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tgarnslReading DK Broster's The Flight of the Heron has reminded me once again what a weird city Edinburgh is, and so I thought I would put down a few of my thoughts on the city, as someone who lived in the Old Town for several years and who knows it fairly well.
Edinburgh is an unusual city in many ways, not least of which is its geography and general layout. It's located near water, but unlike many cities in the world it is located neither directly next to the sea nor next to a river — the nearest river to Edinburgh is the Water of Leith, a small river located at a significant distance from the city centre that eventually empties into the North Sea by Leith, Edinburgh's port. Until Victorian times, however, the city was located next to a body of water called the Nor' Loch, or North Loch, which was located northern base of Castle Rock, and was in fact a manmade lake created in the 15th century by damming a small burn and flooding a marshy depression. Over time, the loch became used for all manner of things, from executions (though likely not the witch dunkings popular tours will tell you of) to the dumping of sewage from the town's sewage system, and naturally contributed greatly to the stench of Edinburgh (the folk tune 'Flowers of Edinburgh' is supposedly named for the stench rising from the Nor' Loch). A number of other lochs existed around the city, but some of these, such as one where the Meadows stands now, were drained in the late medieval period. The city was therefore reliant on well and cistern water, rather than fresh water from a river or lake — one such example of this is the Netherbow Wellhead, located next to the John Knox House.
The physical geography of Edinburgh is interesting as well; Castle Rock is a volcanic plug, while Arthur's Seat, a hill lying approximately 1 mile east of Castle Rock, is the more intact remains of an ancient volcano. A number of other geographic features mark Edinburgh, including Carlton Hill, which stands on the opposite side of Edinburgh's Old Town from Arthur's Seat; and Salisbury Crag, which forms part of Arthur's Seat and rears up over the city like a great stone wave. For much of Edinburgh's history, the main settlement (excluding villages outside the city proper, such as Dean Village) lay along the broadly east-west axis of the long slope leading from Castle Hill to Holyrood Palace. Owing to the steep nature of this slope, the same building in Edinburgh may stand three stories high on one street, and seven on another: these tenements were first built in the 17th century and could reach over ten stories tall. Running between the tenements, sometimes through covered archways, were closes, which were common stairs or entryways, and wynds (think 'wind' in 'rewind'), narrow lanes between houses. These ran off of the two main thoroughfares that ran parallel to one another: the Royal Mile, which runs in a roughly straight line from the Castle to the Palace; and the Cowgate, which runs parallel to the Royal Mile at the base of the southern slope, extending from near Holyrood Palace to the Grassmarket, a historic marketplace.
We do not talk about New Town. If you like Georgian boxy architecture, you will like New Town. If you like flavour, albeit flavour watered down by the Victorians, you come to Old Town. Dean Village is very pretty though, and worth a visit.
Edinburgh is an unusual city in many ways, not least of which is its geography and general layout. It's located near water, but unlike many cities in the world it is located neither directly next to the sea nor next to a river — the nearest river to Edinburgh is the Water of Leith, a small river located at a significant distance from the city centre that eventually empties into the North Sea by Leith, Edinburgh's port. Until Victorian times, however, the city was located next to a body of water called the Nor' Loch, or North Loch, which was located northern base of Castle Rock, and was in fact a manmade lake created in the 15th century by damming a small burn and flooding a marshy depression. Over time, the loch became used for all manner of things, from executions (though likely not the witch dunkings popular tours will tell you of) to the dumping of sewage from the town's sewage system, and naturally contributed greatly to the stench of Edinburgh (the folk tune 'Flowers of Edinburgh' is supposedly named for the stench rising from the Nor' Loch). A number of other lochs existed around the city, but some of these, such as one where the Meadows stands now, were drained in the late medieval period. The city was therefore reliant on well and cistern water, rather than fresh water from a river or lake — one such example of this is the Netherbow Wellhead, located next to the John Knox House.
The physical geography of Edinburgh is interesting as well; Castle Rock is a volcanic plug, while Arthur's Seat, a hill lying approximately 1 mile east of Castle Rock, is the more intact remains of an ancient volcano. A number of other geographic features mark Edinburgh, including Carlton Hill, which stands on the opposite side of Edinburgh's Old Town from Arthur's Seat; and Salisbury Crag, which forms part of Arthur's Seat and rears up over the city like a great stone wave. For much of Edinburgh's history, the main settlement (excluding villages outside the city proper, such as Dean Village) lay along the broadly east-west axis of the long slope leading from Castle Hill to Holyrood Palace. Owing to the steep nature of this slope, the same building in Edinburgh may stand three stories high on one street, and seven on another: these tenements were first built in the 17th century and could reach over ten stories tall. Running between the tenements, sometimes through covered archways, were closes, which were common stairs or entryways, and wynds (think 'wind' in 'rewind'), narrow lanes between houses. These ran off of the two main thoroughfares that ran parallel to one another: the Royal Mile, which runs in a roughly straight line from the Castle to the Palace; and the Cowgate, which runs parallel to the Royal Mile at the base of the southern slope, extending from near Holyrood Palace to the Grassmarket, a historic marketplace.
We do not talk about New Town. If you like Georgian boxy architecture, you will like New Town. If you like flavour, albeit flavour watered down by the Victorians, you come to Old Town. Dean Village is very pretty though, and worth a visit.
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Date: 2021-11-11 09:40 pm (UTC)