for crime: gambling, trysts, and betrayal flourished behind closed doors. But it ended in blood. The Frenchwoman  disappeared herself in the end, her body pushed through a secret trapdoor into a tunnel that led straight to the river. Her victims, many of them noblemen, now weep in the wind, some say.

At night, shadows move across the river’s surface. Lights appear in rooms that have no electricity. And when the Aare floods, locals say it’s because the dead cannot rest.

Echoes in the Underground Stone

Bern’s tunnels and cellars may now hold boutiques, wine bars, and galleries. But their walls are thick with centuries of silence, punctuated by shame, cruelty, and sorrow.

Some stories serve as warnings. Others linger as memory. All of them remind us that beneath every step on Bern’s clean, cobbled streets, there is a shadow. Beneath every cellar arch, a whisper. As Above, so Below. 

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References:

https://www.maerchenstiftung.ch/maerchendatenbank/11873/vergrabene-gespenster

https://www.maerchenstiftung.ch/maerchendatenbank/11883/der-unterirdische-schatz

https://www.maerchenstiftung.ch/maerchendatenbank/11871/von-unterirdischen-gaengen

https://www.maerchenstiftung.ch/maerchendatenbank/11866/der-kindlifresserbrunnen

https://www.maerchenstiftung.ch/maerchendatenbank/11847/vom-francaisbad

https://bern.com/en/news/stories-and-recommendations/the-most-beautiful-vaulted-cellars-in-bern?srsltid=AfmBOoqBellWKTWIbHqcg8XIrd6WHyln1yyoe2F9TGm2HH2AhxnOgkAo

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Kindlifresserbrunnen and the Ghosts of the Discarded Children Beneath Bern

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Around the terrifying statue of the Kindlifressenbrunnen devouring children, young ghosts are said to haunt like a misty night. Said to be the unwanted babies taken out of the city through the underground tunnels, they return to the scene of the crime. 

In Bern’s Old Town, at the bustling Kornhausplatz, looms a fountain so macabre it stops tourists in their tracks. The Kindlifresserbrunnen, or “Child Eater Fountain,” is not a modern shock piece as it was sculpted in 1546 by Hans Gieng and has towered over the city ever since. The grotesque ogre atop the fountain devours a helpless infant, while three more terrified children peer from a sack slung over his shoulder. He is not merely hungry, but also ravenous, mythic, and perhaps, haunted.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

The grotesque statue has long puzzled historians. Was it a cautionary tale, an ancient anti-Semitic symbol, a grim representation of Kronos the child-eating Titan, or even a mad royal brother driven to cannibalistic fury by envy? None of these theories fully explain the disturbing permanence of the Kindlifresser. And the legend doesn’t end at the statue’s base. Beneath this horrifying figure lies a deeper darkness, etched not in stone, but in whisper and shadow.

Ogre Fountain: The Kindlifressenbrunnen literally means the Child Devour Fountain. There are many legends surrounding it, one being that the area around it is haunted, // Source: Andrew Bossi /Wiki

The Underground Tunnels around Kornhausplatz

Long before Bern’s medieval walls rose around it, the site of the Kindlifresserbrunnen was an open meadow, bordered by monasteries. One for men, another for women. There were in fact many places where both nuns and monks lived and worked throughout the city. According to local legend, a hidden tunnel once connected the two. But this passageway around the Kornhausplatz, locals say, was also used for a far grimmer purpose.

Read Also: The Haunted Underground of Bern

In the early days of the city, unwanted children, those born in secret or shame were led or left into the darkness of the tunnel, never to be seen again. It’s said that they were the children of the monks and nuns and those brought to them as well as those that were brought to them. 

The Mysterious Underground Tunnels: All around Bern, it is said underground tunnels down to the Aare river is built, some more hidden and secret than others. This is especially prominent on Kornhausplatz. // Source: Image from 1939:FORTEPAN / Ebner

Over time, the stories grew: that the cries of these forsaken little ones echoed beneath the cobblestones, and that their spirits still lingered, trapped between life and death.

The Children Who Dance in the Mist

As Bern’s mist thickens and the bells chime midnight, these ghost children are said to emerge from the earth. For one fleeting hour, they are no longer shadows. Locals speak in hushed tones of ethereal figures dancing in the swirling fog, their laughter mingling with the creak of old shutters and the murmur of the river and around Kornhausplatz.

A fine, white mist wells up between the stones, spreads gently, quietly over the ground, begins to billow, to undulate, gathers into tiny cloud formations, and dissolves again into a thin veil. And little by little, small human figures in flowing white dresses emerge from it. Like white butterflies, they flutter up and down, landing now on this spot, now on that, seeking in playful play to catch one another, to flee.

