Once upon a time, around about 300 or so years ago, in the village of Corstorphine, which is latterly in Edinburgh, dwelt the Baron's Forrester.  The title had been acquired some time previously by an Edinburgh merchant & over the course of time they came to rule the people of Corstorphine with all the feudal powers they could muster.   Indeed several of them are buried in the Old Parish Kirk there which dates from 1409AD.   In the street today called Castle Avenue they had their great Castle stronghold thereat. Nowadays all that remains is an old Dovecot in a suburban garden, which legends attest, if ever demolished, the family on whose ground it stands will all be dead within the year.      Now a certain James Forrester had dalliances with a young well to do woman called Christian Nimmo. She was known to be bright, vivacious & tenacious.  A worthy match for any man!   Their trysts often took place in the shadow of a great Sycamore tree on the far end of his father's estate.   James however like many men was fond of the drink & one night he got caught up in a furious bout of inebriation in the local hostelry which was called "The Black Bull Inn" (all that remains of it today is a plaque on a wall in Corstorphine Village on the site of where it reputedly stood). Now Christian had waited many hours for her beau to arrive, but still there was no sign, so she endeavoured to go & seek him out. After a time she happened across the wretch in the Black Bull Inn too drunk to stand. Christian was furious & put his drink about him & a violent slanging match ensued. Christian stormed off in anger into the night, James wishing to prolong the argument followed her unsteadily into the night. He caught up with her at the Sycamore tree & a stramash erupted. In a desperate bid to protect herself she drew his sword from its scabbard & ran him through. James fell to the earth dead. In no amount of time Christian was apprehended & confined to the Old Tolbooth in Edinburgh. She did manage to escape however by dressing as a man, but was quickly re-apprehended in the Pentland Hills to the south of the City & death was her punishment.      It is said that on certain nights of the year that her spirit can still be seen wandering near the ancient Sycamore tree which still stands today, dressed in a white robe stained blood red with the life-force of her lover & carrying his blood-spattered sword.      Another local story is that if you walk "widdershins" 13 times round the tree in question you will come face to face with the tortured discarnate soul. The word "widdershins" means "anti-clockwise" in Scots.      Another story tells that suspected witch Bettie Watson was imprisoned in the clocktower of the Old Parish Kirk in 1649, however before she could be tried she hung herself from the bell rope & it is even said that  if you walk "widdershins" 13 times around the Old Parish Kirk you will encounter none other than the devil himself!      (Stramash means "violent commotion" in Scots.)