Mary Queen of Scots is an incredibly famous figure in Scottish history. Many will have heard about her conflicts with her cousin Queen Elizabeth I, her efforts to provide a rightful heir to the throne, and finally facing a gruesome death. These and more snippets of Mary’s intricate life were what led to the development of eeek’s toughest escape room, ‘The Ghost of Mary Queen of Scots’.
Mary’s dark life
During her life, Mary was constantly faced with lies, deceit, betrayal and death. At the root of many of these tragedies stood Scottish Nobles, who went as far as murdering Mary’s close friend David Rizzio right in front of Mary’s eyes. Desperate to find refuge towards the end of her life, Mary put her trust into Elizabeth’s hands, who eventually accused Mary of plotting Elizabeth’s assassination and had her locked up for 19 years. In the end, Mary was found guilty of attempting to assassinate Elizabeth as the Babbington Plot was uncovered, and Mary was sent to a gruesome death of 3 strikes by a blunt axe.
Death didn’t stop Mary
Mary’s life was intertwined with blood, death and treachery, which gave life to a vengeful spirit. This spirit has been haunting the long-forgotten Sandyford Castle for centuries. You are entering the haunted castle in a team of spiritual mediums who are intrigued by Mary’s spine-chilling story. You decide to go against everyone’s warnings and enter the castle confidently. Will you succeed in your effort to finally lay Mary’s ghost to rest or will you become another victim of the castle?
How does Mary’s life fit into our escape room?
Our ‘Ghost of Mary Queen of Scots’ room ties in a few elements of Mary’s real life. Mary was known to communicate in ciphers during her imprisonment. It was actually her cipher that ultimately led to her demise, because it was easy to crack and the contents of the encrypted letter gave Elizabeth reason to believe that Mary was plotting to kill her. In our escape room, you will have a chance to interact with a replica of Mary’s puzzle. Do you think you can crack the code? A tragic moment in Mary’s life was the death of her close friend David Rizzio. Lord Darnley, Mary’s husband at the time grew jealous of Rizzio and blamed all the problems in their marriage on him. One fateful day, he got a group of men to assassinate Rizzio right in front of pregnant Mary, who was forced to watch and couldn’t do anything to stop them. In our escape room, for a moment you will take on the role of those assassins and you will need to solve a puzzle in order to find an escape route from the ballroom of the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Don’t get caught by the guards! The Casket Letters were letters sent between Mary and the Earl of Bothwell, which were used by Scottish lords opposing her rule. They implied that Mary worked together with Bothwell to kill Lord Darnley who died under mysterious circumstances. Darnley was found dead after his house had exploded but it appeared that he had actually been strangled even before. There is a barrel puzzle in our escape room which represents the barrels of gunpowder at Kirk o’ Field where Darnley’s life was mysteriously ended. And that’s not all! You might even find the famous Casket Letters hidden somewhere in the room. These pieces of Mary’s life and many more can be found in our Glasgow escape room ‘Ghost of Mary Queen of Scots’.
But we can’t tell you everything in a blog!
You might just need to come and play the escape room to find out the rest!
