Greyfriars Kirkyard

This kirkyard, opened in 1562 on the garden of a former Franciscan friary, is one of the key places in Scottish history. In the church, on 28 February 1638, nobles and ministers signed the National Covenant against Charles I's religious policy. Their followers, the Covenanters, paid dearly for that defiance.

1An open-air prison

After the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679, some twelve hundred Covenanter prisoners were held for months in an enclosure south of the kirkyard, exposed to the weather. The prosecutor who pursued them was Sir George Mackenzie, 'Bluidy Mackenzie'. Paradoxically, he also founded the Advocates Library, forerunner of the National Library of Scotland. He died in 1691 and lies in the round mausoleum in front of you.

Tradition says that ever since a man broke into the mausoleum in the late 1990s, a 'Mackenzie Poltergeist' has scratched and struck visitors. It's the star turn of the night tours, with no evidence at all.

2Cages for the dead

The bodysnatchers were far more real: in the 19th century they sold corpses to the anatomy schools. That's why you'll see graves covered by iron cages, known as mortsafes.

Harry Potter fans come looking for the grave of one Thomas Riddell, who died in 1806, and that of the poet William McGonagall. J. K. Rowling has never confirmed that she drew on them.

3What to look out for

• Mackenzie's mausoleum, round and domed.
• The iron mortsafes over some graves.
• The gate of the Covenanters' Prison, to the south.