Haunted Edinburgh

Major Thomas Weir

Edinburgh's Major Weir is remembered as "The Wizard of West Bow".

Major Thomas Weir was born in 1599 and lived in Edinburgh's West Bow, a street between the Castle and the Grassmarket at the bottom of Victoria Street. He lived together with his sister - some say she was called "Grizel", others the less exotic "Jean". Weir was a pillar of the establishment and cut a striking figure carrying his black thornwood staff around at all times.

Weir would frequently attend religious meetings and lead the company in prayer. Then at one such event something inexplicable happened. Instead of prayer, Major Weir began speaking of foul crimes. His own.

He publicly confessed to witchcraft, satanism and incest. At first people thought he had taken leave of his senses, however his sister confirmed his confessions. She also claimed that Weir obtained his powers through his demonic staff.

The Major was strangled, then burnt - along with his staff - in 1670. His sister was hanged. Both were defiant to the last. As the rope was put around Weir's neck he was asked to say "Lord be merciful to me". Instead he apparently replied:

"Let me alone, I will not. I have lived as a beast, and I must die as a beast"

Some accounts say his sister attempted to outrage public sensibility to the last by removing her clothing on the scaffold.

Even with Weirs gone, their presence remained. There were reports of strange occurences in their home. These were not the pained moanings we usually associate with ghosts but the sounds of revelry. It seemed that, wherever Major Thomas Weir had gone, he was having a great time!

The Weir house was pulled down in the nineteenth century, yet his ghost is still sometimes heard enjoying itself in the area that was once the West Bow.