Ghostly photobomb at Edinburgh Vaults

It's behind you! Tourist's picture of Edinburgh Vaults gets photobombed by a 'ghost' 

Emma Surgenor and her sister thought they had been alone in a pitch black vault in Edinburgh - that is until they saw the photographs.

It seems to be a photograph of a tourist posing in the Edinburgh Vaults - but a closer look reveals a ghostly figure lurking right behind her.

Emma Surgenor, 32, got a severe case of the creeps when she looked back at the image and spotted a figure standing behind her sister.

The support worker from Blackpool, Lancs, who went for the night time tour last February with her sister, said there was only one other person in the pitch black vault with them at the time.

She said: "We took loads of pictures and some of them came up pitch black and some came through.

"We went through all the photos on my digital camera that evening and lightened up the pictures that came back black.

"To our shock this figure which looks like a man appeared in one of them. We got a chill sensation and just screamed 'Oh my God.' It was a creepy moment. My sister was petrified. She was going on about how he was standing right behind her. Then she thought it was pretty cool. It's pretty scary stuff. There was no one else there."

 
The 'spectral figure' who photobombed Emma's picture is alarmingly standing directly behind her sister wearing what appears to be a long coat and boots.

She believes it may be a ghost known as 'The Watcher' or 'Mr Boots.'

She said: "There are a lot of stories about a man down there who wears big boots and a coat and another called 'The Watcher' with long hair and 18th century clothing.

"It's weird that my sister was standing there behind him. She was pretty creeped out at first."

The Edinburgh Vaults are a series of chambers formed in the arches of the South Bridge which were completed in 1788.

For around 30 years, the vaults were used to house tradesmen, and as storage facility for illicit material, reportedly including the bodies of people killed by serial killers Burke and Hare for medical experiments.

As the conditions in the vaults deteriorated, due to damp and poor air quality, the businesses left and the poorest of Edinburgh's citizens moved in - however by around 1820, even they are believed to have left too.

That people had lived there was only discovered in 1985 during an excavation when toys, medicine bottles, plates, and other signs of human habitation were found.

Due to frequent reports of paranormal activity and ghost sightings the Edinburgh Vaults were featured on Living TV's Most Haunted. 


Scottish Investigator Ryan O'Neill took part in a Most Haunted Live show on Halloween 2006.

Another television show, Ghost Adventures, investigated the vaults and claimed to have numerous encounters with spirits there.

The Watcher or Mr. Boots has apparently been seen by hundreds of visitors and with some reports describing him as tall with no eyes, a full beard, a long coat and big thigh-high boots.

Other reports suggest he watches visitors from the corridor and can be protective of the wall in one of the smaller vaults, sometimes shouting 'get out,' when people go near it.

Emma added: "I have been down there a few times in the past and got another picture last year of a hand behind this guy. It was pretty creepy down there.

"I have been a few times and always been creeped out. This time I didn't feel creeped out. There was no chill feeling when I took it or anything like that.

"I have another picture taken two seconds before and after where my sister isn't in the doorway and from the same angle and there is nothing there.

"It was so creepy but then we were chuffed we had found something. But it was real shock that made your hair stand on end."



Article > The Mirror by Jess Owen & Ruth Halkon

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