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Grant’s Tracks

Exploring Edinburgh - Day 2 - Calton Hill & Holyrood Park

·983 words·5 mins
Scotland

During the first full day of my exploration of Edinburgh, I used geocaches to provide me with the “waypoints” to walk to during the day. These caches were both “virtual”, where there is no container hidden and proof is required you were actually on scene, and regular caches where an actual container is hidden.

Breakfast
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I was in a quandary about how to get some quick nourishment to start the day and didn’t want to go through the process of a sit-down, wait for menu, wait to order, wait for food restaurant experience. I decided the best choice was to take the tram to the St Andrew Square stop, walk half a block to a McDonald’s to get my coffee fix and a quick breakfast.

After deciphering a number of items on the menu that were new to me (what the heck is “White Coffee”? — turns out it’s just coffee with cream) I had a standard McDonald’s breakfast that served its purpose: it filled me up and infused caffeine into my blood stream. ‘Nuf said.

Picardy Place
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The Sherlock Holmes statue at Picardy Place
The Sherlock Holmes statue at Picardy Place
My first stop was at a virtual cache one stop further along the tram line at Picardy Place: a statue of Sherlock Holmes. The statue was erected in memory of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was born close to this spot in 1859.

Old Calton Cemetery
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My next destination was the nearby Calton Hill. On the way there, it seems I’m never able to walk past a graveyard, especially one named “Old Calton Cemetery”. The cemetery was divided by work on Waterloo Place, a large hotel, in 1819. I visited the smaller portion of the burial ground. The larger portion of the cemetery is more famous but it wasn’t on my itinerary today.

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Calton Hill
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Calton Hill Street sign near the entrance to the hill
Calton Hill Street sign near the entrance to the hill
The entrance to Calton Hill was not far away. It houses an observatory, a number of monuments to prominent individuals, an art gallery and a National Monument of Scotland which is a replica of the Parthenon in Athens and stands unfinished after running out of funds in 1829.

The monuments on the hill are of course in this elevated spot to be seen from the city. But once on top of the hill the real interesting thing for me was the view from the hill over the city. Unfortunately the overcast weather made for somewhat drab-looking images but the sheer vintage of most of the buildings makes an impression on a western Canadian like me where all buildings are relatively young.

 

 

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A view over the city from Calton Hill A view over the city from Calton Hill

A view over the city from Calton Hill

Holyrood Park
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The next destination on my planned route for the day was Holyrood Park, a set of prominent hills in the southeast part of the city. It’s clear humans have been building on these hills for centuries but all that remains is St. Anthony’s Chapel, a medieval ruin.

On the way over to Holyrood Park, these cobblestone-lined streets lined with stone buildings, no doubt normal to the point of being invisible to locals, made an impression on me.

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I had a number of possible geocaches that I could find in the park, some at high elevations, some near street level. My right knee was complaining a bit on this day so I opted to walk only to the street-level caches: I didn’t want to stress it too much, this being only a day away from starting the West Highland Way. I was able to find a “puzzle cache” and a “multi-cache” in the park, both fairly easily.

On the way back from one find, I spied St. Anthony’s Chapel on the nearby hill. My research tells me that surprisingly little is known about the history of this structure. It may date back to the 1300s. It was built in a spot that commands attention and it still does just that even while the structure slowly returns to the earth.

St. Anthony's Chapel in Holyrood Park
St. Anthony's Chapel in Holyrood Park

I slowly made my way back to the tram stop at Princes Street and then returned to my accommodation via tram.

It was an impressive first full day of exploring Edinburgh. Of course to many in Canada this is the “Old Country” so it’s no wonder that it was the sheer antiquity of the structures I experienced throughout the day that made the deepest impression on me.

Gallery#

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Grant S Wilson
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Grant S Wilson

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