The Palace of Holyrood House

From an Inn on this site stagecoaches used to leave for London. The Palace of Holyrood House Legend has it that King David I, son of Malcolm Canmore and St Margaret, was hunting one day in 1128. His horse was startled by a stag which appeared from nowhere, and King David found himself hurled to the ground and in mortal danger of being gored by the stags antlers. In desperation he grasped hold of them whereupon they miraculously changed into a Crucifix. This story has echoes in the similar story of St Hubert in France. That night King David pledged to build an Abbey for Canons devoted to the Cross. Holyrood means "Holy Cross" By the early 1300's there was already a Royal Residence built adjacent to the Abbey Church. The oldest part, was built in 1528-32 by John Ayton, master mason to James V. Later, in the 17th C, the present much extended form was created during rebuilding for Charles II. Today the Palace is often used as a Royal Residence, and this means that it is sometimes closed to the public at irregular times. The interior is fascinating, both the older Historical Apartments (where Mary Queen of Scots often stayed, and where her private secretary and confidant Rizzio was stabbed to death on instructions from her husband, Lord Darnley), and the State Apartments which are notable for their paintings, decoration, chimneypieces and plasterwork dating from between the 1600's and 1900's. Holyrood Palace is often closed for the royal visit in the middle of May and during the last two weeks of June and the first week of July. The Undeground City of Old Edinburgh The bit that the tourists (and few locals) have ever seen. I went on a tour called "Auld Reekies underground tour" from the Tron Church. The Haunted Close Its very inaccessibility beneath the City Chambers and its haunted reputation add up to a great visit for the historically interested and those people who want to find out about Auld Reekie, her ghosts and her legends. Mary King's close (close is a short street) is a medieval street that runs under the Royal Mile, the main road of Edinburgh. It leads to caves and cavern's that criss cross under the city. Most were sealed off in 1670's. The caves and caverns and underground lanes are long, steep, slippery and full of ghosts. The ghostly legend is not a recent development - after dark was very much the time for daring High Street bairns in Victorian times to hazard the trip from City Chambers to Cockburn Street by running the gauntlet of Bluidy Mary's restless spirits. The story of Mary King's Close with her wraithes and spirits,has lasted a over two hundred years and is widely known and feared in this part of Scotland. Mary King's close ran close to the Nor' Loch (North Lake) where in older times the city used to dump its waste, it sat there and stagnated, fed not only by the city's sewage and seepage from the so-called "irrigated gardens" that lay between the last of the houses and the Nor' Loch, but with all of the animal and vegetable waste discarded from the market on its Eastern edge. It was not a loch (Lake) at all, it was a stinking mess that was the perfect place for rats, germs and diseases. No well-to-do people would go to this part of the town because of the disease and smell, so it became poorer and poorer, and with the town's over crowding it became quite cramped in these lower areas Thousands of people would live in caves and caverns,under the city, cooking , eating and sleeping in the damp, smelly conditions. People in the houses above would quite often throw buckets of waste, including sewerage, out of the window ..with just a shout of "gare d'lou" to warn the people below that something was dropping on them. When England was being swept with the plague the officials of Edinburgh knew that the area's around Nor'Loch would spread disease and possible kill thousands of good citizens so it was decided to close off sections to stop the spread of disease, as all the sections or a close was small and narrow, with only one entrance and exit (often hidden beside building in the high area) lowering gates down to seal the close was easy. It was also unfortunate for the people who were still living in them at the time, as they were sealed in. Most of the underground city was sealed shut in 1645 containing any plague victims, it is these people who are said to haunt the caves and chambers still today. Return to the Fridge door