Edinburgh Experience September 2025
Another good short break away
Video: Edinburgh Botantical Gardens
INTRODUCTION
This blog is another story of 4 days away exploring the delights of Scotland’s beautiful capital.
The trip was a little longer in distance than previous but easily accessible by a one hour flight.
We managed to walk over 61,000 steps over the four days and most of them were not on the flat!
DAY 1 - FINDING OUT ABOUT EDINBURGH
Today we flew to Edinburgh
It was an easy journey to the hotel and having taken an early flight, we had most of the day to ourselves.
We have a habit with “City Breaks” of using the first afternoon to ride the appropriate hop on hop off bus for that city. It is useful for getting a feel for the places to visit or at least discover some of the history of the area.
The commentary always provides some useful snippets.
The Usher Hall – a meeting place and concert hallwas built using proceeds from Andrew Usher’s whisky business, but ironically opened under temperance rules, meaning no alcohol was served at the venue. This was a point of tension because the venue was established by the philanthropist and whisky distiller himself. The temperance aspect was likely a condition or desire of the temperance movement at the time of its 1914 opening, though it may not have been a permanent condition.
.
Greyfriars Bobby was a Skye Terrier who became known in 19th-century Edinburgh for reportedly spending 14 years guarding the grave of his owner until his death. The story continues to be well known in Scotland, through several books and films, though its accuracy is disputed. A prominent commemorative statue and nearby graves are tourist attractions.
The best-known version of the story is that Bobby belonged to John Gray, who worked for the Edinburgh City Police as a nightwatchman. When John Gray died he was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, in the Old Town of Edinburgh. Bobby then became known locally, spending the rest of his life sitting on his master’s grave.
In 1867 the lord provost of Edinburgh, Sir William Chambers, who was also a director of the Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, paid for Bobby’s licence and gave the dog a collar, now in the Museum of Edinburgh.
Bobby is said to have sat by the grave for 14 years. He died on 14 January 1872
We remained on the bus until Holyrood House and the Scottish Parliament Building. Having decided that the Holyrood admission prices were a little step for just an afternoon we decided to head for the hills to the South. A little way along we found directions to Arthur’s Seat. A gentle climb or so we thought – tell our calves that and we didn’t even reach the ultimate top.
Fantastic view – the Pentland Hills to the South, Firth of Forth to the North and Edinburgh in the Middle. Shame to see the devastation caused by the wildfires in August
DAY 2 - ROYAL MILE AND EDINBURGH BOTANTICAL GARDENS
The wonderful thing about Edinburgh is that every attraction is within easy walking distance or a short distance by public transport.
It must be said that Edinburgh is a very busy city. Princes Street where our hotel was situated is the main thoroughfare.
Pedestrian traffic is relentless until late in the evening. For the majority of the street cars and commercial vehicles are banned. Buses were constantly plying their routes backwards and forwards. Added to this Edinburgh has a very efficient tram network. It made the transit from the airport to the hotel very easy.
The first floor restaurant afforded a panoramic view of the rear of the Royal Mile and the Castle.
The points of interest start across the road with a huge monument dedicated to Sir Walter Scott, a statue of the explorer David Livingstone , the Scottish Royal Academy and Waverley Station
This is the biggest monument to any writer in the world and commemorates Sir Walter Scott who was a hugely successful and influential novelist who created Scottish Romanticism. It is over 200 feet or 61 metres high, built from Binny sandstone in the Gothic architectural style, it has 287 spiral steps to the top, and within niches are 64 character statues from Scott’s novels by many well-known sculptors.
The Waverley novels are a long series of novels by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832). For nearly a century, they were among the most popular and widely read novels in Europe.
Because Scott did not publicly acknowledge authorship until 1827, the series takes its name from Waverley, the first novel of the series, released in 1814. The later books bore the words “by the author of Waverley” on their title pages.
The railway station and bridge are named after the series of novels.
A relatively short walk from the hotel to the Royal Mile. We joined it roughly halfway up towards the Castle itself at North Bridge.
Down the hill you will see Holyrood House.
An interesting feature of the Royal Mile is the existences of “closes” on either side.
Edinburgh is adorned with narrow passages, known as closes, that hold secrets around their dark twists and turns.
Edinburgh has over 250 closes, with most of them located in the Old Town that run along both sides of the Royal Mile. A ‘close’ is a narrow alleyway or passage, often leading off the main street into courtyards or between buildings.
Closes in Edinburgh exist because of how the city developed during the medieval period. They were created for many reasons such as easy access between streets, residential access, for workspaces and trade, and social and community hubs.
Each one of Edinburgh’s closes hold secrets around their dark twists and turns. These secrets, some more than 500 years old, tell the story of Edinburgh’s history.
One of the major buildings on the mile is St Giles Cathedral. This church has a long history since its construction in 1124.
Royalty has been involved at various times in its history James I and Charles I.
Latterly In 1911, George V opened the newly constructed chapel of the knights of the Order of the Thistle at the southeast corner of the church.
Ninety-nine members of the congregation – including the assistant minister, Matthew Marshall – were killed in World War I. In 1917, St Giles’ hosted the lying-in-state and funeral of Elsie Inglis, medical pioneer and member of the congregation
The church escaped World War II undamaged. The week after VE Day, the royal family attended a thanksgiving service in St Giles’. The Albany Aisle at the northwest of the church was subsequently adapted to serve as a memorial chapel to the 39 members of the congregation killed in the conflict.
To mark her first visit to Scotland since her coronation, Elizabeth II received the Honours of Scotland at a national service of thanksgiving in St Giles’ on 24 June 1953.
St Giles’ remains an active parish church as well as hosting concerts, special services, and events.] In 2018, St Giles’ was the fourth most popular visitor site in Scotland with over 1.3 million visitors that year.
