Last May, partly as a birthday present to myself, I spent a week in Athens. It was my first trip abroad since 2018 and I had a fabulous time with everything going well (aside from almost missing my connecting flight home due to delays with my first flight). My reason for picking Athens was of course the Parthenon which was absolutely worth the trip but as you’ll see in future posts there’s plenty of other sites to enjoy across the city.
This post goes through all the random statues, streets and buildings that don’t quite amount to enough for their own posts. To start with, we have this statue of the world’s only consulting detective. Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh. That building is no longer there but nearby to where it stood is this quite nicely done statue of his creation. The statue was sculpted by Gerald Ogilvie Laing and was moved to its new home on the traffic island here in 2023 after being taken from its original position for renovation.
Home to the devolved Scottish Parliament, the building was formally opened by Elizabeth II in 2004 after building commenced in 1999. It’s been a controversial building since the very start – I can remember the seemingly endless pieces about it in the news at the time – everything from the location, architect and most significantly the design was a hot topic of debate. It was over three years late and estimated to cost a truly staggering £414 million, just a bit out from its £10-40 million estimate! You can go on free tours of the building, the work of government permitting, but I just paid a flying visit here on my way back up the Royal Mile from visiting Holyrood Palace.
Located next to the Church of the Holy Rude, Cowane’s Hospital is a 17th centruy almshouse. It’s named for John Cowane, a businessman who left money for its establishment in 1637. The money he left was to allow for twelve elderly members of the Merchant Guildry of Stirling to live rent free in their old age.
Holyrood Abbey is the ruins of an abbey founded in 1128 by David I and can only be accessed on a visit to the Palace of Holyroodhouse next door.
Holyrood Palace, as it is more colloquially known, is the King’s official residence in Edinburgh. What this means from a practical standpoint is that photography isn’t allowed inside which is a shame because there are some beautiful rooms and items on display. Adult tickets cost £20 in advance, £22 on the day and gives you access to the 12th century abbey (that will feature in its own post), the palace gardens, the palace itself including the state apartments and what I found to be an excellent multimedia/audio guide.
The Georgian House is a lovely National Trust of Scotland property a short walk from Princes Street in the centre of Edinburgh at Charlotte Square. It has been restored to how it would have been in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Adult tickets are £12.50 or free if you’re a member of National Trust England/Scotland.
The National (as it’s recently been renamed) was another one of the those places I hadn’t managed to get to on my previous visit to the city so I made sure to pop in this time. I arrived in Edinburgh just at the right time as they had recently revamped the building with newly opened galleries specifically to highlight Scottish artists in their collection which I was particularly eager to see. Free to enter the gallery can be found just off Princes Street by the Scott Monument.
The Writers’ Museum was one of the main places that I wanted to visit in Edinburgh itself because I’d wanted to go here on my last trip to the city but ran out of time to do so. Free to enter the museum focuses on three Scottish writers – Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson.
After finishing wandering around the Valley Cemetery rather than head back to the train station the way I had come I decided to follow a different route down that I learned afterwards was called the Back Walk. It was created between 1724 and 1791 and follows the outline of where the old city walls would have been.
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