Spring Nostalgia Trip # 12: The Auld Town of Auld Reekie

If visiting the New Town, West End, and Dean Village seems much like a tourist experience in any major city, then Edinburgh's Old Town takes your experience to the same level of overcrowding, over-noisy overload which ranks with the craziest touristic madhouses on the planet. I don't remember feeling this way after my visit to Edinburgh half a century ago, but I was grateful to escape at the bottom end of the Royal Mile with my sanity and my possessions intact.

 

Even so, I would recommend anyone to spend some time in the Old Town. Just try to get there early in the day, and not (as I did) on a weekend. 

 

Post # 11 concluded my visit to the New Town with a climb up the street called The Mound. Here's the view ahead as you begin to ascend the Mound towards the summit of the Castle Hill.

 

 

The building with the two square towers is now the home of New College in the University of Edinburgh, but its historic role was to house the Assembly Rooms for the Annual Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which is known in other countries as the Presbyterian Church. It's a fitting introduction to the Old Town, since the wars of religion in Scotland generated a good deal of the history you're going to experience up on this hill. The Rooms are still used for the regular Assembly sessions, and the main hall is also used to hold concerts when the Assembly is not in session. Here's a closeup of the facade.

The building still looks dark, especially at a distance, but when I came here as a young traveller it was all but pitch black, due to the many generations of exposure to the smog of Auld Reekie.

To reach the Castle, you have to turn off The Mound and walk along the narrower roadway past the College entrance, Mound Place. At the end of the building, you turn a corner and find yourself on the steepest road I've ever tried to walk on in my life -- Ramsay Lane. It's not a long hill, and the summit is on the crest of the Castle Hill, but steep! I'm sure the lower end of this road was steeper than 9/10 of all the staircases I've ever climbed in my life. I didn't even try to take a picture looking up, because I feared that if I raised my camera, I would lose my balance on the steep, slippery cobbles and go back down the hill "arse over teakettle," to quote an old expression. Instead, I turned around once I reached the top, and took the picture looking back downhill. The road keeps getting steeper and steeper as you go down the hill.

At the top, I was now standing on the roadway called Castlehill, directly in front of the outer gates of Edinburgh Castle. Since I had cringed at the £20 admission fee, I took just one picture, looking past the huge bleachers which provide seating for the annual Military Tattoo towards the main castle buildings, and then turned around.

For those who wish to visit Edinburgh Castle in more depth, a word to the wise. Here's a screenshot from the official Castle website:

According to the desk clerk at my hotel, this is not just an idle threat. The wording seems to hint delicately that you will end up paying far more to a scalper if you don't reserve ahead of time. I can well believe it!

Standing on Castlehill, you are now standing at the top end of the "Royal Mile." There is no actual street by that name. It's the mile-long roadway connecting the fortress and palace of Edinburgh Castle to the more ceremonial and luxurious Palace of Holyroodhouse at the lower east end of the escarpment. The streets which comprise the Royal Mile, in order, are Castlehill, Lawnmarket, High Street, Canongate, and Abbey Strand. Despite all these names, it is a single continuous roadway running more or less straight along the summit of the escarpment all the way down.

Here's the map of Edinburgh again, this time with the Royal Mile marked in with a bright pink line.

This picture gives you a view of the first stretch of the Royal Mile below the Castle, looking downhill.

Already you can see that almost every building in the picture has its own distinctive style of architecture. The contrast couldn't be greater from the sane, sensible stylistic harmony of the New Town. Here in the Old Town, there is no such thing at all. It's a gloriously anarchic hodge-podge of styles from any and all times for the last seven centuries, sometimes with multiple styles jammed side-by-each into a single structure. 

With that as a hint, here is a photo gallery of the Royal Mile.

 

An eye-catching sight is the old Tolbooth Kirk, at the foot of Castlehill. The towering spire is impossible to miss. Unused as a church for many years, it was renovated and converted into a performance hall and office spaces for the Edinburgh International Festival, one of the world's premier summer festivals of the arts. The new space, christened The Hub, opened in 1991.

 

At the end of Lawnmarket, the street widens into a sizable plaza, which is occupied by St. Giles Cathedral.

The commonly-used name "Cathedral" is actually misleading, since St. Giles is a Church of Scotland congregation, and the Presbyterian churches do not have bishops (the name "cathedral" means "the official seat of a bishop). Sometimes referred to as the High Kirk, although that name conveys no particular distinction either, St. Giles embodies a large part of Scottish history within its complex and unusual structure.

The church has passed back and forth between Catholics and Protestants as the tides of the country's wars of religion shifted repeatedly through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Like many of Britain's great Gothic churches, St. Giles has undergone numerous renovations, improvements, and expansions during its centuries of existence here. The most recent major addition is the exquisite Thistle Chapel of 1911.

