History under the spotlight as Edinburgh Castle comes to life in the dark

They grew up in the shadow of the castle but now Alastair Young and Cristina Spiteri are among a group of creatives shining a light on Edinburgh’s most iconic landmark.

As darkness descends during these winter months, the stronghold’s walls come to life with eye-catching animations and projections telling the city’s stories.

Castle of Light has, for the past five years, transformed the grounds with installations that put history under a spotlight. New artworks for this winter include a reimagining of the famous painting, The Skating Minister, as well as sparking new life into Mons Meg.

Alastair and Cristina, who work with War Productions and Brightside Studios respectively, are two of the creatives who bring the project to life each winter along with Historic Environment Scotland.

“It’s a real privilege to see my work on that big canvas,” Cristina said. “I’m from Edinburgh, so the castle has a special place in my heart and having my work there is very exciting. Bringing my children along to see it has become a yearly event.

Alastair agreed: “It’s an amazing place to work. We work in other buildings around the country, but if you’re from here, the castle is very much part of your identity.”

“It’s grown into the little corners as it’s gone on,” Alastair said. “If we see a dark space, we think we should be doing something with it. We started with around 10-12 in the first year and now we have 18.”

This year’s theme is a nod to the Edinburgh 900 celebrations, which marks the capital’s time as a city. Projections show the many inventions and innovations to have come out of the area, as well as highlighting eight overlooked Edinburgh women from history.

“We referenced Sara Sheridan’s book, Where Are The Women?,” Alastair said. “There are amazing women from Edinburgh but they don’t get commemorated. There are more named statues of dogs in Edinburgh than there are of women.”

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Cristina worked on the installation of Henry Raeburn’s The Skating Minister, also known as The Reverend Robert Walker Skating On Duddingston Loch.

She said: “The animation at the beginning focuses on the painting and then there’s a surprise as his head opens and out of that comes beautiful dancers and fireworks. It’s interesting when creating pieces to be matched with a physical space, because that becomes part of the creative and you can only see it fully once the projector hits and everything is mapped. There’s only a small window of time once it’s in the space to make tweaks.

“But it’s always nice to see what’s on your screen transferred onto a building, and the castle is particularly lovely with the history and the stone’s texture, as well as the way the light hits the cobblestones.”

One of the simplest installations this year is also one of the most popular – a chance to ‘fire’ the legendary Mons Meg cannon.

Alastair said: “Historic Environment Scotland told us they had an audio file of a recreation of it firing, so we have placed a couple of speakers under Mons Meg, brought in a smoke machine, and fitted a button for people to press. It’s loud, especially if you’re not expecting it, but the real thing was probably 100 times that volume. There would be broken windows and complaints from local residents if we did that.”

After-dark light shows in some of Scotland’s most beautiful spots have become hugely popular recently.

“There are loads all over,” Alastair said. “Cristina was also involved in Enchanted Forest this year – that’s the classic one because they’ve been doing it so long. They all have a niche and uniqueness, but Castle of Light is the only one with a castle.”

He added: “One of the rare privileges of this is being in the castle at night and looking out over the walls to Princes Street Gardens and across Edinburgh, with all the Christmas lights. It’s not something you usually get to see when the castle closes at 5pm. It looks fantastic.”

Castle of Light runs every Friday and Saturday until January 4. Additional dates on Dec 22-23, Dec 29-30, and Jan 2