Edinburgh

A weekend exploring a beautiful city

By Michael Wilson

March 19^th, 2015

Calton Hill

My weekend in Edinburgh started early as I left my AirBnB flat early and walked up the nearby Calton Hill, which I had been told allowed for some great views over the city.

The views from Calton Hill are great and allowed me to get my bearings of where things were.

Scott Monument

Next up, after a coffee break I walked toward the Scott Monument, which is apparently the tallest monument dedicated to a writer in the world. Sir Walter Scott was the author of famous titles like Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, The Lady of the Lake, Waverley and The Heart of Midlothian.

For a few pounds you can walk to the viewing gallery at the top, which I really wanted to do, however, the skies were grey during my entire stay and I wasn’t sure I’d get any great photos.

Scottish National Gallery

Right next door to the Scott Monument is the National Gallery, so that was the next place to explore.

St. Giles Cathedral

My favourite sight from my time in Edinburgh was inside the St. Giles Cathedral. There was a sign outside explaining a £2 charge to be able to take photos inside. Usually the inside of Cathedral’s are pretty dark and they’re not always that interesting, so I thought I’d go in and have a look before deciding on buying the photo permit.

As soon as I walked in the door my jaw dropped and I took a big inhale of breath, it was stunning. I was also lucky enough to hear an all Irish girls choir practicing a few songs just before I left.

Oink!

Apologies to any vegetarians for this bit, but I had done some research of places to eat and so many people recommended Oink. Oink has a whole cooked pig in their window and serves the best hog roast baps you could wish for for less than £5.

If you’re in Edinburgh you should try it out.

National Museum of Scotland

The National Museum of Scotland is full of interesting inhabitants and also boasts a gorgeous light filled atrium where most visitors pass by.

I paid to enter the Games Masters exhibit, which had over 100 playable games which influenced the history of the games industry. Everything from Space invaders up to Crazy birds was included and kept me busy for nearly 3 hours ;-)

Arthur's seat

Day 2 and it was time for a climb. Arthur’s Seat in Holyrood Park had been recommended by everyone I had spoken to, so I tied the laces to my inappropriate for climbing suede shoes and got moving.

It wasn’t too bad of a hike, but a lack of grip on my shoes did makes the muddy areas slightly more challenging and the last 20 meters did require me to get my hands dirty to grip some rocks to pull myself up.

I made it to the top though and had my breath taken away once again, partly because it was cold and windy up there, but mainly due to the incredible views.

Edinburgh Castle

The final stop on my trip was to Edinburgh Castle. The grey skies stopped me taking too many photos of the actual castle but there was still lots of interesting details to capture.