By Michael Downing
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is magnificent.
It was our favorite place on the trip. There is so much to see and do–and so much history. Edinburgh has been the capital of Scotland since 1437 (587+ years) and has been attacked dozens of times since any structure was first established on that titanic rock in the middle of town at least since Malcolm III in the 11th century.
Jackie and I spent a total of five days at an AirBnB directly on The Royal Mile and, while I’ll leave the point-by-point comparisons between Edinburgh and a.) Harry Potter and b.) Game of Thrones, to other writers, let me just say that it is really easy to see the connections. Just look at the architecture.
Let’s start with Edinburgh Castle…
Edinburgh Castle
At the West End of The Royal Mile is Edinburgh Castle which stands on “Castle Rock” and has been inhabited by humans since the Iron Age (loosely 500 BC). You can read the Wikipedia entry for extensive history (get some coffee and get settled in because it’s time well spent). It has, at times, served as “a royal residence, an arsenal, a treasury, a national archive, a mint, a prison, a military fortress.” Quite a history.
It holds a commanding view over the surrounding area all the way to the ocean and been attacked and defended for a thousand years. If you hover over Edinburgh Castle on Google Maps, you’ll see an amazing 360 ariel shot, with the Atlantic in the distance, which will give you some idea of who things went down when Vikings invaded from the Northlands.
We didn’t take the castle tour–simply for the fact that there is not enough time and budget to see everything in Edinburgh. However, we did notice bleachers on both sides of the gigantic entrance walkway–called the Esplanade–leading from the town proper to the gates of the castle. We later learned that this was the staging ground for The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, a spectacle which brings together “the best of British Military with international performances from a global cast.” Tickets range from 42 to 970 British pounds and it’s quite a big deal. We can only imaging being there for an event with big marching bands and all the rest.
Holyrood Palace
Somehow appropriately, considering Scotland’s past and present, that while the national architectural symbol of Scotland (arguably) is at one end of The Royal Mile, it just so happens that the English Royal Family owns property at the other (east) end of the down-slope.
Holyrood Palace is a functioning palace and serves as the northern retreat of the reigning monarch of Great Britain (formerly Elizabeth II; now King Charles). Also important to point out that the word “rood” here means “cross,” so this would be “Holy Cross Palace,” in today’s English. See Old English poem, “The Dream of the Rood.” From Christian tradition, and tied to the Crown.
As you might expect, there is some contentiousness about the British having a castle in the Scottish capital. I spoke to one Scotsman on the street about it. He was wearing a shirt that said, “No English King in Scotland” and I approached him and said that we had just completed our tour of Holyrood and had just heard all of the grotesque and murderous stories about English royalty through the ages…so I found myself in complete agreement with this Scotsman’s sentiment. I have Scottish and Irish blood, so I felt it deeply.
So why does the arrangement exist? Many reasons, good and bad, but it can be argued that there are enough advantages to Scotland to remain in the current arrangement, particularly for defense and economic aspects.
Anyway, Holyrood Palace hosts the English King. It has garden parties for invited guests and sells souvenirs to tourists. You’ll find me pointing to Wikipedia throughout these travel journals, so if you’re interested in learning more about Holyrood, get yourself a cup of tea and settle in. It’s all pretty amazing, if you like UK history.
Before I move on: The Queen’s Gallery at Holyrood is now called The King’s Gallery (as you might expect) and it has tons of images and information on its website related to current activities.
The Royal Mile
I’ve mentioned The Royal Mile a few times and I’m happy to say that our Airbnb was right on TRM. This made it slightly difficult to get to initially, but once we got into our third-floor flat, we looked out the window and saw Edinburgh. The Tollbooth Tavern was directly across from us (see pic below). It was surreal…like being in a dream. Incredible. In one day we had traveled from the west coast of Scotland (Oban) to the east coast (Edinburgh) and were looking at people passing along the Royal Mile.
Safe and sound. We dropped our bags and were ready to eat. We went directly across the street to The Tollbooth Tavern and ordered the (vegetarian) haggis. [I know, I know…but I have to stick to veggies as much as possible to stay healthy].
Tollbooth Tavern
Established in 1820, the Tavern was directly across the street from our Air BnB. We went in, sat down, and ordered the vegetarian haggis and another dish that escapes me (I’ll adding detail one year later, so the brain forgets). The vegetarian haggis omits the hearts and livers and spleens and whatever else they use in the real haggis [offal] and they give you the same spices and similar texture. It was it was delicious and it’s a common ask, so don’t hesitate.
Anyway we had another cask ale and went back to the Airbnb to hang out.
Glenkinchie
The next day we got up bright and early and drove over to Glenkinchie.
DEVELOP
Poems at the Scotland Parliament
there are these poems that are on the Scotland Parliament they’re very cool humid took me into a whole literary thing we also went to a museum there to museums in national museum of Scotland and Edinburgh Museum both were interesting.
There is much more to cover, but I need to move on to other entries. I’ll just leave this list here and develop the sections little by little: Victoria Street, The Red Kite, Arthur’s Seat, London Road Gardens, Topping Bookstore, Calton Hill, Museum of Edinburgh, Drover’s Inn Conclusion, Casserole Wang, Outlander, Train to King’s Cross.
Slides
Maybe some day I’ll map out the 88 slides below, but for right now, I’m going to say, “Enjoy the beautiful pictures from in and around Edinburgh.” All photos by Michael Downing.
My Writing Wanderland 