St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh.Looking west on the Royal Mile, the thoroughfare that runs from Edinburgh Castle (in the west) to Holyrood Palace (in the east) at a distance of approximately one Scots mile (which is equivalent to 5,938 feet).The west façade of St. Giles’ Cathedral.The Royal Mile further west, on Lawnmarket Street.Statue of Greyfriars Bobby (b. 1855/56, d. 1872), a Skye Terrier who spent the last 14 years of his life guarding the grave of his deceased owner.Greyfriars Bobby pub.Greyfriars Kirkyard, a graveyard that was established in the 16th-century AD.Tombs in Greyfriars Kirkyard.Tombstone for Greyfriars Bobby with the following epitaph: “Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all.”George Heriot’s School, an independent primary and secondary school that was established in 1628 AD; this is also supposedly the inspiration for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books.Building at the corner of High and Jeffrey Streets.The World’s End pub.Haggis served with mashed neeps (“swede turnips”) and tatties (“potatoes”) and a whiskey cream sauce.Part of the Royal Mile at night.Three Scottish beers, ready to be drunk.The Grand Gallery inside the National Museum of Scotland.The Bullion Stone, a carved Pictish stone that depicts an elderly man riding a nag whilst drinking from a very large drinking horn (ca. 900-50 AD).Carved, stone cross from Eilean Mor, Argyl (14th-century AD).Wooden statue of St. Andrew carrying his cross and a book (ca. 1500 AD).The Bute Mazer, a medieval communal feasting cup; it may have been used by King Robert the Bruce at Rothesay Castle.A bell shrine that was kept at Guthrie Castle (12th-century AD with 14th and 15th-century AD additions).A part of the Beaton Panels, an example of late Gothic woodwork (1530s AD).The Lamont Harp, a Scottish Clarsach that dates back to the 15th-century AD.Part of a Scottish Renaissance style painted ceiling from Rossend Castle (ca. 1617 AD).The Cadboll Cup, a silver cup from the Scottish Renaissance (16th-century AD).Scottish daggers from the 17th-century AD.A cast of the tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots; the original is in Westminster Abbey.Mask that was worn as a disguise by a leading Covenanter, Alexander Peden, during the “killing times,” when he and other Covenanters lived in fear of arrest and execution (ca. 1670 AD).Authorized James VI version of the New Testament and Psalmbook, from the early 17th-century AD.A dancing master’s fiddle from Greenlaw, Berwickshire (18th-century AD).A targe with silver mounts (ca. 1740 AD).Beggars’ badges that were issued by kirk sessions and town councils around Scotland in an effort to identify real beggars and allow them free movement (18th-century AD).“Napier’s Bones” – slips of ivory divided into sections and marked with digits to facilitate multiplication and division (ca. 1650 AD).Uniform of the Royal Company of Archers (18th-century AD).Golf balls made of leather and stuffed with feathers, as well as four clubs (from the first half of the 19th-century AD).Ram’s head table snuff mull and cigar box; it would’ve been wheeled up and down the table after dinner (1883/84 AD).‘Highland Society of London, Volume I’ – a ledger of tartan samples that includes swatches collected between 1815-1820 AD (made in the 1930s AD).A lunette from the Byzantine Smoke Room in Anderson’s Royal Polytechnic Warehouse in Glasgow (ca. 1910 AD).Kay gyroplane, type 33/1; built and tested in 1935 AD, this was the first type of rotorcraft to use variable incidence rotors.JP Formula 3 car (1952 AD).The Nobel Prize Medal in Medicine, awarded to Sir Alexander Fleming for his discovery of penicillin (awarded in 1945 AD).View of Edinburgh Castle and the old town from the rooftop gardens of the National Museum of Scotland.The Elephant House café; this is one of the cafés in Edinburgh in which J. K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter novel.The Royal Mile and St. Giles’ Cathedral.Stained glass windows and retired regimental colors inside St. Giles’ Cathedral.More of the interior of the Cathedral.Ceiling inside St. Giles’ Cathedral.Stained glass window inside the Cathedral.Edinburgh City Chambers with the former Royal Exchange on the right-side.Statue of Adam Smith.A disorienting moving light tunnel inside the Camera Obscura and World of Illusions building.Light and mirrors to infinity.A shattered glass hologram.View of Edinburgh from the rooftop of the Camera Obscura and World of Illusions building.The western end of the Royal Mile, looking east, with the white Camera Obscura shelter on top of the World of Illusions building on the left.Victoria Street in Edinburgh.