Much of the charm and architectural heritage of this unique city is derived from the craggy nature of the hills and valleys it is based upon.  Steep and winding roads end in precipitous drops, enticing wynds { courtyards } all have intriguing steps up or inviting steps down, winding to who knows where, while the valleys look up to impossibly high escarpments up in the clouds.  A cursory visitor might think that the whole conglomeration has been laid down upon the most inhospitable chunk of realty in the whole of Scotland but with the realisation that the whole area was once a cluster of volcanoes 
{ now extinct }  the topography of Edinburgh becomes immediately clear.

On the very pinnacle of the tallest of these ancient volcanoes the Castle dominates the area for miles around while the buildings below the summit cling to the rocky slopes where nature allows --  lean over the wall to the rear of the Castle and it's a vertical cliff face all the way to the bottom.  Visitors to the Castle must first pass the stern gaze of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce who have stood in their niches either side of the gate since 1929.  The Castle itself is a fascinating repository of historical events and memorabilia while still retaining a viable military presence.  The several regimental museums are superb and jam-packed with valuable objects from the many wars that Scottish regiments have always distinguished themselves in.  The value of the artifacts is not always of a pecuniary nature ----how do you put a price on a jacket from the field of Waterloo with two bullet holes in the back and the powder burns still evident and how do you price a saddle with a bullet still lodged in the leather?  To Scottish military historians the French Eagle and Standard carried from the field of battle at Waterloo are priceless and they are a centre-piece and pride of the Scots Greys exhibits.  Ensign Charles Ewart's feat of arms in capturing the Eagles is legendary and there they are as fresh as if they had been captured yesterday.  Ensign Ewart's grave on the esplanade is marked by a granite stone and he would probably have approved greatly of the Ensign Ewart pub just below the Castle entrance.
The number and quality of exhibits is difficult to absorb in one day but there are particular treasures which stand above all others ---- the French Eagles are one and the painting of The Thin Red Line is another.  What makes the painting so unique is that the museum curators do not seem to attribute any particular importance to the tableau and certainly don't advertise its presence, so to come across a cinemascopic and colourful work of art so unexpectedly is stunning to say the least.  What is even more stunning is that it is not  under glass or metres away from the viewer and you can actually press your nose up to one of the finest works of military art ever known.  The Thin Red Line was the sobriquet attributed to the Sutherland Highlanders at Balaklava in 1854 when they averted a major disaster by standing before a Russian Cavalry charge.   Their Colonel, Sir Colin Campbell laid down their orders in no uncertain terms with the famous lines; 
  "There is no retreat from here, boys.  You must die where you stand". 
 Hollywood has been borrowing the phrase for years in many different guises and unashamedly adopting the title of the work for film titles------ some would say it was a compliment but it depends what film you are watching.
The painting by Robert Gibbs was exhibited two years after Balaklava and several of the participants in the battle posed for the picture ----the last participant of the Thin Red Line died in Chelsea Hospital in 1927.
There are other stunning paintings next to Gibbs's work with the superb tableau of the defence of Hougoumont { again at Waterloo } outstanding.

Mons Meg, The One O'Clock Gun, cannons galore, the Scottish National war Memorial and so much more -----it's worth coming to Edinburgh just to see the Castle and there are many who do so.

