Edinburgh Day 1

Edinburgh is every bit as beautiful as I remember.  It has been a long time since I last visited and even longer since I lived here. The castle, the cobbled streets, the old buildings, even the apartment we're staying in are testimony to the history and splendour of this gorgeous city.

We spent today exploring the castle and the city centre.  Our apartment is about 500 metres from the castle and we headed there via the Grassmarket - an historic market square - that from 1477 to 1911 was one of Edinburgh's main markets for horse and cattle. It was also a setting for public executions!  Today it is a thriving entertainment and residential area, with pubs, clubs and local retail shops lining the cobbled market square.

Pictures taken at the Grassmarket with the castle in the background.

A bit of window shopping along the way.......

Bottom left - interesting name for a shop!

Here we are out the front of the castle, one of these pictures is not like the other.......

And a few quick snaps of the castle and the snow-covered hills before we went in....

The castle provides magnificent views of the city...

And has canons galore, including the medieval bombard Mons Meg.  Manufactured in the 1400's Mons Meg weighs 6970kg, is over 4m in length and in her heyday was capable of firing 51cm, 180kg cannon balls distances of up to 3.2km. Legend abounds surrounding the origins of Mons Megs, with evidence to suggest she was built by order of Philip the Good , Duke of Burgundy, in 1449 in the Belgian municipality of Mons and later given as a gift to James II of Scotland.


After the castle we wandered along Princes Street......

And then up 287 narrow stairs to the top of Scott Monument......

Scott Monument - a 61m Gothic monument built to honour Scottish Author Sir Walter Scott.

The kiddies had a play in the flowers......

And then we wandered up Carlton Hill at the east side of the city and home to the headquarters of the Scottish Government. The hill also includes several iconic monuments and buildings: the National Monument, the Nelson Monument, the Dugald Stewart Monument, the old Royal High School, the Robert Burns Monument and the City Observatory.

Calton Hill provides magnificent views back to the city and I love the shot of the kids peeking out of the columns of the Scottish Monument.