Edinburgh would make Harry Potter envious of it's architectual beauty and magic

Not too far ago I decided to visit my sister in Edinburgh. I'll be honest, I didn't expect much, but didn't research at all as well. The goal of the trip was not exploring or sight-seeing and boy, how it is fun to have a trip like this from time to time. WIth low expectations, things really impress you.

Just after the landing, I put my stuff at my sister's place, the first thing we did was to climb that mountain peaking over the roofs of the neighborhood and calling us out. This hike is something you shouldn't miss if you ever find yourself in the area.

Hiking in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh

Located near the Old Town of Edinburgh, the park is easily accessible from multiple parts with a different paths leading Arthur’s Seat or other interesting parts of the park.

Holyrood Park Origins

Also called Queen’s Park or King’s park depending on reigning monarch’s gender, it is associated with the royal palace of Holyroodhouse and was formerly a 12th-century royal hunting estate.

Arthur’s Peak

Arthur’s seat is the main peak in Edinburg, Scotland. You can climb it from almost any direction for a beautiful panoramic view over the city.

An Ancient Volcano

Risen 251 meters above the sea, it is an ancient volcano erupted 340 mya. The first dinosaurs appeared 110 million years after an eruption.

The Legend of Arthur's peak

An old Celtic story says that tallest peak of Hollyrood park – Arthur’s seat is actually a dragon who used to fly around terrorizing the region and eating all the livestock. One day he ate so much that he landed for a nap and never woke up again.

Local flower - Gorse

If you ever happen to end up in Scotland wondering if you are followed by swarms of small yellow flowering plants know that it is Common Gorse.

St. Anthony’s chapel

The ruins of st. Anthony’s chapel in the Holyrood park was built not later than 15th century, as in 1426 it is recorded that the Pope gave money for its repair.

After the hike we spent exploring the city, the place itself is magical. It doesn't matter where you look, it will catch your attention. Even though everything seems to be made of dark and rusty bricks, somehow it is the point of all the magic you see. I would highly recommend to explore the city for yourself and not only travel like a tourist from point A to point B, but from my personal experience these places in the city left me the biggest impression:

Capital of Scotland

Recognized as a capital city of Scotland since the 15th century, it is the second largest financial center and second largest tourist destination after London in the UK.

Edinburgh Castle

It is the most visited place by tourists in the city. First settlers started living on the castle rock as early as 200 AD. In it’s 1100 years old history the castle was sieged at least 26 times. It is one of the most attacked castles in the world and the most besieged one in Great Britain.

Edinburgh Waverley

You can travel around Scotland from Edinburgh Waverley train station. It got it's name “Waverley” from the Waverley Novels by Sir Walter Scott.

Scott Monument

61.11-meter height it is the largest monument built for a writer in the world. Sir Walter Scott was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright and poet famous for Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Old Mortality, The Lady of the Lake, Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor.

Edinburgh Old Town

The Oldest part of the Edinburgh has preserved much of its medieval street plan and many Reformation-era buildings. Together with 18th century New Town it forms part of a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site.

St Giles’ Cathedral

The present form of cathedral dates to 14th century though it had major restoration works in the 19th century. It’s been the face of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh for approximately 900 years.

The Royal Mile

It is the name given to a sequence of streets through Old Town of Edinburgh. It goes downhill from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace.

Scottish Goverment

St. Andrew’s House is the headquarters of Scotish Ggoverment, it stands on a former Calton Jail site. Today Governor’s House is all that remains of a former prison.

Calton Hill

Arthur’s seat is the main peak in Edinburg, Scotland. You can climb it from almost any direction for a beautiful panoramic view over the city.

National Monument of Scotland

One of them is the National monument of Scotland built for Scottish soldiers and sailors who died fighting in the Napoleonic Wars.

Holyrood Park

Even though Edinburgh itself is a very beautiful city, nature lovers should find themselves visiting the Holyrood park, you can read more about it here.

And much much more!!

One certainly needs a lot of time to visit all the interesting places in Edinburgh including Holyrood Palace, Scottish Parliament, National Museum of Scotland, the Hub, Scottish National Gallery, the Royal Scottish Academy, City itself and much much more!

Firth of Forth

Edinburg is located near Firth of Forth estuary and for a good reason, not only a lot of rivers comes to this place, but it is a logical center due to natural and artificial waterways. If you can get out of the city, it is really worth to pack some resources for the day and go for a trip.

Firth of Forth is the estuary of several Scottish rivers including river Forth. Geologically it is a fjord formed by a moving glacier in the last glacial period.

Low Tide

Like the rest of the east coast of Scotland Firth of Forth is classified as a macrotidal area, meaning that average difference between high and low tides is greater than 4 meters.

Further west near the edge of Firth of Forth, where canals join together, you can find a small town Falkirk.