The famous Royal Mile runs from the Castle the whole length of the mountainside and spills out into the valley below into the equally famous grounds and Palace of Holyrood House.  Between Castle and Palace, the Royal Mile can justifiably claim to be one of the finest streets if not the finest in Europe, with a warren of medieval buildings, courtyards, churches and artifacts second to none; there are fountains where they once burnt witches and there are subterranean houses abandoned to the plague and every tavern has its ghost and every building has a tale to tell -- Cannonball House is just one of many.  Standing just outside the castle with a cannonball embedded in the brickwork the story goes that when the Castle was being defended from Bonnie Prince Charlie who was esconced in Holyrood House { 1744 } the guns firing down the Royal Mile were less than accurate and their handiwork is there for all to see.  
The High Kirk of St Giles has stood near the top of the Mile for centuries.  The Scottish reformer and orator John Knox is best known of the cathedrals ministers and his house is just a few yards across the road.  The cathedral is a living history book with a memorial window to Robert Burns, another to Moray, the half-brother of Mary Queen of Scots and the Montrose and Argyll windows bear witness to the Covenanting period.  The tomb of the Marquess of Argyll can be found within a side chapel and if you don't recall the name then think Rob Roy and Tim Roth ---he played the part of the evil Marquess.  It's difficult to imagine the effect that religious differences made to the lives of the highest and the lowest in medieval times but it permeated life at every level and many lost their lives defending obscure interpretations of text and style in the Bible and many lost their lives resisting English dictates foisted upon the Scottish church.  The Mercat Cross, standing next to the cathedral was once a trading place and a site of public torture ----proclamations are still made from there on state occasions.
The pavement in front of the Cathedral is cobbled to represent a heart inspired by Sir Walter Scott's great novel The Heart of Midlothian.  The heart signifies the place where the Tolbooths once stood and executions took place---- it is traditional but not not obligatory to spit upon the cobbles as a gesture of defiance for the institutions which once stood here.
Across the road is Deacon Brodie's pub which was once the home of a pillar of the community by day and a thief by night.  In the 18th century his reputation was notorious until he was hanged across the road in front of the Cathedral.  
Robert Louis Stevenson took Brodie's duality as a model for his novel Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.  A little further down is a sculptured lintel over a doorway with the strange plea chiselled underneath a head and shoulders "Heave awa chaps, I'm not dead yet".  The sculpture is a reminder that this section of houses once fell down and that the man chiselled into the lintel was trapped beneath the debris.

 If the Royal Mile can be described as the front of the castle then to one side and far below is the Bohemian quarter called the Grassmarket where chic boutiques stand cheek by jowl with ancient taverns all looking out over the large paved square which was once a place of butchery and torture carried out in the name of religion.  There's a stone monument recalling the dreadful ordeals of The Covenanters in the 1600's----many of them are buried in the adjacent Kirk of the Greyfriars cemetery where they were imprisoned for months on end.  The Covenanters were persecuted for refusing to worship in the manner laid down by the English and paid for it with their lives ----the Grassmarket retains a sombre atmosphere still,  despite the taverns and pubs.  The cemetery wall where hundreds of Covenanters were also imprisoned can be seen clearly from the Grassmarket.  Fortunately, there are cheerier tales to be told behind the same walls and one of them is the story of Greyfriars Bobby, the tiny Skye Terrier who faithfully visited his masters grave for a whole 14 years.  He was buried next to his master in 1872 and his statue can be seen outside the gates on Candlemaker Row.


