Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. In 2001, Edinburgh had a population of 448,624, and has since grown quite rapidly. Edinburgh is also home to the devolved Scottish Parliament.

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The unfinished National Monument, on Calton Hill, Edinburgh

Edinburgh hosts the Edinburgh International Festival every July, as well as the Fringe festival, the largest festival of performing arts in the world. It has some of the most famous tourist sites in Britain, including Edinburgh Castle, and attracts about 13 million tourists each year. Edinburgh's "Old Town" and "New Town" districts were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. Edinburgh also hosts the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, the Edinburgh International Film Festival, as well as jazz and book festivals. Other notable events celebrated in Edinburgh include the Hogmanay street party (31 December), Burns Night (25 January), St. Andrew's Day (November 30), and the Beltane Fire Festival (30 April).

The Royal Mile

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View down the Royal Mile, Edinburgh

The Royal Mile is the main street in Edinburgh's Old Town, and runs from Edinburgh Castle to the Royal Palace of Holyrood, a distance of just over a mile. The New Scottish Parliament building is at the foot of the Royal Mile, opposite the Palace. St Giles Cathedral, the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is in Parliament Square on the Royal Mile; its four main pillars are dated to 1190. Just outside the kirk, inset into the pavement is a cobblestone mosaic in the shape of a heart - the "Heart of Midlothian", that marked the entrance to Edinburgh's 15th century tolbooth. Originally an office for collecting tolls, the tolbooth became a prison, with a scaffold outside. Traditionally, prisoners would spit on the door of the tolbooth and this tradition is still preserved as the custom of spitting on the Heart of Midlothian.

Deacon Brodie's Tavern on the Royal Mile perpetuates the memory of Deacon William Brodie (?-1788). Brodie led a double life; he was a qualified wood-worker and a pillar of the community who is known to have met Robert Burns and the painter Sir Henry Raeburn, but also a heavy gambler with five illegitimate children. He began to take wax impressions of the keys to the houses in which he was working, later returning at night to rob them. His double life is said to have been the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's story of "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde"

Arthur's Seat

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Arthur's Seat, the hill in the centre of Edinburgh that overlooks the new Scottish Parliament (bottom left) and "Dynamic Earth" (bottom right)

In the centre of Edinburgh, enclosed within Holyrood Park (adjacent to the Royal Palace of Holyrood) is Arthur's Seat, the basalt lava plug of a long extinct volcano, last active around 335 million years ago, during the Carboniferous period. The hill rises to a height of 251 m (823 feet), and overlooks Edinburgh's Old Town to the West.

Two stony banks on the east side of Arthur's Seat are the remains of an Iron Age hill-fort. In 1836, seventeen tiny wooden coffins each containing a carved figure were found in a small cave just below the summit. It has been suggested that they may have associations with witchcraft or that they were intended as memorials to the victims of William Burke (1792-1829) and William Hare (1904-ca 1860), who sold bodies for dissection to the anatomist Professor Robert Knox of the Edinburgh Medical College, and turned to murder to satisfy the demand[1]. Burke and Hare murdered at least 16 people and perhaps as many as 30. Burke was hanged on 28th January 1828 (Hare escaped execution by givinig evidence against Burke), and his body was donated to the medical school to be dissected. A pocket-book made from his skin is on display in the Surgeon's Hall Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh[2], and his skeleton is displayed at the Anatomy Resource Centre of the University of Edinburgh[3].

The Scottish Parliament

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Detail of the controversial Scottish Parliament Building.

Famous Residents

Edinburgh is home to novelists JK Rowling, [http:www.ianrankin.net Ian Rankin] and Alexander McCall-Smith who is a professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. JK Rowling began her saga of boy wizard Harry Potter as a single mother, living on benefits, often writing in Edinburgh coffee houses (including the Elephant House on George IV bridge) to save money on heating. Ian Rankin’s novels portray Edinburgh as a dark place of corrupt politicians, small-time gangsters, seedy bars, vandal-ridden housing estates and drug-dealers, in marked contrast to McCall-Smith’s elegant and polite portrayal of a genteel city of middle class affectations.

Museums and Galleries

• the Palace of Holyroodhouse, founded as a monastery in 1128, is The Queen's official residence in Scotland. Mary, Queen of Scots lived here between 1561 and 1567. Today, the Palace is the setting for State ceremonies and official entertaining, and is open to the public when the Queen is not in residence there. Adjacent to the Palace, the Queens Gallery displays exhibitions of art from the Royal Collection.
• Edinburgh CastleOne of the UK's leading tourist attractions, the Castle's features include St Margaret's Chapel - Edinburgh's oldest building, dating from the 1100s; Crown Square - the main courtyard, developed in the 15th century; The Great Hall with ahammerbeam roof built by James IV; The Half Moon Battery, created in the late 16th century; and The Scottish National War Memorial added after the First World War. The Edinburgh Military Tattoo is held every Summer in the esplanade outside the Castle.

