Modern Apprenticeship News

Back in the day, an apprenticeship was the key to gaining a rewarding career, as well as a skilled trade. Early apprenticeships included roof thatching, carpentry, farming and land skills. These developed into apprenticeships focusing on plumbing, electrics and other more modern career skills. However, in recent years there has been a scarcity of quality apprenticeships and the upcoming generation of workers are not having the same level of teaching that apprentices used to be given. Therefore there is a gap in the market for skilled work.

What We Do

At The Real Mary King’s Close we are very proud of our apprenticeship programme.  Our apprentices are given the chance to enter the ‘earn as you learn’ programme and actually acquire the right skills to do the job. We understand that whilst college and university is a great step towards the background of a job, in reality it doesn't always offer the practical information and knowledge needed on so many jobs.

Apprenticeship Success and Follow Through

We have had such success with the previous intake that we are actually investing money into another programme to give the new recruits insight how businesses are run, how the tourist industry works and give them the qualifications while they are on the job. The recruits are lucky enough to receive invaluable information and skills that you just can’t get in a classroom. Scotland’s Modern Apprenticeship programme sees some 25,000 new employees get access to such jobs each year and we hope that we continue to be a shining example of the benefits to the Scottish economy, while bringing new jobs to young people.

The Modern Apprenticeship programme covers more than 80 business sectors and this encompasses nursing, ICT, engineering, the food & drink industry and so many more. We value what it brings to the people who are recruited and we appreciate the practical skills that people glean from it. 

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!

Happy Halloween from the Close

Its that time of the year again!  The Close is buzzing with visitors looking for the opportunity to come face to face with some of the sites 'residents'.

Mary King's Close is infamous for paranormal sightings and stories.  The tour itself is factual and historical, but that doesn't stop the more curious visiting in the hope of 'spying a spook'.

One of Europe's oldest recorded ghost stories was written on Mary King's Close in 1685 - 'Satan's Invisible World', where a couple are visited by apparitions and suffer the subsequent curse. 

No doubt one of the most famous myths of the Close is that its haunted reputation is the result of unfortunate victims being abandoned, with Mary King's Close being bricked up and its inhabitants left to die a gruesome death.  Whilst a dramatic and fascinating theory, its completely untrue.  History shows that plague victims were quarantined in their homes, a white flag hung outside the residence and neighbours would leave food and ale to support the stricken family.

Toys in Annie's Room

However, one of our famous residents alledgedly did fall foul of the plague - little Annie, a girl abandoned by her family, only making herself know centuries later to Aiko Gibo, a Japanese psychic who visited the Close in the 1990's with a film crew.  She felt Annie pulling at her trousers and sobbing that she had lost her doll.  One of her production assistants ran to a Royal Mile shop and bought a tartan 'Barbie' style doll.  Annie was happy and the doll remains in the room to this day to keep the little girl at peace.....along with gifts bought for her from visitors from around the world who have heard her story and sought to help.  Those who don't have a toy often leave spare change which in turn is donated to the Sick Kids Hospital Friends Foundation here in Edinburgh, helping today's sick children in the city.  We think Annie would be happy that other children are being helped in her name.

The Real Mary King's Close

Some visitors and staff experience things on the Close every day.  Many do not.  Those that do feel the presence of some of the Close's more mysterious residents have reported smelling strong tobacco smoke, spying a cat running between the vaulted rooms, seeing a tall figure in the corner of the 17th century house and seeing a figure in a feathered hat at the beginning of the tour (not a tour guides!).  Whatever you've felt, we are always happy to hear your story from your visit.   It contributes to the rich history and real stories of The Real Mary King's Close.

Happy Halloween from all at the Close!

A plea for votes!

Staff take to the Close 'X Factor' style to secure your vote

If you've been on our Twitter feed or Facebook page it won't have escaped your attention that we are thrilled to have been nominated for the British Travel Award for Best UK Heritage Attraction 2012.    There's under two weeks left to vote, so our staff took to the Close to campaign for your vote! 

Craig Miller our General Manager had this to say: “It is hugely prestigious to even receive a nomination in this category, as the UK has so many wonderful heritage attractions, but we made it down to the top four, and we’re just hoping that we get enough support to make it all the way to the top spot,” comments general manager, Craig Miller.  “We don’t quite have the profile of some of the other shortlisted candidates –which includes St Paul’s Cathedral in London – but we make up for that with a visitor experience that is second to none, combining an unseen tour of Edinburgh’s buried streets and some of the best tour guides in the country!”

If you could take 5 minutes to vote for us, we would really appreciate it, you could also be in the running to win a fantastic prize from the British Travel Awards. Click here to make your vote count! There are plenty of reasons why we deserve your vote!

If you could spare a vote for our sister attraction Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth that would be marvellous - they've been nominated in the Best UK Leisure Attraction category.

THANK YOU - we very much appreciate your support!

 

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