Edinburg Castle

Edinburgh Castle from Princess Street Gardens

Our hotel, the Jury’s Inn, Edinburgh is just off the Royal Mile, the road following the ridgeline of this old volcano from Holyrood Palace to Edinburgh Castle. This is the traditional processional route of monarchs. Around the castle are steep cliffs leaving only this road to be defended. This led to crowded housing along the mile, almost all the buildings are 3 to 14 stories high. The rich would live on the top floors with the poor below them. Five water wells provided clean water. Along the mile are small closes, pedestrian passageways, from the lower areas to the mile. Down anchor close was the print shop for the Britannica Encyclopedia. Across a former loch (lake) from the Old Town is New Town built in the 1760s. The loch was a sewer pit and was drained even before the bridges from old to new town were completed.

St. Giles Cathedral

Our first stop was St. Giles Cathedral with its crown steeple modeled after the Scottish crown. Outside is a Mercat Cross where the market used to be. Originally a Catholic church, after the Reformation it was separated into five churches. Inside is the grave of John Knox, founder of the Presbyterian Church and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle was originally built by Robert Bruce, who united Scotland and later improved by William Wallace. As we walked to the castle we passed through the venue where the Edinburgh Tattoo will occur beginning tomorrow. We climbed within the castle to reach the top. Here are several structures: the Royal Apartments which hold the Scottish Crown Jewels, where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James VI, the Banquet Hall, the church which is now a war memorial, and St Margaret’s Chapel, Edinburg’s oldest building. You can see most of the town from here.

In the afternoon I visited the Scottish Museum focusing on the Scottish history portion. Here were some more of the Lewis chessmen and the ceremonial bowl used during the coronation of Robert the Bruce. The museum features sections on natural history, new technology, and Scottish Industry as well.

Bowl from Robert the Bruce's Coronation

Nearby is Greyfriars Kirk and Graveyard. Here are numerous graves from the 17^th century to present times, including Greyfriars Bobby, a dog who guarded the grave of his owner for 14 years. Here too is the grave of Tom Riddle, which inspired J.K. Rawlings to write Harry Potter as well as graves with names of several other characters.

Grave of Greyfriar's Bobby

Mary had struggled through the morning on the climb to the castle. She tested positive for covid, so we began to make plans to return home. It wasn’t until the next afternoon that we had confirmed seats home.