 

The most striking architectural feature of St. Giles is its central Crown Tower. Such towers can be found on a number of churches in different parts of Scotland and northern England, but St. Giles is unique among all the examples I have seen in having four central buttresses on each side as well as the usual four corner buttresses to support the central spire. It's also the largest such crown I know.

 

Outside the east end of the church is the Mercat (Market) Cross, a common feature of many older towns and cities throughout the British Isles.

 

The commonly-used name "Cathedral" is actually misleading, since St. Giles is a Church of Scotland congregation, and the Presbyterian churches do not have bishops (the name "cathedral" means "the official seat of a bishop). Sometimes referred to as the High Kirk, although that name conveys no particular distinction either, St. Giles embodies a large part of Scottish history within its complex and unusual structure.

The church has passed back and forth between Catholics and Protestants as the tides of the country's wars of religion ebbed and flowed repeatedly through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Like many of Britain's great Gothic churches, St. Giles has undergone numerous renovations, improvements, and expansions during its centuries of existence here. 

For years, it has served as a burial place for distinguished persons of various kinds, much like the role of Westminster Abbey in London. Also like Westminster, St. Giles is the location for various ceremonial and royal functions. St. Giles appeared in many a television newscast as the scene of the lying in state of Queen Elizabeth II before her casket was taken to London. Subsequently, the square in front of the church witnessed the official welcome of King Charles III, and an official service of thanksgiving was held in St. Giles at that occasion.

 

So even if the names "Cathedral" and "High Kirk" carry no specific meaning, they prove in the end to be appropriate anyway for this magnificent church's role in the national life.

 

By the way, I did not go inside because I was passing St. Giles just at the time of the principal Sunday service of worship.

Leaving St. Giles behind, I continued down High Street which is pedestrian only for the first couple of blocks after leaving the Cathedral.

This large complex in the last photo appears no different from any of the others, until you take a good look at the round turret on the far end.

One thing's for sure -- no guests of this hotel in the upmarket Radisson Blu chain have to climb any hills at all to get from their hotel rooms out onto the Royal Mile!

 

Getting closer to the bottom of the Royal Mile now, I came to the most bizarre architectural hodge-podge of all -- the house of John Knox. Known and honoured as the firebrand preacher and remembered as the founder of the Protestant Church of Scotland, Knox served for some years as the minister of St. Giles.

 

 

Not far beyond Knox's house is the Canongate Tolbooth of 1591, which served at one time as a prison. It now houses a museum and a tavern -- and some apartments! The term "Tolbooth" was used from the 1300s until the 1800s to describe a building as a seat of municipal government in a burgh, a city chartered by the Scottish crown.

So what else is there to do on the Royal Mile besides looking at the architecture or going into the several museums? The answer: SHOP! If you want to buy anything at all with a Scottish theme or connection, you've come to the right place.

 

Kilts, plaids, accessories, souvenirs, whisky, woollens, tweed, candy, jewellery, antiques, cashmere -- if it's made in Scotland, you'll find a shop selling it here -- or two or three or more. They range from the dignified and upmarket to the quirky and entertaining -- such as this example.

 

Another cute name which I missed seeing but caught later from Google Maps was a gift shop cleverly named "Thistle Do Nicely."

 

Finally, at the foot of the hill at last, here are the historic buildings on either side of the short little street called Abbey Strand.

The King's Gallery, quite understandably, has only recently been renamed.

Now, turn around -- very slowly and carefully lest you suffer a severe shock.

 

 

This building, right across the street from the palace, is the home of the Scottish Parliament -- that is the new Parliament since the devolution of many powers of government from Westminster back to Scotland in 1998. The new building was officially opened in 2004. It's quite the contrast to its historic surroundings.

 

"Abbey Strand" got its name because it formerly led to the abbey of the Holy Rood, which most likely took its name from a fragment of the True Cross. The extended name "Holyroodhouse" may derive from the custom in medieval times of describing convents, monasteries, nunneries, and abbeys as religious houses. The first palace was built adjacent to the abbey in the 1500s, and the more recent palace -- mainly dating from the later 1600s -- still adjoins the abbey ruins.

The Palace of Holyroodhouse, as it stands today, is the official royal residence in Scotland, and is open to the public whenever no members of the Royal Family are in residence. Again there's a £20 admission fee, and again I said to myself, "Thanks but no thanks." These pictures were taken through the space between the bars of the elaborate iron gates. I wonder if I used the same exact gap in the bars with my old Instamatic camera back in 1975?

Beyond the palace, to the south and east, is the large public area of greenery, forest, lochs, and mountains known as Holyrood Park. Although I didn't go into the park this time, I have done in the past, and there are great hiking opportunities. Two of the best are shown in these pictures, taken from up on Regent Road as I made my way back to Princes Street. First are the abrupt cliffs of Salisbury Craigs.

