The other underground
Real Mary King's Close: the street the city built over in 1753
Everyone who books this expecting the vaults is surprised, and everyone who books the vaults expecting this is disappointed. Mary King’s Close is not a storeroom. It is a street — a steep, narrow close of tenement houses running down from the High Street — with a working building sitting on top of it, and people went on living down there until 1902.
Quick answer
Mary King's Close is a 17th-century Edinburgh street that was partly demolished and built over in 1753, when the Royal Exchange — now the City Chambers — was constructed on top of it. The surviving lower levels kept their doorways, windows and fireplaces, and people lived in them until 1902. It is at the opposite end of the Royal Mile from the South Bridge vaults, and the guided tour costs $36.
Mary King's Close, at a glance
- What it is
- A streetnot storage chambers — houses and a close
- Built over
- 1753the Royal Exchange went up on top of it
- Now underneath
- The City Chambersa working council building
- Lived in until
- 1902the fact that surprises people most
- Where
- The High Streetthe opposite end of the Royal Mile from the vaults
- Tour length
- 1 hourguided, timed entry
- Price
- $36the second dearest on this page
- Rating
- 4.7the highest of the twelve tours here
- Temperature
- Coolbut roomier and less raw than the vaults
- The sealed-in story
- A legendnot the documented record
What happened
Why is Mary King's Close underground?
The upper floors came off, a new building went on top, and the street stayed.
Because a building was put on top of it, which is a much stranger answer than the one most people expect.
Edinburgh’s Old Town is built along a ridge, and the closes run off the High Street down both flanks like the teeth of a comb. They were narrow, steep and lined with tenements that could rise many storeys because the ground fell away beneath them. Mary King’s Close was one of these, and an ordinary one.
In 1753 the city began building the Royal Exchange on the north side of the High Street. Rather than clear the site, the builders took the tops off the tenements standing there and used what was left as foundations. The upper storeys came down; the lower ones stayed, with the new building resting on them.
So a section of street survived, roofed over by a structure that had nothing to do with it. Doorways still open off it. Windows still look onto it, from rooms that have not seen daylight since the eighteenth century. Fireplaces are still in the walls. And people went on living in the parts that remained habitable, in some cases until 1902.
That last date is the one that reliably surprises visitors, because the popular version of this story has the close sealed up and abandoned centuries earlier. It was not. It was built under, and life carried on in it for another hundred and fifty years.
What you see
Six things that are actually down there
The reason this tour rates highest of the twelve on this page is simply that there is more to look at.
- A street, with a slope
You walk down it. It falls away from the High Street exactly as it always did, and the gradient is the thing that makes it read as a street rather than a corridor.
- Doorways and thresholds
Openings into what were homes and workshops, with the stone worn where people crossed them.
- Windows that face nothing
Set into internal walls, looking onto a close that has had a building over it since 1753. Nothing about this is reconstructed.
- Fireplaces
Still in the walls, at the height they were used at. In a room with no daylight they are the clearest evidence that this was somebody’s home.
- Furnished rooms
A few spaces are dressed to show how they were lived in. This is the part the vaults cannot offer, and for many visitors it is the whole point.
- The building above, felt rather than seen
You are under the City Chambers, and the guides make a point of telling you what is happening directly overhead while you stand there.
If what you actually wanted was empty stone chambers inside a bridge, that is the other underground — and it is a different tour entirely.
The close against the vaults, compared→Every trip, current fare
Mary King's Close against every other underground tour
Twelve tours, cheapest first, with which underground each one enters. Only one of the twelve goes into the close.
