Sunday : Storms then overcast

Look who's back!

After a nice sleep listening to the heavy rain, we got packed, had a standing up breakfast (because there were too many people to sit down) and hit the road.

Our first stop was in a village called Brampton, well we thought we had the right Brampton. We were looking for parts of Hadrian's wall (the northernmost point of the Roman empire) and we were in the wrong town. Our book said that one of the best parts to see the wall is near modern town of Brampton, the Brampton we were in had one street with about 15 houses on it and most of them were sheds. Not to worry it wasn't out of the way and we got to stop in the nice town of Appleby-on-Eden. We went to the tourist info office and found out were we needed to go. Kim got hungry from looking at all the farmers market brochures too.

After our little detour we arrived in the correct Brampton and stopped at a 12th century Priory. it was raining cats and dogs so we only had a short walk around the church and graveyard. We then went up the hill to the wall, there was some nice views once at the top. It was only a small section of the wall, maybe 1.5m wide, 30m long and at its highest 1.5m. There was part of an old signal tower attached and good information on the wall too. It was another short stay because of the heavy rain, this has got to be the longest and heaviest rain we have had in the two years we have lived in the UK. Most of the time it's that drizzling misty rain in London.

Down the hill over the river and through the countryside to the freeway and onward to Scotland. YAY! We had another short stop just to have some lunch and to wake up an hour outside of Edinburgh. This freeway driving is so boring, get me back onto the twists and turns, although I think Kim prefers the straight roads. After lunch the GPS took us the scenic route into town, it was a much better way in than the freeway.

We found our accommodation checked in and then had a bit of a break, before heading up to Arthur's seat. It was a look out over Edinburgh with fantastic views of the city. We then had a walk up the Royal mile it's a nice street filled with shops restaurants and pubs. We stopped into one of the pubs for a quick pint before starting our night underground ghost tour.

The tour took us down under the city into these very dark and very damp passageways and vaults. The vaults were designed to be used as storage, but 6 months after completion they were abandoned because of the water leaks. Then the homeless and extremely poor moved in, they lived down there in the dark for hundreds of years. The life expectancy for someone entering the vaults was only 18months! So thousands of people died down there and their bodies were bricked up and buried in mass graves behind new walls, that are still getting discovered today. So it is believed that the underground passages and streets are haunted because of all the souls not having a proper burial. No paranormal things happened on our tour, but it was spooky to hear some stories about the people who lived down there.

The second half of the tour took us to Greyfriars Graveyard, It was an awesome graveyard with large mausoleums and huge tombstones. Most of the perimeter walls were flats with windows overlooking the yard. All that was missing was a bit mist and a hooting owl. The reason for the visit was for the Mackenzie Poltergeist a well known paranormal phenomenon, which maybe caused by the 400 of 1200 Scottish prisoners that were kept in the graveyard and died because of mistreatment in the 1600s. The others drowned out in the isles on their way to be slaves in the West Indies. The poltergeist grows from visitors fear and has become strong enough now that it has managed to cause minor injuries to people who encounter it. Most of the reported incidents happen in MacKenzie's black mausoleum, which is now in a gated off area, and we had access to it! Reported Injuries such as bruising, bites, cuts and even fainting. Many people said that they felt strange, I don't know because I ain't afraid of no ghost!

After the tour we walked back to our room and got ready for bed, top hostel location tonight only 15mins from the centre. Going the be very easy to walk around town while we are here.