Then, as the final bell tolls one, they vanish—drawn back into the cold stone below the ogre’s feet.

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References:

Geisterstadt Bern – SWI swissinfo.ch 

Der Kindlifresserbrunnen | Märchenstiftung

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Ghosts of Mary King’s Close

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Scratching sounds from the chimney, plague victims left for dead and floating heads, the haunted underground of alleyways known as Mary King’s Close haunts under the city. 

Today much of what you see of Edinburgh is an old town built on top of an even older town. Right opposite St Giles Cathedral you will find The Mary King’s Close or alleyways which are said to be haunted.

It used to be a normal street in the old town by the Royal Mile with narrow alleyways and cobbled streets. It was named after a successful business woman named Mary King working as a fabric merchant in the 1630s. 

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So first off, what is a close? A close was a private area that got locked up at night to keep unwelcomed out. The richer lived on the top floors, away from the stench of the sewer and where most light came through the claustrophobic streets. 

The Plague

During the 1645 plague the city became overrun with rodents carrying diseases and it hit the Mary King’s Close pretty hard. They would hang out white sheets to show they were infected and in need of food and a plague doctor. Only the bravest plague doctors, one named Dr George Rae dared to venture into the close filled with plague ridden people.

Victims of the disease were quarantined and left for dead to die in the streets. One by one the residents either died or left the Close and were relocated to Burgh Muir, and they didn’t return until almost 40 years after the plague hit its peak. When they returned however, everything seemed to have changed. Since then there have been reports about strange things going on in the underground narrow streets. 

Plague Doctor: On the 13th of June 1645, Dr George Rae was appointed as Edinburgh’s second Plague Doctor. During the plague he went around to treat the plague victims. He cut open and cleaned out the puss from the swellings caused by the bubonic plague. He would then burn the wound to catheterize it. He was considered to be one of the more successful doctors during the plague.

What was it that made people see ghosts during this time? Was it the plague victims that were left behind? Or could it be the methane gas from the polluted march right by that caused everyone to see things?

Many tell the tale that it was to cover up the corpses of the plague victims that they built another street on top of it. The true story though is that they built the new street on top of the decaying old one in the 17th century to make a place where tradesmen could be. 

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Life continued to go on underneath the surface though as not everyone wanted to leave. The last residents didn’t leave Mary King’s Close until 1902. And if we believe the legends, the last resident named Andrew Chesney never truly left as he is said to be one of the ghosts that haunts the place.

The Hauntings of The Colthearts

Back to the aftermath of the plague. Decades had passed since the plague had reached its peak and people started to return to the Mary King’s Close. But as mentioned earlier, the place had started gaining a notorious rumour of being haunted. And that was according to the residents themselves.

Claustrophobic: The narrow streets of Mary King’s close.

In 1685 a well respected lawyer named Thomas Coltheart moved into the close together with his wife. But their stay was not a happy one at all times.

The maidservant ran off claiming the house was haunted. And it was not long until Coltheart and his wife also noticed strange things. According to them when the Mrs. Coltheart sat reading her bible, she saw a head without a body float in the house, causing the wife to faint. 

First, Thomas Coltheart didn’t believe her when she tried to explain. But It returned later that night with the spirit of a child and a floating severed hand beckoning them to come towards them. They tried to pray the spirits away, but to no avail.  

Lastly they saw the spirit of a dog running after a ghost cat, creating a chaos of spectres and noises that night. And according to them, that was not the only time they were bothered by the spirits.

Apparently they claimed that the dog returned again and again, not leaving them in peace,

Surprisingly, the couple chose to never leave the Close and stayed there until their death. Needless to say, it turned them mad according to some sources. Or did the madness create the visions?

Abandoned Annie

One of the ghosts that are suppose to haunt the place is that of Abandoned Annie. She is the ghost of a little girl that is allegedly reaching out to grab your hand in the darkness.

She was named that by the Japanese psychic Aiko Gibo who visited the Mary King’s Close in 1992 and found the child ghost crying in a corner of a room. Aiko claimed that Annie was a plague victim who was abandoned by her parents. According to the psychic Annie wanted a doll to not feel so lonely. 

Today she has her little altar in what is now known as Annie’s Room with thousands of dolls, toys and money left by her visitors. They are all collected by the city council to donate to and help sick children. 

Visit the Underground

The Close was mostly forgotten after the last residents moved out and they didn’t really remember the old place until they once knocked through the walls during construction. 

