Rain On The Close!

For the first time in over 100 years, visitors to Edinburgh tourist attraction Real Mary King’s Close were able to feel rain on the underground streets!

This unusual experience happened at the start of the month, when Edinburgh was hit by a large downpour that made the quadrangle above remarkably wet. The water then leaked down into the underground street, creating a rain like effect that only added to the experience of what life was like for residents before the street was closed in the early 20th century.

General Manager, Craig Miller said: “We took the opportunity to make the most of Edinburgh’s wet weather and the leak onto our Close by having some fun with our visitors. Posing for a photograph with an umbrella while it rains in an underground street is a not a daily occurrence and was a unique experience for our visitors. Seeing it rain on the Close was available for one day only while repairs took place and our visitors really embraced it.”

Whilst this was a unique experience, there are lots of other strange going ons coming up on the Close. Join us during the world renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival for our Dark Truth Tour which promises to shed some light on the sinister past of the residents of one of the 16th century’s most famous streets. Taking a winter break? We stay open all year round and have lots of special events planned for our 2014 Close Fest!

To see more fun pictures from the day, head over to our Facebook page. Got your own souvenir picture? We’d love to share it with our visitors, just post your picture on our Facebook page.

Cake Goes Underground!

Calm before the cakey storm!

We've hosted some unusual events at The Real Mary King's Close before, but we never thought that cake would be a major feature for us to theme an event! 

How wrong were we?!  Last night we welcomed the fantastic Edinburgh Cake Ladies to The Close for a belated Halloween celebration of cake and savoury goodness! The talent was endless with some of the most elaborate cakes we have ever seen.

Entertainment was provided by Elliot Bibby, a local young magician who entertained with his feats of magic and mystery.

Between munching cakes and drinking tea, the Cake Ladies (and the younger guests) explored The Close, hearing tales of young Annie and Andrew Chesney's famous thunderbox.

Local charity, and nominated charity of the Edinburgh Cake Ladies, Its Good to Give raised £250 from the nights precedings which made us all feel that we were worthy of enjoying the delicious baking!

As one of our tour guides said after the event: "When I heard the Cake Ladies were visiting, I expected a group of ladies from the WI, complete with their old-school doilies.  This was so much more - AMAZING!!"  Hear, hear and thank you to them all for visiting....and being such wonderful bakers!

Thank you also to Alex Hewitt for taking the photos in the challenging, sorry, atmospheric light of the Close!!!

 

Our tour guides view the delicious spread!

One particularly talented Cake Lady Lou recreated the Close in cakey form! It tasted as good as it looked!

The September Sigh of Relief!

So we're into September, the Royal Mile is back to normal and there is more than an Autumnal feel in the air.

RMKC Team celebrate record numbers in the style of Olympic champion Usain Bolt

For most tourism businesses and restaurants in Edinburgh, a collective sigh of relief is taken in the first week of September as the many festivals of August have finished and the tourists and performers have long gone home.  For us here at the Close, we're back to normal opening hours - 10am to 9pm (last tour) rather than 9am to 11pm (last tour) and we're reflecting on the August whirlwind! 

We welcomed a record number of people, exceeding our previous records for amount of tickets sold in a day and the amount of visitors on the tour in a day.  We've had some great feedback with 95% of our visitors saying they would recommend a visit to their friends or family, which is a testament to our fantastic team of tour guides, retail staff and managers.

One of our tour guides, Marc McKinnon who plays Walter King, the Foul Clenger, put it well -

"So the Fringe Festival has been and gone, and what a busy time it has been. Luckily for us Foul Clengers, we are used to treading through thousands of bodies each day, so it was just another day at work!

Although a completely hectic time of year, both for tourists and attractions alike, it has been so much fun to see all the staff come together and work long hours and deliver some brilliant results on tour - to the masses - daily.

