Free walking tours are not actually free however you pay at the end of the tour how much you think it is worth. So the tour guide is really working for his money and making sure you are enjoying yourselves. Enter Seth our tour guide for the afternoon, very talented in spinning a good yarn and full of yet more interesting facts. We started halfway along on the Royal Mile in the old city. It was a fascinating 3 hours. I will not bore you with the complete tour so here are a few highlights:
(Disclaimer: these are just stories feel free to skip as they rather longwinded but interesting)
The story of Maggie Dickson. Back in the 17th century, when it was not a good time to be a woman, Maggie got married. Her husband joined the navy and headed overseas for adventure. Poor Maggie was left at home. Her husband decided that he much preferred another lady than Maggie, in those days only the man could initiated a divorce and he was too cheap to do this so Maggie was left in the lurch. She started working in pub and fell in love with the landlord’s son. Oh dear. Technically she was still married but eventually secretly they became “an item”. She became pregnant. Scared of being found out she hid the pregnancy for 7 months unfortunately the stress of this caused the baby to be born prematurely and died. Now she had another problem, a dead baby. So she sneaked down the river in the dead of the night unable to bring herself to throw the body away she decided to bury it in the bank. Here was her mistake, she was caught and sentenced to death. Now she was not charged for having an affair, nor for the dead baby or the fact she was trying to hide the body but for hiding a pregnancy!!! At this time in Scotland this was a crime punishable by death. So in due time she was hung on the gallows. What a terrible story you cry but Maggie’s story doesn’t end here. She was put in a coffin and carted away over the cobble stones to the other end of the city to the criminals’ graveyard. Now after awhile the driver heard a faint noise. He stopped the cart and investigated the thumping which turned out to be Maggie (it is widely thought the combination of bouncing over the cobbles and the small wooden coffin resuscitated her) she was alive. Yay. Not for long they took her back to the gallows to try again. However before they could hang her someone pointed out you couldn’t punish her for the same crime twice, double jeopardy and all that. So Maggie was allowed to go all charges dropped. Not only that but she was free to marry her sweetheart as her marriage was “till death do us part” and she had technically died. There is now a pub named after her.
We also saw the grave of John “auld Jock” Grey at the Greyfriars Church. Auld Jock was the night watchman he soon decided this was too bigger job for one man so got a dog, a big huge ferocious ....Skye terrier which he named Bobby. He and Bobby were well known and loved in the city and for two years they worked together; unfortunately Jock died and was buried next to the church. Bobby was taken to the funeral and he sat next to Jocks grave for 14 years! Until he too died in 1872. Bobby was not allowed to be buried in the church grounds but just outside the gate where there now stands another pub with his name. This seems to be how they commerate people (or in this case Dogs) in Scotland. The story of lassie is supposedly based on Bobby’s devotedness and loyalty.
J K Rowlings came up a few times and some of the inspiring buildings that helped her create the masterpiece that is Harry Potter.
He ended with the epic tale of THE STONE OF DESTINY. Now held in the Castle of Edinburgh (massive building in picture below) the stone is heavily guarded with the crown jewels. It is the rock that all the kings of Scotland are crowned and it is said that where the stone lies there the Scots will rule. It has a long history but the short of it is that it was captured by the English when they conquered Scotland and was placed in Westminster Abbey. When Scotland under Robert the Bruce regained control of Scotland they asked for two things, independence and the stone of destiny back. England said no. So Scotland wrote to the Pope and he said to England they had to do it. But England stalled; eventually it was returned in 1996 it took 700 years for them to comply!!! Only once did it return briefly to Scotland and that was in the 1950’s. Four young Scot nationalists uni students get it in their heads that if the returned the stone back to Scotland this would boost their political stand. So they drove down to London on Christmas Eve in two small cars. They broke in to the Abbey between the guards shifts. Sneaking through the Abbey using lit mates as light they reached the Coronation Throne where the stone was placed under. Here was problem one. The stone had been concreted in to the base of the throne. So they took to the throne’s legs with crowbars and eventually extracted the stone. Problem two. It was much larger and heavier than they anticipated but they carefully started carrying it out of the Abbey. Unfortunately one of them sneezed and dropped the rock. It fell to the ground with an almighty crash and broke into two. Two of the group decided that was it and grabbed the smaller piece making a run for it. The other two were left to man handle the bigger piece out. Using a jacket they dragged it out and got it in to the car only to find they had dropped the car keys somewhere in the vast Abbey. They searched using the matches giving up they discovered them on the steps of the church. Getting away in the nick of time they escaped to the south hiding it in a field and covering it cleverly with some nearby rocks. They returned to Scotland to discuss with a young mason what to do. The mason was horrified that not only they had broken it but that they had left a rock that had been kept inside for 700 years out in a field. So quickly they returned to the field in Kent only to discover Gypsies had made camp over top of the rock. With some whiskey and quick talking they managed to get away with the rock and hid it as a car seat to get past the police searches on the border. The mason fixed the stone and they started showing it around at small gatherings. But this was not enough to push their political agenda so they called the police and waited to be arrested to make a big statement. The stone was quickly returned to England and they were held but never charged. The initiator of this crazy plan Ian Hamilton was there when England returned the Stone officially in 1996. It was paraded up the royal mile with a band of bagpipes playing..... (Big moment in Scotland’s history boys!)..... the tune... to Mission Impossible. Awesome.
NB Sorry for my poor attempt to relay these stories to you. Seth had a much better way with words, and the jumping up and down and arm gestures make it much better. There were more but I think this will do!
A special shout out to our cheapest and most B grade accommodation...Belford Hostel - whoop! Lets put it in simple terms... cubicle partitions instead of rooms i.e. no ceilings, unfortunately loud Columbians teenagers and drunk Poms, no shower/scalding HOT shower, boy from Canterbury via Aussie with terrible Gore jokes on reception and 4 toilets for at least 100 people, eek! You get the picture, no Duncan (Abby's brother who thinks we are just being girls about average accommodation and we need to suck it up!) we are not just being girls about it, we paid 9.50 GBP for the experience... it was pretty bad.
Ahh Edinburgh it has been fun we shall be back (but in different accommodation!)!!!
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