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Edinburgh Dungeon
Edinburgh Dungeon
31 Market Street
Edinburgh EH1 1QB
Tel: 0131 240 1000
Edinburgh Dungeon is run by the same company as the impressive London and York Dungeons, and Edinburgh Dungeon is equally a “feast of fun with history’s horrible bits”. The family attraction based at the imposing Castle takes ticket holders on a visceral, sometimes blood-curdling journey through a thousand years of Scottish history, and the associated crimes and punishments that were an integral part of the life and times of the country’s capital. Still, Edinburgh Dungeon is a fascinating and fun family day out that will entertain and enliven ticket holders who venture into its impressive entry and descend into another bygone world.
Edinburgh Dungeon boasts some state of the art exhibits that thrill tens of thousands of visitors every year, along with period-costumed actors who help to bring history to life and show those on a family day out just how the Dungeon and its warders operated and what those incarcerated within its fearsome walls would have had to endure.
A ride take Edinburgh Dungeon ticket holders down the road marked yesteryear and rouses all aboard with some cutting edge special sound and lighting effects, as well as some rather grisly sights. It’s all done with an eye on informing the visitor about how the unfortunate souls who resided in the clink were treated, various episodes being highlighted, not least the stunning Clan Wars display. It graphically illustrates just how hard life was for the tribes that lived in Scotland’s harsh countryside for centuries before the onset of the Industrial Revolution broke up their patterns of settlement.
Among the many impressive features of Edinburgh Dungeon are the Anatomy Theatre, which demonstrates just how unhygienic a pre-industrial anatomical workshop was, with none of the modern sanitary conditions, equipment or medicines that are taken for granted today. In contrast, the 18th century medical practitioners’ workplace was caked in dried blood and other bodily fluids, while the Edinburgh Dungeon theatre also includes period pieces of kit, which you won’t see at many other family attractions.
The Clan Wars exhibition itself features a run-down of the bloody internecine warfare waged between the old Scottish clans of the Highlands and Lowlands, with realistic mock-ups in period costume, and armed with a fearsome array of weapons. Ticket holders to Edinburgh Dungeon can hear a re-created clash of swords and pikes, the chilling roar of battle and the terror of close-quarters combat, as the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe wage war on their enemies. A tale is of misfortune, betrayal and the supernatural, the MacDonalds lived a story of epic and tragic proportions, providing an educational and sobering insight for ticket holders on a family day out to Edinburgh Dungeon.
The family attraction’s Haunted Labyrinth is a warren of sub-surface crypts that runs underneath the craggy hilltop Castle and out towards the Royal Mile and its environs. The full extent of these eerie catacombs has yet be ascertained, but it’s clear that there are more than a few thrills to be had by visitors to Edinburgh Dungeon as they traverse the dark tunnels and their feeling of foreboding and doom. Fortunately, ticket holders are guided by Edinburgh Dungeon staff, who will see them safely through without fear – other than, perhaps, of seeing a spectre in the gloom! Just the ticket for horror buffs.
The same can be said of the Judgement Of Sinners section of Edinburgh Dungeon, which is another mind-boggling sight, replete as it is with all manner of grisly period torture equipment from past centuries. The horrors inflicted on captives can only be guessed at, and ticket holders with am inquisitive mind can quiz the guides about just exactly which spike did what, and went where. Indeed, Edinburgh offers demonstrations of various devices, and explains what the awful sentences meted out were for. In many cases, the most severe of criminal sentences were applied to those found guilty of breaking the most draconian of laws, notably in the age of religious unorthodoxy, when torture was used against those committing the most petty of misdemeanours. The family attraction offers some sobering insight into the pre-ASBO era!
Another startling episode covered at the family attraction is the semi-mythical case of the Edinburgh cannibal Sawney Bean, who was reportedly the patriarch of a murderous family who lived in Ayrshire and who devoured over a thousand people, taken at night from remote villages and consumed at their cave dwelling. The Sawney Bean display relates the activities of this ghoulish character and his family of predators – a Texas Chain Saw Massacre of the medieval era! – and how Sawney and his spawn, down to the youngest grandchildren, were eventually arrested, incarcerated and summarily executed in stomach-churning fashion. Other folk legends detailed on a fascinating family day out to Edinburgh Dungeon include the infamous Macbeth, while the darker side of Scotland’s history includes an exhibit focusing on the legend of vampires in the glens. Their origins and the common threads of stories about them over the centuries is outlined, along with the modern fascination with the semi-mythical creatures.
Edinburgh Dungeon’s eclectic mix of fact and fantasy, education and entertainment, ensures that ticket holders on a family day out are guaranteed a thrilling and captivating family day out. For fans of the macabre, Edinburgh Dungeon is a paradise under the earth, and even for those of a more squeamish nature, the educational aspects of Edinburgh Dungeon make a trip to it both memorable and exciting