October 27 and 28, 2009
Tuesday was a rather unremarkable day. We drove from the Lake District to Leeds to pick up Laura – so excited to see her again! I met her boyfriend Adam as well, and he is lovely. After saying goodbye to Alison’s family Laura drove us back to Newcastle. We caught up on a years worth of gossip and had a (very healthy) McDonald’s dinner, then chilled at the house for the night.
Today, however – oh my gosh. Laura drove us up to Edinburgh for the day! And oh my it is amazing… The city mixes a vindictive history with astounding architectural beauty – the highlight of which being, of course, Edinburgh Castle.
We spent the day around the Royal Mile, the central street in the Old Town, given it’s name as it is a mile long, and royal residents are at either end – Edinburgh Castle at the Western end and the Palace of Holyroodhouse to the East. It is a most interesting street; caught between a dark history and a funky, tourist-driven future. Shops selling “authentic” tartan, Scottish flags, kilts and other tourist paraphernalia lie next to 17th-Century churches and ‘haunted’ closes.
We visited one such close today, Mary Kings Close. The present-day close is a medieval Old Town Alley wedged between two buildings on the Royal Mile, but the real treasure lies beneath. Surviving unchanged for over 250 years, buried beneath the foundations of the City Chambers, is a spooky, subterranean labyrinth. Legend has it that in 1645 when the people of the city were all infected with the plague the houses were walled over and the inhabitants left to perish. When the lifeless bodies were eventually cleared from the houses, they were so stiff that workmen had to hack off limbs to get them through the small doorways and narrow, twisting stairs. From that day on, the close was said to be haunted by the spirits of the plague victims.
There is something about the crumbling 17th-Century stone rooms and the ancient smell of stone and dust that makes the hairs rise on the back of your neck. There was one room in particular – Annie’s room – where a Japanese psychic claims to have been approached by a little girl who was taken away after her entire family died of the plague. However, she lost her doll as she was taken and has come back to haunt the room, and in an attempt to please her visitors have left gifts for her.
It’s actually hard to tell what is more spooky – the story of a ghostly little girl or the bizarre heap of dolls and teddies sitting in the cold, dark, underground room.
We wandered around the Old Town for quite some time, seeing the magnificent Edinburgh Castle – absolutely breathtaking, particularly at sunset – St Giles Cathedral, Holyrood Palace and literally hundreds of stone closes, both charming and chilling at the same time.
I have fallen in love with Edinburgh – the history, the architecture, the music (think buskers with bagpipes and kilts)…I really want to go back but I can’t afford it, I really shouldn’t. But one day is simply not enough.