On the other side of the Castle is a far more pleasant place where tourists and locals alike soak up what whatever Scotland has to offer in the way of sunshine.  Princes Gardens is the  peaceful heart and lungs of the city and the dividing line between the Old Town and The New Town.
In the distance can be seen another volcanic outcrop and it would be a jaded tourist indeed who did not find himself anxious to discover the meanings of the strange and tantalising shapes.  Edinburgh doesn't give up its secrets easily and although Calton Hill isn't far away there's still numerous steps to ascend before the mystery of the follies on the hilltop can be deciphered.  Surprisingly, the hill has never been built upon and remains home to a jumble of the oddest buildings to be found anywhere.  There's an air of dereliction about Calton ----- it's the rural version of Miss Havershams, old and musty and slowly decaying.   The Observatory built in 1818 is in in remarkably good nick but as a window on the stars is possibly now more of a monocle on the stars, awaiting some inspirational transformation ----it's a museum piece of the world of astronomy made so not just by the passage of time but by the smoke from the trains heading into Waverly Station.  The slimline, circular building looking like an inverted telescope was built even earlier, in 1807, and commemorates Nelson's victory at Trafalgar.  It's open to the public but very few accept the invitation to enter and clamber up yet more stairs to see yet another fine view.  Standing on the very summit of the hill is the strangest of all the follies to be seen,  The National Monument.  The Monument was meant to commemorate Scottish valour during the Napoleonic Wars but it's difficult to to work out  how a replica of the Parthenon in Athens came to represent Scotland's finest.  The prime movers for this folie de grandeur were Sir Walter Scott, Sir Henry Cockburn and Lord Elgin and in 1822 they proposed that " a facsimile of the Parthenon" should be built by public subscription.  Knowing his track record in Greek follies suspicions should have been aroused when Lord Elgin threw his hat in the ring but the good people of Edinburgh had more to do with their hard-earned pennies than to throw it at rich man's playthings and only 12 columns were ever erected but they are truly fine examples of the genre even if they are more of a Monument to mismanagement than anything else.  The Hellenic theme was still in vogue when  the Dugald Stewart Monument was built in the classical circular tombs much favoured by the Greeks ---this one is a copy of the tomb of Lysicrates in Athens.  And dropped among them all, a cobwebby cannon looking less than menacing, points directly onto Princes St.  And overall, Calton Hill has the impression of a giant's playground with the toys abandoned and littered around until someone new finds a use for them.
Alexander Graham Bell went to school on the hillside at  The Edinburgh Royal High School which stands sadly abandoned like so many things on Calton Hill   ----- his school career was undistinguished.  The number of luminaries who lived and studied in the city is incredibly varied including, Sir Walter Scott { Ivanhoe }, James Hutton { geology }, Adam Smith { got one of his fireplaces-well a copy }, Thomas Telford { the Menai Bridge}, Robert Louis Stevenson {Kidnapped }, Muriel Spark { The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie }, Harry Lauder { keep right on to the end of the road }, Annette Crosbie { Queen Victoria }, Boswell { liked a pint in the Cheshire Cheese} and of course Sean Connery who is probably more famous than all the others put together ---quite what that says about our values is open to interpretation.  Apart from all these notables the University boasts an incredible number of notables who have passed through its hallowed halls from Charles Darwin onwards.
Across the road and at the base of the hill is the old burial ground which is very little visited but has some grand views of the hill, the tomb of David Hume and a great statue of Lincoln which deserves to be far better sited and far better known.  It commemorates the Scots who fought in the American Civil war.
Robert Louis Stevenson spent many an hour upon Calton Hill and wrote in fulsome praise of "forests of masts" on the Forth and the magnificent views and so on but what he didn't tell his avid readers is that his articles were inspired more by the assignations he had with prostitutes on the hill far more than any aesthetic reasons he may have given.

There is a definite sense of permanence and solidity about Edinburgh; the ancient rocks and crags are complemented by the massive and formidable masonry of the city and as if that's not enough the plethora of Victorian artifacts scattered around further reinforces the air of indestructibility.  Before eyebrows are raised at the very idea of  Victorian buildings in such a Scottish stronghold it should be recalled that Victorian heritage and values were never confined to London or England ---- Victoriana can still be seen throughout what was once the British Empire and everywhere that the map was coloured pink there are statues of Victoria herself and examples of Victorian building techniques.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that there are more statues of Victoria, seated,  standing, or on horseback  than of anyone else I can think of and they can be found in Australia, Canada, India and anywhere that the Empire flourished.

The mixture of Scottish heritage and architecture melded with Victorian heritage and architecture works very well in Edinburgh and although there are many who would deny it there is a great similarity between the two.  Princes Street Gardens are a fine example of archetypal Victorian gardens, combining bedding schemes, shrubberies and statuary interspersed with cunningly sited pathways leading the promenader unwittingly to all of them.  The floral clock is renowned as the oldest in the world and the timepiece is maintained by the venerable firm of James Ritchie and Sons who also maintain every other timepiece of any note in the city.  It was the firm of Ritchie which installed the Time Ball in the Nelson Monument on Calton Hill which drops each day at precisely 1p.m and connects with the Castle to fire the one o'clock gun at the correct time.  The floral clock is an intricate arrangement of  thousands of  plants which can be trimmed and planted to form a picture or theme and examples can be found in Niagara, Dieppe, Liverpool and many other places willing to take the time and trouble to create them.  The plants are one thing but the clockwork is another and this was installed originally by the ubiquitous firm of James Ritchie consisting of an intricate arrangement of incredibly heavy weights and pulleys ---quite enough to kill a man if handled wrongly.  Just recently, the ancient works have been replaced by an electric motor to the relief of anyone who has ever had to maneouvre the original weights.  Princes Street was just one of the places that Madame Tussaud exhibited her wax figures in the days when Tussaud's was a travelling show and it was to James Ritchie and Sons that MadameTussaud went to have her watch mended circa 1805.

