When I woke up Wednesday morning, I felt so tired, I thought I might be getting sick, but after 12—yes, I said TWELVE—hours sleep last night, I feel MUCH better. Full of energy and ready to go see some more of Edinburgh. We had breakfast at Morrisons then went by to check our mailbox as I had ordered some used books about Edinburgh. Went by Greyfriar’s Kirk where we still found it closed for recording. But at least this time there was a sign that said it would be open tomorrow.
We walked across George IV Bridge and past The Elephant House café where JK Rowling wrote in the back room, then down Victoria Street in Grassmarket where we saw the site of the execution gallows where many people were put to death for witchery or for supporting the Presbyterian religion. Many of the bars around here are reputed to be haunted by these victims. The Premier Lodge has a Victorian Maid ghost that has been seen many times in the room where breakfast is served, and one man woke up to see her at the end of his bed.
Maggie Dickson’s pub is named after a woman who came back from the dead. Dickson was publicly hanged in the Grassmarket in 1728 for killing her illegitimate baby. Her husband had been away for over a year, and when she found out she was pregnant, she killed her baby to conceal her shame. Her body was taken down and transported for burial, but on the way, the cart carrying her rattled over the cobbled streets so badly that she was shaken back to life. Her relatives heard a noise and opened the coffin to find her alive. Since she had been pronounced legally dead, it was decided that she could not be executed again for the same crime, so she was released to live and long and happy life, running a nearby ale-house and having many more children.
The White Hart Inn from 1516 is another place that is haunted, especially in its cellar. Loud banging, doors slamming and taps switched off with no one there. It is at this inn that Robert Burns and William and Dorothy Wordsworth spent some time. Burke and Hare also used it while luring victims to their deaths, after which they sold the corpses to the medical school.
Walked back up to South Bridge where Ray bought a new fleece jacket, then headed down Canongate to look for the doll hospital I read of at 133 Canongate. We looked and looked, but no hospital. (Found out later they moved out of the city.) We did find the Girth cross in the road—just some stones at the bottom of Canongate where executions were also held. It showed up on a 1778 map I saw. Lady Warriston was accused of plotting to murder her abusive husband in 1600 and was killed here on a guillotine.
We did see the Mercat Cross, which we have passed many times. This was the central meeting place in Edinburgh and the place from which all proclamations were made. It's said that Auld Clootie (the devil) called out from the cross the names of those who were destined to die at the Battle of Flodden on the eve of the fight in 1513. He was overheard by Richard Lawson, who, upon hearing his own name amongst the ranks of dead, fell to his knees and prayed to the Christian god to save him. He was one of the very few Scots who came home again alive.
Ray went back to the apartment and I went into the Old Children’s Bookshop again where this time I found 4 books that were great!!! Also went back to Cavanagh Antiques on Cockburn to look around. Then I caught the 35 Bus on South Bridge and thought I would be home in no time, but it turns out that the bus turned and went up Easter Road. So I could’ve gotten off at the first stop, but I assumed it would eventually come back to the Sainsbury’s where we usually see it go by, so I stayed on and it took me all the way out to Ocean Terminal, where I just stayed on and came back and got off on Easter Road and walked home.
I just finished reading a book about haunted places in Scotland and was surprised to learn of two places that we have visited being very haunted. The first is St. Mary’s Street, where our first Travelodge we stayed in upon arriving in Edinburgh was. It has a ghost of a distressed young woman in begored clothes. She was stabbed here in 1916 by a man who sprang out of a doorway and attacked and murdered her.
The other place is Rosslyn, both the chapel and the castle. The Chapel has the ghost of the apprentice who was murdered by his teacher and several monks in black and grey robes. The Castle has the ghost of an English dog killed in battle near here who is heard to howl at times. Supposedly the Knights Templar treasure here is guarded by a White Lady. The story goes that she will only be awakened and the treasure found by a blow from a trumpet when the trumpeter is standing on the correct step of one of the staircases. Sometimes seen near the castle is a knight in black armour with his visor down, riding a black horse. This knight has been seen 3 times and recently.
Think we are going in town to St. James Center shopping to find me a fleece jacket that zips up the front, and then go to dinner at Saigon Saigon, my favorite Chinese restaurant in town.
Saw a button I almost bought in a window today: “I’m not a tourist. I live here.” We DO live here. : )
***pictures from top: Balmoral Hotel where JK Rowling spent the last night of writing the last book of the Harry Potter series—she left a signed statement written on a marble bust of Hermes in her room saying; "JK Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on 11th Jan 2007". [The room also now boasts a brass plaque on the front door and a brass owl instead of a door knocker—and it only costs £965 per night.]; Maggie Dickson’s Pub; White Hart Inn; buttons in a shop window on Victoria St.; Mercat Cross.
