Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Edinburgh

Scotland's capital city is a visitor-friendly showcase of history and culture

The red-eye special to Glasgow lifted off from Vancouver at ten past midnight and I braced myself for a night of solid discomfort. The ad-man who wrote – "Getting there is half the fun" – was either a midget or had never compressed his body into the economy class seat of a chartered jet.

From the moment we arrived in Scotland's capital city I was struck by its unique blend of big city sophistication and small town accessibility. It is among the five most important financial centres in Europe yet downtown Edinburgh, from the medieval tenements of Old Town to the eighteenth century buildings of New Town, is small enough to be explored on foot and the city clearly welcomes visitors.

From Waverly Station we rolled our baggage up a short ramp to Princes Street and paused to get our bearings. Although it is the city's main east-west thoroughfare Princes Street is developed on one side only. Its northern side is a mix of stately old buildings from the last century and a few modern shops and department stores. The south side faces Princes Street Gardens. Originally a shallow lake, this six-block-long park now features lawns, gardens, walkways and shady resting areas tucked in among the trees. And south of the park the crowded skyline of Old Town slopes up to Castle Craig where Edinburgh Castle, the city's signature landmark, dominates the city skyline. Half a block to my left the Scott Monument, a massive spire resembling a miniature Eiffel Tower rises above the trees of Princes Street Gardens. At its base a marble replica of Sir Walter himself gazes eternally across Princes Street at the Old Waverly Hotel.

Long before the first humans settled here the site where Edinburgh stands was destined to become a great city. Four hundred million years ago a volcanic eruption formed the plug of basalt that is now Castle Craig. Later, eastward-moving regional glaciers, unable to move it, flowed around the mound of tough basalt, carving out steep cliffs on three sides and leaving a long tail of glacial debris in its lee. Despite the centuries of human development that followed the classic "Craig and Tail" topography is still obvious and the Craig, where Edinburgh Castle now stands, is where the city began.

No one knows when the first people settled on the Craig but archeological records go back at least a thousand years to the mid Bronze Age. Protected from attack by un-scaleable cliffs on three sided and with a clear view across the lowlands to the Firth of Fourth and beyond, the Craig was an obvious place for a fortress. By the 3rd century AD the Picts had established a stronghold there and in the centuries that followed the English and Scots fought countless battles for its control.

The "Craig" provided an easily defended site for the fortress and the "Tail" provided nearby space for urban development. The first tenements were built close to the protective walls of the Castle but over the centuries "Old Town" continued to grow until the entire, "Tail", affectionately named "The Royal Mile" was crammed with permanent buildings. Until the 18th century, when expansion of New Town into the lowlands began, Old Town was the city of Edinburgh.

For a quick overview of the city a day-pass on the fleet of double deck, open top, sightseeing busses is a real bargain. Providing "off-again-on-again" service throughout both New Town and Old Town they gave us the option of riding, walking, shopping, or dropping in to one of Edinburgh's friendly pubs for a cool refreshment. In New Town we strolled through the neighborhood where Robert Louis Stevenson spent his childhood, admired the beautifully preserved 18th century buildings with their intricately carved neoclassical stone facades. From St John's Cathedral, at the western end of Princes Street, we followed the walkways through Princes Street Gardens back to the Scott Monument. But the highlight of our visit to Edinburgh was definitely the Castle.

At the main gate armed sentries stand as motionless and unblinking as the statue of Robert the Bruce on the wall behind them. The statue of Scotland's gallant 13th century king is a reminder of the bitter struggle between England and Scotland for control of the strategic fortress. After the Scots captured it in 1314 Bruce ordered its destruction to make it unusable by the English and for the next 20 years the great fortress lay in ruins. But that was just one episode in the Castle's long cycle of destruction and rebuilding. Over the centuries it has served as a residence for Scotland's monarchs, a repository for her treasures, a prison for her enemies, and a military stronghold in times of siege.

Edinburgh Castle, "the symbolic heart of Scotland", has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in all of Europe.

Most of what visitors see today was built or modified for army use during the 17th century or later when the Castle was converted from Royal residence to garrison fortress. Mary Queen of Scots left the castle in 1567 and Charles I, last sovereign to reside there, left in 1633. Since then most of the surviving buildings were converted to military use. A notable exception is tiny St Margaret's Chapel, the oldest building in Edinburgh. Built of stone in 1130, it not only survived the onslaught of countless fires and wars that swept across Castle Craig, but it is still used as a chapel on special occasions.

On our last day in Edinburgh we had lunch in the castle's Red Coat Café. The view from our table, across the city to the Firth of Forth and beyond, is truly magnificent. We spent an hour picking out landmarks from the Scott Memorial across from our hotel to the dock in the suburb of Leith.

This is the first in a series of three travel stories by Jack Souther. Watch for the others in the coming weeks.