St Giles' Cathedral

We had a relaxing start to the day as we were scheduled to do a walking tour along the Royal Mile ending at Edinburgh Castle that started at 1pm. The weather today is again fairly mild with some blue sky and sunshine. After getting a coffee from our local we headed up to the meeting place at the Merkat Cross.

The Royal Mile was very busy today with barricades up along the road. Turns out today is the Riding of the Marches celebration which is a big deal here in Edinburgh. The term “riding of the marches” refers to a practice of the lord of the manor or a proxy riding the boundaries of their properties to ensure that the boundaries were intact. Each year riders from around the world apply to participate in a 26 mile ride in the countryside which finishes with the riders riding their horses up the Royal Mile. There are only 280 places and they sell out in a few minutes each year. Prior to the riders making their way up the Royal Mile there is a range of entertainment for everyone, including a brass bad, a pipe band, dancing, singing and some people dressed up in costumes re-enacting certain events involving past Kings and aspiring Kings and other historical people such as Douglas Stewart and Robert the Bruce. The celebrations go for about 4 hours.

You can imagine with big crowds and barricades meeting our tour leader and other participants became a logistical nightmare, we were all finally present and accounted for by 1.15pm and headed off. Our guide Stephanie was very knowledgeable and had a lot of interesting anecdotes on key historical figures including David I, James IV and I (the first King of both England and Scotland), John Knox, Charles I, King Robert the Bruce and King James II, We visited the Scottish Supreme Court, St Giles Cathedral and the burial place of John Knox ( car park no. 23 outside St Giles),

We then visited some of the narrow alleyways that run between buildings along the Royal Mile, these narrow passageways are known as Closes or Wynds. During this period people lived in cramped conditions in multi story buildings without running water or toilets. A bucket was used as a toilet, for scraps and other waste and as they lived up multiple floors instead of walking down to empty bucket, instead they would lean out the window, shout Garde L’eau ( French for watch out for the water) as French was the international language. This was adopted by the people of Edinburgh but was anglicised over time to “gardy-loo” and then to just loo.

We also learnt about the origins of Whiskey. The Scottish Gaelic term for “water of life” was “uisge beathe”. It is a straightforward translation of the Latin “aqua vitae”. Over time and through common use in Scotland, “uisge beathe” was shortened to “uisge” and became known as whisky.

The city of Edinburgh used to be a walled city but they proved to be not very effective as defensive structures as they were easily breached. The walls began to be demolished in the mid 18th century, but there are a number of sections of the walls that remain.

We then made the long walk back up the Royal Mile to visit Edinburgh Castle. Just before the castle a stadium is erected each year for the Military Tattoo, it is currently being removed. It takes about 9 weeks to erect and 6 weeks to remove.

Edinburgh Castle stands on Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age. There has been a royal castle on the rock since at least the reign of Malcolm III in the 11th century and continued to be a royal residence until 1633. By the 17th century it was principally used as a military garrison. The castle has served as a royal residence, an arsenal, a treasury, a national archive, a mint, a prison and as mentioned a military fortress.

The castle, as one of the most important strongholds in Scotland, was involved in many historical conflicts from the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 14th century to the Jacobite risings of 1745. Research undertaken in 2014 identified 26 sieges in its 1,100-year history. The castle stands upon the plug of an extinct volcano. The summit of the Castle Rock is 130 metres above sea level. It is quite an impressive site that affords lovely views of the surrounding area.Meer informatie