Day 4 - Edinburgh Castle

Today it was much warmer and became quite hot in the afternoon.  We had booked tickets for Edinburgh Castle a couple of weeks ago as we saw there were not many time slots left.  It was a good thing we did as it was sold out today.  There must have been an American cruise ship visiting because the majority of accents we heard were from the USA and they were all wearing the same type of lanyard.  There was a lot of construction work going on around the castle and they were also preparing for the Edinburgh International Festival so there was additional noise from that.

We arrived well before our appointed time of 11.30 and were not allowed to enter early.  We walked along the last part of the Royal Mile that we hadnt seen so far.  We also visited the Cathedral which does not have a striking alter like most churches.  It does have some very attractive stained glass windows including one dedicated to Robbie Burns.  



 
Robbie Burns Stained Glass Window (top middle)
over the entrance to the Cathedral

 
The Alter, which is in the middle of the Cathedral

 

The whole area around the castle was full of tourists but it was better when we went through the entrance as only those with prebooked tickets could get in.  After looking around some of the towers and viewpoints we joined the queue to see the Scottish Crown Jewels or the Honours of Scotland as they are officially known and consist of the Crown, Sceptre, and Sword of State.  Once in the building we walked along an exhibition relating to all the Kings and Queens of Scotland before seeing the real thing housed in a large glass cabinet.

 
Castle from the approach road

 
View over Princes Street from Castle

 
Entrance to see the Scottish Crown Jewels

 
The Great Hall

 
The War Memorial (1914-1918)

 
Remembrance Garden



 
View north towards the sea



 
Castle building

 We had a drink in the cafe and then got ourselves a good position to watch the firing of the cannon over the city at 1.00pm.  This takes place every day except Sunday.  It was really loud.

 
The guns at Edinburgh Castle used for gun salutes.

 
 
Preparing the gun for firing

 
Firing of the gun at 1pm

 
Retrieving of the shell

We finished off our time in Edinburgh with a walk around West Princes Street Gardens which are much better maintained than the East ones.  

 
West Princes Street Garden

 
The fountain in West Princes Street Gardens

 

We returned to the hotel mid afternoon.  It was too nice to stay indoors so we walked up to Corstorphine Local Nature Reserve.  This is a large woodland and parkland area not far from the hotel but up a very steep hill.  In the reserve there is a walled garden, well maintained by volunteers and at the highest point a hill tower.  Paul's knee was hurting so I left him sitting in the walled garden while I walked up to the hill tower.

 

 
The Walled Garden

 
Bluebells of Scotland in the Walled Garden

 
The Walled Garden

 
Corstorphine Hill Tower


We had our evening meal at the little pub we found in Corstorphine yesterday and then had an early night ready to depart for Aberdeen in the morning.

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