Back in 1665, a local tailor ordered some materials from London so that he could make clothes for the villagers.

Little did he know that this simple delivery would wreak havoc on the small community. In fact, it would decimate the village. The tailor had brought the bubonic plague to that area of England and 260 Eyam villagers would end up dying as a result.

It was a mortality rate twice as high as London during the Great Plague.

The village never fully recovered, however, today this idyllic picture-postcard location has a dedicated museum that details the events of the plague in Eyam and other aspects of local history.

For a dark tourist in this part of England, it is definitely worth a visit.

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Inside Eyam Plague Museum

The museum has an eclectic collection of artifacts covering the lives of Eyam locals over the past few centuries.

It covers a short history of medicine in the 17th century which provides an insightful background to the events of 1665.

The village is well known for the devastating impact that the plague had on its citizens and most of the museum is dedicated to educating visitors on this macabre topic.

A series of displays provide information on the path of the plague from London to Eyam via the arrival of that package of cloth for the tailor.

There is also a rather effective tableau of rectors Stanley and Mompesson. It is known that they had taken a lead role in attempting to contain the outbreak from reaching nearby villages, and this scene depicts them discussing a plan of action.

Part of the solution was to set up a Boundary Stone between Eyam and the village of Stoney Middleton. One exhibit is a half-sized replica of the stone.

This reconstruction of the stone has small depressions that are filled with vinegar. At the time it was believed it would help the plague from spreading. A disinfectant for the middle-ages if you will.

Money was placed into the vinegar by Eyam locals so that it could be “safely” exchanged for food and supplies.

In another part of the museum, there is a chilling display that shows the last hours of a plague victim.

This leads to exhibits that show the different types of remedies people used to try to fight off the plague or deal with the symptoms.

Where the museum highlights other periods of Eyam’s history, you will find displays of prehistoric tools found locally, as well as fossils, coins, and pottery.

There is also an abundance of interesting ephemera, including early postcards, posters, and photographs, as well as historic local documents such as leases, wills, and maps.

Most of the museum is the work of dedicated local history enthusiast Clarence Daniel. He had collected many of the artifacts over decades and had them on display for visitors to his house.

On his death in 1987, the vast collection was passed to the Village Society. They have since added to it all with updated displays and reconstructions and set up the new, official museum that exists today.

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Where is Eyam Museum

• Address: Hawkhill Rd, Eyam, Hope Valley S32 5QP, United Kingdom
• Phone: +44 1433 631371
• Website

The museum is easy to find as Eyam is very small. Conveniently, it stands directly opposite the main village car park.

There is a small admission fee (see tab above for details).

One small detail you shouldn’t overlook is the weathervane atop the gable at the museum entrance.

Above the directional arrows is a rat. It is there as a reminder of the plague and how rats were responsible for carrying the disease to humans. A rat is also part of the museum signage.

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Plague Memorial Service

On the last Sunday of August, a procession is led by the local Rector in what is called “The Plague Memorial Service”

For this, the congregation walks from the Church to Cucklet Delf. During the height of the plague, this was the location where outdoor services were taken place.

A commemoration is held at the same spot every year.

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Originally used as a fortification by the mighty Venetians, the buildings on the island were modified in the late 18th century to house plague victims.

From 1793-1814 the island acted as a quarantine station, one of many within the Venetian lagoon at the time. However, what set Poveglia apart was the number of infected souls that were said to have died there.

With reports in the region of 160,000, a dark local legend suggests that 50 percent of the soil is made up of human remains.

Use as a Quarantine Station

The island first came under the jurisdiction of the Magistrato alla Sanità (Public Health Office) in 1776, and all goods and people arriving into Venice by ship would be checked there.

When the plague arrived less than 30 years later, the island was transformed into a confinement station, the role becoming permanent under orders by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1805.

As plague once again made its way through parts of Europe, the death toll on Poveglia increased into the tens of thousands. As a dumping ground for the diseased, victims would be dropped off at the island and literally left to die.

Plague ridden corpses that had died elsewhere, would also be taken to the island and dropped into mass graves before being burned.

