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| Edinburgh Castle, apartments and chapel |
The character of Edinburgh, its hidden alleyways and winding stairs, make it quite a unique and edaphic place. As you've seen from my previous posts, Edinburgh Castle sits atop a huge rock and towers over the rest of the city, which is why many refer to it as the "castle in the sky." It's important to distinguish mountain from rock because the foundation of the entire castle is literally one prodigious* (really really big) rock, which is why there is such a sharp drop off under the castle walls. Thus, you can imagine (well, you won't have to imagine that hard) the amazing panorama from the top of the battlements!
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| Parliament building of Scotland |
There were lots of exhibits about the monarchs of Scotland, as well as the royal apartments (nothing special - rather plain because it's a castle and not a proper palace like Holyrood). I also saw the castle prison, which was pretty cool, especially the wooden doors and bedposts that were etched with some pretty famous signatures. But, of course, the things that I really wanted to photograph I couldn't: the Scottish Crown Jewels. Since England and Scotland have been united under one crown for over 400 years, these jewels are redundant today, but may have an important role yet. I doubt people in the States have heard of this (I certainly had not until I arrived in September), but next year Scotland is going to have a vote to decide whether or not it will remain part of the UK or become its own sovereign nation. Apparently, among other things, its economy is the strongest it's been in forever. I don't know a lot about it, so I cannot say if I'm pro or against secession. If this does happen, the Parliament building next to Holyrood (a modern design that I think is hideous, by the way) will be busy again. What I don't know is whether Scotland will reinstate its own monarch if it does secede. Either way, it will be an exciting thing to follow in the news.
It's hard to give you a clear history of Edinburgh Castle because it was built in sections, the oldest remaining part dating from circa 15th century, and many sections have replaced ones that no longer exist. (Windsor Castle is also like this). But what I'm mainly trying to show you, because goodness knows I've posted enough castle and palace pictures (they start to look the same), are the amazing views from the Castle Rock.
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| Just one of the company |
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| Edinburgh Castle, glimpse of Arthur's Seat |
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| New Town and the North Sea, from Edinburgh Castle |
Isn't it just amazing?! I even ran into a huge wedding party taking photos with the Castle and Edinburgh as the backdrop - good choice!
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| Holyrood Palace |
At the other end of the Royal Mile is Holyrood Palace. It is where the Queen and her family stay whenever they are in Scotland. I didn't pay the £16 to tour the interior mainly because, at this point, I've seen many staterooms in Palaces. I'd rather pay to see a castle! Windsor was amazing, and how could I have passed up those spectacular Edinburgh Castle views?! The other reason for not spending a huge amount of time at Holyrood is that I wanted to see more panoramas of Edinburgh. And, what better way to do it, than hiking up Arthur's Seat?!
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| Holyrood Palace, from Arthur's Seat |
Arthur's Seat is one of those local icons that no one seems to know much about. What is it? That question has an easy answer. Arthur's Seat is part of Holyrood Park, and is essentially a really tall hill that gives you a mind-blowing (no pun intended, but it is pretty windy up there) view of Edinburgh and even parts of the Highlands if it's a clear day. Very fortunately, there was not a cloud in the sky when I trekked to the top, which means awesome pictures for you all!! Why is it called Arthur's Seat? This is where we run into uncertainty. I asked many people this question, and got a plethora of answers. The most obvious is that the peak is named after the legendary King Arthur, the Scot (yes, he was Scottish, not English) who defended the British against the invading Saxons. (He did a great job, but as we know Queen Victoria, Victoria's mother, and Prince Albert were all of the
Saxe-Coburg family). Another name for Arthur's Seat is the Archer's Seat, which makes a bit more sense because it is a great tactical position for a company of archers to defend the city. There were many other name origin stories, but I liked these two the best.
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| Arthur's Seat, from Holyrood Palace |
If you take the train into Edinburgh like I did, Arthur's Seat is the first thing you'll see out of the window. I remember seeing tiny outlines of people walking on the top, and thinking "I am not leaving this place without doing that!" The hike to the top of Arthur's Seat took me 20-30 minutes. The cool thing about it is that you can hike up from almost every direction - there are dirt trails all over the place.
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| Edinburgh, from Arthur's Seat (1) |
As incredible as these photos are, they don't even come close to how amazing it feels when you are standing over everything, the sun is shining, the crisp wind is blowing your hair, and all you can think is
this is the most beautiful spot in the world! Even with the wind in my ears, it was so quiet and peaceful up there. There are only a few places in the world that I've felt like that.
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| Edinburgh, from Arthur's Seat (2) |
As I mentioned it was an unusually clear day for Edinburgh, and, if you look really hard, you might be able to spot the snow-capped mountains of the Scottish Highlands (in picture #2)! In picture #1 from Arthur's Seat, you can see Edinburgh Castle, sitting above everything else.
The last Edinburgh history I would like to impart is actually quite funny. Just after the Napoleonic Wars (ended at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 under the Duke of Wellington, and Horatio Nelson), Edinburgh wanted to honor the Scots who died with a national memorial. And, because people were convinced that Scotland was the new "great civilization" since Rome, they decided to build a replica of the Parthenon in the honor of the fallen soldiers. For those of you who don't keep this highly useful statistic in your heads, the Parthenon has 60 columns, and the Scots ran out of money after 12. And, instead of dismantling it, the 12 column monument remains today on Calton Hill over New Town, and is now known as "the disgrace of Scotland." It's simultaneously humorous and sad, but is a cool place to visit and one of my favorite stories about Edinburgh.
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| Calton Hill and Holyrood Palace |
I hope you enjoyed these posts about exciting Edinburgh! Thanks for reading!
* Too bad I don't have more SATs-aged people reading this blog - I am making great use of my thesaurus!
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