Chessel's Court Ghost, Edinburgh

I used tae board in the main building of 4 Chessel's Court, in the Canongate, Edinburgh for three and a half years from 1985. Chessel's Court is through some arches off the Royal Mile in the Old Town of Edinburgh and the buildings that are there were built around 300 years ago tae make the court what it is today but the site had been built on for some hundreds of years before that with wee closes about it. This is my encounter!

"One night, I had been asleep but had woken and got up tae get myself a drink of water, this was about 1.30am. After climbing back in tae bed I heard my landlady's dog growling and scratching at my door to get in. At that same moment something or someone came through the wall beside my bed and started to climb over me. I could feel it pushing down on the blankets as it climbed over me. This went on for what seemed like forever but would say was about two minutes, with the dog growling at the door all the time. It was pitch dark. I just froze and would nae move.

While lying there I was thinking if I sat up fast, what would happen? Would I be face tae face with something that I could nae see as it was so dark or will it just go through me, something I did nae want tae happen fae sure. As soon as it got to the other side of my bed and climbed off me, the dog stopped growling and went back to her bed. I waited a few moments then got up, turned the light on and looked about out the room and out the window, but there was nothing to be found."

The next day I had told my landlady what had happened and she said she never heard a thing and I found that strange in its self as the dog used tae sleep just outside her room and every other time at night when the dog had got up fae whatever reason she always woke, but not this time!

History of the House

"A short time later a gentleman from the floor below was up mentioned how things have changed at Chessel's Court over the 40 odd years he had been living there. I asked him what he meant, in what way? He said he used tae come up tae our house and visit and old lady and he said that the bathroom used to be where the kitchen was and the kitchen where the bathroom was, and that the door to my bedroom used to be at the other end where my bed is now. I asked him again tae show me where my door had been. That gave me the answer as to why whoever it was came through the wall where they did."

It's a well-known fact that if there had been a door moved from where it used tae be then the person who is now a Ghost will come through a wall where the door once was.

When my Landladies daughter visited I told her and she laughed and said, "Told you the court was hunted" she was brought up in the Court.

Also other folk in the court have said that there were ghosts about the place, but in the years I lived there this was the only encounter there I had had.

John.