Scotland Road Trip: Edinburgh (Day 2)

Stroll down the Royal Mile, a road connecting Palace Holyroodhouse to Edinburgh Castle and rub shoulders with both locals and your fellow tourists.

UPDATED: 2/5/2023

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Since we wanted to get an early start for our first and only full day in the city and to make it to Edinburgh Castle in time for our timed entry, we had picked up some breakfast supplies at Sainsbury’s the evening before. Still on a kick of croissants, a remnant from our trip to Paris a few months prior, we had picked some up along with yogurt, and ate in our apartment.

The Sir Walter Scott Memorial is an impressive work of stone masonry.

Our first destination of the day would be Edinburgh Castle, perched high atop the city. Because there were early Iron Age fortifications on the hill that were gradually added to over time, it’s hard to identify when the site really began. The castle played a key role through much of Scottish history, even up to the end of the era when Scotland ultimately was absorbed into the United Kingdom. Mary, Queen of Scots, spent the final time of her reign there, and that is where she gave birth to her son, James VI (as he was known in Scotland, or James II, as he was known in England). From where we stayed in New Town, we had about a one mile walk, the last part steeply uphill to the castle gate. On the way, we passed in front of the Walter Scott Memorial and found it even more impressive and taller than the brief glimpse we had gotten the evening before.

We had purchased tickets to Edinburgh Castle online (find them here) back before the trip and would recommend that approach. The tickets grant you timed entry slots. Depending on the time of day, you’ll have anywhere from 1-2 hours as your window to enter. How long you stay after that (up until closing), is up to you. We selected the 9:30-11am window and got to the castle around 10am. It was clear that it is the type of place that only gets more crowded, so an early entry is wise! By purchasing online, we were able to go right in and not wait in line to purchase tickets.

As we approached Edinburgh Castle up the steep cobblestone road, it was clear what a strong position the castle would have been for protection of the city and what extensive views it had of the surrounding areas.

Edinburgh Castle sits atop the aptly named Castlehill. Be prepared to walk up a lot of stairs and steep grades.

Lines can get long at Edinburgh Castle so we’d suggest buying your tickets in advance.

Set high above the surrounding area the cannons at Edinburgh Castle would give any would-be attacker pause.

Just inside the gate, we came upon a castle tour getting started. They appeared to start every 15 minutes and were glad we joined up with one to learn more of the history of the site and get situated. As the tour guide kept us company during a climb to the top of the hill, he pointed out spots along the way that would help us prioritize what we would want to explore further on our own.

The layout of Edinburgh Castle is essentially a curlicue that curved up and around, with the top section being essentially on top of the entrance gate. Along the way, we passed a number of sites that we would return to later in the day: cannons, St. Margaret’s Chapel, the one o’clock gun, Mons Meg, and the prison. At the top of the hill, and where our guide left us, we found ourselves near the Great Hall and royal residence and museum housing the crown jewels.

A line had formed for the entrance to the museum with the Scottish crown jewels, comprised of three pieces - the crown, the scepter, and the sword of state. We stood in line - maybe 20 minutes of so - before weaving through the building with information on the lineage of the royal family and ultimately to the room that housed the Scottish crown jewels. There is an interesting story on the crown jewels. They were considered a threat as Scotland merged into the United Kingdom because of what they represented. After the Acts of Union in 1707, the jewels were placed in a chest and locked away, sealed behind a wall, in Edinburgh Castle, where they sat, untouched and nearly forgotten. During Sir Walter Scott’s efforts in the early 1800s to glorify Scottish history, he was granted permission by George IV to recover the jewels. When Scott and his compatriots broke down the wall of the throne room, they were unsure whether they would find anything and whether the story of the jewels being encased therein was an old tale and nothing more. They were thrilled to discovered the pieces intact and stowed in a chest exactly as they were left 111 years before.

Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to King James VI here, on 19th June 1566 in this tiny (but very well decorated) room.

Check out the Edinburgh Castle Royal Palace. That coat of arms is pretty intense!

After viewing those historic pieces, the oldest crown jewels in existence on the British isles, the museum merged into the royal residence. A large room filled with portraits at present was originally Mary, Queen of Scots, bedchamber. Just off of it was a tiny closet sized room called the “birthing room,” where she gave birth to her only child, James. In many ways, Mary’s pregnancy and then her son himself were her downfall, which requires a lot more of her history than I can cover succinctly here.

You can tour a few other rooms in the royal residence, which we did, before returning to the courtyard outside. The next building we visited, housed next door, is the Great Hall, an impressive building that was renovated in and retains the design of the Victorian era at present. The wooden ceiling is particularly noteworthy. Our guide had explained that it was built as if it were an upturned hull of a ship, assembled with wooden pegs. Within the Great Hall are countless swords and metal suits of armor.

The ceiling of the Edinburgh Castle Great Hall was designed to resemble the hull of a ship.