Behind Salisbury Craigs rises the even more prominent mountain known as Arthur's Seat, a name which pays tribute to old legends which claim a Scottish connection with the career of King Arthur.

Just along the road from the viewpoints where I took those mountain views, there stands the official monument of Scotland's true poet laureate, Robert Burns.

Not far away, on the other side of the road, is the neo-Classical majesty of a palace of education -- the Royal High School.

Next up on the north side of Regent Road is Calton Hill, which stands above the east end of Princes Street and holds numerous monuments to significant figures in history. Two which can be seen from below are the memorial to Admiral Lord Nelson, in the shape of a naval officer's telescope....

...and another neo-Classical temple, a memorial to Scottish philosopher Dugald Stewart.

 

Passing by Calton Hill, I came at last down to Princes Street again, and one significant landmark which I haven't mentioned yet. It's that iconic clock tower, visible from everywhere on the street, standing atop the Balmoral Hotel. Originally called the North British Hotel after the railway which built it, the Balmoral remains the most distinguished and certainly one of the most expensive accommodations in Edinburgh. Maybe if I start up a Go Fund Me, I can get enough money to afford a room there the next time!

And with that, this fabulous trip has come to its close. Thanks to all of you who've stuck with me right through all the different chapters of this story. Time to stay home for a bit and lick my financial wounds, but this whole experience has been worth every penny I spent on it!

Spring Nostalgia Trip # 11: The Athens of the North

My last visit of this trip was to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. 

 

This world-renowned city has had many names through the years. It's long been reputed as the Athens of the North, partly for the architecture but just as much for the city's immense attention to and reverence for its poets, painters, scholars, thinkers, and writers. It's true. The number of statues of famous philosophers, academics, and authors nearly exceeds the number of military monuments.

Less reverently, Edinburgh was historically known as "Auld Reekie" in colloquial Scots English, a distinct language. Auld Reekie translates as "Old Smoky," and referred to the pall of haze and soot which used to settle over the city as the smoke from coal fires mingled with the damp sea air from the Firth of Forth. You can still see the evidence of the Auld Reekie days on buildings which are awaiting their turn for a good thorough clean with pressure washers.That's a lengthy, arduous process.

 

I chose to end my travels in Edinburgh for one simple reason: it's now possible to fly nonstop from Edinburgh to Toronto, and that was the route I chose for my trip home. Spacious, smooth-running, efficient -- I could just about write an entire blog post about the advantages of Edinburgh's airport, and of flying direct out of Edinburgh, versus travelling by way of London. Suffice it to say that the elapsed time from my hotel room on the airport property through check-in and security to my boarding gate was just 35 minutes -- and that even allowed for an extended spell of browsing the enormous collection of single malt whiskies in the huge duty-free store. 

 

Nor should I sell the hotel short (the Hampton Inn Edinburgh Airport) -- this place is not only modern and comfortable, but knows exactly what needs to happen to make an airport hotel practical. They serve the full hot breakfast from 0430 every morning, and the bar is open and pouring 24/7!

 

But we're here to talk about the city -- perhaps, more accurately, the cities. Edinburgh has several distinct personalities, depending on which area you happen to be in.

 

I began my visiting in the New Town and West End area, which was designed and built, pretty much all in a piece, after a design competition held in 1766. The precise, neat geometric street plan of the New Town contrasts with the meandering layout of much of the rest of the city. So does the uniformity of design in the height of neo-classical Georgian architecture, with all buildings generally conforming to the standard height and standard architectural style.

 

 

So unified is the style, in fact, that when you come across a building which doesn't fit the mould, like this restaurant/bar, it really sticks out like a sore thumb. The name gave me a good chuckle too.

 

 

The gently curving houses of Shandwick Place in the West End give a good example of the several circular or oval open plazas found in the new town, with a green park in the centre of each. In most cases, these parks remain private and locked, for the use of the residents of the square or circle. Shandwick Place is rather different, since the main street of the neighbourhood runs right through the central green oval, as does the relatively new Edinburgh Tram line. The West End tram station is in the middle of the oval.

 

 

 

Farther north, Moray Place gives the game away. Although it appears on the map to be a circle, a careful examination of the buildings -- and the street curbs -- soon tells us that it's actually a polygon with many sides. I think I counted sixteen distinct sides, or perhaps it was eighteen.

Melville Street, a couple of blocks north of Shandwick Place, gives a great example of another habit of the New Town design -- the placing of a significant public building or monument in a prominent location at the head of the street. In this case, it's St. Mary's, the imposing Edinburgh Cathedral of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

The most famous square in the New Town is Charlotte Square, named by the Town Council (like many of the streets and squares) in honour of a member of the Hanoverian royal family, in this case George III's Queen. Loyalty to the Crown was an important cause of the times, not least because it was still less than half a century since the Acts of Union in the English and Scottish Parliaments had fused the two countries into a single unit, known then and ever since as the United Kingdom. In Charlotte Square, the famous Georgian house closes the entire north side of the square in a single, symmetrical, harmonious design, a perfect visual metaphor for the ideals of political unity and of the Scottish Enlightenment of that same time period.

