Edinburgh Castle!

Edinburgh Castle in the southeast of Scotland, built on a 135 meter high rock above Edinburgh, is the most impressive monument of the old town. It was the seat of the Scottish kings until James VI Stuart became King of England in 1603, and went to London.

The castle was built on the stopper of an extinct volcano, better known as Castle Rock, above old Edinburgh and records where it is mentioned as a royal castle date back to the 11th century when Malco III ruled. His wife, Queen Margaret, died of grief when she was told that in 1903 the king had died at Alnwick in Northumbria. A chapel built in her memory is now the oldest building in the castle.

Due to events in the turbulent history of Scotland, the castle has been demolished and rebuilt so many times that very little information remains about it. Edward I, King of England, captured the castle in 1296 at the time of the invasion of Scotland, only to be recaptured in 1314 by Sir Thomas Randolph, a cousin of King Robert the Bruce. The next destruction the castle experienced was during the conflict of the Scottish Queen Mary I Stuart against the Protestant Scottish nobles, supporters of the English king. The castle was then under siege for a month, but the Protestant rebels had to withdraw when a truce was made in 1571. Two years later, on January 1, 1573, the fighting continued and in April of the same year, the southern rampart of the castle was destroyed by artillery and the crew surrendered. The castle also played a role during the Civil War of 1639-1650 when Scottish Presbyterians attempted to overthrow English rule but were defeated by Oliver Cromwell at Dunbar. The castle surrendered after a three-month siege. The reconstruction of the castle was completed in 1660 and a permanent military garrison was introduced, and the castle gradually turned into a prison for political dissidents of the crown.

With such a turbulent history, it is quite expected that stories of a haunted castle will appear. For a start, there is a story about a headless drummer who was seen and heard in the castle premises around the beginning of 1650. Lady Glamis, accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake in 1537, was also spotted flying through the corridors. It was also reported that a ghost of a dog was jumping in the cemetery of military dogs, of course foggy.

Another interesting thing about the castle is the labyrinth of underground tunnels that used to be a vault, made in the 15th century. This hallway complex and 120 rooms known as Crown Square served as a quarantine for plague sufferers and those suspected of being ill. The exact number of people imprisoned and left to die in the dark corridors is unknown. Visitors reported ghosts dressed in the uniforms of different epochs, French prisoners from the Jacobin era, prisoners from the colonial wars and the American Revolution.

From April 6 to 17, 2001, as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival, Dr. Richard Wiseman, a psychologist from the University of Hertfordshire in the south-east of England, conducted one of the largest studies of paranormal phenomena in England. He asked for help from 240 volunteers from all over the world who stayed for 10 days in groups of 10 at all locations where ghost appearances were reported and at locations where they never appeared. Strict examination of all volunteers was carried out and only those who had no knowledge of Edinburgh Castle could participate. By the end of the experiment, more than half of the participants reported identical occurrences at sites known as haunted, although the groups were physically separated from the beginning to the end of the tour.

A set of tunnels running from the castle to a network of streets in old Edinburgh, better known as the Royal Mile, was discovered in the late 18th century. It is said that a bagpiper started from the castle through the tunnel with the task of playing so that they could follow his progress. Halfway from the castle to the town, the music stopped and the soldiers who set out to find the bagpipers came out of the tunnel in the old town square empty-handed. The bagpipe was never found, but sometimes music from the country can be heard on the streets. Haunted or not, Edinburgh Castle, with a million tourists a year, is the most visited place in Scotland and second in the United Kingdom, just behind the Tower of London.