{"id":1269,"date":"2016-07-24T15:49:12","date_gmt":"2016-07-24T14:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/?p=1269"},"modified":"2016-08-18T16:42:51","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T15:42:51","slug":"close-ing-the-entries-on-edinburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/?p=1269","title":{"rendered":"Close-ing The Entries On Edinburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_20160715_150154514\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, I did go for a ‘close’ pun.
\nI Regret Nothing!<\/em><\/p>\n

Old Edinburgh has closes or wynds, narrow alleys running off the Royal Mile\u00a0(and a few other roads)<\/em> to provide access to the buildings behind the frontage, the roads behind\u00a0those, and so on. Basically, a mechanism to increase the accessible surface of the building without sacrificing too much real estate.<\/p>\n

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?
\n(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)<\/em><\/p>\n

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.
\nAlso tricky to photograph, though I’m pretty damn happy with the Fleshmarket Close image.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160715_135104560_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160719_140105673_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As it kind of relates to the crowded nature of Old Edinburgh, here are a couple of pictures of where the town once ended.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160722_143927584_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160713_152831370_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The World’s End, aside from being a very fine name for a pub and a not-too-damn-bad movie, was\u00a0just<\/em> inside the walls of the city, thus, the end of the world.<\/p>\n

Though about the only things that show that now are some metal cobblestones marking where the gates used to be.<\/p>\n

\n

\"IMG_20160718_071329826_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The statue of Greyfriars Bobby is … popular for tourist photos.
\nNot 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\n

I’d not known that Wojtek the Soldier Bear<\/a> had ended up in Edinburgh, but that’s what happened.
\nThere’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.
\nAnd a statue of a Bear, with shiny ears & nose from where people have rubbed them.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160719_130216401_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160719_130334940\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160719_130306017\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160719_130153019_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Speaking of Bears, here’s a very slightly relevant, but mostly just funny, sign.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160723_161813131\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And another one, from a cafe with\u00a0really<\/em> good food and a quite annoying proprietor.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160723_165229530\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

I’ll be honest here, these were an attempt to make the building looming over the Meadows Walk look as spooky as possible.<\/p>\n

This one looks a bit creepy, maybe, in an abandoned building sense;<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160723_201829521\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Quite happy with this one;\u00a0This<\/strong> looks spooky.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160723_201902932\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

And a couple of pictures to end with.<\/p>\n

This one’s not one of mine, and I’m not 100% sure where it’s from; Possibly the Scotland subreddit?
\nThere was a storm one night, and someone got this picture of a lightning strike on Arthur’s Seat.
\nOr on something behind Arthur’s Seat; It’s hard to tell.<\/p>\n

\"kMRokMx\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And here’s an attempt at ‘Full Moon Over The Meadows’.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160719_220828160\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, I did go for a ‘close’ pun. I Regret Nothing! Old Edinburgh has closes or wynds, narrow alleys running off the Royal Mile\u00a0(and a few other roads) to provide access to the buildings behind the frontage, the roads behind\u00a0those, and so on. Basically, a mechanism to increase the accessible surface of the building without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-it-can-be-fun-to-run-away"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3O6N9-kt","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1269"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1289,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269\/revisions\/1289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}