The place was not opened for the public until 2003, but is now perhaps more busy than it was before they closed it up. Today you can access the underground alleyways from the Royal Mile as a tourist attraction. You can now experience the uniquely preserved cobbled streets as it would have been before the 1800s. 

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References

The Most Haunted Places in Edinburgh’s Old Town – Dickins

The Story Behind Edinburgh’s Mary King’s Close

Mary King’s Close: Underground Edinburgh’s buried street

The Ghosts of Mary King’s Close, Edinburgh | Haunted Rooms®

Mary Kings Close – Dark Hauntings

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Haunted Spirits at The Banshee Labyrinth Pub

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The metal bar called the Banshee Labyrinth is located in parts of the haunted underground vaults of Edinburgh. And today the place has some haunted stories to tell as well. Everything from ghost children, accused witches, irish folklore creatures and an annoying ghost in the ladies toilet, this pub houses them all.

What can be a more haunted place than a rock and metal bar located in the haunted old town of Edinburgh? Today it is a family run pub that promises a good drink and music all week.

The Banshee Labyrinth bar is located on Niddry Street it is close to the Royal Mile as well as the haunted underground of Edinburgh.

They are also catering to the more macabre with movie nights mostly showing horror movies. But are we to believe legends about this pub you can also expect a couple of ghostly guests as well. 

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The Haunted Underground Vaults

It is located near The South Bridge Vaults where several businesses, workplace and taverns were located. However, it was built on a low budget and never waterproofed. The place eventually flooded and only the poorest people stayed there, making cheap brothels and pubs flourish instead and crime and murders were not uncommon. 

It was allegedly also here the infamous serial killers Burke and Hare haunted victims to sell to the medical schools. The underground vaults have become notorious as a haunted place. 

The Wailing Banshee

Part of The Banshee Labyrinth is in one of these vaults and the name the pub has comes from the legend of a banshee haunting the place. Banshee are female spirits and creatures that are an omen of death with their terrifying screams. 

The Banshee: It is a female spirit in Irish folklore who heralds the death of a family member

Once when the pub was having some restoration work done, the workmen experienced something strange. The story is that a group of workmen heard this wailing scream of death and right after. According to some sources he also saw a woman in a gray dress who cried into her hands before lifting her head to show off her pale face with rotted teeth and no eyes. 

After this they were terrified, but it didn’t stop there. Right after the incident, one of the workers got a call about the death of one of their family members just moments later. 

There is also Molly, a six year old girl that are said to haunt the place. She is named Molly after they found a child shoe with the name written on it in one of the old bricked-up chimneys. She apparently disappeared in 1814 according to some sources. 

People also report on the ghost they have named Ole Jock, who is said to haunt the ladies toilet. He keeps slamming the doors and is even said to be the one turning the hand driers on and off. 

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The Witch Hunter

Since its heyday as a part of the criminal hotspot of the city, the people who once walked the vaults are said to have been of the more unsavory characters, and perhaps the ghosts can be seen as the same. 

Witches: More than 3000 Scottish people who were accused of witchcraft between the 16th and 17th century. Many of them were burned at the stake in Edinburgh.

One of the neighbors of the building of The Banshee Labyrinth for instance once upon the time belonged to a man named Lord Nicol Edwards. He was a lord Provost and known to be a cruel man, especially to his wife. He is also said to have had a personal dungeon under his house he used to torture accused witches before their trial. 

Many pub goers to The Banshee Labyrinth have claimed to have spotted one of these tortured women, and the story of the banshee is often linked together with these women. 

There are also stories about inside the pub with some strange things happening. Classical haunted pub things like drinks flying off the tables and crashing in the walls. So bottoms up, The Banshee Labyrinth have spirits for all, both the drinkable and haunted type. 

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References

The Most Haunted Places in Edinburgh’s Old Town – Dickins

The Banshee Labyrinth

Scotland’s ‘most haunted pub’ that’s home to a terrifying wailing banshee – Edinburgh Live

The ‘most haunted pub in Scotland’ where 16th-century tyrant tortured ‘witches’ – Daily Record

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The Ghosts Within the South Bridge Vaults

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A paranormal investigator’s dream, the South Bridge Vaults in Edinburgh have been investigated for its hauntings on many occasions and many have left with a feeling of having experienced something paranormal and ghostly in the dark. 

In the late 18th century Edinburgh was a growing community with a limited space in the Old Town nicknamed Old Reeky because of the bad smell and old buildings. The city is built around seven different hills and there are five main bridges connecting the slopes and hills of the town. That is also the reason for the high rise buildings of Edinburgh were they chose to build on top of the old to utilize the uneven location of the city. 

