Great Scot 3/5

On our first full day in Edinburgh we also decided to take a Dark Side tour, seeing that it would be Halloween on the Friday we both wanted to do something a little spooky, well me more so than Bonnie. There were a whole host of ghost tours and haunted Edinburgh tours that we could have chosen from, however we decided to go with another Sandeman’s tour. This tour wasn’t scary or meant to scare it was more looking at the dark history of Edinburgh and how some of the myths around the city were built up.

The tour started at 7 and it was a rainy night, which added to the eeriness of tour. The initial story of the tour was about the tunnels that exist under the Royal Mile. For years it was believed to be a myth that during the medieval period tunnels were built, however years after the tunnels were discovered. The only issue was that there were forks and turns and no lighting so no one knew where exactly the tunnels would lead. To solve this problem they sent down a bagpiper who played and those above could hear it. They followed it from the castle all the way to Tron Kirk where suddenly the music stopped. Search parties were sent down, but the bag piper was never found. It is said that now at 3 am you can hear the bag piper playing, trying to find his way out of the tunnels.

After this first story we then moved onto the North Bridge and looked over train station. It was here that we heard the stories of the witch trials of Edinburgh and how they used to throw women into the Nor Loch. The Nor Loch was not an actual lake; it was a man made lake – a lake made out of human excrement. It was in here that they would throw the bodies of women suspected of witchcraft. Those that drowned were proven innocent; those that floated were then taken to Calton Hill and burned.

We then as a group walked up Calton Hill, which in near pitch dark meant that the shadows cast around the small hill were quite frightening. The purpose of visiting the crag was that it is outside of the border of what was old Edinburgh. It was believed to be the place where the fairies and mystical creatures lived and later the site of the witch burnings.

From Calton Hill we stopped at the Calton Prison and Old Calton Cemetery. The cemetery is where Hume is buried along with a few other notable people. At night the cemetery was quite scary as there is minimal light. One of the creepiest sites is the gravestone that seems to have the image of a screaming face. This is tied to the story of the artist David Allen, who was said to be buried alive when he hadn’t paid some debts. Initially buried in an unmarked grave with the initials DA, later he was given a proper headstone. It was on the new headstone that the face appeared. Some say it is his screaming face, others believe that it is just the stone being eroded away.

The last stop on the tour was outside of The World’s End pub. It was here that we heard the story of Burke and Hare, two serial killers that lived in Edinburgh and made their money by selling corpses to a local medical doctor. These two men killed 16 people before being caught. In the end only Burke was charged and hanged, his skeleton can now be seen in the Medical Museum of Edinburgh.

Over all the tour wasn’t scary and it was a great way to learn the more sinister history of the City.