| Tour | Length | Price | Which underground | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old Town & Underground Ghost TourThe cheapest hour under the bridge | 1 h | $20 | The vaults | $20.00 | 4.4 · 1,871 |
| The Edinburgh DungeonAn attraction with actors, not a historical site | 80 min | $24 | None — an attraction | $18.00 | 4.6 · 1,716 |
| Evening Underground Ghost TourThe evening slot in the South Bridge vaults | 75 min | $24 | The vaults | $19.20 | 4.4 · 4,063 |
| Old Town & Underground Historical TourThe bridge and the chambers as the actual subject | 1.5 h | $25 | The vaults | $16.67 | 4.4 · 2,068 |
| Underground Vaults TourThe standard vaults tour, most reviewed in the city | 1 h | $25 | The vaults | $25.00 | 4.5 · 12,500 |
| Haunted Vaults & Graveyard TourA kirkyard and the vaults in one evening | 1.5 h | $27 | The vaults | $18.00 | 4.6 · 7,277 |
| Late-Night Vaults Terror TourThe late slot, run harder | 75 min | $27 | The vaults | $21.60 | 4.6 · 4,571 |
| Extreme Paranormal Underground Ghost TourThe vaults and a kirkyard, played for fright | 75 min | $27 | Vaults + kirkyard | $21.60 | 4.3 · 885 |
| Multi-Sensory Haunted UndergroundThe original Blair Street vaults tour | 75 min | $34 | Blair Street vaults | $27.20 | 4.5 · 2,754 |
| Small-Group Historic Vaults TourThe Blair Street chambers, in a small group | 75 min | $34 | Blair Street vaults | $27.20 | 4.7 · 614 |
| Real Mary King's CloseA street the city built over in 1753 | 1 h | $36 | Mary King's Close | $36.00 | 4.7 · 4,457 |
| Vaults Evening Tour with WhiskyTwo hours, ending with a dram underground | 2 h | $39 | The vaults | $19.50 | 4.7 · 2,798 |
The legend
Was Mary King's Close sealed up with people inside?
Built over for a building project, not sealed. And lived in until 1902.
No, and the better guides say so plainly.
The story — that the close was walled up during an outbreak of disease with its residents still in it — is folklore. It is a very good story and it has been attached to this place for a long time, but it is not what the record shows. The close was partly demolished for a building project in 1753 and partly kept as foundations, and people continued to live in what remained until 1902.
It is worth knowing this before you go, for two reasons. The first is that the truth is more interesting: a street that carried on being a street, under a floor, for a century and a half. The second is that it tells you something about how to listen. Almost everything written about underground Edinburgh mixes documented record with folklore, and the operators who separate the two are the ones worth your money.
The close does have its own long-standing ghost story, and the guides tell it. The difference between a good tour and a poor one is whether they tell it as a story or present it as a fact.
Common questions
Real Mary King's Close, answered
What is Mary King's Close?
A 17th-century Edinburgh street off the High Street that was partly demolished and built over in 1753 when the Royal Exchange — now the City Chambers — was constructed on top of it. The surviving lower levels kept their doorways, windows and fireplaces.
Is Mary King's Close the same as the Edinburgh vaults?
No. The vaults are storage chambers inside the arches of the South Bridge, built in 1788, at one end of the Royal Mile. Mary King’s Close is a street under the City Chambers at the other end. Different sites, different centuries, different tours.
Was Mary King's Close sealed up with plague victims inside?
No. That version is folklore rather than record. The close was partly demolished in 1753 for a building project, the remaining levels became foundations, and people went on living in them until 1902.
How much is the Real Mary King's Close tour?
$36 per person for a guided hour. It is the second dearest tour on this page and it carries the highest rating of the twelve, at 4.7.
How long does Mary King's Close take?
About an hour, guided, on timed entry. There is no version where you wander it alone — the site sits under a working council building.
Is Mary King's Close worth it?
If you want to see rather than be told, yes, and more so than the vaults. It is the only underground site in the city where you are looking at a street with doorways and fireplaces rather than at empty rooms.
Is Mary King's Close frightening?
Not especially. It is presented as social history with a ghost story attached rather than as a fright, which makes it the better of the two undergrounds for older children and for anyone who did not come to be startled.
Go deeper
More on the Edinburgh underground
The Edinburgh vaults
Built in 1788, used for thirty years, abandoned, and dug out again.
The bridgeThe South Bridge
Nineteen arches, one of them visible, and 120 chambers inside.
The whole thingThe underground city
What is actually beneath the Old Town, and what is only a story.
Which vaultsBlair Street or Niddry Street
Different chambers under the same bridge, and who runs which.
Side by sideVaults or the close?
The comparison everybody makes, with a straight verdict.
Vaults toursEvery vaults tour compared
Seven tours into the same chambers, and what separates them.