On 12 September 2022, the coffin of the late Queen Elizabeth II was taken to the cathedral for a service of thanksgiving, having travelled from Balmoral Castle to the Palace of Holyrood house the previous day. The Queen’s coffin then lay at rest at the cathedral for 24 hours, guarded constantly by the Royal Company of Archers, allowing the people of Scotland to pay their respects. In the evening, the Queen’s children; King Charles III, the Princess Royal, the Earl of Inverness and the Earl of Forfar held a vigil at the cathedral, a custom known as the Vigil of the Princes.
On 5 July 2023, the Honours of Scotland were presented to King Charles III in a ceremony held in St Giles’ Cathedral. The ceremony was formally described as a National Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication to mark the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.
It struck me that the Scots have great pride in their national flag and it does not appear to be a symbol of conflict that the St George’s Cross seems to be.
The intention of the day was to spend most if not all of the day in the Royal Mile. The idea was to spend the afternoon on one of the tours underground.
Well you know what they say – “Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail”
Edinburgh is still busy in the wake of the Festival and Tattoo season.
No tickets – so to Plan B.
We took advantage of Edinburgh’s superb Public Trnsport system and headed for the Botanical Gardens .
This afforded us the opportunity to see what Edinburgh was like away fom the busy city centre.
The Gardens provided a peaceful oasis away from the hustle and bustle and was free!!
Going there in September and perhaps being slightly north you could see that Autumn is only just round the corner.
The garden is set on a hill so affords good views of the surroundings.
The Chinese Hillside highlights RBGE’s well-established links with China and is perhaps one of the largest collections of Chinese plants being cultivated outside China. Formally opened in 1997, this part of the Garden recreates for visitors the experience of climbing a hillside in south west China and features around 1,600 plants collected from this area of China, many of which are rare and endangered in their native habitat. The plants, which include a range of beautiful rhododendrons.
The butterfly was probably the easiest to photograph – it was part of a static display so didn’t flit as most butterflies do!
DAY 3 -EDINBURGH ZOO
This dounds like deja vu!
The intention of the day was to spend most if not all of the day at Edinburgh Castle.
Well you know what they say – “Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail”
No tickets and none for Thursday either.
So to Plan B.
We again took advantage of Edinburgh’s superb Public Trnsport system and headed for the Zoo.
The Zoo echoes Edinburgh in general – spot the flat area – we were exhausted – it was like Colchester Zoo on steroids!
In this instance I will let the photos do the talking
DAY 3 -FORTH BRIDGE AND EDINBURGH CASTLE
At the end of the 3rd day we were deciding what to do on our last day.
We tried again on another site to see whether we could buy tickets to visit Edinburgh Castle. Lo and Behold tickets were available from 14:00.
Tickets bought leaving what to do in the morning.
Suffice it to say my choice of destination was not universally popular in the Jeffery family.
We set off for the Forth Bridge(s).
Public Transport truimphs again – a 25 minute rail journey from Waverley Station – £10.29 return for both of us.
In my opinion the railway bridge in particular is magnificient.
The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, 9 miles (14 kilometres) west of central Edinburgh. Completed in 1890, it is considered a symbol of Scotland (having been voted Scotland’s greatest man-made wonder in 2016), and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site It was designed by English engineers Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker. It is sometimes referred to as the Forth Rail Bridge (to distinguish it from the adjacent Forth Road Bridge), although this is not its official name.
Construction of the bridge began in 1882 and it was opened on 4 March 1890 by the Duke of Rothesay, the future Edward VII. The bridge carries the Edinburgh–Aberdeen line across the Forth between the villages of South Queensferry and North Queensferry and has a total length of 2,467 metres (8,094 ft). When it opened it had the longest single cantilever bridge span in the world, until 1919 when the single 1,801 ft (549 m) span Quebec Bridge in Canada was completed. It continues to be the world’s second-longest single cantilever span, with two spans of 1,709 feet (521 m).
The castle stands upon the plug of an extinct volcano, which is estimated to have risen about 350 million years ago during the lower Carboniferous period. The Castle Rock is the remains of a volcanic pipe, which cut through the surrounding sedimentary rock before cooling to form very hard dolerite, a type of basalt. Subsequent glacial erosion was resisted by the dolerite, which protected the softer rock to the east, leaving a crag and tail formation.
Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age. There has been a royal castle on the rock since the reign of Malcolm III in the 11th century, and the castle continued to be a royal residence until 1633. From the 15th century, the castle’s residential role declined, and by the 17th century it was principally used as a military garrison. Its importance as a part of Scotland’s national heritage was recognised increasingly from the early 19th century onwards, and various restoration programmes have been carried out over the past century and a half.
Because of our arrival we missed the firing of the One O’clock Gun. We heard it!
It is actually used for the same purpose or rather was including Sydney and Hong Kong.
The One O’Clock Gun is a time signal, fired every day at precisely one p.m., excepting Sunday, Good Friday and Christmas Day. The ‘Time Gun’ was established in 1861 as a time signal for ships in the harbour of Leith and the Firth of Forth, 2 miles (3 km) away. It complemented the ‘Time Ball’, which was installed on the Nelson Monument in 1852, but was useless as a visual signal in foggy weather. Because sound travels relatively slowly (approximately 343 metres per second (770 mph)), a map was produced in 1861 to show the actual time when the sound of the gun would be heard at various locations across Edinburgh.
The military history of the castle is fascinating.
On poignant point about the Castle is the Memorial Chapel. It was sad how many Scottish soldiers died in both World Wars.
Because of its elevation there are wonderful views of the city and the surrounding areas. In normal circumstances rain is not welcome but it was a passing shower which brought out a beautiful rainbow
