Venerable, dramatic
EDINBURGH
, the showcase capital of Scotland,
is a historic, cosmopolitan and
cultured city. The setting is
wonderfully striking; the city is
perched on a series of extinct
volcanoes and rocky crags which rise
from the generally flat landscape of
the Lothians, with the sheltered
shoreline of the Firth of Forth to
the north. "My own Romantic
town", Sir Walter Scott called
it, although it was another native
author, Robert Louis Stevenson, who
perhaps best captured the feel of
his "precipitous city",
declaring that "No situation
could be more commanding for the
head of a kingdom; none better
chosen for noble prospects."
The centre has two distinct
parts, divided by Princes Street
Gardens , which run roughly
east-west under the shadow of Castle
Rock . To the north, the
dignified, Grecian-style New Town
was immaculately laid out during the
Age of Reason, after the
announcement of a plan to improve
conditions in the city. The Old
Town , on the other hand, with
its tortuous alleys and tightly
packed closes, is unrelentingly
medieval, associated in popular
imagination with the underworld lore
of schizophrenic Deacon Brodie,
inspiration for Stevenson's Dr
Jekyll and Mr Hyde , and the
bodysnatchers Burke and Hare.
Edinburgh earned its nickname of
"Auld Reekie" for the smog
and smell generated by the Old Town,
which for centuries swam in sewage
tipped out of the windows of cramped
tenements.
Set on the crag which sweeps down
from the towering fairytale castle
to the royal Palace of
Holyroodhouse , the Old Town
preserves all the key reminders of
its role as a capital, plus a brand
new parliament building
rising up opposite the palace. A few
hundred yards away a tantalizing
glimpse of the wild beauty of
Scotland's scenery can be had
immediately beyond the palace in Holyrood
Park , an extensive area of open
countryside dominated by Arthur's
Seat , the largest and most
impressive of the volcanoes.
In August and early September,
around a million visitors flock to
the city for the Edinburgh
Festival , in fact a series of
separate festivals that make up the
largest arts extravaganza in the
world. Among the many museums, the
exciting new National Museum of
Scotland houses ten thousand of
Scotland's most precious artefacts,
while the National Gallery of
Scotland and its offshoot, the Scottish
National Gallery of Modern Art ,
have two of Britain's finest
collections of paintings.
On a less elevated theme, the
city's distinctive howffs (pubs),
allied to its brewing and distilling
traditions, make Edinburgh a great drinking
city. The presence of three universities
, plus several colleges, means that
there is a youthful presence for
most of the year - a welcome
corrective to the stuffiness which
is often regarded as Edinburgh's
Achilles heel.
Beyond the city centre, the most
lively area is Leith , the
city's medieval port, whose seedy
edge is softened by a series of
great bars and upmarket seafood
restaurants, along with the presence
of the former royal yacht Britannia
, now open to visitors.