The people of Edinburgh started to utilize the spaces under the South Bridge in the Old Town to make more room for business. The spaces within the archers under the bridge are also known as the Edinburgh Vaults or Niddry Street Vaults as well as just the South Bridge Vaults. 

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They look like a series of chambers next to each other and are actually of the 19 archers underneath the South Bridge. It was supposed to be a place with respectable businesses, but ended up becoming some of the more haunted corners of the very haunted city. 

The Cursed South Bridge

According to legend, the place was cursed already from the start. The South Bridge that was built to connect the old town with the new town was completed in 1788, and already at the opening of it the locals deemed it as cursed. 

The South Bridge: The largest arch of the bridge, seen from the Cowgate.

It was seen as a grand opening and one of the respected Judge’s wives had been selected to be the first resident to cross the bridge as she was the city’s oldest resident. However, she died before the opening. To keep their promise to the elderly woman though, they decided she after all would be the first person to cross the bridge, although it was in her coffin. 

The locals in Edinburgh were scared, now thinking that the bridge was cursed because of the unusual opening of the bridge. And looking back at all that happened on the bridge and in the vaults beneath it, perhaps it indeed was. 

In the start, the South Bridge Vaults underneath the bridge were mostly used as taverns, workshops and as storage space for merchants. However it wasn’t long before the well respected businesses started leaving the area because of the poor facilities. The building of the bridge and the vaults underneath had been constructed on a low budget and even the construction itself had been rushed. Therefore they had taken no precaution to seal the surface against water and built it with porous limestone and the place became a damp and dark place which constantly flooded. 

The Damp and Dark Underworld of the Vaults

No later than 10 years after the bridge and the vaults opened, respectable businesses like shoemakers, goldsmiths started leaving the area and those that could afford it relocated elsewhere as the murky vaults flooded and the sunlight never shone inside the South Bridge Vaults. It was a place no one wanted to be, and only those that had no other choice remained. 

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There was also a slum where the poorer people in town started to take over as the surrounding Cowgate area had developed into a slum during the industrial revolution. Crime, filth, poverty and murders were key words to explain the place as no sunlight came through.

More illicit businesses started to pop up in the area like brothels, shady pubs, gambling dents and illegal whiskey distilleries, turning the place into the red light district of the town.

The Legends of the Serial Killers Burke and Hare

A lot of horrible things happened inside these vaults during this time. Most of it, we will never know for sure. Legends however will be told. The South Bridge Vaults were where the body snatchers Burke and Hare were supposedly finding their bodies as well as killing them to sell them off to medical schools. 

The Burke and Hare murders: The serial killings were sixteen murders committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken by William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures. Here depicted in an etching of Burke murdering Margaret Docherty (also known as Margery Campbell) by Robert Seymour.

Although this legend is often passed down as fact, there is no actual evidence that the South Bridge Vaults was the exact place they got their bodies from, although very likely. The place to find poverty struck people and those that no one would miss if they suddenly ‘disappeared’ was inside the dark and damp vaults.

The Rediscovery of the South Bridge Vaults

At one point during the 1800s, exactly when is unsure, they emptied the vaults for people and started to dump tons of rubble in the vaults, sealing them completely off and making them inaccessible for the public and were kind of forgotten for a long time. 

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It wasn’t until the 1980s the tunnels to the vaults were rediscovered by a former Scottish rugby player named Norrie Rowan when he found one of the tunnels while he was renovating his flat. He spent the rest of his days excavating the vaults and rediscovering its history to make it accessible for the public once again. 

The Ghosts of the South Bridge Vaults

There are many stories about who haunts the place today as the vaults have reopened and daily groups of tourists and paranormal investigators are taken down to the vaults to uncover the dark history. 

Many people met their tragic fate on a daily basis down there in the vaults as well as suffered from horrible tragedies that affected the entire town. Like the Great Fire of Edinburgh  that lasted for five days after it started in 1824 and took the lives of at least 13 people. There are many stories about victims that were trapped inside the chambers and suffered horrible consequences from then. Although there is no paper trail on this tale though. 

There are many tourists that claim to have captured evidence of something paranormal going on, and they even make the newspapers from time to time. The same reports comes from the paranormal investigators that go down into the vaults and come back with what they see as proof of hauntings going on. 

