Chester:
England's Most Haunted City
Soldier
MacKenzie
 Within
the north-west corner of the city walls once stood
the old Chester Royal Infirmary.
It's an area long associated with death: almost
2,000 years ago it was a Roman cemetery whose burials
are still unearthed by archaeologists today; and
from the Middle Ages onwards it hosted plague cabins
where infected Chester people were forced to live
in quarantine until they either recovered or died.
When the Infirmary was still standing, many of
the staff claimed to have seen the spectre of ‘Soldier
MacKenzie’. He was a Scottish soldier brought
there from the trenches with serious wounds during
the First World War. When he languished and died
of his wounds, he was buried with full honours –
but in a hospital shroud instead of his uniform.
Many witnesses believed he marched through the wards
on an eternal mission to find his missing uniform.
Today the hospital has been demolished and replaced
with luxury housing and apartments. Yet few, if
any, of the residents can realise the dark history
of the area or what lies beneath their feet.
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