Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVvBrSkVVyc
Added: Feb 7, 2012
From: roddymck
Duration: 10:20
http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=103fa21cec25501e81abfa6&skin_id=1602&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_urlA twelve pound ten pence off-peak return from Glasgow Queen Street to Waverly Station enables this almost city centre stroll around, up and over Edinburgh's notable landmark, the 251m Arthur's Seat set in the public Holyrood Park. Although a huge area of parkland, rough terrain, lochs, hills and crags, it is right in the centre of Scotland's capital city. Also known as the Lion's Head, Arthur's Seat is the highest of a series of peaks that reputedly take the form of a crouched lion. Many claim that its name is derived from the myriad legends pertaining to King Arthur although it is possibly more likely that the name means 'hill of the archers'. It was on a bleak February [2012] day that we set off, initially past a Bear Grylls type construction on the lower hillside, before heading through the gap in the wall on our way to the summit of the Seat where on a clear it is possible to see the distant and most southerly Munro, Ben Lomond.Geologically, what remains of the Seat is a basalt lava plug that choked the neck of a volcano that would have been active around 335 million years ago. The action of glaciation has cut into its heart, making it one of the most accessible exposures of an ancient volcano. Two stony banks on the east side of the hill represent the remains of an Iron-Age hill fort and a series of cultivation terraces are obvious above the road just beyond. In 1836, just below the summit, seventeen miniature wooden coffins each containing a carved figure were found in a small cave. Their existence has never been satisfactorily explained; associations with witchcraft have been suggested or perhaps they were memorial to the seventeen victims of the infamous Burke and Hare. Well, that's what they say anyway.Arthur's Seat is the main peak of the group of hills which form most of the Park and was described by Robert Louis Stevenson as 'a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design!' and he recounted 'There is a spark among the embers; from time to time the old volcano smokes'. It is situated in the centre of the city and that is of course exactly what makes it accessible from the railway station, located an approximate mile to the east of the Castle. Set in Holyrood Park this hillwalk generates views over Meadowbank, Easter Road, the Pentland Hills, the Palace of Holyroodhouse (HM The Queen's official Scottish residence), the new Scottish Parliament and Dynamic Earth (an interactive museum with a striking Millennium-Dome-esque canopy) and on a clear day so much more.The walk is worth continuing to view from above and then underneath the basalt cliffs of Salisbury Crags. Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags adjoining it helped form the ideas of modern geology as it is currently understood. It was in these areas that James Hutton observed that the deposition of the sedimentary and formation of the igneous rocks must have occurred at different ages and in different ways than the thinking of that time said they did. It is possible to see a particular area known as Hutton's Section in the Salisbury Crags where the magma forced its way through the sedimentary rocks above it to form the dolerite sills that can be seen in the Section. A track rising along the top of the slope immediately under Salisbury Crags has long been a popular walk, giving a view over the city. It became known as the Radical Road after it was paved in the aftermath of the Radical War of 1820, using the labour of unemployed weavers from the west of Scotland at the suggestion of Walter Scott as a form of work relief.The walk can be finished off by taking in the ruins of St.Anthony's Chapel nowadays described as a ruin perched high on crags above a loch. It is the only building in the central area of the Park and looks more like the gaunt ruin of an ancient castle rather than a religious building. It stands on a rocky outcrop high above St Margaret's Loch, commanding excellent views over the north of the City, Leith and the River Forth.So, it is well worth making the journey for this short hillwalk in 'Auld Reekie and from a poem of the same name, written by Robert Ferguson in 1773 On May-day, in a fairy ring, We've seen them round St Anthon's spring, Frae grass the cauler dew draps wring To weet their een, And water clear as crystal spring To synd them clean.'
Channel: Travel
Tags: roddymck scotland edinburgh arthurs seat st anthony's chapel holyrood park onetruemedia
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