There are numerous statues in the gardens but the crowning glory is at the furthest end and could be easily missed by the less intrepid tourist ---this is the Ross Fountain.  When Napoleon the Third and his Empress Eugénie were in power in France they vied with Victorian England in many ways and one of them was the series of Great Exhibitions both countries held { these also spread throughout the Empire and the remnants of Great Exhibitions can be seen in many Commonwealth countries today, notably Toronto and India }.  The Great Exhibition of Paris in 1862 was a grand affair with many works of art on show.  The statuary was particularly excellent and after the Exhibition was over many of them found other homes throughout Paris where they can be seen today outside the Biblioteche Nationale and the Musee D'Orsay among others but The Ross Fountain is probably the furthest travelled from its original home in Paris where it had been cast in iron by Durenne especially for the Exhibition.  Scottish gunsmith Daniel Ross of Scotland was much taken with the fountain and purchased it and had it transported to Edinburgh where he donated it to the city and it has stood in its present home since 1870 --- as a holiday souvenir it takes some beating and leaves my tiny Eiffel Tower looking just a little paltry.

Throughout the world, War Memorials are almost always sited within beautiful settings and by their very nature they inspire moving and inspirational sculpture. Princes St Gardens contains several excellent War Memorials but the majestic equestrian figure atop the Scots Grey memorial to the Boer war is outstanding.
The Memorial to the First World War is excellent also and the sculptor has managed to avoid the usual cliched scenarios but the imperious Scots Greys equestrian statue overlooking Princes St would take some beating.
There is a Black Watch Memorial on the curved slope up towards the University but I was too busy administering first-aid to out-of -breath Japanese tourists to raise my camera.  Its a great position to site a statue but getting pictures are tough enough when you're knackered without the danger of being knocked over by a bus as well.

At the opposite end of the gardens stands the Scott Memorial, the very epitome of Gothic Victoriana commemorating one of Edinburgh's greatest literary figures, Sir Walter Scott, who lived jut a stone's throw away as a child.  The Memorial was erected in 1840, just 8 years after the death of the great man.  The Monument is to all intents and purposes a cathedral in miniature devoted to one man and his works, with a latticework of stone plinths and a steeple reaching to the stars looking like a Jules Verne rocketship in stone.  Beneath the canopy, a statue of Scott is seated with his faithful staghound Maida by his side and secreted in every corner of the masonry are 60 statuettes from his works. These can be seen in more detail by climbing the winding staircase within the building ----- a little reminder for the city fathers that anyone arriving in Edinburgh should be issued with a piton and climbing boots to comply with the national compulsion for clambering up things.  George Meikle Kemp was the architect who unfortunately never saw his creation come to fruition as he drowned in the Union Canal during construction leaving others to fulfil his plans.  The Monument was renovated in recent years but the work never included a clean up of the stonework and the black masonry remains as a reminder of why Edinburgh was called Auld Reekie.
Still in the precincts of the garden are the neo-classical temples of The Royal Scottish Academy which is surmounted by ---surprise, surprise, a statue of Queen Victoria--- and The National Gallery of Scotland  stands adjacent with both buildings erected circa 1826.

Most tourists are so traumatised by the climb up to the north face of Calton Hill that they rarely make it to Picardy Place which is tucked away in the foothills which is a pity as there are a number of sculptures in front of the old St.Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral well worth the visit.  Sir Eduardo Paolozzi was born in Leith in 1924 of Italian parentage and went on to make his name with his many sculptures dotted around London - the first thing that visitors arriving by train into Euston station will see is Paolozzi's statue of 'Piscator'.   Paolozzi's work is difficult to define varying wildly from modernistic to conventional---his statue of Newton outside the New British Library exhibits very little similarity to Piscator.  His figures of a hand and a foot in Picardy Place are modernistic ---- most people like them or hate them.  They are among the last of Paolozzi's work --- he died in 2005.

The nearby statue of Sherlock Holmes by Gerald Ogilvy Laing is a far more conventional sculpture commemorating the birth in 1859 of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  The creator of the great sleuth was brought up in a now demolished tenement in the middle of the square.  Laing's sculpture has a thoughful Holmes meditating upon the death of his creator.  At the base of the statue is a single paw-print representing The Hound of The Baskervilles--- it's little touches like this which give a work of art that sparkle of inspired magic.

