Today I'm castle hunting, specifically, I'm hunting for Yester Castle which is
notoriously difficult to find I'm told all I know is it's near Gifford which is
about 15 miles outside of Edinburgh, I need to follow a treacherous muddy path
parallel to Gifford Water then follow Hope's Water, and at the end of that I'll
be rewarded with a spectacular spooky Scottish castle, fancy joining me welcome to RogVLOG.
there was a tiny car park with space for just two cars, and there was only one other
car there, so I'm not really expecting to meet many people down this pathway,
it's about a three-kilometre walk through the woods to the castle, but if you fancy
a much quicker, but less interesting route, I'll tell you about that at the end, so stick around
to get to the castle I'm taking this footpath, which runs parallel to Gifford Water
and I believe it's going to get extremely muddy the deeper I get into the woods
listen I think I hear the sound of a waterfall, now that really would be
an unexpected bonus, let's go check it out,
well I hadn't come here today looking for a waterfall,
and as you know I'm on a secret mission this year to find more waterfalls in East Lothian,
so this is an absolutely beautiful unexpected bonus
look at this fabulous old stone bridge,
now the Gifford Water and the pathway that I'm on keep crossing over each other,
and there are some fabulous little stone bridges like this all the way along the route,
well I'm getting no mobile signal here, now this is the main path
from Garvald to Gifford, I think I've got to go up there towards the castle,
this is quite a steep climb up the side of the valley,
well I've gone wrong a few times, and I've had to double back on myself,
but I think I'm getting closer now,
and there it is I finally found it, went wrong a few times, but let's explore Yester Castle
you can see how the castle was built onto the side of this really steep hill,
which goes down all the way into the river valley below,
that river is called Hopes Water, and that's one of the reasons I went wrong,
I forgot that I had to follow Gifford Water to the junction with Hopes Water, and then follow
the path parallel to Hopes Water so remember that if you're coming yourself to find Yester Castle
oh I can feel the power of history
Yester Castle was built in the 13th century by Hugo
de Giffard, now he was rumoured to be a necromancer and a wizard,
and people thought because this castle was just so big compared to contemporary castles,
that he had magic help to build it, the rumours were he had an army of goblins helping him
build the castle, so the main hall of the castle is actually called Goblin Hall or Goblin Ha'
down in this gully are two windows looking directly into the Goblin Ha',
well that's the Goblin Ha' in there, I don't know why I'm whispering, but it's really eerie here
very quiet and quite spooky, I can just about make out the floor of the hall way down in the depths
of the darkness, next I need to try and find the entrance, oh it's a long way down there,
there is supposed to be a way into the Goblin Ha', so I'm having to negotiate this incredibly thin
narrow path with a massive massive cliff face down to the river, this is not for the faint-hearted
so here it is, I've found the entrance to the Goblin Ha', now do I dare go in all I've got is
the torchlight on my iPhone, it might not be bright enough but uh I've come all this way,
oh it's so dark,
and there we are Goblin Ha'
and there are more steps going down into the darkness
and the depths definitely not venturing any further down there not in this light,
oh that was so worth the trip all the way through that muddy forest
this is really spooky but fantastic, this is a real hidden Scottish gem,
you're gonna have to come and find Yester Castle and Goblin Ha',
well I really really enjoyed that, it was
spectacular and really worth the trek through that treacherous muddy forest path,
now stick around for a little bit longer because if you fancy coming to Yester Castle,
but you don't fancy the forest hike there is a much easier way to get here,
and for the easy way just find Castle Park Golf Course and Driving Range, ask very nicely at
reception if you can wander across the 18th fairway, and they will tell you how to get
to Yester Castle in under 10 minutes, that's the easy way, but you know what, the hard way was much
more rewarding if you enjoyed this episode of RogVLOG, please do subscribe to my YouTube
channel, until next time remember there's always something to see so go out there and find it.