The Edinburgh McKenzie Poltergeist

Sir George McKenzie

This Poltergeist harms the living.

George McKenzie was a lawyer who lived in Edinburgh Scotland in the 1600s.

In 1662, King Charles ll wanted a group of Presbyterian Scots—known as Covernanters—to change their religion. They refused. He had once been their ally seeing them as his best hope to restore his crown but he grew to despise them.

King Charles ll in exile.

George McKenzie was the lawyer who signed the persecution papers for these descenters-- ministers and Christians. They then were either executed—many drawn and quartered-- or imprisoned.

Those who avoided execution experienced a fate worse than death. They were imprisoned in a place known as Covernanters Prison.

This prison used inhumane methods. The prisoners were left with little food, exposed to the cold winters—for there was no heat—and those that survived these conditions were eventually sold into slavery.

Covernanters Prison

Mckenzie was a legal scholar who wrote the first Scottish novel. He appeared by day to be a loving husband and father but he was a vile brute with a sadistic side. He had many of the prisoners at Covernanter’s Prison tortured and beheaded.

When George McKenzie died he was buried in Greyfriar’s Cemetery, which was near Covernanters Prison—many of his victims are buried here as well.

At the time of his death he had signed the deaths of over 18,000 enemies of the former King Charles ll.

His burial site, known as the Black Mausoleum, has Poltergeist activity connected to it.

McKenzie's tomb.

McKenzie's coffin.

People became acutely aware of this activity in 1998. A homeless man desperate for someplace warm vandalized the mausoleum that contains George McKenzie’s coffin. He crawled into a nearby empty coffin. It began to shake. He was then covered in the dust of the deceased.

A guard at the cemetery witnessed this event. Both men ran away, terrified. This was just the beginning.

The next day a female passerby looked in through the gates at McKenzie’s tomb. She stated she was “blasted off the steps by a cold force.”

Soon after, another female was found lying unconscious her neck covered in bruises as if someone had tried to choke her to death.

Did the homeless man awaken this angry spirit?

Even more reports about the ghost at Greyfriar’s Cemetery rolled in. The activity became so bad the city council closed this cemetery to the public.

However, a few years later ghost tours of Greyfriars Cemetery were offered.

What is unique about this case is Poltergeist activity normally only lasts a few weeks but in the Greyfriar case the activity is ongoing. Instead of it targeting one person or a family this activity targets many.

In fact, the McKenzie Poltergeist has targeted hundreds of people—especially those that take the tour. To date over 350 people have claimed they were attacked in this cemetery. One hundred and seventy have passed out. More have been physically injured including broken bones.

Attacks done by McKenzie Poltergeist.

It is believed that several of George McKenzie’s tortured victims also haunt this cemetery located on the southern edge of Old Town in Edinburgh.