Spook-tacular mission

THE News of the World this week took a TERRIFYING underground journey into Edinburgh's historic vaults.

This labyrinth of chilly chambers has been crowned the most haunted place in Britain - and is home to some of the world's most notorious spooks.

Our reporter spent a day in the vaults with a ghost guru and top medium to discover what really lies beneath . . . and unearthed more than just cobwebs!

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NESTLED deep in the heart of Edinburgh lie the underground vaults - a series of dark and mysterious tunnels linking the city to a tragic past.

Built under the arches of South Bridge, the damp and eerie chambers are widely believed to be one of the most haunted areas in Britain.

I step down the dark stairs into the dark, dark vaults with spiritualist medium Ada Donaldson and Mercat tours guide Joyce Clark.We enter the labyrinth of chilling tunnels and my heart is pounding.

Joyce lights up the vault with a vanilla candle. So far so good.

Ada, founder of Angels Gateway Spiritual Church in Edinburgh, has visited the city's vaults several times and is instantly greeted by a crowd of spirits.

She gives us an insight into the vaults' rich and troubling history. The underground chambers were discovered by former Scotland rugby star Norrie Rowan, 58, in the 1980s while renovating his Blair Street pub. He found a secret door to the city's hidden world and opened the tunnels to the public in 1994.

The vaults were built in 1788 and intended as storage areas for the South Bridge shops, but as conditions in the passages deteriorated, businesses escaped the old town and left the vaults to the city's poor.

We stumble over the uneven and unchanged stone floors as Joyce leads us deeper.

Suitably spooked by the damp and chilling atmosphere, we arrive in a small side room. Ada says it was originally used by men and their mistresses. Several young girls were murdered in here, and there is a chilling sadness to the air.

Being a cynic, I scan the room for an air conditioning unit.

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I stand in the corner facing the room, as two male spirits approach me. Ada describes my paranormal pals in intricate detail - they are apparently stroking my hair and trying to push me further into their lair.

But when Ada tells me what they are trying to do, I decide it's time to move on.

We are eagerly guided into a larger vault to meet the notorious Mr Boots - an underground legend. Ada takes my hands and seems nervous about the spirit. Instead she invites a young female to approach me.

I shut my eyes and describe the young lady who comes to mind, a petite brunette named Marie.

I'm hardly surprised to hear Ada agree with my vision but feel suitably pleased with my newly-found psychic powers.

Moving to another vault, I try to imagine the room in its original state. Joyce tells me a family would have lived here and I find myself picturing a tiny cot.

I watch in awe as Ada moves to the corner of the room and picks up the spirit of a dying baby - before I reveal my vision to her. With tears in her eyes she watches as the baby is taken from the home before turning to comfort the spirit of the mother.

Ada sweeps the spirits from her face like cobwebs and suggests we search for more positive energies. Joyce directs us across the road to a series of vaults no longer open to the public.

Ada, who is a stranger to these chambers, is immediately struck with a crippling feeling of sickness. Then Joyce reveals that this was once the lair of mass murderers Burke and Hare.

The gruesome twosome lived in these vaults, smothering their corpses deep underground before selling them to medical students in the buildings above.

Ada has turned pale and asks me to sniff the air, reportedly riddled with iodine and intestines.

But the thought of dead serial killers, prowling the darkness proves too much. I suggest a sharp exit and we head off in search of a different kind of spirit....to steady our nerves.

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