Back in the vicinity of the Royal Mile and right at the very bottom of the sloped and curving street stands Holyrood House with its façade facing defiantly up towards the castle.  In complete contrast to the ancient stones of Holyrood, history has yet to be made in the gleaming and ultra-modern Scottish Parliament building designed by the late Enric Muralles standing just across the road .  The building has yet to be accepted by the citizens of Edinburgh who are quite rightly suspicious of anything which compromises or threatens the integrity of the historical topography of the city but in fairness to the architect his avowed intention has been to invest the building with what he called "Scottishness".  Part of that "Scottishness"reveals itself in the form of epigrams and quotes chiselled into an eclectic collection of marble, sandstone, granite and slate blocks on the Canongate side of the building.  Predictably, all the quotes are by Scots, among them Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Sir Walter Scott, Andrew Carnegie, Robbie Burns et al.  There is one which stands out and for me and Hugh Ma Diarmid's opening line; "But Edinburgh is a mad God's dream".  sums up the city succinctly.  The Parliament building of necessity integrated or one might say "ate up" the 17th century Queensbury House which stood on the site.  It wasn't the only thing "eaten up"in this vicinity ----- during the signing of the union in the ancient house, Lord Drumlanrig who had escaped his customary restraints was found in the kitchen eating the servant boy who was slowly roasting over a spit.


For a palace which is regularly occupied by the Queen, Holyrood is surprisingly lacking in opulence and is quite austere as palaces go but it does undoubtedly retain that elusive "Scottishness" which Muralles tried so hard to obtain.  It started out life as an Augustinian Abbey in 1128 when David1found what he called a "holy rood" or cross in a stag's antlers and remained as such until the Royal Palace was built onto the Abbey.  the Abbey itself  became a thing of the past when it was greatly damaged in religious riots in 1610 and the Palace almost went the same way when it was torched by Cromwell's troops in 1650.  The palace has been restored but the Abbey standing next to it has that haunting beauty peculiar to Gothic buildings when they fall into decay and it is only in the dusk of evenings when they conjure up their former glory.  The baroque tombs set in the walls and the massive slabs lying on the ground further add to the almost Pharonic sense of antiquity.  Many of the tombs are of Scottish nobles long forgotten but a carelessly laid slab was dedicated to the wife of the famed and controversial English Admiral Cochrane --history can be found in the most surprising places.
As already stated Holyrood is bereft of any comparison to a Versailles for instance but what it lacks in opulence it makes up for in historical events, many of them bloody and many of them shrouded in mystery.  The name of Mary, Queen of Scots is synonymous with Holyrood and her presence is pervasive lingering in her jewellery cases and her apartments and her portraits ---- you can almost smell her scent wafting from room to room.  Forced to watch the murder of her secretary David Rizzio within the Palace the reasons for his death are still argued by historians as are the reasons for the murder of her second husband Darnley.  Even as a child Mary's life was not without incident and Holyrood was sacked by Henry V111 in 1544 in an attempt to force the infant Mary to marry his son Edward while her arguments with John Knox were long and bitter.  Add her subsequent execution by Queen Elizabeth the First and Mary was nothing if not dangerous to be around.
Bonnie Prince Charlie spent time in the Palace during the '45, gathering the clans for his invasion of England and looking longingly up at the castle in the distance which was impregnable to any attack.  And George 1V's attempts at Highland costume during a visit in 1822 were nothing less than comic-opera but preferable to the blood-letting that had gone before.
The surrounds to Holyrood House are as dramatic as can be seen anywhere; sculpted by nature rather than by the hand of man the brooding, ancient volcanoes surround the Castle and are a stark reminder that all things are ephemeral.

The accompanying old map shows Holyrood House and its surrounds as very little changed today; Arthur's Seat can be seen in the background, the Abbey is in ruins and the forecourt to the Palace is the same.  

Calton Hill is a photographers dream having many moods according to weather and time of day and light conditions.

The statue of the Scots Greys Memorial in Princes gardens is superb and this view shows the castle in the background.

Overall if you like art, sculpture, photography and history then Edinburgh will not disappoint in any way and you will need two to three days simply to absorb the city itself without seeing its surroundings.