The architecturally beautiful City of Edinburgh ( Pronounced – Edin burra ) is the Capital of Scotland lies on the Eastern coast of Scotland close to the mouth of the River Forth. Know as the gateway to the highlands of Scotland, the city boasts some of the most amazing architecture, sculptures, relics and art to be found anywhere in the country. It is steeped in history with visible and impressive evidence on almost every street corner. Edinburgh has also gained fame on the World stage from its annual Edinburgh Festival and every year; this enormous event draws literally millions of visitors from all over the globe. During the festival period, the days are long and overfilled with things to see and do. The wine and beer flow freely and the welcome and friendship is obvious and almost overwhelming to first time visitors. It is a city of culture and commerce and a city of art, music and history, together with its fair share of pomp and pageantry.
The busy shopping hub of Edinburgh is the famous and one sided Princes Street, where designer stores and the World famous Jenners Store are located. While on the other side of this very busy street lies the magnificent Princes Street Gardens, backed by a most impressive and historical skyline centre pieced by the unbelievable ramparts of Edinburgh Castle. Standing on top of a long extinct volcano, the huge castle walls look as though they have been born from the volcanic rock, following its every contour without so much as a joint in sight. From the castle entrance and esplanade runs the famous road called The Royal Mile and this meanders downhill to meet with the gates of Her Majesty The Queen’s official residence in Scotland called Hollyrood Palace. The Royal Mile has a hidden purpose too, for everything towards the Princess Street side of it is officially known as `The New Town` and the Royal Mile itself and everything behind it is officially known as `The Old Town`. For those who wish to walk this famous mile, it is like a walk through times of long ago, as the majority of buildings remain original or have been restored to original. You will find endless “Closes“ which are simply little passageways through from the front of buildings to their rear. Each Close has its own name and also carries its own stories from long ago. You will see the house of John Knox and numerous other venues of great historic interest and you will also see the truly magnificent structure of St. Giles Cathedral which is normally open to the public and most certainly well worth entering. If you are fortunate enough to visit this Cathedral, then make sure to ask someone in there to guide you to the rear of the building where you can enter the remarkable and still original structure of St. Mary’s Chapel. Words cannot describe what you will find in this small religious sanctuary. Everything is made from the most ornately carved wood and remembering how long ago it was constructed, you will wonder how it could have been possible for anyone to create such a masterpiece, without the use of modern day tools.
As you travel along the Royal Mile from the Castle end, you will find some large stone arches on the left hand side of the street and these arches lead into the front courtyard of Edinburgh City Chambers. What very few people, including visitors know is that just inside the pubic entrance to the City Chambers is the entrance to a world long forgotten. A city beneath the city where cars do not exist and the only inhabitants today are the ghosts of yesterday and believe me when I say, they do exist. A simple chat to the doorman at the city chambers will enlighten you on how you can gain access to a special tour down into the depths of Edinburgh to a secret and eerie place known as Mary King’s Close. Down here below the endless activities of the Royal Mile, you will enter a full and complete street, still as it was in the 1500s with shops, houses and even glass in some of the windows. As the story goes, during the time of the great plague in Edinburgh, officials calculated that in their opinion the centre and cause of the plague was to be found in the place called Mary King’s close. As such, it was pronounced that this now rarely visited street, four and five stories tall, would be bricked up and each end and there after, left and abandoned with some of its residents still inside. This was in fact done and as the years rolled by; the street was built over and totally concealed from view forever. As you are guided along narrow sidewalks and old cobbles you will come to what can only be described as a home made shrine, filled with teddy bears, dolls and small toys. This is the place where most people including visitors have seen the walking ghost of a little girl searching for her lost toys. People have been so moved by this apparition that they have returned to the site bearing toys and teddy bears to leave for the child of yesteryear. One of the old shops was originally a bakery and believe it or not, even today all these hundreds of years later, you can still smell the odour of baking bread within that place.
To tell you all about the City of Edinburgh would take me into a full and very thick book and so, what I have told you here is simply to give you a taste of a small portion of the many things you can expect to find in such a wonderful city. There are huge museums, art galleries, botanical gardens, historic houses and buildings to visit, the palace of Hollyrood, the Castle, the Queen’s Park and Arthur’s Seat, the rocky cliffs where one local decided to push his Wife over with the hops of claiming her insurance. There are open bus tours, interactive ghost tours, theatres of every type and basically an endless array of wonderful things to see and do. The tallest structure you will see in Edinburgh rests in Princes Street aside the Garden and it is known as Scott’s Monument. It is a huge and ornately carved stone structure which vaguely resembles the outline of something from Star Trek and if you are feeling fit, you can climb all the way to its top on a very narrow and ancient stone stairway. In the midst of its four mighty legs sits the statue of Sir Walter Scott, author of the famous Waverley Novels and other literary marvels. Be sure also to visit Leith and its docks, which a part of the City is also. The history to be found here will amaze you and the friendliness of its locals is known around the globe. When it comes time for you to leave Edinburgh and return homeward, you can remember some of the words of their well known song which starts with; Will Ye No Come Back Again.
Bob Littlejohn MBA BSc