Edinburgh Walks • Walking the Cumbrian Mountains

Name of walk	Edinburgh Walks
Date of walk	2017-01-22

One of the best things about the City of Edinburgh is that everything is in walking distance, so walk we did! I used ‘Great Breaks: Edinburgh’ (Insight Guides) to plan where to go.

For breakfast we visited The Elephant House on George IV Bridge. It is where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter. It is very near to Greyfriars Church.

Greyfriars Bobby....aww!

Greyfriars Tolbooth and Highland Kirk. Where Bobby is buried....that's his grave in the photo.

Pride of place!

The church yard does actually contain the graves of some important humans too!

I spot this one right at the very back wall. William McGonagall, renowned as the world's worst poet! He wrote 'The Tay Bridge Disaster'. "Beautiful railway bridge of the silv'ry Tay- Alas! I am very sorry to say- That ninety lives have been taken away- On the last sabbath day of 1879- Which will be remember'd for a very long time." It just so happens I will be travelling over the Tay Bridge tomorrow en route to Dundee.....the re-built bridge.

Lock up your dead!

Later in the afternoon we would visit the very interesting, but decidedly gory, Surgeons Hall Museum. They have a Pathology Museum....dead bits in bottles.... a wonderland for biologists like myself. In the Surgery Museum they also have the death mask of William Burke.....you can see the marks of the hangman's noose. (Burke and Hare were notorious grave robbers and murderers) There is also a book with the cover made from Burke's skin! There are also letters on display from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Joseph Bell, the model for Sherlock Holmes. An excellent way to spend a damp afternoon!

Some interesting 3D gravestones.

If I was John Gray, a long serving policeman, I'd be a bit miffed if I was only remembered as being the owner of a dog!

But a bit better than being solely remembered as a dog's friend!

Time for a bit of sustenance at Patisserie Valerie before visiting the Scottish National Gallery to see the Turners. (I know they are trying to preserve them by exhibiting them in low light, but they are meant to be seen, not squinted at!)

Canongate Kirk built in 1691. We visited three times, but unfortunately it was never open.

In Edinburgh we were falling over famous philosophers. Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations) is buried in the church yard.

He also has a statue outside St. Giles. Every time we passed it it was surrounded by foreign tour groups, hence the night time photo, it was the only time we could get near it!

We had two excellent evening meals here, they specialise in fish. Deacon Brodie was a cabinet maker by day and a burglar by night. He was eventually caught and hung. Robert Louie Stevenson was fascinated by the dichotomy between Brodie's respectable façade and his real nature and was inspired to write 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'.

Philosopher David Hume was born in Edinburgh in 1711. He is buried in the Old Carlton Burial Ground. Which we would visit on Tuesday morning.

David Hume's tomb in Old Carlton Burial Ground.

In the distance is Carlton Hill, our next destination. It has a fine view out over Edinburgh. The path up is called Hume Walk.

The Nelson Monument.

View over to Arthur's Seat....not in cloud!

Looking over to Edinburgh Castle.

Closer view.

The National Monument built to honour the soldiers killed in the Napoleonic Wars. It is only half built as the funds ran out.

Carlton Hill summit cairn.

View out to the Firth of Forth.

Looking out towards the Forth Bridge.

A plane overhead.

Brendan by the cairn.

The old City Observatory was having some work done.

The Dugald Stewart Monument commemorates a philosophy professor at Edinburgh University

Observatory House.

We take a final walk around the hill before heading back down Hume Walk towards Picardy Place, the birthplace of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Sherlock Holmes statue in memory of Conan Doyle.

Opposite the statue is the pub.

Next to the pub is St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral. On the terracing in front of the cathedral are three statues by Eduardo Paolozzi, born in nearby Leith in 1924, they include a giant foot and a hand.