Take a close look at the dappled shadows of the leaves of trees in the central park. That white circle with arrows curling around it is actually a roundabout, of a kind that's very common in smaller intersections throughout England and Scotland.

And speaking of harmonious design, there's this lovely decorative element incorporated into the iron gates of the private central park in Charlotte Square.

 

 

Right from the get-go, the New Town became a fashionable neighbourhood for the well-to-do and well-educated. Many other parts of Edinburgh were no such thing, and often found large numbers of people living in squalid tenement conditions. Times change, and some of the former tenements are now among the most fashionable addresses in the city. One unique example, just to the northwest of the New Town, is found in the deep valley of a small stream called the Water of Leith, on the northern edge of the West End. Welcome to Dean Village.

You get your first glimpse of Dean Village from the Dean Bridge which carries Queensferry Road across the valley.

 

 

 

After enjoying the view, go back to the south end of the bridge and turn down a narrow, twisting, cobbled street called Bells Brae. Watch out for cars! This road is open to car traffic, but only a born bloody fool (or someone who actually lives there) would try to take a car down into the steep, narrow, cobbled streets of Dean Village!

Plainly, the buildings here are much older, and don't conform at all to the eye-pleasing visual characteristics of the New Town. Several of these buildings were actually mills of one sort or other, using the water power of the Water of Leith as it flows downhill towards the Firth of Forth.

 

If you follow the Water of Leith downstream from the village, you will find yourself walking past this castle-like house and then passing downhill under Dean Bridge and onto a pleasant walking path through the green forest along the valley. It's a quiet, restful break from the hustle and bustle of the city.

 

Presently, you'll come to this neo-classical rotunda enclosing a natural spring known as St. Brendan's Well.

Of course, if you want to continue your exploration of the city, sooner or later you will have to climb back up out of the valley. The grades on Gloucester Street and Doune Terrace were among the steepest I'd had to climb in the entire trip. But going back up Bells Brae would have been just as challenging.

The south side of the New Town is marked by Princes Street. This has to be one of the most unusual main streets of the world -- all stores and businesses on one side and all green gardens and parkland on the other. The Princes Street Gardens alone will provide ample opportunities for walking amid trees and flower beds. Much of the retail sector along Princes Street is dominated by major retail brands, both national and international.

 

The south side consists of the beautiful Princes Street Gardens. Here are a few samples of spring flowers in vibrant colours. I don't use any special tricks or filters, I just point and shoot -- and my camera automatically selects the close-up setting.

 

The Gardens are also a splendid solution to a perennial eyesore of modern industrial cities. The high hedges on the south side hide the deep cutting holding the railway tracks and platforms of Edinburgh's main railway station, Waverly Station.

Up on Princes Street nearby was a uniquely colourful piper. Pipers are practically a dime a dozen in Edinburgh, but this one took the visual aspect of the art in a direction I'd never seen before. Bravo!

He was standing on the corner of a street called by the curious name of "The Mound." It's actually a perfectly meaningful name. The street runs uphill on an artificial embankment to climb up onto the north face of the Castle Hill. The photo at the head of the blog post was taken partway up the hill and looking back at the New Town. Here it is again.

The two Grecian-style buildings are the National Gallery and the National Academy, two of the most significant museums of Scottish art and indeed of art generally. The tall black neo-Gothic spire to the right is not a church, but the memorial of the famed Scottish novelist and poet, Sir Walter Scott. Here are a couple more photos of the Scott monument from other angles. 

 

 

The ornate, imposing clock tower nearby crowns the luxurious Balmoral Hotel. When it was first opened in 1902, it was called the North British Hotel, and was the creation of the North British Railway Company, the principal railway operating between London and Edinburgh. It stands directly adjacent to Waverly Station, at the east end of Princes Street.

The area around Haymarket station marks the far western end of the New Town and West End as a single unit. This area has a number of hotels at various price points. Since virtually every train leaving Edinburgh for west or north stops at Haymarket, it's a great transport location if you want to use Edinburgh as a touring base by rail. Note on the name: it's not the only street with a name like that. There are also streets in the city called Grassmarket and Lawnmarket. And what about the street called Cowgate? Seriously.

 

This post is already getting out of control so I'm going to split it in two. More about the historic Old Town and Castle Hill will appear in the next post. 

To wrap up, here is a very useful map which shows the areas covered by the different names. Although not mentioned on the map itself, the green represents parks and gardens, while the northern part of the orange area is Dean Village, on either side of the Water of Leith.