I was out recently leading a walk through this beautiful city – see ideas for guided walks at www.edinburghwalks.com/walks – when I was asked why the Romans didn’t enter Scotland, but hid behind Hadrian’s Wall in Northern England fearing attacks from northern barbarians. Well the truth is that the Romans did come into Scotland and […]
As I take my guided walks around the city – see www.edinburghwalks.com – I cannot fail to regularly come across cast iron buildings which have been on our streets since before World War II. It had been proposed to place these Police Beat Boxes around the city to allow Officers to ‘parade and retire’ whilst […]
Sunshine on Leith indeed! As we are now well and truly into Spring in Scotland’s capital city, I went down to our port recently for a wander. The changes in Leith have been sweeping in the last 30 years. The old Georgian and Victorian dwellings that were in some semblance of disrepair have been getting […]
There are very few opportunities in the year to visit a little known museum in Edinburgh that contains one of the most famous exhibits the city has. Only open on the last Saturday of every month and with free entry, The Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh is found in Doorway 3 of the Medical […]
I have written before about The Dean Cemetery, to the rear of The Dean Gallery in Edinburgh. It is an interesting place and many of those that lie peacefully here have a fascinating past, most from Georgian and Victorian society. Passing through last week – as one of the walks available from www.edinburghwalks.com – I came […]
Scotland is the undisputed home of golf. The exact origins are not known, but it is recorded that golf had to be banned in 1457 as it interfered with archery practice. But it was James IV of Scotland who took up the sport around 1505 giving it the royal stamp of approval and it is reported that […]
Edinburgh and Leith have retained many of the graveyards that were used to bury their dead over many centuries and these are fascinating places to visit. On all of the walks I lead, I visit at least one graveyard as the story of their inhabitants are interesting and informative, giving an idea of how people lived and died in […]
I was in Leith recently (see www.edinburghwalks.com for a guided walk to Leith) and just off the Shore is the Bernard Street Bridge leading into Commercial Street. On the left is a tenement terrace of restaurants and flats which had sustained damage on the night of the Zeppelin attack on the area on 2nd April 1916. Directly […]
There was a time in Edinburgh, not so many years ago, that Sunday was a day of rest. You had no choice because nothing really happened. Places of entertainment, shops, cafes and restaurants did not open. Neither did the pubs! Thankfully this has all changed. Last month I walked through Stockbridge on a Sunday. A […]
Here in Edinburgh, we have to take the opportunity to get out into the sunshine when it appears…..it may not be here for long. Four seasons in one day is a popular phrase, but you can be sure that here in Scotland we have been known to have four seasons in one hour! Yesterday, as […]
