Castle closed to visitors as 60mph winds batter Capital

Published on Thursday 26 November 2009 08:37

EDINBURGH Castle had to close its doors to tourists for the first time in more than a year, after extreme weather raised fears about the safety of visitors.

The historic attraction did not open as normal at 9:30am yesterday, after staff became concerned about gusting winds, which were recorded at over 60mph.

Staff continued to check various points of the Castle, which is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Scotland, throughout the day.

Their concerns were centred on the possibility of someone being blown over at one of the Castle's high points, or even going over the side.

The esplanade was also closed to visitors, and staff were posted at the Castle entrance to explain the situation to disappointed tourists, and apologise for the problem.

It was hoped that the attraction would be able to open later in the day, but with wind speeds remaining high late into the afternoon, Historic Scotland took the decision to keep the Castle closed as a precaution.

Staff planned to open as normal today, weather permitting, and were to carry out checks first thing this morning to determine whether it was safe.

While not unheard of, it is extremely rare for the Castle to be closed by weather, although Historic Scotland said it had been shut for a day last year due to "extreme winter weather".

A spokeswoman for Historic Scotland said: "The wind speeds being recorded at the higher parts of the Castle, and even on the esplanade, were of a dangerous level, in some cases over 60mph, and so we took the decision not to open as normal, but to wait and see if the weather improved.

"Staff carried out checks every hour, but the winds remained high and so we had to close for the whole day. We apologised to tourists, and a lot of them said they would try and come back later in the week."

The high winds also led to restrictions on the Forth Road Bridge, which was closed to high-sided traffic throughout the day.

The bridge was also closed to cars with trailers, caravans, motorcycles and bicycles, as weather equipment recorded average wind speeds of 48mph.

The Met Office said the high winds were expected to die down today, although rainfall is likely to be intermittent over the next few days and could become quite heavy over the weekend.

There are currently no flood warnings for the local area, and it is not expected the rainfall will be severe enough to cause floods.

The city council said it would continue to monitor water levels in the local rivers, but said so far there had been no serious incidents as a result of the bad weather.