Edinburgh in November (2006)

Hiya back,

Last November (just about exactly a month ago) I spent a few days exploring Edinburgh. The weather was mostly fantastic, if sometimes cold and windy. Here's a little Edinburgh album -- work in progress. So, please come back!

To start us off, a photo that must be my absolute favourite. It shows Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags beyond the new Parliament Building. My vantage point was Calton Hill at the NE end of the Princes Street shopping district.


This lovely gilded unicorn guards the gateway to Queen's Gallery next door to Holyrood Palace, opposite the new Parliament Building. It was mid-afternoon when I visited the area.

The Parliament Building contrasts beautifully with the rather heavy, squat architecture of public buildings elsewhere (mind you, there are lots of people saying it's totally out of character with the local style, but what should you do? keep building in the 20th/21st century the way the Romans did? I don't think so.

Take Edinburgh Castle, for example:
Inside the Castle, I found a number of poignant or impressive places. St. Margaret's Chapel, for example, the oldest building:
The above is an outside view, taken after my visit inside. Below, what it looks like on the inside. The small window still caught the sunlight. I like Romanesque architecture, squat, sturdy, indestructible. This beautiful round arch with its decorations is so like many in chapels along the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain...
Another one of my favourite views: Arthur's Seat beyond the spires and buildings of Edinburgh. My vantage point here was somewhere up on the Castle.
The photo above shows an NE view from the Castle. For the next picture, I stood in the great ceremonial courtyard of the Castle, with the Great Hall (not visible) to my right:
I'm not sure whether I have a view of the Great Hall from outside. But I have these few impressions of details on the inside. Quirky, Victorian ideas of how to decorate such a room:
Spears and armour, battle axes (above) and...
... guns, as in the spokes of this 'wheel'!
Each of the stone bases of the hammerbeam roof, probably the only original element of this hall, is different.

A wall looking south-west bears a primitive carving of a sailing ship. The guide said it was done by one of the hundreds if not thousands of prisoners who languished in the castle dungeons.


Fascinated by everything Celtic, this cross at the north end of the car-park outside Edinburgh Castle had to be photographed. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a new one -- a war memorial.

Finally, two panoramic impressions of the city -- a view from the monument hill south of Princes Street, looking towards the north-east (if you click on the photo, you'll see a bigger version of it).


And a look down from one of the bridges to the pre-Christmas fair. I took this just after 4 pm on a late-November afternoon, feeling sorry to leave just when the city was gearing up for the merry Xmas time. I'd love to be there for Hogmanay, the Scottish version of New Year's Eve. Perhaps one day, who knows...


Peace!