Many kinds of swords line the walls of the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle.

These flintlock pistols on display in the Great Hall are beautiful.

Our next couple of stops within Edinburgh Castle were two different sections of prisons presented in an engaging way. The first, subterranean beneath the upper courtyard, was very dark and dank with audio recordings to evoke the sounds of prisoners. Among other uses, Americans were held prisoner there during the American Revolution, and they received less food than other prisoners since as people revolting against the British, they were considered traitors. Contained within were also various boxes made from husks and other materials by the prisoners, which displayed amazing craftsmanship. Outside and a little ways across the cobblestone road is a secondary prison area where they were cells to house prisoners, brought to life through specific stories of prisoners once housed there. For more information detailing prison life check out this link.

This beautiful model of the HMS St George was created by French Prisoners of war held at the castle in 1760.

The prison was dark and moist. I can’t even imagine how horrible it would have been to be locked up in there!

A US flag was carved on one of the prison doors, evidence of a homesick American captured by the British during the civil war.

On our return trip down the steep hill within the castle walls, we stopped at Meg Mons, a medieval bombard of impressive size that dates to about 1450. Next to that siege weapon is St. Margaret’s Chapel, the oldest building within the confines of the castle and in fact in all of Edinburgh. Built around 1130, the chapel is very small with tiny windows dotting the walls and an altar area at its head.

With a bore large enough to fit a child, Mons Meg could lob a 386 pound cannonball at least 2 miles away!

Stained glass window adorning St. Margaret’s chapel.

Saint Margaret’s Chapel is small and simply decorated but it’s impact is heightened because of this.

We left Edinburgh Castle and wandered a little ways down the Royal Mile to a pub recommended by an acquaintance back home called the Jolly Judge . This pub is off the main footpath of the heavily touristy area and so was quiet and quaint. The pub is a subterranean, hole-in-the-wall sort of place down a little alleyway. We had standard UK pub fare - I had an open sandwich with mull cheddar and real ale chutney with a local IPA, and Dustin had a ham and cheese toastie.

Tron Kirk, a former Gothic style church is now the home of The Hub, a public arts and events building.

Lunch at the Jolly Judge was tasty and a welcome respite from the throngs of tourists just a few hundred feet away along the Royal Mile.

Re-energized with food, we headed in the direction of the National Museum of Scotland and made a few stops along the way. We took the route down picturesque Old Town’s Victoria Street, enjoyed ice cream from a street vendor along the way, and arrived at Greyfriars Kirk . We first explored the cemetery, known as Greyfriars Kirkyard , which was more spread out than we are used to seeing in urban cemeteries.

Fans of Harry Potter flock to Victoria Street said to be the inspiration for Diagon Alley.

Looking down Victoria Street I can see a twinkle of inspiration for J.K. Rowling’s Diagon Alley.

Quintessential Old town Edinburgh with impressive stone buildings.

Flodden Wall was built in the 16th century but can still be found in select parts of the city such as this segment located in Greyfriars Kirkyard.

J.K. Rowling used many of the tombstones in Greyfriar Kirk as inspiration for characters in Harry Potter. The inscription below this snake reads, “Non Omnis Moriar” and translates to “Not all of me will die”. Harry Potter fans might have some diffic… — J.K. Rowling used many of the tombstones in Greyfriar Kirk as inspiration for characters in Harry Potter. The inscription below this snake reads, “Non Omnis Moriar” and translates to “Not all of me will die”. Harry Potter fans might have some difficulty *naming* the character inspired in part by this tombstone.

There are a few fun surprises contained within the cemetery. We learned while there that apparently J.K. Rowling used headstones there as inspiration for some of her characters - Potter, McGonagall, Moody (spelled Moodie in the cemetery), and Riddell. Also visible on one side of the cemetery is the clearly marked Flodden Wall, a 15th century defensive wall that helped defend the city. Meg Mons, the siege weapon we saw at Edinburgh Castle, was used to defend the wall against snipers stationed beyond it.

Within the cemetery are a few other items of note. George MacKenzie’s grave is said to be one of the most ‘documented’ sites of paranormal activity in the world. You can read more about this so-called haunted site in this article by The Scotman (a Scottish newspaper). Scroll about 2/3 of the way through the article to find the information about this grave. Tied to MacKenzie and also in the cemetery is the “Covenanter’s Prison” where prisoners of the internal religious conflicts were held after the Battle of Bothwell in 1679. Visible today is only the southern part of the once-prison, which was there predating the cemetery. The prisoners were held in abysmal conditions with just 4 oz of bread per day to sustain them. While some survived, most did not meet pretty ends.