Extending our opening hours as usual allowed more people to come on tours and allows more people to experience our amazing attraction. So, when all is said and done, it has definitely been a win/win, for our tourists and for our attraction, and I feel privileged to be part of our guiding team at the Close"

The 'Hoff' and the team!

One of the highlights of August at the Close was welcoming a special guest to the Close.  Of course all of our visitors are extremely special but we welcomed the legendary David Hasselhoff and his team to the Close for a tour.  The Hoff was a treat, spent time having his photo taken with staff and was a welcome morale boost at a frantic time of year!  

Sport way back when!

With the London 2012 Olympics in full swing and sporting fever truly sweeping the country, if not the world, we thought this would be a great opportunity to reflect on sporting history in Edinburgh.  Whilst there are no records of Mary King being a particularly great gymnast or Stephen Boyd being a dab hand with a racquet, there are some fascinating tales to behold.

The earliest reference to sport in Edinburgh our historian could find could be found at the 'barras' or the barriers, at the west end of the Grassmarket, where the Royal Tournament yards could be found dating back to the early fourteenth century.  Royal Tournaments were also held near St Cuthberts in the West End, on the north side of the Castle, until the infamous Nor' Loch was created.

In the late 15th century and early 16th, King James IV loved tournaments.  He had married Margaret Tudor whose brother was Arthur, and therefore as a result was fascinated by the Arthurian legend, ordering a Round Table to made for one tournament. His tournaments took place at the 'barras' or outside Holyrood Palace and were celebrated throughout Europe.

In 1456, James's grandfather, James II formally designated the little vallley of Greenside to the west of Calton Hill as the official playing fields of Edinburgh. This became the place for plays, 'mystery plays' and organised games of Holy Fest days.  Strangely there is no commemoration of this at the location, but fittingly the Edinburgh Playhouse continues this tradition at the site today.

The usual place for sports before the declaration of the official playing fields were at the Mercat Cross, the Salt Tron (by the Tron Kirk), and the Butter Tron (by what is now the Hub).  'Real tennis' courts could also be found at nobleman's houses, with a Royal tennis court obviously at Holyrood.  Today's sports fans would have been outraged that football and golf were banned on the orders of James I but continued in some form regardless!

It would be remiss of us to do a sporting blog post and not to congratulate Team GB on their accomplishments to date in particular Mary King, the legendary Olympic equestrian star who yesterday won silver with her team mates.  An epic achievement in her sixth Olympics and following an awful accident in 2001.

With thanks to Chris Aliaga-Kelly for his input into this blog post

Only Street in Edinburgh Where It Never Rains....

Our first blog post comes on the same day that our brand new 'street promotion team' hit the Royal Mile and the streets of Edinburgh.  It also comes on one of the wettest days of the month so far...and that's really saying something given the dreadful weather July has given our fair city! The new team truly have their work cut out today!

The Real Mary King's Close - dry and rain-free!

Although we may moan and groan about the wet and wild weather that has been battering the city in recent weeks, the residents of Mary King's Close back in the days when it was open to the skies may have been grateful for the extra water in order to flush the 'nastiness' from the twice daily 'gardez-l'eau' sessions on the Close into the dank and reeking Nor' Loch in what is now Princes Street Gardens. 

However, for our visitors today, keeping dry is a real challenge!  A visit to the Close is providing an entertaining one hour respite from the elements and our doors remain open until 9pm this evening!

Walter King models the RMKC Poncho outside St Giles Cathedral

You can even sport one of our attractive ponchos to keep dry, adorned with the Plague Doctor (as modelled here by Walter King, one of our resident Foul Clengers! 

If you are passing by the attraction today, keep an eye out for Roberta, Mass and Douglas who will be out on the streets every day ready to welcome visitors to the city! Flash them your best smile as they work out in the challenging conditions on the Royal Mile!

Today the Real Mary King's Close is very much the only street in Edinburgh where it never rains!  

(If you're planning on sheltering from the rain in the next few days with us, you're best to prebook to avoid disappointment)