The extent of the pain and suffering that occurred at the tiny location is hard to comprehend.

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Life as a Mental Asylum

The dark history of Poveglia island continued into the 20th century too. No longer used as a quarantine station the buildings laid abandoned for most of the 1800s.

Then, in 1922 they were converted into an asylum for the mentally ill. A rather twisted local myth has it that one of the doctors tortured and killed many of his patients on the island.

He would butcher them before adding the remains into the already bone ridden soils of Poveglia.

Later, haunted by the souls of the victims he had brutalized, the doctor threw himself off the bell tower.

To this day those that venture close to the island say that they can still hear the bells of the tower, even though they were removed many decades ago.

The asylum was closed in 1968, however, despite the buildings being converted yet another time for use as a retirement home, evidence of its life as both a quarantine station and mental asylum, still remain.

Fortified structures adorn parts of the island and sections of the asylum exist with rusting bed frames and grated bars over broken windows.

The location of the plague pits can also be found if you know where to look.

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Where is Poveglia Island

Visiting Poveglia Island Today

As we have already mentioned, Poveglia is strictly off-limits. It is actually illegal to set foot on the island.

That doesn’t stop people visiting of course. A conversation with a water taxi driver and the right amount of Euros in your hand will get access.

Our advice would be not to stay too long, however. In 2016 five tourists from Colorado had to be rescued by firefighters after attempting to spend the night on the island.

As darkness fell they became terrified. A presence in the dark had begun to haunt them. Unable to spend a minute longer on the island, they ran down to the shore and started screaming for help.

Fortunately for them, a sailboat closeby heard their cries and notified the authorities.

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I have an insatiable wanderlust for the extraordinary. Born with an adventurous spirit, I have spent over the past decade exploring the far reaches of our planet, seeking out the strange and mysterious.

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The story alone is enough to make your hairs prickle, (or maybe that’s just me whenever I see the infamous image of the medieval plague doctor mask).

As the tragic legend goes, back in the 1640s hundreds of plague victims from around the city were rounded up and herded into the tight quarters of Mary King’s Close.

The close was then walled up and everyone inside left to die. Their desperate screams allegedly rang out across Edinburgh (which was clearly a lot smaller then) for days.

The truth behind the legend

As with many legends, time has exaggerated the details. The true history is nearly as gruesome, however.

The Black Death hit Scotland hard during the 17th Century. A quarter of the population was lost and the disease was rampant in overcrowded areas such as Edinburgh.

The dirty, warren-like tenements of Mary King’s Close (its semi-subterranean alleys were home to around 500 people), were particularly prone.

Plague victims were too weak to move from their homes, and the death toll continued to rise.

That image of the plague doctor that gives me goosebumps, belonged to the likes of local doctor George Rae.

He would visit the sick and dying in Mary King’s Close, wearing the full leather protection clothing and that hideous mask with the long bird beak.

This design was used so that aromatic fragrances could be packed into the long nose, in the belief that it would protect the wearer from what was considered then, an airborne disease.

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Treating the victims

If treated early enough, it is believed that the process may have saved lives.

A quarantine zone

The legend of the victims being walled in very likely comes from the fact that the whole area was quarantined during the plague epidemic. Dr. Rae did what he could, however, the disease still wiped out a large percentage of the local population.

Finally, almost 100 years after the deadly pandemic, the whole site was sealed off in the 1750s. The City Chambers building was constructed on top of the underground warren. No one was trapped in the foundations and left to die mind you.

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Where is Mary King’s Close

Visiting the Remains of Mary King’s Close

The abandoned remains of Mary King’s Close were closed to the general public for centuries.

It wasn’t until 2003 that an entrance was opened up, and what’s left of the subterranean layout made safely accessible to the likes of us.

Today, anyone with an interest in Edinburgh’s macabre history can pay a visit and there are a number of guided tours available. True to form, there’s also a good little ghost story attached to the site.

One of the spirits that haunt those musty passages is that of a ten-year-old girl named Annie. Showing visible signs of the plague that took her life, believers report temperature changes and feeling a strange presence in the room which is said to be hers.

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