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And then it seemed we walked 500 miles again. All so we could see for miles and miles… No really, we walked the Royal Mile, well not from the very top at Edinburgh Castle, we had already been all over that area yesterday. Wendy, bless her heart (in the good way), took the time, energy, and red ink to mark our route and the high spots of where we would be. Did I mention the Scottish mile is really like 1.1 miles? Ok, good. (Forgive me, days are already to blur together and right now it is Wednesday morning and we are on a train to St. Andrews). 

So back to the Royal Mile, but surely I have things to mention before we even made it to the Royal Mile. For instance, our group walked right past The Booking Office(which also plays into the title of this particular rambling as the movie Sunshine on Leith featured the Proclaimers and their song, well anyway there was a mob dance on top of The Booking Office and later, Wendy, our guide, and her friends did their own rendition of Walk 500 Miles, or I’m Gonna Be)  and Princes Street Gardens to get to the start of our tour of the Royal Mile. I start talking about this and that, and everyone is looking at me, and asking how I know what I know, and I tell them Jim and I had walked there the morning before… Well they thought that it was incredible, we had walked all the way from the Hub, where we were let off and to our own devices and we had WALKED all the way over to Princes Street. It really was no big deal..

We did learn on the way over that this cute red and white house was one of the ones Patrick Geddes bought up and reno’d back to its former glory when it was used as apartments for single (most of them were) professors at the University. Around the corner and up a hill and voilà, back to the Royal Mile. 

Now this part of the Royal Mile was known as the Lawn Market, down about 90 million steps (where we did not venture yesterday) is the Grass Market where livestock was sold, but this is the Lawn Market… kind of confusing, until Wendy so eloquently explained that in Scottish lawn means linen. So all the little buildings up on the Royal Mile sold linen: fabric, clothes, you name it. Some of the purveyors of the cloth would measure out the length “ell”  by grave markers.. Go figure. The little arched doorways were called luckenbooths and could be shuttered when the market was closed. Patrick Geddes also saved one of these buildings, The Gladstone Land, as well. Land was the Scottish word for Kite. 

As we were moving down the road, we came to the Deacon Brodie Pub. Wendy stopped to tell us the story of the deacon. Lo, and behold, right across the street sits The Deacon House Cafe. She told us the same story about the man who was the inspiration for the story Jekyll and Hyde. You can imagine the ramblings going on in my head as I am listening to this story and knowing the outcome, but wondering why this pub tells the same story as the place we were at yesterday, BAM!! I look around and there in all its glory is the cafe… across the street. So this Deacon Brodie’s house was across the street from his Pub. Didn’t have very far to walk at all. 

Wendy brought us into a close. In Edinburgh, a close is like a courtyard off the main street where the fronts of houses could be entered. In Glasgow, they use the word close as a stairway. One such close was Lady Stair’s Close. Poor Lady Stair. There was this gentleman (not really) who wanted to marry Lady Stair. Lady Stair did not want to marry him. Well didn’t dude go up into one of her rooms, take off his shirt and stand in the window for everyone to see him shirtless? Lady Stair was forced to marry him. (So click the link above to find out about all the nefarious tales told about Lady Stair’s house) Now the building that was her house is the writing museum and there is a Scottish memorial for all the Scottish writers who died in the war. Also, there are pavement stones with quotes all around the house. It is called Macker’s corner. A macker is a creative person more in line with a poet laureate type. 

Across the street, is the Signet Library. The Signet Library is where all the important Scottish documents are held and where the Signet ring came from as those entering the law profession receive a ring with their initials which they then use to impart their initials on documents.

Next up was St. Giles Cathedral. St. Giles was a favorite Saint of Margaret, whose chapel is at Edinburgh Castle…St. Giles became a protestant church after John Knox and the reformation and listen to this. Wendy said at one time there were 4 different church services from 4 different protestant religions going on at the same time. There was also a fire in 1838, but the first “fireman” who created the first fire brigade (and was then poached to work in London after their great fire) managed to save the church. 

Now we are on to another market area. Markets were designated by a cross (not necessarily a crucifix) meaning a juncture in the road. Markets had to be approved by the King or Queen, sometimes a baron would do… . The merchants would then pay a tax to work the market and part of that money would go into the city/borough’s coffers. The St. Giles market cross has a Unicorn on top. The unicorn hath just one horn and sleepth amongst the flowers. (Ask Gammy about that one). The unicorn is the national animal of Scotland… Anyone know why? … The unicorn can defeat a lion and whose national animal is the lion? England, that’s right! Good Class! 😁

We have now left the walls surrounding Edinburgh, we will have to pay a tax before coming back. This is why many people didn’t venture past the gates, they didn’t have any money to get back in. Not to mention the money you had to pay to cross through Canongate. 

The Royal mile actually ends at Holyrood Palace. Rood means cross in Scottish and when King James was being chased in the woods, he was saved by a White stag. James grabbed the horn of the stag and it broke off in his hands in the shape of a cross and thus Holyrood was born.

So fun fact: There are so many Scottish men in kilts walking around as I am trying to surreptitiously take pictures. Come to find out there is a very high falutin garden party going on at the palace. You know it’s high falutin because all the ladies are wearing heels and hats, and most of the men are wearing tails or long coats and top hats. Guess who flew in for the party? The king. No, we didn’t see him. Just a lot of police presence. 

After our little jaunt, we took off for Arthur’s seat, a nice little hill.. Luckily due to lack of time, we climbed Salisbury Craig. Margeaux walked with us. Pam and Tim walked for a bit, took a shortcut and then walked back the way we had come! It was high enough and we could see for miles and we did walk for miles. We met a lovely couple from Dundee who had come up for holiday. Their 12 year old daughter had not come, and much like my daughter of that age, did not like to take long walkabouts. So David and his wife (never did get her name, but she was an absolute gem) walked with us for awhile. Which was great because as I was talking to her, I decided to take a little sit down and ended up on my fanny after scraping my knees. 🤦🏻‍♀️It was just a flesh wound, but new companion was a little worried. 

Once off the little craig, we had to hurry, but first a quick stroll through a long tunnel, that we could have entered a different way and not crossed over our footsteps, but it was all good. 

On our way to tea now, and yet we made it to the Greyfriars Bobby, a cute little dog that has had his nose replaced several times because tourists keep touching it for luck. 

Tea at Brown’s and Dinner at Piper’s rest will have to wait for next post.  But just to let you know… On Tuesday, I had 22,696 steps and had walked 10.04 miles!

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