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.
