skip to main content
Menu
  • Blog
    • Art & design
    • Castles
    • Cycling
    • Edinburgh
    • Edinburgh Festival
    • Food & drink
    • General
    • History
    • Music
    • Sport
    • Walking
    • Whisky
    • Wildlife
  • Castles
    • Glossary
    • Mottes
    • Stay in a castle
    • Castle blog posts
    • Alphabetical list of castles
    • Castles divided by county
    • Photos of castles
    • Castles we've visited
  • History
    • Castles
    • Ancient history
      • barrows
      • brochs
      • cairns
      • caves
      • chambered cairns
      • cists
      • crannogs
      • cursus monuments
      • forts
      • henges
      • rock art
      • sacred sites
      • souterrains
      • standing stones
      • stone circles
    • Pictish history
      • Pictish stones
      • Pictish sites
      • Pictish placenames
    • Clans
      • Surnames
      • Trace your ancestors
      • Tartan
    • Trace your ancestors
  • Culture
    • Music
      • Bands & musicians
      • Music links
    • Film
    • Television
    • Placenames
      • Pictish placenames
  • Eat
  • Drink
    • Scottish beer
    • Scottish gin
    • Scottish vodka
  • Stay
  • Travel guide
    • City guides
    • Car hire
    • Airports
  • Walking
    • Munros
    • West Highland Way
  • Photos
  • Offers
  • Home
  • blog
Yester Castle and the Goblin Ha’

Today we visited a place that I’ve wanted to visit for a long time, Yester Castle, a castle with a reputation for spookiness and strange goings-on.

Yester Castle was begun in the 13th century by Hugo de Giffard, the “Wizard of Yester”, who was reputed to be a warlock or necromancer. He is said to have made a pact with the Devil and raised an army of goblins who built him a subterranean chamber where he could practice his dark arts. But more that later.

I had read in various places that it was quite a difficult site to find, with some people suggesting entering the Yester estate from the west at Gifford, and others preferring to enter by Danskine Lodge to the east. In both cases there was talk of people losing their way and others not finding the castle. But looking at the map Yester Castle is situated in the corner of a wood bordering a golf course, so that seemed like the most sensible option, and proved to be very easy.

We parked at Castle Park Golf Club, and asked if it would be ok to walk along the edge of the course to get to the castle. “Of course” was the reply, and the guy gave us clear directions of how to get there. As we got closer, we could see a bit of masonry poking through the trees.

But this only hinted at what we were going to see! Our route took us right to the old bridge that crosses into the castle’s outer defences. The bridge is carved with the date 1717, but is apparently much older. It leads straight into a long, wide ditch which was cut to protect this, the south end of the castle site. It was full of nettles, which looked rather glorious in the late afternoon sunshine.

Halfway through the ditch a path leads up a bank to what would originally have been the main entrance to the castle. Nothing now remains above ground, but there were once a pair of large round towers flanking the gateway.

In front of us were the substantial remains of a 15th century tower house, partly hidden by trees.

This tower was built against the inside of an enceinte, or courtyard wall, and it was the top of this that we could see from the golf course, emerging from the canopy. The tower originally consisted of three storeys above a barrel vaulted basement, which has survived.

After having a good look around this tower, we set off to find the Goblin Ha’. This whole area was planted with trees in the 19th century by the Marquess of Tweeddale, and it is now quite overgrown, making it quite easy to lose your bearings. The trees also hide the various ruins very well, and it was with some surprise that we came across a 9 metre tall section of the castle walls!

It was well hidden by the trees, and despite having only been maybe 30 metres from it at the tower, we didn’t see it until we were up close. Most of the references I had read prior to visiting focused on the Goblin Ha’, so I wasn’t expecting such large ruins to remain. Because the castle is built on a raised promontory with small burns to the east and west, the land falls away steeply at the sides, and the courtyard wall extends down another 3 metres or so making it around 12 metres tall at this point.

Built into the bottom of this massive 15th century wall, in a dip in the land, are a pair of arched entrances into the Goblin Ha’, although they are now blocked with iron grilles.

We knew there was another entrance from the side, but we weren’t sure exactly where. So we passed through the archway in the big wall and made our way to the west edge of the castle mound, where a narrow path clinging to the edge of the slope led us to a tiny arched doorway far below the castle.

Crouching and entering leads you into a long passageway cut through the rock, and lined with a series of stone arches that get progressively taller. This is a photo looking back along the passage to the entrance.

The passageway brings you into an incredibly dark chamber, almost pitch black at first as the eyes adjust, despite the twin arched entrances in the south wall.

I was glad I’d brought my tripod, but even more glad that I’d brought my powerful bike light, as it was really quite difficult to see what was in there. It didn’t feel at all spooky, just empty, peaceful and quiet. But there is some danger to be found – opposite where we had entered is a stone-cut staircase which descends even deeper into the hill, and without the bike light we wouldn’t have seen it.

I started to carefully walk down the staircase, but after yesterday‘s rain the steps were covered in slippy mud, and I didn’t fancy slipping the rest of the way down, so gave up a few metres from the bottom.

