Day 3 started with a fabulous breakfast at our hotel. We knew we had a full day of walking tours planned, so we tried to fuel up! Because the two tours we went on covered two distinctly different parts of Edinburgh, I’m breaking today’s adventure into 2 parts, as combining them would be too much information and too many photos!
Edinburgh is divided (in a figurative sense) into two different areas: Old Town and New Town. Old Town starts at the birthplace of Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Castle, and goes down the sides of the extinct volcano it’s built on. New Town starts at nebulous geographic point, but is distinctly different in its age, architecture and street organization. Our first tour was a tour of the area that leads to the Castle called The Royal Mile and then a tour of the castle itself.
Edinburgh Castle is a historic fortress on an extinct volcano that has been inhabited since the Iron Age, with a royal castle present since the 11th
century. It served as a royal residence until 1633 before becoming a primary military stronghold and prison. Having been the site of 26 sieges, it is one of the most besieged places in history, and today stands as a symbol of Scotland.
Our tour guide was Paul (pronounced pa-ool), from Barcelona, Spain. Although he was not Scottish, he has lived here for over a decade and was very knowledgeable (and humorous!) Some of the neat stories he told us about the area included the origin of the term “Shit-faced,” which lore says came from drunk men walking home from the pub before the era of indoor plumbing, and hearing the call from a window above signaling that someone was about to toss out a bucket of “waste.” The drunken men would look up just in time to get “shit-faced.” Now this may not be 100% true, but I liked the story.
Other great stories included famous hanging and beheading, which were a popular, common event back in the day! In one of the old markets (called The Grass Market,) there is a pub called Maggie Dickson’s, named for a woman who was hung, but survived and regained consciousness when she was in her coffin! She was taken to be hung again, but someone in the crowd protested that it wasn’t legal to hang her twice, as her punishment had already been given. The powers that be agreed, and she was let go. She then became a famous figure in Edinburgh! Next to her pub is a pub called “The Last Drop,” where legend says that the victims were taken for a last drink before their hanging!
A less ghastly story we heard was about the man from Edinburgh who inspired the story of Dr. Jekell and Mr. Hyde. His Name was Deacon Brodie. He was a respected pillar of the city by day, (thus becoming a Deacon), but was then a violent theif at night. Once his true nature was discovered, he was hung in the gallows on October 1st, 1788. It was said that this story did inspire Robert Stevenson to write his famous book!
There were simply too many stories to re-tell, but one other notable fact that I didn’t know was that J.K. Rowling lived in Edinburgh and it is where she wrote the Harry Potter series, which explains the numerous Harry Potter-themed stores around the city. As Jeff and I are big fans of the movie Braveheart, one final fact that we learned was that most of that movie was fictional in nature, and while William Wallace and Robert the Bruce were real people, their real-life roles were greatly distorted in the movie.
We hope you enjoy the pictures of Old Town and Edinburgh Castle!
Carpe Diem...seizing life's adventures 