Cramond II

Scotty dog!















Enjoying a nice Samuel Smith's beer in a pub that we went to for lunch in Cramond. We both ordered potato boats for lunch which were potatoes with haggis and melted cheese. Yum.














Ervine Stewart's Melville School. Fancy huh!

Cramond

Can you spot the loch ness monster in the photo above?














We recently visited Cramond which is North-West of Edinburgh (see the map below if you want to see where this is).
When the tide is low, you can walk out to this island and get good views over the Forth.
Would have been nice to pack a picnic lunch and have it on the island.

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Craigmillar Castle part II

The Tower House Hall.















You actually get quite high up in the Castle.




























Looking out to Dalkeith where I work..well about 20 miles in this direction anyway!

Craigmillar Castle

The Chapel where the Preston's are buried.






























We visited Craigmillar Castle which is about 3 miles south-east of Edinburgh. This castle was constructed in 1400.
Here is some information about the castle that I found on the web:

Craigmillar began life as the tower house that still forms the core of the castle. This was constructed around 1400, probably by Sir George Preston, one of a line of Prestons who played a large part in civic life in Edinburgh over several hundred years.

It was his grandson Sir William Preston who, in the 1440s, was responsible for Craigmillar's most notable feature. He added the curtain wall that surrounds the tower house on three sides and creates the inner courtyard. In about 1510 Sir Simon Preston added a further layer of enclosure, erecting outer walls to form the outer yard and east and west gardens.

Craigmillar Castle was captured by the English in May 1544 with its laird (another) Sir Simon Preston, who was also Provost of Edinburgh at the time. A programme of rebuilding in the 1550s included the construction of a new range of buildings along the east side of the inner courtyard. This was designed to provide more modern and spacious accommodation than was available in the tower house.

It was probably in this new east range that Mary Queen of Scots stayed in September 1563 and again in December 1566. It was during her second stay that conspirators agreed the "Craigmillar Bond": the plot to kill Mary's dissolute husband Lord Darnley.

More from Arthur's Seat

Looking out to the Midlothian Sports Centre at Hillend where they have Europe's longest artificial ski slope. Can you see it? Click on the photo for a larger view. The hills in the background are the Pentland Hills.

Arthur's Seat

This is the Royal Mile on the way to Arthurs Seat. It is mostly a cobblestoned street and is jam packed with souvenair shops. I have never seen so many souvenair shops on one street before!
It is very busy at the moment with tourists here to see the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.















It takes about 30 minutes to climb Arthurs Seat. It is 251 meters tall and offers spectacular views over Edinburgh.














This is the view looking down to Holyrood Palace.

South Queensferry

Nice little town to stroll through or get a coffee. The town is named after Saint Margaret of Scotland who used to cross the firth by ferry from "Queen's Ferry" to visit her chapel in Edinburgh Castle.















Nice looking pub called the Ferry Tap Alehouse. We didnt go in but there was a sign that said it was the oldest pub in town.















You can see that we were up a long way looking down on these yachts and back to the Forth Rail Bridge.

Firth of Forth

This is the Forth Road bridge that we walked over.















We visited Queensferry which is 14kms west of Edinburgh and walked over the Forth Road bridge.
Queensferry is a nice little seaside town similar to Eastbourne in Wellington NZ.
The bridge was designed to be very strong after the Tay Rail Bridge disaster left 75 people dead.
The scots were nervous about the engineers creating an even larger bridge so the engineers made sure the bridge was over engineered to be very safe.
98 people lost their lives building the bridge and at it's peak there were 4600 people working on construction.

Glasgow

Glasgow City Chambers: These were opened by Queen Victoria in 1888 on her second visit to the city. When she visited 39 years earlier, she disliked the city and said that she would prefer not to return!















This is the oldest building in Glasgow.






























The Doulton Fountain: This is the largest Terracotta fountain in the world. It was actually quite spectacular due in part to the fact that it has recently been refurbished at a cost of £4,400,000!















The People's Palace: This is a social history museum that tells the story of Glasgow from 1750 onwards. It was very interesting to see the photo exhibition of life in Glasgow in 1955. There were photos of 'Scotch Washing' which is where housewives would take all there washing to Glasgow Green and trample and wash it in large tubs full of Scotch.