Edinburgh

day 25 Friday 11 June

Edinburgh

Off to Edinburgh in the rain this morning, after a reasonable night at New Lanark.We took the 706 for Forth and A71 to Edinburgh – it was about an hour - and put the car in a car park and started walking. Maybe we could have found one closer but that was OK. On the way we saw the start of a parade for a guy walking some huge distance on one leg for charity, complete with pipe band and media.

We had a look at St Cuthberts – a bit touristy and only the steeple remained from 1786, and walked through a nice park and up to the castle – lots of tourists so we headed on to the old part of town where we think George Patterson’s parents lived in West Richmond Street, past the old university – very grey and gloomy. I think the sort of stone can make a big difference as sandstone is so warm. We got some ryebread and salami for lunch, on a bench in Pleasance Street overlooking a bare hill Arthur’s Seat? so close in to the city. Then along to the Royal Mile-Canongate which runs out to Holyrood Palace, and up the hill where it becomes High Street - where he committed the crime, looking for his place of abode without success. There is a fishmarket about there and the Closes and Wynds are doorways/alleys off the main street which is not very narrow. I imagine the streets on either side of Canongate would have been narrow and winding but I think there was a fire at some time and things looked mid 19^th C perhaps. We did see a North Foulis Close and took a photo of Advocate’s Close which framed a nice scene towards Nelson’s Monument between the buildings, leading to courtyards and things. Edinburgh is very up and down and built on more than one level.

 

We did not see the new city, but walked back below the castle beside the railway and took a photo of a rough grassy slope which could have been out in the country.

Edinburgh Castle

We found our car and headed on in the early afternoon, after only a couple of hours it seems. We asked directions out of the city at the carpark and got an amazingly unintelligible answer but we had looked at the map and while Dick was in confusion I just kept turning right or what it seemed he had said and we got through to our amazement and drove on to the road south.

We got a bit lost in a town near Melrose but managed to get there. It was a nice old house at the foot of the Eildon Hills and a short walk to the abbey and into town.