Randoms Along The Royal Mile

The Royal Mile runs between The Edinburgh Castle and The Palace of Holyrood-House.  It is a historic road crammed with pubs, museums, kilt shops, interesting old buildings, and much more.  On the first sunny day in a few, we walked the lower part of The Royal Mile.

Many nooks and crannies and just random neat things along the way.

At the very bottom of The Royal Mile is The Palace of Holyrood-House.  It is the Queen's home in Edinburgh but has an incredible history including Mary Queen of Scots sad, tragic story.

Peeking around the corner, I can see the Palace.  Notice the "Horse Wynd" sign on the wall on the right.  A "wynd" is a narrow, winding lane.  

The gate to the Palace guarded by a very sociable and interesting guard who happens to be English rather than Scottish.  He shared his suggestions of what and where to go in the area of Edinburgh.  What a nice man.

I loved this picture with the Red taxi and golden gates and hundreds of years old, antique coloured buildings.

Since the 14th century The Palace of Holyrood-House has marked the end of the Royal Mile (even if I am starting with it).  This will require a half or entire day to visit.  Stay tuned on my post of the Palace in the near future.

An interesting arch way into a court yard outside the Palace grounds.

 To the left of this picture, the Palace;  to the right the Scottish Parliament buildings and directly ahead

Arthur's Seat.  

"a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design." Robert Louis Stevenson.

Arthus's Seat, which we plan to hike, is thought to be one of the possible locations of 'Camelot', the legendary castle and court of King Arthur.

The hill rises above the city of Edinburgh at 822 feet high.  Panoramic views is the reward for climbing, which supposedly takes about 45 minutes to climb up.

It was formed from an extinct volcanic system.

Check out the little dot half way along the ridge of the hill.

This would be the dot.  A hiker walking the edge.

Stay tuned to see pictures of us on the 'edge.'

Back on The Royal Mile we see one of the Ghost Bus Tours buses.  We have met enough travellers along the way to know that the tours actually do scary the poop out of you.  I am going to pass thank you...I hate being scared.

Here is another example of fun scottish terms for these alley ways.

'Paisley Close';  a 'close' is a tiny alley between two buildings, originally with a door that closed at night.  It usually leads to a courtyard.

I will be posting more examples of these, as many are really cool.  

Debbie found this, unknown block, in the middle of the street, on The Royal Mile, with a door on it?

I've got nothing?

"Tempting Tattie" a store that specializes in baked 'potatoes' with an assortment of toppings available to have on it.  I bet you guessed the Scottish word for potatoes?

The view uphill of The Royal Mile.  Chocked full of Black cabs, people, historic buildings.

This very colourful building is the Museum of Edinburgh.

A quick peep into one of the many stores and we find just what we were looking for;  swords.

A picture of William Wallace was just above this display....looked a lot like Mel Gibson.

Do you think we have to check them on the plane or would they be ok as carry on? LOL.

You too can own your own bagpipe.  The costs are crazy cheap for a wee one that fits in a shoe box.

A random historic building we happened upon during our strolling.  

This statue is of the Scottish Poet, Robert Fergusson, who is interred in the cemetery behind the Kirk of the Canongate.  A young man who was trained as a minister but left to pursue his love of poetry at age 22.  He died young, but inspired other poets, Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson to write.

The Kirk of the Canongate, serves the Parish of Canongate in Edinburgh's Old Town.  The Parish includes the places I have mentioned in this post.

They have a soup kitchen on Tuesday!

The church was founded in 1688 when King James VII arranged for this parish church to be built.  Behind the Church is the 'Kirkyard' which is the final resting place of many famous people who played roles in the British and World history.  Including David Rizzio, the murdered Private Secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Ebenezer Lennox Scroggie, that was the inspiration for Charles Dickens' character  better known as Ebenezer Scrooge 

A very random picture of artificial thistles.  However, not so random.  

Thistles are the national emblem of Scotland. It is said that the thistle became the saviour of Scotland when the Vikings were invading and plundering their lands and villages.  One dark night when the Vikings were about to plunder yet another village, it is said they took off their boots to quietly move across the land.  Little did they realize they were in fields of thistles. Their cries of pain woke the sleeping Scots who then fought off the invaders.

Thistle can be purchased in all forms, including ceramics, clothing, and especially jewelry.

Still walking along The Royal Mile at dusk....but it is only 3pm.  It is dark by 4;30pm.

Random interesting entrance way.

Back at the corner of High Street and The Royal Mile.....but we only did half the walk?? 

Next to visit is the Edinburgh Castle and the higher elevation of The Royal Mile.