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This is an image of George MacKenzie, the MacKenzie Poltergeist

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Below is an image of the tomb of George MacKenzie known as the "Black Mausoleum".

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These are all images of injuries claimed to be from attacks by the MacKenzie Poltergeist.

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Documentary of The Scariest Places on Earth

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Documentary of The Scariest Places on Earth

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During this episode, Greyfrairs Cemetery, which is the location of MacKenzies tomb, is claimed to be one of the scariest places on Earth. It includes first hand experiences with attacks by the poltergeist.

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Greyfrairs Cemetery Edinburgh, Scotland * Dorsey Mansion Springer, New Mexico * Leap Castle , Ireland * Greyfrairs Cemetery Edinburgh, Scotland Greyfriars Kirkyard is the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located at the southern edge of the Old Town, adjacent to George Heriot's School.

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During a nighttime investigation of the cemetery, a voice can be heard yelling at the investigators and bangs can be heard from all around them.

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Poltergeist activity caught during Investigation at Scotland's Most Haunted Graveyard

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You may want to skip to 6:10 near to end of the video if you just want to see what we captured while doing our investigation, but would appreciate your feed back if you watch the entire clip.

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Layout of the Cemetary and Images of Attacks

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Layout of the Cemetary and Images of Attacks

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This video is a slideshow of various images showing the layout of the cemetery where the Black Mausoleum and the MacKenzie Poltergeist are located. It also show numerous photographs of injuries sustained by paranormal attacks.

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The Mackenzie Poltergeist and images of Poltergeist attacks and Mist

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The Mackenzie Poltergeist in Edinburgh Greyfriars Kirkyard

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This website describes one persons travel to the mausoleum and their first hand experience with an incident with the MacKenzie Poltergeist.

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It's scary to be mugged, chased down a dark ally, or forcibly asked to leave a club, but it's not spooky. Spooky is something that happens that his beyond comprehension, something frightening in a supernatural way, it's that feeling of being watch from a dark place. The spookiest thing that has ever happened to me while traveling was being scratched by a poltergeist in Edinburgh. Do I think that's cool? Yes, yes I do. I think it's freakin' awesome! It happened on a ghost walk, which I don't usually go on (and I'm not entirely certain why I choose to to on this particular one), but it was totally worth it.

The City of the Dead walking tour is the only tour that has the keys to the Covenanters Prison, the Black Mausoleum, and the poltergeist. The tour starts like every other ghost walk, walking around the city being told general stories about murder and death in the places we were passing. Edinburgh is one of the most haunted cities in the world, but, honestly, doesn't every ghost walk make that same claim. I need something shocking and I want proof. As the Greyfriars Cemetery gate was opened, the atmosphere took a turn. No longer were we looking at buildings that had once been home to something frightening or the location of a horrific event, we were walking across the ground and the graves where murder, grave robbery, and torture actually happened; the corpses are there to prove it. Also, unlike the rest of the tour, this place was and is haunted...true story, no joke - there's proof. FYA.

Greyfriars was the only cemetery in Edinburgh for a long time, which means that the graves held within its walls are filled with bodies, and if you believe in restless or disrespected spirits that haunt the living, this place is one of the most likely places in the world to find them. As we walked through the cemetery, the guide told us stories about grave robbers and coffins that have since been opened to find their lid madly clawed at by a person who had been entombed within while alive. In fact, being buried alive was such a problem, that people were sometimes buried with a bell attached to them, so if they awoke buried alive, they could try and signal for help....no one was ever there to help and no one was ever saved by the bell (except maybe Zach). I have also since been told that there are so many remains interred beneath the dirt that during hard rains, bones will sprout from the ground. Creepy but not spooky...yet.

In the back corner of the Greyfriars is the Covenanters Prison. This section is kept locked by the city, is only accessible on the City of the Dead tour, and is no laughing matter. Beyond the iron gate is the exact location where 1,200 Covenanters were tortured, murdered, and buried by the English in the late 1600′s. The worst perpetrator of these horrific actions was Bloody George Mackenzie. While alive, he was personally responsible for the deaths of Covenanters through torture and mutilation on these very grounds. While dead, he will attack you...possibly much worse than he attacked me.

There are two explanations for the appearance of the poltergeist; kids stealing his skull or a vagrant breaking into a tomb and falling through the floor into a hidden layer of bones. Either way, there are been thousands of recorded attacks since 1999. Needless to say, I was pumped to get into its stronghold, the Black Mausoleum. Before we entered, the tour guide advised our group to be aware of our bodies as we and, if anyone felt cold, a sudden pain, or the feeling of being pushed or pulled they should move or leave the tomb entirely. I stood inside, unsure if I wanted to get dragged along the back wall or if I wanted it to happen to someone else in the group. As the minutes passed, I was sure I wanted it to happen to me, but still nothing occurred. Let down and beginning to loose faith in the whole experience, I left, went back to my hostel, and jumped in the shower.

