Castles and ghosts

Today I pulled another "old things are right near me and I can see them between classes" action.

It was extremely foggy today; I couldn't see more than a few yards all around. After going to my morning class, I realized, as I looked around at all of the old buildings emerging from the mist, that it was rather medievally and romantic. So I decided spur of the moment, in the hours between my classes, to finally go up to the Edinburgh castle. I ran home to get my camera, and headed off.


Although the view of the city is, of course, a major attraction to the castle, seeing it in the fog was fabulous. It had a mysterious feel to it, and felt just as old as it was. At first I practically ran around, trying to see everything at once, but eventually I slowed down in my excitement to actually be in a castle, once I had found the oldest building in the site, St Margaret's Chapel, from the 12th century. It's quite a nice little chapel, and one of the stained glass windows was even of St Columba, who has been the subject of two out of my three classes for weeks, because his hagiography is one of the only sources available for early medieval Scotland.

The castle is very cool; there's so much to see, from the Scottish Crown Jewels to the apartment of Mary, Queen of Scots, to the Great Hall. There was a section open for the foundations of a tower built in the Middle Ages and destroyed later by cannon fire, which is underground. Apparently it was also the place where the Crown Jewels were hidden there during WWII, so there was an interesting touch of history. There was also a small exhibition regarding the prison, which was interesting, and a rather large one on the history of the Crown Jewels - they had quite a turbulent one, and it was a neat exhibit.

I also happened to be there for the 1 o'clock gun, which I hadn't been specifically been planning on, but was happy to witness. It was loud. There was also an exhibit on the history of the firing of the 1 o'clock gun, so it was fun to see that directly afterward.

There was so much to see, that even though I was there for a long time I didn't get to see everything; I had a feeling that I might have to come back twice. But that wasn't the end of my day...

After class and some studying in the library, I headed out in the evening to the Royal Mile. There are a few boards by St Giles Cathedral for ghost tours, which in themselves sound fun, but also they take you to historical places which are normally not open to the public. So, interested in the history mostly, I thought it would be fun to go on one of them. I went on a double tour - we went to two places, first to the vaults in the South Bridge, and then to a section of the Greyfriars graveyard.

The tour guide was fantastic. He really knew his history and was enthusiastic about it; he also created great atmosphere while bringing in some good humor. That alone made the tour worth it. I learned a lot about the history surrounding the South Bridge and the graveyard, as well as some of the city's history. The vaults and graveyard were very cool in and of themselves; the vaults were lit with candles, while the graveyard was lit only with what appeared to be a full moon.

The guide mostly focused on the history, and didn't tell too many ghost stories, which was probably good because there were certainly a number of nervous people on our tour. The places themselves were spooky enough to do anything to the imagination. But, being a ghostly non-believer, I didn't find the tour that scary, which made it probably more pleasurable. I loved seeing the vaults and the graveyard, while hearing more about what they were used for and what happened there; although the history was a bit dark, as can be imagined, it was still fascinating. So I would recommend these ghost tours! It was a lot of fun. There is another tour which goes to different places with different stories, so I may try that in a few weeks.