“X” marks the spot where “many martyrs and Covenanters died for the Protestant faith” (at Grassmarket Square).Edinburgh Castle at sundown, seen from Grassmarket Square.Greyfriars Bobby statue and pub at night.Nighttime on the Royal Mile near Deacon Brodies Tavern.Three more Scottish beers, ready to be drunk.The Palace of Holyroodhouse (commonly referred to as “Holyrood Palace”); this is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland.Entrance to Holyrood Palace, which has its beginnings in the 12th-century AD when this was the site of the Augustinian Holyrood Abbey (an important administrative center).The quadrangle in Holyrood Palace.The ruins of Holyrood Abbey, which was founded in 1128 AD by King David I after having a vision of a Cross appearing between a stag’s antlers on this spot.Standing in an aisle in the ruined abbey.Another view of the abbey’s ruined nave.Statue of a fiddler in the gardens of Holyrood Palace.Ruins in the palace gardens with Arthur’s Seat (the peak in the distance) in view.Another view of Holyrood Palace; the north-west tower (on the left) is where Mary, Queen of Scots lived in the 16th-century AD and where she witnessed her husband, Lord Darnley, and several nobles murder her private secretary, David Rizzio, out of jealousy.Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, and Kezia Dugdale (leader of the Scottish Labour Party) standing outside of the entrance to the Scottish Parliament building.Inside Scotland’s Parliamentary chamber.The Scotland Bill, which established a Scottish Parliament, was passed by the United Kingdom Parliament and received Royal Assent on November 19, 1998 AD (this copy has a handwritten note from Tony Blair to Donald Dewar).View of Calton Hill (left), Scotland’s Parliament (center), and Holyrood Palace (right) from the start of the trail up to Arthur’s Seat.Closeup of Holyrood Palace with the Firth of Forth (where the River Forth flows in to the North Sea) in the background.View of Edinburgh Castle and the old town from the trail.Trail on the western edge of Holyrood Park, at the base of Salisbury Crags, leading up to Arthur’s Seat.View of the park with Arthur’s Seat (the highest peak) in sight.View of the top of Salisbury Crags.Looking at Dunsapie Loch (the small lake in the park) and the Firth of Forth.The marker on the top of Arthur’s Seat, which is mentioned as one of the possible locations for the legendary Camelot.Looking back at Arthur’s Seat while hiking back down to Edinburgh.The ruins of Saint Anthony’s Chapel, which dates back to at least the early 15th-century AD.The Burns Monument; built in 1839 AD, this building commemorates Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns. “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.”St. Andrew’s House, the headquarters building of the Scottish Government, which stands on the site of the former Calton Jail.The National Monument of Scotland on Calton Hill; it was supposed to resemble the Parthenon, but, due to a lack of funds, it was left unfinished in 1829 AD; it has since taken on various nicknames, such as “the Pride and Poverty of Scotland.”Holyrood Park and Arthur’s Seat, seen from Calton Hill.Calton Hill and its monuments; the castellated structure is the Governor’s House of the Old Calton Jail, next to the government offices of St. Andrew’s House.The esplanade in front of Edinburgh Castle.Cannon facing the Firth of Forth from the castle’s Argyle Battery.The Scottish National War Memorial, seen from the Crown Square.Suit of armor, pikes, and swords on display inside the Great Hall.The Great Hall, which was the chief place of state assembly in the castle.Statue of a horse and shield outside the entrance to the Scottish National War Memorial.The Scottish National War Memorial, on the left, and the Royal Palace (which houses the Scottish Crown Jewels and the Stone of Scone – the stone used for the coronation of British monarchs), on the right.The back-side of the Scottish National War Memorial.The Cemetery for Soldiers’ Dogs in the foreground, with Princes Street Gardens in the distance.A cell inside the military prison at Edinburgh Castle; this mock-up shows Private John Tool (charged with desertion) being examined by a member of the army’s Medical Staff Corps.Looking at Foog’s Gate from the New Barracks building.A photograph displayed inside the National War Museum of Scotland that shows a group of penguins captivated by a bagpiper’s music on South Georgia Island in 1984 AD.Northwest Edinburgh, seen from the castle.The entrance gate to Edinburgh Castle with statues of Robert the Bruce (on the left) and William Wallace (on the right).Another view of Edinburgh Castle from the esplanade.George Heriot’s School, seen from the esplanade.The Royal Mile just outside of the Esplanade.Buildings along the Royal Mile.The Writer’s Museum in Edinburgh; the museum presents exhibits on Scotland’s three most revered writers: Robert Burns, Walter Scott, and Robert Louis Stevenson.North Bridge, over the railway station in Edinburgh.The Scott Monument, dedicated to Sir Walter Scott, it stands in Princes Street Gardens.Another view of the Scott Monument.Edinburgh Castle seen from Princes Street.A monument to the Royal Scots Greys who lost their lives in the Boer War (1899-1902 AD).Another view of Edinburgh Castle from Princes Street.Buildings of Edinburgh, past Princes Street Park.Rose Street in Edinburgh.Market Street, seen from North Bridge.
