Trip to Scotland

More along the Royal Mile

Walking down Edinburgh's High Street (the Royal Mile) is considered the ultimate tourist experience when visiting Edinburgh. According to one book I have, people have been doing that for 700 years. Again, the book says you the walk can easily be done in an hour and a half - but you could spend days exploring the area. There is so much we missed along the mile - that alone is reason to return to Edinburgh some day.

Spirt of the Tattoo Visitor Centre
We didn't spend nearly enough time at the Tattoo Visitor Centre. We took a quick run through of the displays showing how the cloth is made. Next trip we are going to stop and get our picture taken in full regalia. There was a couple getting their photo taken while we were there but we were on the rush-rush-rush tour so didn't wait.

We still had the entire mile (looking back - it was way more than a mile!) to finish.

Left: There's that creepy monument again.

Walking along the mile we missed so much because things aren't marked really well and it's easy to just walk right past them. A few of the things we missed were Lady Stair's Close, Brodie's Close, etc. A Close is like a small alley between buildings and several of these remain with historys of being haunted. One we attempted twice to see (reservations strongly recommended!) was Mary King's Close. We never got in to see it but the history is that older buildings on each side of the close had been demolished and the City Chambers building was erected on top of it. The close became the basement of the building. During the plague people were put down in the close to die. Apparently it was used for a lot of "undesirables" not just those infected with disease. Also, if a parent was put down there, children had no choice but to accompany them. That was the story with Mary King. They say she remains there to this day. Tourists bring her dolls and toys.

By the time we got to Holyrood Park the palace was closed so we couldn't see that but Arthur's Seat is always open!

These are the views of Arthur's Seat from the Park.

We're walking up WHAT?!

Next page - on to Arthur's Seat.