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| Ghost Fest: South Niddry Street Vaults 13/05/2008 |
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Scottish Society of Paranormal Investigation and Analysis Ghost Fest 2008: South Niddry Street Vaults Report 13/04/2008 Location: South Niddry Street Vaults, Edinburgh Date: 13/04/2008 SSPIA Investigators: Dave, Katie, Lana, Tonks Collaborative investigation with Full Moon Investigations and members of the public Weather: N/A  Introduction As part of Mary King’s Ghost Fest 2008, SSPIA were involved in two events as full partners of Full Moon Investigations. Proceeding under the title ‘An Initiation into Investigation,’ our exploration of South Niddry Street Vaults on Tuesday 13th May 2008 was carried out with sixteen members of the public, attending due to a shared interest in the paranormal and keen to be involved in the investigation as active participants. In the interest of balance, SSPIA’s presence provided additional support to the scientific side of Full Moon Investigations represented by FMI members Andie Byrne and Scott Drinkel, working alongside mediums Ewan Irvine, Fiona Williamson, Ronnie Ross and guest David Allen. Alongside these spiritualist demonstrations, the team improvised brief explorations into psychokinesis, explained the purposes behind our trigger object experiments, and led interactive demonstration of investigative methods such as calling out. History  Vault 1 The vaults, Edinburgh’s notorious subterranean city, were occupied for a relatively brief period before this feature of the city’s dark history was literally buried. Originally constructed as storage vaults for businesses on the bustling South Bridge upon its opening in 1788, rushed construction work ultimately led to water damage that caused the vaults to be abandoned as early as 1800. The overcrowding of Edinburgh’s Old Town in the nearby Cowgate and Grassmarket soon saw the vaults re-imagined as living space and meeting places for those too poor to live topside, or those with something to hide.  Barrels in Cellar Area The vaults of South Niddry Street were originally used for claret storage, brought over from the port at Leith, and after the vaults were engulfed by their new inhabitants, they were appropriately (and perhaps inevitably) dominated by a bar, albeit operating in a less legal fashion after 1800. Rumours abound of the vault’s association with the shady Hellfire Club, a den of debauchery, violence and sin for the wealthy and perverse, and records indicate the execution of one Mary McKinnan in 1822, the landlady who ran the inn until she brandished a knife to a rowdy crowd, leading to the death of a respected customer.  Double Vault South Niddry Street Vaults have also been associated with the body-snatching of Burke and Hare and others, though by their very nature as living areas for the city’s overlooked inhabitants, very few precise records of the vaults exist. Estimates suggest the final abandonment of these specific vaults circa 1840 before their excavation in the 1990s, and with little surviving evidence, the inhabitants and patrons are lost in time. This makes paranormal investigation all the more mysterious, exciting and in some cases frustrating. Map All room names devised by Scott of FMI, as unofficial short-hand to aid the investigation process.       Experiments  Digital voice recorder in the Cellar Vault Conducting a joint investigation with FMI, with SSPIA provided the majority of the trigger objects, their positions detailed on the maps above. A temperature logger was placed in each of the six rooms (marked as ‘X’) to record the temperature across the three hour investigation, with digital voice recorders stationed in Vault 1 and the Cellar Vault, and left undisturbed throughout the night.  Iron filings placed outside Vault 2 Our team’s standard repeat experiments returned in the form of iron filings and magnets placed in comparatively isolated areas of most of the rooms to avoid accidental human contact, and more specific, character-based trigger objects once again incorporated old and new. The largest vault, which we refer to as Vault 2, was theorised as the most likely location of the bar, and experiments were tailored to reflect this.  Glass of tinted water in the ‘bar’ A glass of water was tinted with ink, filled to the brim and placed on tissue paper, on the principle that any movement of the glass would result in overspill that would leave a noticeable stain on the paper beneath. Two sets of magnetic letters were placed at the rear of the vault and arranged in a deliberately illiterate manner, to antagonise any perfectionist poltergeists in residence to incite a result.  Marbles in flour The SSPIA’s toy experiments continue in full force, with the introduction of marbles placed on a bed of flour. Marbles are relatively easy to move with little force, and their isolation at the top of an imposing mound of earth in the Cellar Area avoids the possibility of human interference, while any movement that does take place would be clearly visible as trails in the flour.  Jacks in the Cellar Vault The magnetic drawing board was set up in the centre of the mound, and a collection of jacks were arranged in the Cellar Vault. Toys such as marbles and jacks were carefully selected to be historically accurate as familiar objects to children living in the vaults during the first half of the nineteenth century. Investigation
