Edinburgh Ghost Tour
Edinburgh has a very rich history. It has been the capital of Scotland for 300 years, but people have been living in the city since 8500 B.C. Not known to many visitors of this amazing city is another city where people lived under the streets and bridges. To see the underground city, we booked a tour with Mercat tours–mercat being the old Scottish word for market. To get to the entrance we went through a small alleyway where our guide, Artemis, told us about the nasty buckets. Edinburgh was not built near a river so plumbing did not exist for quite some time. Each family shared a bucket that became known as the nasty bucket. To empty it they poured the contents out of the window at night after yelling “Attention à l’eau,!” The only way to stop it was to yell and wave your hands. Knowing that the buildings in Edinburgh at that time were up to 14 stories tall, there was a lot of nasty raining down and filling the streets. After that, we arrived at the entrance to the underground city. After traveling down a steep flight of stairs we entered the underground city. In the first room, Artemis told us about how they kept a record of the paranormal activity in the rooms. In the room where we stood, the ghost of an aristocrat was often sighted standing in the doorway looking at the other doorway as if it were waiting for someone. In the next room, The Watcher was first sighted. Named because all he did was watch–at least in the beginning. Artemis then gave us a short history in the next room. At first, all he did was watch the group, occasionally walking around to get a better look at everyone in the group. That peaceful version disappeared and he started running through the halls. We heard what sounded like footsteps and Artemis told us it was just another group entering the rooms. After that we entered the next room, the second most active room in the underground city. In it, a small man would smile and wave at groups passing through. He never hurt anyone but some people say they heard rocks being thrown at the walls. Another spirit was present every now and then, a small ten-year-old boy that would hold hands or untie your shoes as a joke. This room got the nickname the safe room because the watcher was never seen inside the room but would look inside. The next room was believed to be a bar because oyster shells were found inside with glass bottle-shards. We all crowded into the next room except for Artemis. It was a small room and the most active. She told us this was believed to be The Watchers lair. In this room, people left the room with scratches and bruises from unknown sources. One of the sightings had The Watcher grab a person around the neck and yell at her. Artemis had never seen a ghost in the rooms but another group she had two weeks before our tour said they saw something walk past her and look over her shoulder.
Underground city
Loch Ness
Urquhart Castle, overlooking Loch Ness.
The Loch Ness Monster, probably the best-known monster. A giant long-necked, humped aquatic creature that has been sighted for about one hundred years. With sightings of people just seeing its head or people claiming to watch it cross a road. But is Nessie real? People have asked that question for as long as people have seen the creature. Some people believe the sightings and some don’t. I personally believe there is or was something in the lake. In the 60’s a group of scientists decided to see if they could find any proof that Nessie lives. After quite some time, with cameras recording every part of the lake to see if they could get any hard proof Nessie lives, they came out empty handed. A while later a second research team came in and used sonar to see if they could get an outline of Nessie on the screens. They, too, came up empty handed. Finally, a third group of researchers with a fleet of ships with sonar swept the entire loch and found nothing. After concluding that there is no Loch Ness Monster they decided to consider the question, if the people didn’t see a monster, what did they see? After they tested their hypothesis they came to the anticlimactic conclusion, that the people saw logs, boat wakes, birds or—in the Nessie crossing case—a mirage. I spent a lot of time looking out over at the lake to prove them wrong but found nothing.
Finding Nessie
Sleeping on a train
Overnight train from London to Scotland
My family and I rode on a train overnight! The rooms were very small and had a single bunk bed in each of them. I let Alex have the top bunk because I have a bunk bed at home. The bottom bunk was surprisingly cozy.
Bunk beds on the train
I enjoyed the train very much. The train went from London, England to Inverness, Scotland where we rented a car. You drive on the opposite side of the road in Great Britain which freaked all of us out. Our destination was Pitlochry. We drove to our new hotel which happened to be a palace. Before we arrived, we visited Loch Ness in hopes of seeing Nessie. We had one of the two suites in the palace. It was a house that had three floors! I got the top floor all to myself. My room was bigger than both of our rooms on the train combined.
Atholl Palace Hotel