Falkirk

The town is a junction of Forth and Clyde & Union canals, a location which helped to the growth of this town during the industrial revolution.

Helix

The Helix is a land transformation project to improve the water connections between communities in Falkirk district.

The Kelpies

The Kelpies are 30m horse-head sculptures in The Helix park, Falkirk, Scotland. It is the largest equine sculpture in the world.

“The Kelpies” Name Origins

The Kelpies are named after mythological shape-shifting spirits who inhabits the lochs and pools of Scotland. They usually appear as a horse and anyone who can get hold of their bridle will have command over it. Kelpies said to have a strength and stamina of at least 10 horses. The sculpture stands near canals, which were used in Great Britain to improve transportation power over horses.

Falkirk Wheel

The Falkirk wheel is the world’s first and only rotating boat lift and engineering icon throughout the globe. It reconnected Glasgow with Edinburg in 2002 through a canal system for the first time since 1930s, when old 35m height and 11 locks system was dismantled. You needed a day to pass that, while the Falkirk wheel lifts a boat in a matter of minutes.

Canal Lock

A lock is a system created to lift or to lower ships on stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. It is a sector or multiple sectors of water which raise or lower it’s levels with a boat within gradually releasing it on a different elevation.

My favorite place of this trip is probably the least known small island near River Almond - Cramond Island.

Almond River Docks

Small docks where river Almond inflows to the Firth of Forth during a low tide in Cramond. Yachts have legs here in order to survive the tidal periods.

Almond River

Just a 45 km long river Almond flows into Forth of Firth at the town Cramond, just next to the passage to an island called after the town. The name Almond/Amon is simply an old Celtic word for “river”.

Cramond Island

Cramond Island is one of several islands in the Firth of Forth. It is connected to the shore by a 1.5km walkway which is covered at high tide. So Cramond Island is only a true island for a few hours at a time!

Cramond Island History

Cramond Island has a long and fascinating history. Cramond itself was an important Roman settlement, with Cramond Fort built around AD 142. The port was used to supply the Roman army in Scotland, and Romans might have used the island too.

Cramond Island during WWII

Throughout most of it’s history Cramond island was used mostly for farming and fishing. The island was once famous for its oyster beds, but these were destroyed due to overfishing. During WWII the island was fortified to protect the river from enemy warships.

Tidal Island

Cramond Island is one of 17 tidal islands that can be walked from the Scottish mainland. Even thought there is warnings and timelines when it is safe to cross the island, it’s still common that people get stranded on the island by an incoming tide for a few hours.

Intertidal Zone Flora

The intertidal zone is a marine habitat area that is above water at low tide and under water at high tide. Organisms in this zone are adapted to an environment of harsh extremes. These plants in the Cramond Island are half of the time underwater and another half exposed to direct sunlight.

Washed-up Treasures

Even thought North Sea is not as polluted as other European seas like Mediterranean sea and Baltic sea, it is still not recommended to collect all the goodies you can find during the low tide.

For a good communication, not only waterways are required, bridges across the Firth of Fourth brought a great economical relief, as it is literally a shortcut.

The Fourth Bridge

In operation since it’s opening day in 1890 The Forth Bridge remains an iconic Scottish structure. Built at the same era as the Eiffel tower which you can put six times into bridge’s structure. For 28 years two mains spans of 521 metres were first and second longest bridge spans in the world.

The Forth Road Bridge
After a six years of construction, Forth Road Bridge opened in 1964 and at that time 2.5 length bridge was the longest bridge outside USA and fourth longest in the world. It’s planned lifespan was 120 years, but due to double amount of cars crossing the bridge almost each day the bridge started to suffer structural issues and requires repairs. The Queensferry crossing(on the left) should open this year and reduce the traffic.

Forth Bridges

Each of three bridges across the Forth of Firth is an achievement in engineering and design in the different eras of history. It is essential connection between Edinburgh and Fife, having 24 million cars and 73 thousand trains a year.

Queensferry Crossing

Queensferry Crossing is a third bridge in the important cross-Forth transport corridor. An alternative route through the river on the road is only 24km away. 2.7km in length makes it a longest three tower cable bridge in the world.

I bet there are plenty more places worth visiting around Edinburgh and Firth of Forth and probably this could have been totally different, but all I want to say is that the region is a very rich place and is worth visiting despite the possible expenses.

If you have visited Edinburgh, please, share your impressions in the comment section. I'm personally 100% sure that I'll be visiting this place again at least once more in my life.

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Every Thursday something new from my travel adventures

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Reference: Wikipedia entry of Holyrood park under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License , Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
Reference: Wikipedia entry of Holyrood park under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License , Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
Author: Mantas Ališauskas
Photography: Mantas Ališauskas and Raminta Ališauskaitė
Design: Mantas Ališauskas
Website: http://www.ctdots.eu*