Though the Edinburgh tourist board tries to focus on the Harry Potter connection, Greyfriars Bobby and the Disney film of the same name, Greyfriars Kirkyard is actually the site of one of the worst atrocities and most violent hauntings in Scotland.
In 1638 a group of religious dissidents known as the Covenanters met in Greyfriars Kirkyard to sign that covenant which gave them their name. Fifty years later the battered remains of that movement were imprisoned there, to await their fate at the hands of George Lord “Bluidy” Mackenzie.
Of course this is only a small section of the graveyard, nonetheless it was where the full 1200 were confined. It’s hard to imagine even fitting that many people in here in the first place, never mind forcing them to live here for months on end, but that was exactly what MacKenzie did. In addition to the lack of shelter they were also provided with insufficient…show more content… It might be Mackenzie, trapped here by his crimes and lashing out at everyone in reach because of it. At least one of his victims, a Marion Harvey, called his blood onto him from her scaffold and this might be the manifestation of her curse. On the other hand, the spirits of the Covenanters have good reason to be angry and unable to rest, tortured as they were by this man who was then buried close by them, and a lot of the attacks have taken place in their prison (it is even speculated that this is why it is now closed to the general public). Finally, it might not be a spirit at all, many theorize that poltergeists are manifestation of negative energy, attached either to a person or a place where terrible things have happened. Poltergeists are often connected to children and violence, so it would make sense if the invisible assailant in Greyfriars Kirkyard is actually the pent up energies of its brutal past activated by the fear of either the child or the man who hid in the