On the less spooky side of things, the church is also home to a monument to Greyfriars Bobby, a Skye Terrier (dog) well known for his (perhaps aggrandized) life’s story. The story goes that the dog belonged to a local policeman who was buried in the churchyard when he died, and then Bobby spent the rest of his life (14 years) sitting next to the grave until his death in 1872, being fed by caring people along the way. He is now buried within the cemetery himself. The most adorable part of this already touching story is that visitors to the graveyard today leave sticks in front of the monument for Bobby. As dog parents to four, we can envision the joy a pile of sticks would bring just about any dog!

While we did not get to hear this beauty in action, looking at the pipe organ at Greyfriars Kirk still left an impression.

Greyfriars Kirk boasts of a beautiful stained glass window.

While the cemetery itself is interesting, Greyfriars Kirk is the truly historic masterpiece of the site. This church (which is what ‘kirk’ means) will celebrate its 400th anniversary in 2020. In 1638, the church was the site of the signing of the National Covenant (you’ll notice the origin of this word in the ‘covenanter’s prison’), an important political and religious (Presbyterian) document outlining some divisions between Scottish church and state with the English under the rule of Charles I, thought to perhaps have secret Catholic beliefs.

The church itself is a beautiful building and has some of the world’s squeakiest wood floors! Still an operational church, it is open to the public to tour at many times, offers its own guided tours, and houses a small museum on the history of the church in the back.

With only 90 minutes until the National Museum of Scotland was due to close, we walked just the few blocks from Greyfriars Kirk to the museum. Our focus for our museum visit was Scottish history, so we immediately headed to the multi-story wing that housed that exhibit. Structured chronologically so that the ground floor starts with the oldest history of the area and then each floor proceeds up in time, we started at the beginning. You can view a map of the museum here with the Scottish exhibits in the indigo color.

The diminutive statue of Oor Wullie looks up at William Chambers

Check out the skylights in The National Museum of Scotland. Natural light is so much better than florescent bulbs.

We started with the Early People portion of the exhibit, which housed amazing ancient coins, weapons, pieces of silver that had been gifted by the Romans. After spending over 45 minutes on just that floor alone and cognizant of the closing time of the museum, we moved up to the next floor, which housed the Kingdom of the Scots, and started in about the 1400s. This floor had a fascinating collection. One object there was a tattered flag remaining from the Battle of Dunbar in 1650. Through family research, we know that Dustin had a many times over great grandfather who was at the battle, made prisoner, marched to the coast, and shipped to the Americas, which is how one branch of his family tree ended up here.

Some other interesting items in the Kingdom of the Scots were: The Maiden, a guillotine which predated the French use of the weapon and which was used to behead about 150 people, including the person who had first suggested building it in an ironic twist of fate; a replica of Mary, Queen of Scots’ sarcophagus, which is housed at Westminster and said to bear her exact likeness from her death mask; a number of medieval torture implements, for those visitors wishing to have their stomachs turned (figuratively, it may be important to add); carved and beautiful furniture, and much more. Unfortunately at that point, we ran out of time since the museum was closing. This is one museum where I would gladly have stayed much longer if I had the time.

The Maiden was actively used 1564 through 1710 and, somewhat ironically, it is believed to have taken the head of the man who proposed its creation, James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton.

We just don’t see this kind of metal craftsmanship much these days. Now everything is plastic…. bleh!

The exquisitely crafted cradle of James VI.

Since it was closing time for most places we would be interested in visiting indoors, we had plans to hike Arthur’s Seat, the once-volcano named for the once-and-future king. After a 1+ mile trek through the city and some directions from a helpful local after Google Maps led us a little astray, it became evident that Arthur’s Seat was a much more substantial hike than most of us had planned for. Without the right foot attire and a blister or two in full force, we decided to abort the climb - though it’s on my list for our next Scottish adventure! - and instead we were able to follow a footpath around the base of Arthur’s Seat which took us by Holyroodhouse and the ruins of Holyrood Abbey. While we would have liked to have visited Holyrood, it was closed in advance of the Queen’s visit during our time in the city.

The central lava tube of Arthur’s Seat is much more resistant to erosion than the surrounding rock. This results in this beautiful, and somewhat uncommon geologic formation.

My people were leaving me (far right) but I had to get a panorama of this amazing volcanic stump.

Continuing on the walk for a total of 2 miles from when we first got to the base of Arthur’s Seat, we finally found ourselves ready for a well-earned dinner and were too tired (and blistered) to walk further to find another option so returned for our third and final time to Conan Doyle. As evidenced by our long day of walking, we all just ordered the easiest option: fish and chips, which we ate at a high top table at the bar while we watched interesting characters, drank some beers, and a couple of the group opted for desserts.

We never cease to amaze ourselves by the amount we can cover in a day on a trip but when you want to explore and everything is new, it doesn’t feel as busy at the time as it does later when we write about it!

The next day, the third of our 10-day trip, would find us leaving Edinburgh behind as we headed to one of our absolute favorite places of the trip and northwards to an expansive national park and a slower pace of life.