Walking Through Edinburgh’s History

Well we finally saw a glimpse of the more typical Edinburgh weather today, this morning was a cool, breezy, and cloudy start to the day. However it quickly went back to being warm and sunny by the afternoon.

Despite the cooler start, we started out with a 1.5 mile walk to Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is used as the official royal residence in Scotland and is located at the opposite end of the Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle. Unfortunately, photos were not allowed within the castle but we enjoyed the tour and history, as well as being a lot less crowded then Edinburgh Castle had been yesterday. Photos were allowed outside, in the ruins of the old abbey, and in the pretty gardens where there were many colorful, photographic flowers.

Unicorns are the national animal of Scotland and are found in various crests and art

After the palace tour and some lunch we took a bus a little bit out of town to see Craigmiller Castle. Unlike the other castles we’ve seen on the trip so far, this one has fallen to ruin over the years. While originally built in the 1300’s it was occupied until the early 1700’s when the current family moved out and the castle started to deteriorate. By the late 1700’s the castle had fallen to ruin and was gaining popularity as a tourist attraction. Ownership of the castle later transferred again in 1946 and it is now maintained by Historic Environment Scotland. Today you can still walk through various parts of the grounds, castle, and even up onto the walkways lining where the roof used to be. With this being a lesser-known stop, there was only a handful of other people here at the time which made it very peaceful to walk around and explore. While inside it was so quiet and echoey, that it felt required to whisper.

The unicorn makes another appearance in the Preston family crest, who originally build Craigmiller Castle

If you looking carefully you can see they mowed the crest of three unicorn into the grass.

Joel found another pattern mowed into the grass. We’re not sure what this one was supposed to be, but Joel decided it was a maze and followed the path all the way to the middle.

Looking back at Edinburgh in the distance

Our final stop for our time in Edinburgh was picked by Joel, a visit to the Johnnie Walker experience to learn about how they make their Scottish whiskey. Was interesting and a fun tour, Joel says the whiskeys they gave you to taste were very good, while I stuck with the fruity non-alcoholic options, which were also good in my opinion!

Unfortunately today was our last day in Edinburgh. However, that means tomorrow morning we are taking the tram out to the airport where we are picking up our rental car and heading out to the highlands with our final destination being the Isle of Skye!