Bright and early we departed for the city centre in our coach. It was so nice not to have to get the bags downstairs by 7am.
Once again as we entered the city of Edinburgh we just didn’t know which way to look. We have been travelling in the United Kingdom and Ireland for over two weeks and had begun to get used to the incredibly quaint buildings and the age and detail everywhere we have been, but Edinburgh is just another level.
Edinburgh is made of of two distinctive areas. The New Town was developed in an orderly fashion in the 18th century and has many Georgian style buildings.
The Waverley Vally divides New Town (which is 300 years old) from Old Town which seems to hover over the newer area as it is built on a ridge that runs from Edinburgh Castle down to Holyrood Palace.
Edinburgh Castle dominates the landscape as it sits above the city on a shear rock face. The Royal Mile runs all the way down to Holyrood Palace however, it is made up of many Streets running end to end beginning with Castlehill , which obviously runs down from the castle, the Lawnmarket, the High Street, the Canongate and Abbey Strand. The narrow lanes and closes that run perpendicular to these streets are contained by tall buildings which were the tallest of that age. They were occupied by merchants and nobles and some are as high as six stories.
Some of these building have been constructed on top of the original house which now appear to be underground. More about that when I cover my visit to The Real Mary kings Close.
These were the times when the slop buckets were emptied onto the street and human and animal waste ran down into the midden.
It was a time when any woman who was a little ‘different’ or stood out in some way would risk being accused of sorcery. The only way to check whether she really was a witch or not was to tie her up and throw her into the midden. If she managed to survive then she had to be a witch and would be executed. If she died then she obviously was not a witch, but oh dear, she is dead now anyway.
We passed the Grassmarket where between 1660 and 1864 the executions took place. People were taking photos of the spot, but it gave me the shivers thinking of all the poor souls that had died there.
A pub called the Maggie Dickson is located right by where the gallows were situated. In 1724 poor unmarried Maggie fell pregnant. She hid her pregnancy and shortly after the birth the baby was dead, and she was accused of murder. After her hanging her body was taken by cart to be buried however, on the way there she woke up! The law said that a person could not be punished for a crime twice so Maggie got to live to see another day! After that the term ‘Until death’ was added to an execution sentence.
Edinburgh Castle was great, I think that it may be the largest Castle that we have visited on this trip. We were early and had to wait a wee while and it was freezing even though the sun was shining. Waiting in the courtyard that leads to the Castle gate we watch the construction of the seating for the Military tattoo that occurs at the end of July.
Edinburgh Castle stands on Castle Rock which has been occupied by humans since the Iron Age. It is a great fortress and it generally houses the ‘Stone of Scone’ also known as the ‘Stone of Destiny’.
The Stone has been used in the coronation of the monarch’s of Scotland, and after the 13th century has been used for the coronation of the monarchs of England. And that is why I didn’t see it, because it is still in England after being sat on by our new King Charles the 3rd a couple of weeks ago.
There have been plenty of times where the canniness of the Scottish has been mentioned. We had to laugh when one of our guides, who hales from Glasgow, said that the Scot’s are so canny that copper wire was invented in Scotland when two Scottish men were fighting over a penny.
On our last day in Edinburgh we hired a private car and driver to take us out to see the Kelpies and the Falkirk Wheel. These were two things that we really wanted to see. We took one of our new tour buddies with us as her husband was playing golf.
A kelpie is a shape-changing water spirit of Scottish legend. Kelpies are said to haunt rivers and streams, usually in the shape of a horse. The kelpie may appear as a tame pony beside a river. It is particularly attractive to children but they should take care, for once on its back, its sticky magical hide will not allow them to dismount! Once trapped in this way, the kelpie will drag the child into the river and then eat him. Horrifying isn’t it!
When standing under these magnificent sculptures they almost felt like they could move. It was quite unnerving that a solid structure made you feel like he was going to bend down and snap you up in his metal mouth.
Along side the kelpies is a river with river boats moored, and this leads to our next adventure.
We had seen a YouTube clip of the Falkirk wheel and were amazed, hence the need to get a car and go and see it. The wheel is a lock that transfers boats to a different level in the river however, this is the world’s only rotating lock and stands 35 meters high, that is 8 double decker buses stacked up!
Fortunately for us a couple of river boats were coming down from the higher end of the river and we got to see it in action. The recording is on time lapse so is speeding through the process.
It was fascinating and an engineering feat and it is powered using the same amount of power as 8 electric kettles.
A few meters along the same boat took the next, more traditional, lock.
Our driver took us to Stirling castle but it was too busy so we just drove around the village, which is once again very olde world and charming.
Our last stop was to see the William Wallace memorial, and I think We will be watching Braveheart again on our return to NZ.
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