Often, in the small hours of the night, sinister things creep and shapes move in the darkness. Even in the safety and comfort of our own homes we sense the presence of others, and feel the hairs on the back of our necks stand on end. But, that is all, for the shapes resolve into shadows and the sounds fade away into the night.
We sigh out of relief, and are glad to be safe at home. But there are places where the dead walk, where the cursed vent their rage still. There are castles where terrible events have shattered the walls between this world and the next. In such locations the dead are restless and troubled; thus they remain trapped in purgatory. This is a brief look at three such locations in the rain swept land of Scotland, but bear in mind that there are thousands of castles, all of them with their own dark stories.
Edinburgh Castle
The most famous and most touristic of the Scottish castles has more than its fair share of ghosts. The castle sits atop a basalt plug left by a dying volcano. Millenia ago during the last ice age this rock resisted the advance of great glaciers, which crashed into it and were forced around it carving out the valleys on either side of castle rock. This affords Edinburgh castle the perfect defensive position, and it has been used for this purpose since ancient times. Beneath the castle itself lies an interconnected web work of countless tunnels and passages. Many are known and many more kept secret. It is rumored that all of Edinburgh is accessible through this most secret network.
A century ago, when the passages were first stumbled upon, a piper was lowered down into the tunnels and sent to explore them. With the simple instruction to keep playing his bag pipes so those above could chart his progress, the brave piper descended into the depths. For a while the haunting music of the pipes drifted up to those at the entrance. Suddenly the music stopped and a lonely silence descended upon the corridors.
Search parties were swiftly organized and sent down into the tunnels, but the lonely piper was never seen nor heard of since. Often, his drifting music can be heard in the castle as the lonely piper walks for ever more, trapped in the ancient catacombs beneath Edinburgh.
To travel further back into the ages past, we find another occupant who has haunted this castle since the 17th century. The headless ghost of a young boy hammering on his drums was spotted before Oliver Cromwell's attack on September 3rd 1650. The headless boy has been seen since, always before an attack of some sort upon the capital.
Aside from the aforementioned notables, countless other ghosts haunt the castle (even ghosts of dogs). Having had such well used dungeons, where thousands lost their lives, has made Edinburgh castle one of the most unpleasant places for the living to stay. The feeling of great distress seeps out of the walls and into the souls of those who stay there. No doubt those who faded away in the dank dungeon have marked the place, their horror and despair carved in the rocks and bricks, drifting like a chill wind in the corridors. Think of these poor souls who now wander the darkness forever, trapped in the eternal nightmare caused by their violent deaths, and by the trauma of their captivity. Even those who have no knowledge of Edinburgh Castle's grim past, soon flee in terror if left alone during the night, such is the feeling of despair that hangs saturated in the air beneath the castle.
Dunnottar Castle
With the infamous reputation as being the most haunted castle in all of Scotland, Dunnottar Castle naturally has a long and bloody history. The site was in use before even history began and has survived despite being sieged countless times and often destroyed only to be rebuilt later. Dark shadows walk the crumbling parapets, while the air takes on an icy edge. Those brave enough to enter the castle at night will hear the cries of the tormented souls drift in from the direction of the cliffs, or feel the shudder run up their spine as ghostly whispers slice at the silence. Perhaps it is no surprise that the historian Beattie of Caledonia, wrote about the place;
“To him who is familiar with history, Dunnottar speaks with an audible voice. Every cave has a record, every turret has a tongue...”
Its patchwork history began when St. Ninian built a church within the castle grounds. Come the year 681 the castle was besieged. Two centuries later in 900 the castle fell to the Vikings. In 934, the King Aethelstan of Wessex rampaged through Scotland. Thoughout the site's stormy history of this period, various churches were thrown up to be just as quickly destroyed. Still the death toll rose.
By the end of the 13th century, the castle had grown into a small village; with a chapel, barracks, stables, and a graveyard. Barely three years before the turn of the century, in 1297, William Wallace sacked the castle and slaughtered its occupants – burning them alive in the church. The castle changed hands frequently as prior owners were driven off or slaughtered. An example of a typical episode occurred in 1685 when anti-Royalist Covenanters were imprisoned along with their families in the black depths. 160 people, women and children included, were tortured and subjected to slow agonizing deaths from malnourishment and brutality. That cliff of sorrows gained its specters when a few of these poor families attempted to escape down it. Dunnottar, even in this modern and enlightened age of ours, is still a terrifying place best visited during the day lest the specters of the night claim yet more victims.