Part One The two-hour investigation was divided into two prominent sections, following a thirty minute introduction from Full Moon Investigations. The investigation began at 20:30, with the group dividing into two teams to explore the entirety of the vaults from opposing directions, spending between ten and twenty minutes in each area depending on preference.  Ewan and Andie in Vault 1 Team 1 consisted of Lana and Tonks with FMI members Andie, Ewan and Fiona and eight members of the public. Team 1 began in the Reception area and journeyed to the bottom of the vaults, arriving at the Cellar Vault at 21:40 and observing Ewan’s mediumistic approach until this stage of the investigation concluded at 22:00.  Tonks records the temperature in Vault 1 Team 1 was equipped with a temperature probe, and Tonks took readings of each area of the room at various times. The lower areas of the Cellar Area and Cellar Vault displayed the only significant fluctuations in temperature, ranging from 9.2°C at the extreme front and back walls of the Cellar Area and a significantly warmer 13.4° to 14.8°C a short distance away. Team 2 would independently observe a more subjective temperature change in this room that Katie ascribed to the proximity of the electric lights.  Katie and Dave in Vault 2 Team 2 consisted of Dave and Katie with FMI members Scott and Ronnie, guest medium David and eight members of the public. Team 2 began down in the Cellar Vault and proceeded upwards to arrive in the Reception area at 21:30. Once there, this team conducted brief explorations into psychokinesis and David Allen practiced mediumship on Scott and a member of the public, with inconclusive and arguable results.  Mediumship in the Cellar Area Calling out was practiced in addition to mediumship in the Cellar Area, as the scientists and spiritualists took consecutive turns asking for anyone present to manipulate the flame of a lit candle on the mound at 20:40, with no visible or audible result. The mediums routinely picked up on the first names of spirits or descriptions of their appearance, attire or emotional state, but without records, it is impossible to speculate about such generalised details. The public were invited to participate in calling out and reporting their own feelings throughout the investigation, and both teams explained experiments and methods. Part Two The final half-hour of the investigation from 22:00 to 22:30 saw the group dividing again, this time presented with a choice depending on their personal paranormal interests. Dave, Katie and Lana led EVP and energy experiments in Vault 2, joined by Fiona, Ronnie and Scott in an observing capacity alongside members of the public, while Tonks was accompanied by Andie, Ewan, David and the remaining members of the public for sensory deprivation experiments in the Cellar Vault.  Screaming experiment in Vault 2 The EVP experiments were recorded on video cameras, and proceeded in three stages of two rounds each. First, Katie played a tune on a penny whistle, an instrument that would be familiar to the Irish immigrants who formed the bulk of Edinburgh’s slum population during the Industrial Revolution, and the other members of the group hummed along. The next stage involved Katie leading a simple rhythm of hand clapping that naturally escalated into a frenzy of clapping and foot-stamping before a predetermined countdown from Katie brought everything to a halt. The third and final stage returned to the SSPIA’s customary screaming experiment, an explosive exercise in energy release. These experiments in creating and releasing energy foreshadow a new area of investigation that the SSPIA is moving towards later this month, exploring whether investigators or participants may be causing paranormal phenomena themselves. No EVP was recorded, and the trigger objects next to team members showed no signs of movement, but interestingly the video cameras recorded light anomalies moving towards the penny whistle placed in the centre of the group circle. Both Scott’s camera and SSPIA’s camera recorded the same light anomalies on the first clapping experiment, and Scott’s camera recorded additional anomalies in the silence following the first scream, which our camera did not detect. The group conducting sensory deprivation experiments explored the possibility of a heightened emotional state or sensitivity when their senses were intentionally limited, through the application of a blindfold and earplugs onto willing volunteers. These experiments were another new idea conceived on the day, but were unfortunately jeopardised by the close proximity of the Cellar Vault to the street outside, carrying the intruding sound of Edinburgh’s nightclubs.  Mercat Tours speaker The final half-hour of the event was led by a historical ghost tour from Mercat, explaining the history of the vaults but failing to corroborate or refute the vague impressions picked up by the mediums. Conclusion As a comparatively short and fleeting investigation, the lack of substantial results was expected, though the splitting of the group enhanced the validity of this investigation as we were able to accomplish much in a short space of time. As partners of FMI, we were satisfied with our role supporting the necessary sceptical approach to investigation, to balance out the subjective approach of FMI’s mediums that SSPIA’s empirical philosophy does not incorporate. For SSPIA this presented an opportunity to test new experiments in a location that would otherwise be difficult to access, as well as a chance to explain our approach and ideology to budding investigators, or those with an interest in paranormal study. South Niddry Street Vaults are an incredibly atmospheric and compellingly mysterious location, though the external noise and electrical cables are problematic for EVP and EMF experiments respectively, while groups that use mediums, such as Full Moon Investigations, would have very little in the way of personal records to go on in terms of supporting or discrediting the mediums’ findings. We also did not experience any of the alleged encounters revealed by the tour guide at the end of the night.  Reputedly haunted stairs in the Cellar Area Links Watch FMI and SSPIA's Ghost Fest video here Mary King’s Ghost Fest official website: www.marykingsghostfest.com Full Moon Investigations: www.fullmooninvestigations.co.uk History from Mercat Tours: www.mercattours.com View more images in our gallery Discuss this investigation on our forum |
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