Edinburgh Dungeon
Edinburgh Dungeon
31 Market Street
Edinburgh EH1 1QB
Tel: 0131 240 1000
About Edinburgh Dungeon
Like London and York Dungeons, run by the same company, Edinburgh Dungeon markets itself as a “feast of fun with history’s horrible bits”. This description is accurate – the Dungeon reveals a graphic, sometimes chilling but always family-friendly look at some of the more gruesome episodes in the millennium-long history of Scotland’s capital city. Once you’re through the imposing entrance and inside the Dungeon, there’s no choice but to confront what lies within…
The Dungeon uses every trick at its disposal to render into reality the exhibitions that attract tens of thousands of visitors every year, with live actors delivering lines that maximise the impact of the roles they play. There’s also a ride to take the visitor deep into the heart of history, and state-of-the-art interactive effects which clarify the grisly message imparted by the Dungeon and its staff. That said, aside from the thrilling effects and gruesome sights, the site offers a real historical education, highlighting the advances in science and technology over the centuries which have enabled us to live far more comfortable existences than the unfortunates depicted in its various attractions. For example, the brutal Clan Wars exhibit reveals just how tough life must have been for the tribes that populated Scotland’s bleak countryside for centuries before the mixed blessing of industrialisation.
Highlights of the visit are too many to list here, but a good cross-section for all the family is easy to identify. Those with a more morbid inclination will relish a visit to the Anatomy Theatre, where those accustomed to the idea of modern, clean surgery will be a little disturbed by the unhygienic conditions depicted in this recreation of a pre-industrial anatomy workshop. In the eighteenth century medical practitioners knew little about the importance of cleanliness in the workplace, and blood and other body fluids were spilled liberally about – and the Dungeon has replicated these practices in disturbing detail.
The carnage continues at Clan Wars, a lifelike exhibition evoking the ages of conflict and bloody warfare between the Scottish clans of old. You’ll hear the clash of swords and other iron weapons combined with battle roars and the hurly-burly of hand-to-hand combat all around you, as the epic saga of Clan MacDonald of Glencoe erupts nearby. The clan, whose tale is one of misfortune, betrayal and even ghostly phenomena, boasts a history unlike any other, and its tragic dimensions resonate down the ages to this day.
The air of ghostliness continues – and is taken to its logical conclusion – in the Haunted Labyrinth, a maze of crypts that extends beneath the Castle and outwards to the Royal Mile and beyond. What lies within these eerie catacombs is not known, but it’s sure to provide scares aplenty as you venture through the darkened tunnels towards a doom which no-one can predict. With the ancient tunnels covering a huge area which may still not have been explored fully to this day, the air of mystique that emanates from them is real and undiluted. However, visitors can rely on the Dungeon’s staff to guide them safely through to the other side without any harm coming to them!
The Judgement Of Sinners exhibit at the Dungeon is another eye-opening hall of horrors, with torture equipment from ages past displayed for public inspection. Although the visitor will not be selected for a personal demonstration of these instruments’ capabilities, it’s still readily apparent that anyone who actually had to endure their application would not have found it a pleasant experience. The Dungeon specialises in demonstrating not only how far we have come since those barbaric times, but how far technology has evolved since these clumsy but terrifying devices were designed. Don’t forget, either, how enlightened our age is in terms of repression: these intimidating machines were used to enforce criminal sentences on anyone found guilty according to the ludicrously draconian laws of the age of religious unorthodoxy, and as severe penalties for crimes which we would now regard as petty.
One of the most terrifying figures of ancient Edinburgh was the cannibal Sawney Bean, who was reputed to stalk the city and abduct innocent citizens to his faraway cave. The Sawney Bean exhibit tells the tale of this nightmarish figure in full detail, even though no-one knows to this day if he ever really existed. Folk legends are rife, extending back as far as the time of Macbeth, of a murderous family of cannibals (of whom Sawney was the patriarch) who lived in the Ayrshire region and who predated on over a thousand individuals without being detected, because they lived in a remote cave and only stalked the local village at night. As the story goes, the clan were only discovered (after years of massed public panic during their reign of terror) because one of their intended victims was able to hold them off long enough for the authorities to arrive and overpower them. The family, from Sawney himself down to the smallest grandchildren, were arrested, taken to jail and summarily executed in a manner almost as grotesque as their own crimes. The full story is explored in this sinister but enthralling exhibit.
The Dungeon continues its exploration of the dark side of Scotland’s social history with an exhibit that examines the fascinating legend of vampires. With a look back through these mythical creatures’ origins and the consistency with which they continue to appear in legends of every country and century, the exhibition reveals just how fascinated we are with them. This sector of the Dungeon is a typical mixture of fact, fantasy, thrills and education – the reason why the site is so successful and continues to pull in thousands of visitors year on year.
Even if the macabre side of the Dungeon isn’t for the very youngest members of the family, the educational elements it offers make a visit a memorable and useful experience for all others who venture within its doors. Every time you return, you’ll learn something new about the dark, but always entertaining, side of life – a side which continues to fascinate us all.