Elvandale, Dunhead, Midlothian, Scotland

Was it me who complained about the tourist crowds yesterday at Rosslyn? Shame on me; I should have saved all my whinging until today. Today we travelled into the middle of Edinburgh and it seems to me that all the tourists who would otherwise be in London if it were not for the heightened sense of security, have all come north to Scotland’s capital!

On top of that, just to add to any whinging I can squeeze in here, totally out of character of course, I find it so exhausting to stand in queues and to be crowded in by the masses in small spaces. I fear the next week may well be a repeat of today! 

Now having expressed such negative concerns, I shall revert to my glass-half-full status and delight in our exploration of the city today. Even after sleeping beyond the pumpkin hour of 8 am, we managed to catch the bus from the nearby Park and Ride into the city, with lunch packed and a tour plan in place within the hour. The sun was shining and warm temperatures forecasted, although the blustery wind kept us wrapped up in several layers for the greater part of the day.

Helpful fellow bus travellers offered advice as to disembarkation and direction to take on doing so, and soon we found ourselves swept in the great tide of humanity up High Street, Lawnmarket and Castle Hill, otherwise known as part of the Royal Mile, up toward Edinburgh Castle.

Disappointingly, the first site of this great treasure is one of great tiers of seating and plastic sheltered stage structures. We learned that this is all in preparation of the Olly Muirs concert to take place here in a couple of days, followed by Deacon Blue on Saturday, whoever they are. The annual Royal Military Tattoo will take place between 4 and 26 August, so there is much going on here aside from the daily crowds that pour in to explore the castle on the rock as we were planning to do today. According to one website, nearly 1,800,000 people visited the castle last year and if you divide that by 363, allowing for a couple of days closed, that is nearly 5,000 a day. This I can believe, although I think the 2017 numbers are up somewhat.

We joined the queue for tickets very soon after 10 am and finally managed to enter the castle just before 11 am. Over a dozen rows of patient folk wound their way snake-like toward the ticket kiosk. Had we had to pay full AOP price today, it would have cost us £13.60 each, however with our English Heritage membership, it cost us nothing but the souvenir guide book we purchased and nearly an hour of our patience.

We decided not to avail ourselves of the audio guides which come with an additional charge, and this was not because we begrudged the cost, but we could not face joining another slow moving queue at yet another kiosk. So we headed up to the top of the rock on the advice of the charming ticket-seller to avoid further queues to the more popular attractions. 

The treasures of Scotland, the Stone of Destiny or, of Scone (pronounced Skoon) together with the Honours of Scotland made up of the crown, the sceptre and the sword of state are all housed in the vaulted Crown Room in the Royal Palace. Access was fairly straight forward and we did wonder about the concern shown further down the mount, but later on when the queues rivalled those at the ticket office, or those we endured when we visited the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London, we understood the decision had been a good one.

We spent about four hours at the castle exploring the Royal Palace, the Great Hall, the Upper Ward, St Margaret’s Chapel, the Half Moon Battery and David’s Tower, the Scottish National War Memorial, the Queen Anne Building, the military museums, prisons, lunching in the Crown Square but giving the National War Museum of Scotland a miss, having had quite enough of military matters. The crowds did not abate, so there appeared to be no particular time when one might be encouraged to return and spend quieter time in the excellent museums with head space to take it all in; this was confirmed by one of the guides I consulted on this very subject.

The Castle is perched on the plug of an extinct volcano, the geology the same as Arthur’s Seat. The summit of Castle Rock is 130 metres ASL and sits under the Shrine in the War Memorial, where sits a steel casket containing the complete Roll of Honour of the Scottish dead, all under the figure of St Michael, the guardian angel or patron of warriors. 

Needless to say the place is packed full of history, battles and occupation, royal coronations and births and deaths, much of it drawing together other bits and pieces of history we have learned over the past few weeks and months and years. This great fortified treasure has had a varied structural history over the past thousand years, sometimes razed then rebuilt, ruined then renovated. 

There was the matter of Edward I stealing the Stone of Scone in 1296, the fact that James VI on becoming James I of Britain promising to pop home on a regular basis, but who only returned once in 1617 fourteen years after moving down into England. His son did deign to visit and was the last sovereign to spend a night in the castle. The site established itself as a military base in the 1700s and continued in that role for the following centuries.

Despite its many metamorphisms, it is in wonderful condition and despite the mass of humanity, I was very glad we started the first day of our city exploration here.

Wandering back down the Royal Mile, we found ourselves surrounded in shops selling tartans and trinkets, and all things Scottish, entertained by bagpipes and animated “statues”, stalls offering “selfies” with owls, both the local and more exotic, and both with their sleep patterns up the shoot. We found our way back to a bus top where we could catch our No 47 bus to the Park and Ride, and later, sitting over dinner, agreed it had been an excellent day. 

I should mention here however, that the roads of Edinburgh are in shocking repair, patched and potholed, and no more comfortable to travel over by bus than personal car. I guess that this is not a priority in this country which does not measure up too well economically beside that south of the border.