Rising Spirits - Sarah's smile

Edinburgh's past comes alive in the subterranean vaults that lie beneath the well worn paths of the city's cobblestone streets. Orginally used as storerooms, workshops and drinking dens in the 19th century, they became inhabited by poor Highlanders and Irish refugees from the potato famine. They slowly deteriorated and were abandoned to poverty, filth and crime.

But there is a darker side to the past, something few people care to discuss -- the plague that struck the city in 1645. Legend has it that the disease ridden inhabitants of Mary King's Close (a lane on the northern side of the Royal Mile -- the site of the City Chambers -- you can still see its blocked-off northern end from Cockburn street) were walled up in their homes and left to die. When the lifeless bodies were cleared from the houses, they were so stiff that workmen had to hack off limbs to get them through the small doorways and narrow, twisting stairs.

From that day onward, the "Close" was said to be haunted by the spirits of the plague victims. One of the most famous is "Sarah", a little girl who died of the plague, but has been seen as an paranormal apparition carrying a doll, walking with a small dog named "Bailey".