As soon as the water hit my back, I was stuck with intense pain. I had no idea what caused it and jumped out of the shower to take a look. Down the right side of my back was a three inch long blood red scratch, possibly 1/2 inch thick. Hell yes, Poltergeist scratch! I quickly ran though my day and tried to remember if I had bumped into anything or possibly been hurt in any way, but there was nothing I could remember (also, I'm pretty sure I would remember whatever had caused such an injury). I went back to the tour company to report the incident, and asked to go back in the Black Mausoleum to have a picture taken...hopefully to find ghostly orbs in the print. There weren't any when I got the roll developed, but I still got my mark!

My scratch is just a drop in the bucket compared to what others have experienced in this mausoleum, and I would highly recommend anyone interested in ghosts and the supernatural check out the Mackenzie Poltergeist.

Do you have any ghost stories from your travels? Have you ever been spooked? Tell me all about it in the comments.

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It's scary to be mugged, chased down a dark ally, or forcibly asked to leave a club, but it's not spooky. Spooky is something that happens that his beyond comprehension, something frightening in a supernatural way, it's that feeling of...

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The history of the encounters at the tomb of George MacKenzie. It also highlights the life and death of MacKenzie as well. Many visitors to George Mackenzie;s tomb experience supernatural occurrences and many end up sustaining injuries while on site.

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Greyfriars Kirkyard is the site of one of the most bloody religious persecutions carried out in the 17th century by King appointed Lord Advocate Sir George Mackenzie against the rebel Presbyterian Covenanters for their failure to accept state approved religion and swear loyalty to the King. It is also the location of the most well documented poltergeist activity in the world - the Mackenzie Poltergeist in Greyfriars.

It all began fifty years after the "National Covenant" was signed, pledging to keep Scotland a Presbyterian country, when King Charles II ascended the throne and quickly disavowed the Covenanters right to freely practice their religion and demanded that all accept the new official state religion. On June 22, 1679, the king's forces swept the last of the Presbyterian Covenanters away in a bloody yet decisive battle known as the Bothwell Brig.

Refusing to swear allegiance to the King, several thousand Presbyterian Covenanter rebels were rounded up and imprisoned in a section of the Greyfriars Kirkyard (the graveyard of the small Greyfriars Kirk parish, owned by The Church of Scotland), known as the Covenanters' prison.

Over the coming winter months, the Covenanter prisoners of war were branded dissidents and subjected to deportation, inhumane torture, starvation, exposure and beheadings at the hands of Lord Advocate Sir George Mackenzie. Nicknamed "Bluidy MacKenzie", by his victims, this vile brute was in charge of the Presbyterian Covenanter persecution on behalf of Charles II. And, though his everyday life facade was that of loving husband and father, legal scholar, published author (it's said he wrote the first Scottish novel) and well read man, the private business of persecution that he conducted on behalf of the king, was so well hidden that even his wife never saw this vicious and sadistic side. The persecution was relentless and in the end, most if not all of the prisoners died and were buried in the Greyfriars Kirkyard cemetery where they had been held captive.

In all, Mackenzie was responsible for the deaths of 18,000 of his countrymen in pursuit of a unified religion, during a period that was labeled, 'The Killing Time'. His bloody reign of terror came to an end in 1691 when he died and was ironically buried in a casket contained in the Black Mausoleum tomb, a building located on the GreyFriars Kirkyard a short distance from the scene of his gruesome war crimes and where his victims were laid to rest.

For 300 years, both victims and tormentor rested in an uneasy peace, just feet from each other. And, then one dark and stormy night in 1998, a homeless man, possibly wanting shelter from the rain or looking for something valuable to steal, broke into the 'Black Mausoleum', a vaulted and well fortified tomb, the final resting place of the infamous 'Bluidy MacKensie'.

The vagrant ransacked the tomb, smashing caskets on every level until he came to one which held the body of Bluidy MacKensie himself.

While trying to pry open the casket, a large hole opened up in the floor under his feet, dropping the man into a chamber below. The pit was filled with the remains of plague victims, unceremoniously dumped into the hole and covered over during plague days as a quick way to dispose of bodies. Confronted by the putrefied remains and stench of still rotting flesh, the homeless man ran screaming hysterically from the mausoleum into the night, never to be heard from again.

The next day, another passerby looking through the iron gates of MacKenzie's tomb was (in her own words) "blasted back off it's steps by a cold force." Sometime later, another woman was found near the tomb's entrance lying unconscious and her neck covered with bruises as if someone had tried to choke the life from her.

Had this homeless man awakened an angry spirit, to be let loose on a sleepy and unsuspecting burgh?

Once these stories of the macabre hit the internet, the legend of the Mackenzie Poltergeist in Greyfriars was born and lit up the area like wildfire attracting ghost hunters and macabre seekers from every corner of the earth.

Since 1998, when Mackenzie's casket was first defiled, over 500 ghostly attacks have been reported by those visiting the tomb, many of these injuries documented with photographs.

So far, documented injuries perpetrated by the MacKenzie ghost include burns, skin gouges (around the neck and abdomen); unexplained bruises; broken fingers; feeling as if one's hair is being pulled. Some visitors have said they were punched or kicked by an invisible attacker while in the MacKenzie tomb. Others talk of feeling nausea or numbness, strange smells or auditory hallucinations such as wall and floor knocks, all having occurred with multiple witnesses present. Some even claimed the ghost had followed them back home or to a hotel.