Apparently there isn’t much to see, and the stones you can see at the bottom are there to fill in an old well which used to supply the castle with water. Contrary to what I expected, the overriding emotion down here was that this place is really cool, not spooky at all. Luckily it wasn’t until we got home that I found a video on YouTube of two guys scaring themselves silly down here when they thought they heard a voice! You can watch the video here.

The Goblin Ha’ is thought to have been built in the first half of the 13th century, and has an impressive Gothic arched ceiling. Considering its age it is in fantastic condition, although some masonry has fallen from a section low on the east wall, possibly due to fire damage by the looks of it.

At the top of the north wall is a fireplace, this chamber having originally been split into two levels, with crossbeams placed in between each of the roof arches.

This really is a fantastic place, and well worth a visit. We would have spent longer here, but time was marching on and we still had to walk back through the golf course and drive back to Edinburgh, so eventually we made our way back out into the daylight.

Before we left Yester Castle though we had another wander around, and noticed the footings of some buildings on the west of the castle mound. Upon later investigation these turned out to be the remains of 14th century buildings within the castle walls.

Re-tracing our steps through the wood and over the bridge, we were soon back on the golf course, and stopped to take a photo of an ominous looking cloud gathering over it.

It turns out that the crest of this hill was once the site of a fort, identified from aerial photographs.

As we walked back towards the clubhouse and car park, the rain started to fall, but we made it back just in time.

Like this:

Like Loading...

Latest blog posts

The lost tower of Rakestonleis
23rd of July 2022 •
The three castles of Tolibothwell
7th of April 2020 •
Where to buy beer in Scotland during the Coronavirus lockdown
26th of March 2020 •
Cherry blossom in Edinburgh
23rd of April 2019 •
A dreich day of Dumfriesshire castles
13th of March 2019 •
Tweed Valley walks and Elibank Castle
30th of April 2018 •
Red squirrels at Eskrigg Reserve (and some castles)
6th of April 2018 •
Old and new Comiston Houses
29th of March 2016 •
Quintinshill rail disaster parade
23rd of May 2015 •
Cycling along Silverknowes Esplanade in Edinburgh
5th of April 2015 •
more blog posts....

Blog categories

art & design

15 posts

castles

88 posts

cycling

24 posts

Edinburgh

67 posts

Edinburgh Festival

7 posts

food & drink

4 posts

general

41 posts

history

143 posts

music

2 posts

sport

4 posts

walking

57 posts

whisky

1 posts

wildlife

41 posts

Follow us on bloglovin'

Stravaiging around Scotland Stravaiging around Scotland
  • advertisement

Most popular posts

Yester Castle and the Goblin Ha’
19th of June 2011 •
West Highland Way 2006 – Day 1
16th of July 2006 •
Ancient sites on Lewis
15th of June 2006 •
Calton Hill and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery
19th of May 2013 •
Loch Turret and Ben Chonzie
21st of October 2006 •
Standing stones in Edinburgh
28th of August 2010 •
Doors Open Day Edinburgh 2012
24th of September 2012 •
Castles and Pictish stones in the north of Scotland
13th of April 2013 •
Hot air ballooning over Scotland
2nd of April 2009 •
Walking around Gosford House and gardens
20th of June 2014 •
more blog posts....

Blogroll

Ailish Sinclair

BikELove Scotland

Edinburgh Drift

From Hill to Sea

isleofronalog

Jardine's Book of Martyrs

Kelsey Jackson Williams

Marc Calhoun

Scotland with The Wee White Dug

Scottish Crannogs

Senchus

The Hazel Tree

The History Girls Frae Scotland

The Urban Prehistorian

Walkhighlands

  • advertisement
  • advertisement
  • advertisement

Related pages

A trek to the top of Schiehallion
A trek to the top of Schiehallion
Walking in the woods above Pitlochry
Walking in the woods above Pitlochry
Stormy Portobello and birdlife on the River Tyne
Stormy Portobello and birdlife on the River Tyne
An underground adventure in southern Midlothian
An underground adventure in southern Midlothian
Baby squirrels at Callendar House
Baby squirrels at Callendar House
Exploring the Carmichael estate
Exploring the Carmichael estate
Published on the 19th of June 2011 at 10:03 pm. Updated on the 28th of January 2014 at 9:53 am.

Leave a comment

back to the top of the page

Connect with us

Like us on Facebook

Receive our newsletter

Follow us on Twitter

Tweets by Stravaig_Aboot

Quick links

Stay in a Scottish castle
Edinburgh Festival accommodation
Hotels in Scotland
Car hire in Scotland
Places to eat and drink in Scotland
Castles in Scotland
Trace your Scottish ancestors
Scottish clans
Standing stones in Scotland
The Picts
Pictish symbol stones
Pictish placenames
Scottish bands and musicians
Scottish films
Scottish TV shows
West Highland Way

About

Andy Sweet above Fast Castle

Stravaiging around Scotland is written, photographed and researched by Andy Sweet.
read more....

Cookies

To make this site work properly we use cookies to store information on your computer. Click here to read more.

Affiliate links

This site includes affiliate links and adverts. If you click on these links we may receive a small commission at no cost to yourselves. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. This modest income goes towards funding the site.
© 2003 - 2025 Andy Sweet / Stravaiging around Scotland. Powered by WordPress. Hosted by Tsohost.
%d