Edinburgh

This morning we start early for an in-depth (pre-opening) guided tour of Edinburgh Castle, led by Peter. This famous Scottish bastion sits on Castle Rock, a site with obvious defensive advantage, surrounded by steep cliffs and accessible only from the East. Excavations here testify to the occupation of the site during the Bronze and Iron Ages and the Castle’s history spans thousands of years, serving as stronghold, armoury, prison, royal residence, seat of government and symbol of Scottish national pride and populated with a changing cast of Kings and Queens, courtiers, outlaws, soldiers, pirates, and even Luftwaffe pilots.

After lunch on the Royal Mile, we continue to Gladstone’s Land, a beautifully preserved six-storey tenement house with origins dating from the 16^th century. Named for its merchant owner, Thomas Gledstanes, the building served as comfortable residence and shop premises with other apartments given over to tenants. The Gledstanes may have lived in the third-floor apartment, where the figure of a gled (hawk) is depicted on the painted ceiling on top of a stone, or 'stane'. Next we visit Parliament Hall, where the Scottish parliament met prior to its dissolution in 1707. This magnificent 17^th century hall with its original oak beam roof is now part of the Court of Sessions. We continue from here to St. Giles Cathedral and an exploration of the labyrinthine medieval ‘closes’ off the Royal Mile, featuring some of the oldest high-rise buildings in Europe where poor folk lived cheek-by-jowl with the nobility.

This evening we enjoy an out of hours guided tour of Palace of Holyrood House, official residence of the monarch in Scotland.

Our morning is dedicated to the internationally important archaeology collections in the Museum of Scotland situated in the heart of the Old Town. The collections cover a crucial thousand-year period from the fifth to the fifteenth century AD, including artefacts of Celtic art, Early Christian monuments, and Viking-age grave finds. Museum highlights include the Lewis Chess Pieces carved from sperm whale tooth and walrus ivory which were found on a beach on Leòdhas (the Isle of Lewis) in 1831 and the Newstead Roman Cavalry parade helmet dating to 80-100 AD.

We continue to Leith, the historic port on the north shore of Edinburgh which served as the city gateway for centuries. We will have lunch here before taking a drive around Edinburgh’s New Town with its largest collection of Georgian buildings in the world. Created ostensibly to ease the plight of those living in the overcrowded, insanitary, and pungent (hence its nickname "Auld Reekie") confines of the old city, numerous designers contributed to the layout of the New Town in the decades around 1800. Building work on a classic grid pattern of streets began in 1767 (Robert Louis Stevenson called them “draughty parallelograms’(!).

Our day ends in the late afternoon when we part company or perhaps continue to Orkney and Shetland with Peter on another Scottish adventure.