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.
In early October I headed to London to attend a couple of exhibitions, one of which was this exploration of the life of Ranjit Singh. I’m on the Wallace Collection‘s email list and it sounded like an interesting exhibition on a subject I know nothing about though I’m not sure I knew a great deal more than I did before. I’ve been to a few paid exhibitions at the Wallace Collection now and while they have interesting items on display I never feel they go into a great deal of depth about the subject matter. Still, I did learn more while researching this post so I suppose that’s something!
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.
This building was the site of the Elsie Inglis Hospice, a maternity hospital created by Dr. Elsie Inglis and Dr. Jessie McLaren MacGregor in 1904. They were among the first female students of medicine in Scotland and the hospice was run by an all female staff to serve the poorest women in Edinburgh and beyond. I made a special pilgrimage here because my great-grandmother was one of those poor, unwed women who gave birth here – to a son who would only live a few weeks.
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.
Cambridge is full of small museums tucked away in university departments. I managed to tick off quite a few on my last visit to Cambridge but there were still some I wanted to visit which included the Museum of Classical Archaeology. Hidden away in the Faculty of Classics and up a short staircase (there is a lift available) the museum is free and contains over 450 plaster casts of Greek and Roman sculpture.
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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