Edinburgh

Today was our first full day in Edinburgh and one of the things I wanted to do was a walking tour as I feel they give you a good sense of the place and also help you to get your bearings. We started the day by getting our Edinburgh pass tickets which gives us entry into a number of the tourist sites around town. It is a bit drizzly so we needed to get out the raincoats! Not for warmth but to actually keep the rain off. It is unbelievable the weather we have had so far so we are not complaining at all. After getting the Edinburgh pass we try and find where the free walking tour leaves from. We eventually found it and I unintentionally jump the queue which I am bit embarrassed about as I hate people who do that. It’s all good and we get divided into 2 groups and head off with our guide Dave. These free tours are in a lot of cities and can be recognised by the guides in red shirts. We did a similar one in Prague and it was great so I hope Dave can live up to our expectations.

We started our tour in the courtyard of the Council Chambers on the Royal Mile where the statue of King Alexander the first King of the Scots is, he unified the 3 tribes of the time, Picts, the Scotties and the Britains. Dave gives a very entertaining version of the early history of Scotland using some of the people on the tour as characters in history. He doesn’t divulge everything as he continues the story later in the tour. We have our photo taken for publication on the website and Facebook page which is a nice memento of the day. 

Dave our guide.

Our next stop is St Giles Church where Anglican services were being imposed on the Church of Scotland and the Book of Common Prayer revised for Scottish use was introduced. When the Dean of Edinburgh began to read from the new book of prayer there was rioting led by Jenny Geddes who threw a stool at the head of the Dean which lead to more stools being thrown and general disarray ensued. A very interesting story.

St Giles Church

St Giles Church

As we walked up toward the castle Dave takes us through an alleyway to tell us the story of Deacon Brodie the carpenter who became a thief and was hanged on his own gallows. As we find out lots of infamous people have pubs named after them and Deacon Brodie is no different. The courtyard shows the way many houses in the Old Town developed with many storeys as space was tight.

The Writer's Museum

Examples of the high rise tenements

As we walk towards the south side of Edinburgh Castle we realised what an imposing site it is rising up out of the mist. Dave talked about what was happening at the castle at the moment which was the dismantling of the temporary structures used for the Edinburgh Tattoo which had just been on.

Edinburgh Castle

We walk further down into the town and come to The Grassmarket which was a typical market where corn was bought and sold. It is now a place with lots of coffee shops and restaurants but still has a market on the weekend. As we are walking Dave points out lots of different places of interest along the way. 

Next stop was Greyfriars Kirkyard where we heard some stories of the amount of bodies that might  be buried there even though you can’t see all the tombstones and he likened it to being like layers of lasagne! At this point he referred to a building which had an old furniture store sign on the side of the building. We all thought so what, but it turns out it is the back wall of The Elephant Castle where J K Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books. A great thrill for quite a few people on the tour.

Back of the Elephant Castle Cafe

 As we move further into the graveyard we saw the school which was the inspiration for the Hogwarts School and also find out that J K Rowling used to walk around the graveyard for inspiration and some of the names of the characters are actually names from headstones there. 

We continued our walk to a small headstone at the front entrance to the churchyard and it is of Greyfriars Bobby, a Skye Terrier who became known in the 19th century for supposedly spending 14 years guarding the grave of his owner until his death in January 1872.

Just a bit further down is the statue of the Greyfriars Bobby and also a pub named after him. We finished our tour outside the National Museum. It was a very entertaining tour with lots of information and a great walk around the city.

Next is some lunch and a sit down after 2 1/2 hours of walking around.

We continued our day with a tour of Edinburgh Castle as we were quite close to it at the end of the walking tour. What an impressive site! This castle dominates the skyline of Edinburgh from where it stands on Castle Rock. It was built as a fortress and there has been a royal castle since the 12th century until 1603. By the 17th century it was mainly used as military barracks. While few of the present buildings date back this far there are a couple that can be dated back quite a long time, St Margaret’s Chapel from the 12th century which is regarded as the oldest building in Edinburgh, the Royal Palace and the 16th century Great Hall are the other two. 
It is the site for the Scottish National War Memorial and the National War Museum of Scotland. The British army is still responsible for parts of the castle and it has a starring role in the Edinburgh Military Tattoo every year.

Entrance to the Castle

I decided to do a quick half hour guided tour while Peter walked around by himself. While we were in the Crown Square the guide noticed an unattended suitcase at the doorway to an area called the Royal Palace where the Honours of Scotland or the Scottish Royal Jewels are housed. Our guide excuses himself to let someone know it is there. In these days of heightened security anything suspicious is noted and I understood why. It turned out to belong to someone so nothing else was done. Our guide leaves us there and I now wish I had an audio guide to explain things properly but never mind I just enjoy walking around and reading and taking photos.

The things I enjoyed the most were The Great Hall which had suits of armour in it, the Royal Palace and just  walking around realising just how long these buildings had been standing and what they represented in the history of Edinburgh. We spent over 2 hours walking around and looking at the many displays and exhibitions that are housed there.

Great Hall

Great Hall

Peter at Foogs Gate

After a long day of walking we go back to the hotel but not before walking quite a way to get the car which has been parked at a parking station as there was metered parking outside our hotel Monday to Friday but now we have the weekend upon us Peter can park it outside until we leave on Sunday.

View form the top of the Castle

Dinner is at a local pub which is close to the hotel. We are looking forward to tomorrow with visits to Royal Yacht Britannia and HolyRood House and Palace.