In 2000, Colin Grant, an exorcist and minister of a spiritualist church performed an exorcism ceremony on the graveyard. Standing in the cemetery, it's said he was overcome by the sensation of being surrounded by hundreds of tormented souls and evil spirits trying to break through to the mortal realm. Fearing for his own life, he left quickly, saying the evil was too powerful for him to overcome. A few weeks later, Colin Grant was found dead of a sudden and unexpected heart attack.

Today, many people believe this graveyard is haunted by the Mackenzie Poltergeist, a malevolent spirit who's hatred lives on from beyond the grave. And, far from a restless or benevolent spirit, he exacts punishment on any who dare disturb his final resting place.

Resource links:
http://theoverworld.tumblr.com/post/29603001850/the-black-mausoleum-tomb-of-bluidy-mackenzie http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/column.php?id=220743 http://www.cityofthedeadtours.com/the-mackenzie-poltergeist/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mackenzie_(lawyer)

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Mackenzie Poltergeist in Greyfriars | Historic Mysteries

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Greyfriars Kirkyard is the site of one of the most bloody religious persecutions carried out in the 17th century by King appointed Lord Advocate Sir George Mackenzie against the rebel Presbyterian Covenanters for their failure to accept state approved religion and swear loyalty to the King.

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Tours were available to visit and walk through the "Black Mausoleum" where the MacKenzie Poltergeist is said to haunt. Visitors of the mausoleum often had paranormal encounters including unexplained cuts and bruises, knocking noises from under the ground of the tomb, and also fainting.

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Over the last several years, one small tomb in Edinburgh's Greyfriars Cemetery has become famous as the lair of a malevolent paranormal entity. The tomb is known as the 'Black Mausoleum' and is located behind the high walls and locked gates of an area known as the Covenanter's Prison.

The entity has been named 'The Mackenzie Poltergeist'.

I will readily admit to having a soft spot for Mackenzie. I've already written a book about it called The Ghost that Haunted Itself and I used to live in a house in the graveyard, right across from the Covenanter's Prison. Not that I'm weird or anything like that - the rent was cheap. I even started City of the Dead Tours to explore the entity.

Sounds obsessive but, honestly, it isn't. Most authors who write about a famous supernatural case (should they be crazy enough) are unfamiliar with the location, the people involved and the more intimate details of the situation. Here I was living a few feet away from a paranormal case that was attracting massive media attention. It was too good an opportunity to turn down. Not long after the initial sightings of the Mackenzie Poltergeist, the Covenanter's Prison was locked by City of Edinburgh Council. I obtained permission to set up tours that would unlock and enter the site, to see if anything unexplained happened. It also gave me access to every witness to any paranormal phenomena.

The Black Mausoleum seems to differ from Edinburgh's other haunted locations for two reasons. One is the frequency of the poltergeist sightings. The other is the severity of the incidents. The period between the first recorded sightings in 1999 and the present, have seen hundreds of documented 'attacks' in the Black Mausoleum and Covenanters Prison. Of these attacks, an astonishing 140 have caused the witness to collapse. I now have 75 pages of eyewitness accounts, and there are probably many more people who encountered the poltergeist but didn't write to me with their stories.

Over the years, there have been numerous reports of hot spots, cold spots and cuts, bruises and burns on witnesses' bodies - often under their clothes. Photographs have been taken of these marks as well as many pictures of an unidentified shape in the tomb. There have been sightings of a white figure, unexplained smells, and auditory anomalies - including knocking noises under the ground and inside the tomb itself. Dead animals are found, unmarked, in front of the Black Mausoleum. People have complained that an unseen apparition has pulled their hair, grabbed their legs and arms and hit them. One or two have even claimed to be possessed. The area has been exorcised twice - both times unsuccessfully.

Poltergeist activity has been reported in four different houses around the graveyard and a large fire broke out in the residences behind George Mackenzie's tomb in 2002.

Then, in October 2003, a fire swept though my house and the tour company offices - both overlooking the graveyard. It destroyed years worth of letters, photographs, records and statements concerning the Mackenzie Poltergeist, as well as every possession I had in the world. None of the surrounding properties were damaged and an official cause for the fire was never established. Fortunately I had saved most of the sightings and eyewitness accounts on a computer in another building - about the only thing that did survive. I'll not be outsmarted by something that hangs around in a tomb.

Mind you, I live somewhere else now.

I don't know what the Mackenzie Poltergeist really is. I don't know if it's a supernatural entity, a pheromone cloud, a demon or a set of psychosomatic and hysterical reactions. All have been suggested. But I know it has become the best documented supernatural case of all time and probably the most conclusive.

Let me put it this way - if the Mackenzie Poltergeist isn't a genuine supernatural entity then I don't think there's any such thing. Not anywhere in the world.

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Over the last several years, one small tomb in Edinburgh's Greyfriars Cemetery has become famous as the lair of a malevolent paranormal entity. The tomb is known as the 'Black Mausoleum' and is located behind the high walls and locked gates of an area known as the Covenanter's Prison.