★★ History
Edinburgh Castle
Worth a detour
Some castles are visited for their towers and views. These three are visited for who is said to still be there. Each one holds centuries of imprisonment, execution, and sudden death behind its walls, and each one has kept the stories that grew out of them, told and retold in the same rooms where they began. None of it can be proved. That is part of the pull. Here are three castles where the ghost story is the reason to go.
Tower of London
On the north bank of the Thames, the Tower has stood for more than nine hundred years as fortress, palace, prison, and place of execution. Its most famous ghost is said to be Anne Boleyn, beheaded on Tower Green in 1536 and still reported walking toward the chapel where she lies buried. The two princes who vanished in 1483, Lady Jane Grey, and a White Lady are also said to haunt its rooms and yards. By day, visitors come for the Crown Jewels and the White Tower. From Oct 24 to Nov 1, a daytime Halloween program fills the fortress with ghostly gatherings at the Haunted Forge, a gentler telling of its darkest history for families.
Edinburgh Castle
Above the Royal Mile, on a rock that has held a fortress since the twelfth century, Edinburgh Castle is said to be one of the most haunted places in Scotland. Its best known ghosts are the Lone Piper, a bagpiper said to have vanished in the tunnels beneath the castle and still heard playing, and the headless drummer, said to appear before danger. Lady Glamis, burned as a witch on the castle forecourt in 1537, is remembered as a Grey Lady, and French prisoners are said to linger in the vaults. The castle also holds the Crown Jewels, the Stone of Destiny, and a small dog cemetery. In the evening, ghost walks begin at the base of the castle and descend into the South Bridge vaults below the Royal Mile, where the stories are told close to where they are said to have happened.
Himeji Castle
In Hyogo, about an hour west of Osaka by train, Himeji rises in white plaster and curved roofs and is called the White Heron. It is also said to be Japan's most haunted castle. Its most famous ghost is Okiku, a servant blamed for losing one of ten golden plates, who drowned herself in a well in the castle grounds. Visitors still look for Okiku's Well, and her voice is said to count the plates at night. Inside, six floors of wooden halls climb past steep stairs to views from the top, and the castle keeps the story of Sen hime, a princess who lived here. In late March to early April, more than a thousand cherry trees frame the white walls in pink. In mid May, the Himeji Castle Festival brings a Daimyo procession in Edo dress to the grounds.
October is the perfect time to go. The nights draw in early, the air turns cold, and the stories feel closest, with Halloween at the Tower and evening walks in Edinburgh.
Would you want to experience any of these someday?
