Images of Edinburgh Scotland

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and has been since at least the 15th century.

The Sir Walter Scott Monument

The Writer's Museum

Entrance to The Writer's Museum

“Edinburgh city lies on the east coast of Scotland, on the south bank of the Firth of Forth (the estuary that opens into the North Sea). Geologically, the Firth of Forth is a fjord, carved by the Forth glacier at the Last Glacial Maximum. The famous Edinburgh Castle is situated on the top of a volcanic rock intrusion which was resistant to erosion by the ice sheet, and so stands above the surrounding area; a perfect defensive site!

Edinburgh is defined as being the Old Town and the New Town. The New Town developed beyond the old city walls, during a time of social reform and prosperity after the Jacobite rebellions. In response to problems caused by an increasingly densely populated Old Town (the city had remained, until then, confined to the volcanic rock on which it was born), expansion north was begun. All the excess soil that was generated from the construction of the New Town was unloaded into the post-glacial Nor Loch, which mounted up and has become what is now known as The Mound. The National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy Building were built on top of the Mound and tunnels have been carved through it, leading to the famous Waverley Station.

The Old Town, which is located along the “tail” from the crag, on which the Castle stands tall, is preserved in the medieval street plan. It is down the tail from the castle that the famous “Royal Mile” runs. Due to the tapering of the tail, space was a problem with an expanding population in the 1500’s. Their immediate solution (before the expansion into the New Town, after the Jacobite rebellions) was to build high rise residential areas. Ten and eleven story blocks were typical for these buildings but one even reached fourteen stories! The buildings were often extended below the ground too, to accommodate immigrants to the city, which is where the legends of Edinburgh’s “underground city” have grown from. Apparently it was the rich who resided on the upper floors of these buildings and the poor were kept to the lower sections.”

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/Edinburgh/