Born in Fife in 1676, the story of Alexander Selkirk inspired Daniel Dafoe’s novel ‘Robinson Crusoe.’

After choosing to be marooned on a desert island, Selkirk endured solitude, enemy privateers and a round the world trip before landing back on home soil.

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Alchemy is a historical practice that attempts to transmute base metals into gold. Through the influence of the Muslim world, the knowledge of alchemy spread through Europe with the help of travelling scholars like Michael Scot.

Scot was a polyglot mathematician, alchemist, apothecary and academic born in Scotland. He worked with like-minded intellectuals like Leonardo Fibonacci to translate many influential texts that spurred the Renaissance. Despite his many accolades, his legacy as a magician and wizard was cemented in popular culture with his appearance in Dante Alighieri's epic poem, Inferno.

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The Edinburgh Vaults are a series of underground chambers located inside the South Bridge's enclosed arches. Originally used as storerooms, the poor conditions led to them becoming a place of squalor, crime, and possibly body snatching.

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