ush them from the battlements and a strong and unpleasant smell of dung follows.
2. The Ghostly Piper Boy
One ghost is said to be a young boy who played the bagpipes. This mystery dates back several centuries when numerous tunnels were found under the castle that led to Holyrood Palace at the bottom of the Royal Mile.
When the tunnels were discovered there was great curiosity to see where the tunnels beneath the castle would lead. However, the entrance was only small enough for the local boy piper to get through. He was sent down to investigate.
As instructed he played his pipes loudly as he walked through the tunnel. Above ground, people were able to keep track of the young boy and trace his progress and map out where the tunnel went at the same time.
This seemed to work for a while, then all of a sudden the pipes stopped somewhere near the site of Tron Kirk, a church which is a recognisable landmark on the Royal Mile.
Search parties undertook rescue attempts, but the boy piper had seemingly vanished. Sadly the boy was never found and although multiple efforts were made to recover him, they didn’t find a trace.
Disturbed by his disappearance, the city council ordered the tunnel to be sealed. However with Edinburgh being a paranormal hot spot, the story obviously doesn’t end there. Ever since his disappearance, many people have reported hearing the faint underground sound of a single bagpipe being played far below Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile.
So if you are in the area late into the night and hear faint sounds of bagpipes, there may be a mystery playing out beneath your feet.
3. The Headless Drummer Boy
This tale goes that in 1650 the phantom of a headless drummer boy was seen wandering around the castle walls, with his eerie music being heard by those below.
Legend has it that whenever the drummer boy’s ghost is spotted, the castle is about to come under attack, and perhaps he is alerting those in charge that a threat is on its way.
He was first seen in 1650, shortly before Oliver Cromwell and his army attacked Edinburgh Castle.
Edinburgh Castle hasn’t been attacked for some time now, so that may explain why he hasn’t been sighted by anyone alive today.
No one knows who the boy was and why he now haunts the castle, but his apparition suggests that he was beheaded. No one will know for certain what happened to him.
Maybe the Edinburgh University historic re-enactment society can provoke his drumming once again.
These Edinburgh boys aren’t having much luck are they? Early modern Edinburgh certainly put them through it, that’s for sure.
4. Janet Douglas, Lady of Glamis
The story of Janet Douglas is a tragic story of revenge against an innocent young woman, orchestrated by the king at the time, James V, who succeeded by accusing her on a baseless charge of witchcraft and poisoning.
Her father, George Douglas, Master of Angus, went on to marry James V’s widowed Mother, Margaret Tudor, and virtually controlled the kingdom by claiming to be acting on behalf of young James.
After Douglas and Janet’s brother fled Scotland, she was summoned to Court on a charge of communicating with her exiled brother, but refused to appear and thus forfeited herself. She and her family were besieged in Glamis Castle and then seized and brought to Edinburgh.
Although a woman of high stature, she was accused of trying to poison the king and also of witchcraft, although it took torturing Janet’s servants and friends to gain any evidence against her on those charges. Sadly nothing could save Janet and on 17th July 1537, on what is now the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle, she was burned at the stake with her sixteen year old son forced to watch.
She was described as ‘in the prime of her years, of a singular beauty, and suffering through all, though a woman, with a man-like courage.’
After Lady Janet’s execution, the Grey Lady began appearing at the castle. A knocking sound can be heard and is thought to be the hammering of the workmen building the scaffold which Janet was burned alive.
Visitors to the castle have reported seeing the ghostly figu