Yes, I did go for a ‘close’ pun.
I Regret Nothing!
Old Edinburgh has closes or wynds, narrow alleys running off the Royal Mile (and a few other roads) to provide access to the buildings behind the frontage, the roads behind those, and so on. Basically, a mechanism to increase the accessible surface of the building without sacrificing too much real estate.
Back in the day, when Edinburgh was a walled city & space was fantastically limited, there would be hundreds of people living on the things, in what could reasonably be described as shit-splattered squalor, given that drainage was managed by steep gradients and gravity. Did I mention that the Nor Loch, into which one side of the Royal Mile drained, had a crust on it?
(there was an execution where, after nailing her thumbs to her toes, the criminal was rolled down a close and into said Loch. Took 15 minutes to break through the crust & drown)
The closes are cleaner now, though often still steep, and they still seem to be a necessary part of how you navigate Edinburgh, or at least the old bits, on foot.
Also tricky to photograph, though I’m pretty damn happy with the Fleshmarket Close image.
As it kind of relates to the crowded nature of Old Edinburgh, here are a couple of pictures of where the town once ended.
The World’s End, aside from being a very fine name for a pub and a not-too-damn-bad movie, was just inside the walls of the city, thus, the end of the world.
Though about the only things that show that now are some metal cobblestones marking where the gates used to be.
The statue of Greyfriars Bobby is … popular for tourist photos.
Not sure how many people have a picture of the side of my head in their photos, as there’s really only one place to take a good picture from, and that’s the other side of the footpath. After a while I stopped waiting for people to get ready to take their pictures, because there’s an endless supply of them, so it never ends.
That said, at 0713h, while I was heading up to go on a bus tour, there was nobody present, so … I did the same damn thing as everyone else.
Even touched his nose for luck, or proof against rabies, or maybe fleas. Not sure which one; I’m good with all of those options.
I’d not known that Wojtek the Soldier Bear had ended up in Edinburgh, but that’s what happened.
There’s a statue and everything, with a happy-looking bear and a happy-looking soldier, which I ‘found’ on a scorchingly hot day. I’m assuming it was one of Scotland’s three allocated days of summer, and the park was filled with pale, pale people enjoying the bright stuff.
And a statue of a Bear, with shiny ears & nose from where people have rubbed them.
Speaking of Bears, here’s a very slightly relevant, but mostly just funny, sign.
And another one, from a cafe with really good food and a quite annoying proprietor.
I’ll be honest here, these were an attempt to make the building looming over the Meadows Walk look as spooky as possible.
This one looks a bit creepy, maybe, in an abandoned building sense;
Quite happy with this one; This looks spooky.
And a couple of pictures to end with.
This one’s not one of mine, and I’m not 100% sure where it’s from; Possibly the Scotland subreddit?
There was a storm one night, and someone got this picture of a lightning strike on Arthur’s Seat.
Or on something behind Arthur’s Seat; It’s hard to tell.
And here’s an attempt at ‘Full Moon Over The Meadows’.
