Up to King Arthurs Seat

Arthur’s Seat has no known historical importance. It’s an ancient volcanic prominatory that is a popular hike that yields fantastic views of the city. Now, whether we had the hair-brained idea to hike to the top because the sun was out, we were still happy from lunch.... and wine, because KK mentioned it was on her to-do list, or Taylor still needed to do some hiking to break in her boots, we decided a hike to the top was in order.

From the palace you can see many people hiking along the ridge and at the top. When you get closer to the start of the trail, it looks pretty high, and you start to second guess your choice to tackle it. However, when you look around, there are tons of people, old and young alike, and the start of the trail is paved. Well, all of this is very misleading. This is not an easy trail and all those young and old people didn’t make it to the top! There was even an ambulance that had to be called to extract a young hiker from the trail via a stretcher! What had we gotten ourselves into here? I’m not ashamed to admit that all of us stopped a time or two to “look around and take in the views”. About 35 mins later we made it to the top, and the views did not disappoint. Stunning 360 degree views of Edinburgh- in one direction Edinburgh Castle, down below Palace of Holyrood House, amazing landscapes all around, and still in full sunshine! We took a minute to look around, but we had a very full day already and we had tickets for a ghost tour in a few hours so off we went traipsing down the mountain. The girls took the same route down, us adults went through the spongy grass that was easier on our old joints and off the beaten path from all those other hikers. We hustled around the palace to get to the bus stop in time to catch the last bus of the day. We were all thankful not to have to walk the mile back to the Hilton.Read more