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Here are some of the ghosts that are said to haunt the vaults until this date and have gathered enough reports to be a part of the haunted ghost tour in Edinburgh: 

The Aristocrat

One of the first ghosts that people have reportedly seen over the years is that of the Aristocrat. He is said to be a rich gentleman with a tall black hat and a beard. He is not seen as the most angry spirit as he is known for grinning at visitors while leaning against the wall. People do have a tendency to feel uneasy in his presence though, according to those who claimed to have seen him. 

The Happy Shoemaker

There is also a room that is believed to belong to a shoemaker from that time that is said to still practice his profession as a shoemaker.

He is described as a man in his 50s and is one of the ghosts that are said to be friendly and are often seen smiling and laughing by visitors while he happily carries on with his shoemaking while wearing an apron.  

The Veiled Woman

In the room with the shoemaker known as The Room of the Cobbler, there is a meaner spirit though and is known as the veiled woman. She is believed to throw small stones at visitors as well. She is seen as a young woman dressed in black while wearing a veil in the north west corner of the Cobbler’s Room. 

Women have also reported about feeling an intense rush of grief, anger and a sudden and unexplained abdominal pain, which has left many to believe it is a woman that lost her child in a horrible way and she is still grieving. 

The Caretakers Room

In one of the chambers there are reports of a man sitting by the fireplace. He apparently looks like one of the more chill spirits in the place as well with a drink in his hand and legs stretched out. By his side he has a dog that is reported to brush up against people’s legs or sniff them. 

Little Jack

Then there is the small boy named Jack or James that are often spotted in the Wine Vault. He is mostly seen as a blonde curly boy around 6 or 8 years old, wearing a blue suit with the classic knickerbocker trousers. Some sources want to connect him to a missing child case from 1810. 

He is often playing with a red ball at times and is known to try to hold the hands of female visitors and likes to play around if there are children around. Allegedly, if he spots a person he doesn’t want to enter the South Bridge Vaults he will tuck their sleeves or coat when entering the Blair Street Corridor. 

According to the guides down in the vaults, he is afraid of one of the more well known ghosts wandering the narrow alleys and small chambers. And that is that of Mr. Boots or also known as The Watcher. 

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The Watcher

Perhaps the most well known ghost in the South Bridge Vaults is that of The Watcher. There is a theory that he was a watchman and that is the reason he is known as The Watcher. Or maybe it’s because he always looks as if watching over something.  

There are also alternative legends over the years that have tried to explain his presence, and many are also claiming him to be one of the slum landlords or even one of the body snatchers that hid his stolen bodies in the chamber known as The White Room. Today we can only speculate. 

He is also called Mr Boots because of how many people in the vaults have experienced him. They can hear loud footsteps in The White Room or in the Niddry Street Corridor which is known as the most active place in all of the vaults.

His face has never been seen as it is hidden, blacked out or he is showing himself to the public with his back. He is supposedly this tall, slim and dark figure with a long flowing coat with his long hair in a ponytail. Sometimes he wears a hat and long boots. Sometimes he carries rattling keys and his breath smells disgusting of rotten teeth and whiskey. 

People experiencing stuff within the vaults often get the feeling that he is trying to get them out from the narrow and claustrophobic spaces. Batteries on cameras die or malfunction when he’s present and he is known to push or pull people towards the exit as well as the phrase ‘Get Out’ has been heard on several occasions. 

The Stone Circle

There are also rumors about an evil demon trapped inside one of the stone circles in one of the chambers. This is were the late Wiccan High Priest, George Cameron known as The Hermit set up his temple in the 90’s. It was in one of the vaults that have historic connection to the torturing of witches somehow. 

According to him, he was trying to rid it from evil and built the stone circle which still stands today. He failed, however, to remove the evil that were supposed to be in the vaults and Cameron abandoned the room after he recommended to seal up the room to protect people from the evil within it. It is not sealed though as it is one of the stops on the tour through the vaults. 

The Experience of the Hauntings

No matter the real story of the ghosts in the South Bridge Vaults and the true horror the people living there went through, the vaults itself are an interesting walk through time and history. And perhaps if you choose to go down into the dark chambers you too will hear the same that many claim to have on recordings and etched into their memories. The eerie sound of what can sound like children yelling and crying along with hushed voices and shuffling footsteps. 

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References

Edinburgh’s most haunted locations | The Scotsman

Niddry Street Vaults Ghost Hunts,

Edinburgh’s South Bridge and Vaults

Underground Edinburgh Tour of South Bridge Vaults Review

The Watcher, The South Bridge Vaults Edinburgh’s Most Haunted

https://thelittlehouseofhorrors.com/edinburgh-vaults-south-bridge/