Some days are easier than others. The day before a big departure is never easy, particularly when we’re facing down back-to-back travel days as we fly from Edinburgh to Paris and then on to Svalbard.
We decide that this is the perfect day to go for a walk up to Arthur’s Seat – which holds a trifecta as being the peak of an extinct volcano, the site of medieval hill forts, and the source of perhaps the most commanding views of Edinburgh. Robert Louis Stevenson described it as “a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design.”
As for historic ties to King Arthur, the poem Y Gododdinrefers to Brittonic soldiers who died fighting the Angles at Catraeth – and mentions a hero known as Arthur from Din Eidyn or Edinburgh. No specific mention is made of the peak, so the connection to Arthur’s Seat in particular is tenuous at best.
But let’s not let a lack of historical detail get in the way of a good hike – particularly when we’re also hoping to make our way to the Museum of Scotland later that afternoon.
Off we go!
We make it perhaps 500 metres from our townhouse when one of us tries to leap a puddle – quite possibly the only mud puddle in downtown Edinburgh – but doesn’t quite make it, catching their heel at the edge and doing a full-tilt windmill into the air and landing splat into the mud. (All of which shall forever be seared into my mind, and available for slow-motion review at any time.)
Back to the townhouse we go. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a big issue but, given our upcoming flights, we instead must do another round of laundry, purchase new shoes, and otherwise regroup before we re-attempt – assuming get the chance to reattempt.
Ah, well. Another member of our party also needs some additional dress-up clothes, as they have outgrown the ones they brought. So we head to nearby Primark to do a bit of shopping. We make a further two stops before we’re able to source the right size of shoes – but we get there in the end.
And it gives me the chance to do a bit more street photography in the process:
And not to gloss over my own error – I did manage to purchase a new lens cap for my 180 to 600 mm telephoto lens to replace the one that I had dropped off Zuza. It’s not quite as snug a fit as the last one, but should still do the job just fine.
I found it at Wex, though the gentleman at the counter spent close to 10 minutes examining the lens with a high-power flashlight in search of some minute imperfection – which almost certainly would go unnoticed on any of the photos.
The clerk eventually gave up the hunt after I explained that the lens already had more than enough miles on it to justify a scratch or two. (And did I mention the whole “you’d never notice it on the photos” part?)
With laundry, shoes and lens caps sorted we do decide to re-attempt. We once head back from Edinburgh’s New Town to Old Town once more – avoiding puddles this time around – and stop for launch at the Foodies Bistro.
It’s remarkably busy in Old Town today. My wife checks the cruise manifests, and discovers that there are more than 6,000 cruise passengers in port – most of whom seem to be lined up for the same mashed potato bar.
Photo Credit: Makars Gourmet Mash Bar Company
But that’s likely only part of the story – visitors are also likely starting to arrive for the Fringe festival, which starts tomorrow.
Back to Foodies Bistro. My wife gets the poached eggs and avocado:
My son gets the chicken, bacon, cheese wrap:
Our daughter gets the waffles:
And I get the burger.
And – it’s pretty good. The burger patty is processed, and has that taste of every processed burger patty that’s ever been processed. But the fried egg is quite tasty.
With lunch behind us, we weigh which activity to undertake. The Museum of Scotland is tempting, but it’s such a gorgeous day that it’s tough to turn down a chance at Arthur’s Seat – and thanks to the Dread Puddle, there’s no chance for us to do both. Arthur’s Seat it is.
We combine the wisdom of Google Maps and AllTrails to come up with a plan of attack. We’ll start by walking over past Hollyrood Distillery before we ascend from the southwest. One of the main trails is closed due to a recent fire, so we may have to flexible in terms of the exact path:
Thankfully it looks like there are multiple different paths leading to the top.
I previously hiked to Arthur’s Seat more than 20 years ago, when I first visited Scotland – back when we travelled without cell phones, or internet, or eSIMs, or AllTrails. I simply saw a peak in the distance and went to climb it.
And it all worked out:
From my 2004 trip to Scotland – which involved infinity times more hostel stays than I will ever do again
On our way we pass a pump track:
And then soon the Salisbury Crags come into view.
The fire has definitely left its mark
Onward we go:
We start up a narrow, shaded path:
Spotting some wild berries as we go:
Even from here, there are fabulous views:
Eventually we join the main path, and it gets much busier:
My efforts to not take photos of people are working against me here… but just imagine hundreds upon hundreds of people
But even so, it’s still very scenic:
We embark the final ascent, and – we made it!
The wind is so strong here it feels like it’s about to blow us off the mountain:
We manage a few more shots:
Including the obligatory “this far to here” wheel:
And then it’s time to head back down the trail.
Along the way, we hear this rattling noise in the wind. We tried to find out what caused it, but we’re not sure whether it’s yellow rattle or gorse. It gave the place a lovely atmospheric feel, however.
We then come across a small ruin – part of St Anthony’s Chapel:
From the Historic Scotland Plaque:
“From the 1000s, ownership of the park was divided between Hollyrood Abbey and, Kelso Abbey in the Scottish Borders and the Scottish royal family. St. Anthony’s Chapel was built sometime later.
St. Anthony’s may have been connected with a hospital in Leith for people with skin diseases, such as leprosy. There’s a holy well on the path below the chapel. It’s likely they were in use at the same time.”
We then turn our attention to returning back to our townhouse.
We’d hoped to get back around 2 pm to start packing, but it’s going to be closer to 3 pm.
It’s hard to abandon these wild views:
Along the way, we see signs of the Fringe festival everywhere – roads are closed, venues are being set up, and lines of dialogue are being read. While I know that Edinburgh will be absolutely jammed for the entirety of the festival, it would have been nice if we could be around for even a small part of it.
Ah, well – at least we got to see the set-up, and it’s always nice to have a reason to come back.
We eventually make it the rest of the way back to our townhouse. We’re clocking in at more than 20,000 steps, or well over 12 km. Not bad for a day’s work.
Time to finish packing up. We managed to snag a last minute upgrade to business class on our Air France flight between Edinburgh and Paris – at a cost of less than US$90 per person, we’ll get additional baggage allowance, expedited check-in, FastPass security, lounge access, early boarding and an extra seat between passengers. The question of baggage allowance will come up again during our charter flight, but we’ll gratefully kick the can down the road another day.
We also pre-book our Uber for the next day – which, I note, has already gone up by close to 20% since we first landed. I suppose the Fringe is already having an impact on pricing. However, it only costs a little more that that to pre-book our Uber XL for the next morning – so that’s exactly what we do.
Lastly, it was only after we left Canada that we realized we’d need to have printed copies of our Ponant health questionnaires and the ECGs that would allow my wife and I to take part in the polar plunge – so I set out in search of a print shop. The first one I try – Prontaprint – does large business orders only, but the second one – Service Graphics Edinburgh – is able to print just a few pages, albert for a minimum order cost of 5 GBP.
With all of that administrivia sorted, it’s finally time to pour one last dram of scotch from our beautiful bottle of Oban and raise a toast to our time in Scotland – for tomorrow we fly to Paris.