George Mackenzie Mausoleum

Mackenzie was a lawyer and Lord Advocate during the reign of Charles II. He quickly earned a reputation as one of the most zealous persecutors of the Covenanters — people who rebelled against the king's policy in 1638 and signed National covenant. For his cruelty and insensitivity, the Lord Advocate was nicknamed Bloody Mackenzie. He imprisoned many covenanters in the Greyfriars-Kirkyard dungeon in Edinburgh and enjoyed the spectacle of their torture; the guards were allowed to beat the prisoners at any time, and eventually the heads of the unfortunate were impaled on the spikes of the gate.

After his death, Mackenzie was buried in the mausoleum at Greyfriars-Kirkyard — the very cemetery where he persecuted those who opposed the new law. His mausoleum has been repeatedly desecrated.

In 1999, a homeless man who was looking for shelter in the Mackenzie Mausoleum fell through the floor (this hole can still be seen).

In 2004, two teenagers entered the tomb and took away the remains of several unknown people. They even decapitated one of the corpses and used the skull as a wrist puppet. The violators were found and convicted in accordance with the ancient law on desecration of graves.

As a result of such devastating events, the mausoleum became the subject of many local superstitions. It was said that ghosts appeared at the tomb, capable of even causing scratches and bruises to the living.

After all these invasions, the doors to the mausoleum began to be locked, but visitors can still look inside, reciting an old nursery rhyme: 

"Bloody Mackenzie, come out if you dare, lift the latch and slide the bolt!"

You can go to the cemetery at any time. The mausoleum is located on the left side at the back wall of Greyfriars-Kirkyard, if you enter through the main gate.