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The Royal Palace of Holyroodhouse at the foot of The Royal Mile.

• The City of Edinburgh Museums and Galleries Includes information on The Museum of Childhood and The Writers' Museum.
• The National galleries of Scotland
• National Museum of Scotland Chambers' Street
• National War Museum at Edinburgh Castle
• National Museums Collection Centre Granton
• Surgeons' Hall Museums Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Nicolson Street
• City Art Centre Holds the City's collection of Scottish Art, and hosts temporary exhibitions.
• Georgian House at 7 Charlotte Square. Owned by the National Trust for Scotland. One of Robert Adam's designs for Charlotte Square, considered a masterpiece of urban architecture, and now restored as a typical 1790-1810 mansion. China, silver, paintings and furniture are on display.
• Gladstone’s Land, in the Lawnmarket, Royal Mile. Owned by the National Trust for Scotland, this is the 17th century tenement home of an affluent merchant.

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John Knox's House on the Royal Mile.

• John Knox House on the Royal Mile is a town house, built before 1490, displaying exhibits about John Knox, a Protestant leader born between 1505 and 1515, who died at Edinburgh on 24 November, 1572. The house consists of two town houses (or "lands") with the earlier part constructed about 1470 as part of the redevelopment of the city's walls. The exterior of the front house is much the same as that created in 1560. John Knox is a controversial figure in Scotland's history; when the Reformed Protestant religion was ratified by law in Scotland in 1560 he was appointed minister of the Church of St. Giles. His “History of the Reformation” marks him as a leading figure in the Scottish reformation. He was outspoken in his attacks on the Catholic clergy of Scotland, accusing them of being "gluttons, wantons and licentious revelers." According to the Catholic Encyclopedia [4], "permeated with the spirit of the Old Testament and with the gloomy austerity of the ancient prophets, [Knox] displays neither in his voluminous writings nor in the record of his public acts the slightest recognition of the teachings of the Gospel, or of the gentle, mild, and forgiving character of the Christian dispensation."
• Lady Stair’s House/Writer’s Museum on the Royal Mile, displays manuscripts, relics and memorabilia of Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and R.L. Stevenson.
• The Museum of Edinburgh, formerly known as Huntly House, occupies 16th and 17th century buildings in the heart of the Old Town. Exhibits include:

the feeding bowl and collar belonging to Greyfriars Bobby; the National Covenant, the petition for religious freedom signed by Scotland’s Presbyterians in 1638; and the original plans for Edinburgh’s New Town drawn by architect James Craig.

• The Museum of Childhood on the Royal Mile, displays toys, costumes, books, dolls and games.
• National Gallery of Scotland, Princes St. A collection of European art from 15th century to 19th century.
• National Portrait Gallery Queen St.
• The People's Story is housed in the late 16th century Canongate Tolbooth opposite the Museum of Edinburgh, on The Royal Mile. ' The People's Story ' uses oral history, reminiscence, and written sources to tell the story of the lives, work and leisure of the ordinary people of Edinburgh, from the late 18th century to the present.
• Nelson's Monument at Calton Hill is a 106 ft. tall, tiered, circular tower with viewing gallery overlooking the city. It commemorates Admiral Lord Nelson's victory and death at the battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.
• The Royal Yacht Britannia is moored at Ocean Terminal, Leith.
• Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre on the Royal Mile is an exhibition about the whisky making process.
• The Scott Monument on Princes St. is a 200 ft. high neo-Gothic spire commemorating the poet and novelist Sir Walter Scott(1771-1832) with 64 statuettes of Scott's novels' characters. Four viewing platforms (287 steps by narrow stairs to the top) allow dramatic views of Edinburgh. Scott's novels were enormously popular in the early 19th century, and he is said by some modern scholars to have had a seminal influence on the development of the European novel genre, but his popularity with readers had declined markedly by the end of the 19th century and never recovered.
• The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, off Belford Rd. occupies a neo-classical building in large wooded grounds. It contains sculptures, and international and Scottish art of the 20th century. Adjacent is the Dean Gallery, containing a collection of Dada and Surrealism, including works by Dalí, Miró, Ernst, Magritte and Picasso.
• Museums and galleries of The University of Edinburgh includes the St Cecilia’s Hall Museum of Instruments, The Geology Museum, the Reid Concert Hall Museum of Instruments, The Talbot Rice Gallery, The Library Special Collections and The Natural History Collection

Hotels

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The Balmoral Hotel, Princes Street Edinburgh

• The George
• The Balmoral Hotel, at the east end of Princes Street
• The Caledonian Hotel, at the west end of Princs Street