Ghosts of Blackness Castle
Blackness Castle stands on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, not far from Edinburgh. Its imposing rampart walls and central Prison Tower enclose a courtyard strewn with rocks, making passage between the towers awkward.
Built in the 15th century as a lordly residence for the Crichtons, the castle has served as a royal residence, a military fortress, an ammunition depot, and a prison. It was besieged in 1650 during the Cromwellian invasion of Scotland.
Winds from the Firth of Forth often create echoing sounds around the ramparts. Some noises, however, remain unexplained, and sightings of a knightly apparition guarding the castle persist.
Visitors often report cold spots, thumps, footsteps, and furniture moved across stone floors, usually in empty rooms or areas where no one is present.
Other visitors have seen a ghostly figure on the tower's roof, dressed in full armor.
As Richard tells the story ...
Your worst nightmares could not conjure up a place as demonic as the aptly named Blackness Castle.
It squats menacingly atop a knoll of jagged black rock, its shoreline lapped by the grey waters of the Firth of Forth.
From the moment you set foot on the rickety pathway of its dark, vaulted gatehouse, you are confronted by a sparse interior, where evil foreboding oozes from its every pore.
As you wander between its forbidding towers, you don't so much walk as stumble across the uneven cobblestones or scramble across chunks of black, serrated rock to reach rooms and staircases where you can just sense that numerous unspeakable deeds have been perpetrated.
Built in the 15th century, and massively strengthened in the 16th century when it became an artillery fortress, it has also been a Royal Castle, an armaments depot, and a State prison.
The central Tower is known as the "Prison Tower," and as you climb its winding stone staircase, a distinct feeling of oppressive coldness hangs heavy in the air.
It was here that a dramatic manifestation occurred in the late 1990s, when a lady who had brought her two young sons on a visit was startled by the sudden appearance of a knight in armor who, she claimed, chased her angrily from the tower.
A group of ghost enthusiasts, who persuaded the custodian to allow them to stay overnight one Halloween, were disturbed by the constant noise of furniture being scraped and banged across the stone floor of the room beneath them. Although one of their number bravely investigated the disturbance, he found nothing out of place. But the moment he returned to his companions, the noises began again.
- Richard Jones
