Edinburgh is a many layered city, literally built on its history. What we can see on the surface around us is only the latest addition. You can gently peel back the surface and reveal layer upon layer of our past. St Giles Cathedral and The Royal Mile, which it sits on, is built on top of streets and closes which now lie bricked off and hidden beneath our feet. Hundreds of years ago they echoed to the sound of feet long since buried, yet the echoes still resonate through the stones and the buildings which surround us.
Beneath the human history lies the even slower history of geology, and the rocks of the earth. The Royal Mile, and the castle at its head is built on an ancient lava plug, carved bare by the passage of a glacier during the Ice Age. The shape of the heart of old Edinburgh is formed by this history, and the Royal Mile lies like the spine of a fallen dinosaur, with Holyrood Palace spilling from its tail.
This high ridge of impenetrable rock, holds the Old Town above the surrounding land, and so the city falls away from its heart in layers. This gives us streets flying over other streets, suddenly revealed by a bridge breaking the run of buildings. It gives us pavements on roofs, so you turn a corner and suddenly realise you’re not at street level anymore. It can be disorienting, but I find it enchanting, as nothing is quite what it seems here.
All of us are built on our past, and although these layers lie hidden beneath the surface they will often provoke us in expected ways. Sometimes there are painful layers in our past which we want to erase or build over, but despite our best efforts they still shape us. Perhaps like Edinburgh we can allow these old shapes to become part of the foundations of the beautiful new surface unfolding from within us each day. We can’t deleted the past, but we can move on and keep building the life we are living now. We can evolve like this ancient city, into surprising and unique individuals, despite our impenetrable ridges and forgotten dinosaurs.
You can see more photos of peoples neighbourhoods by following the link to the weekly photo challenge
breathofgreenair 
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Your pictures took me on a virtual walk through the city! Thank you
My pleasure 🙂
Hi Seonaid, I have very much enjoyed your posts thank you. I have a friend who has been closely involved with Maggies Centre in Edinburgh in the past, it features in one of my posts entitled Harry Potter and my guitar. I love Edinburgh and have really enjoyed looking at your photos. Keep up the good work in relaxation, that’s another area I know a bit about through my record label – small world! All the best, Mike
Hi Mike, I just read your Harry Potter post, and I think I know exactly the event you attended, and who your friend is 🙂 Scotland is a very small country in many ways 🙂 really happy to hear you’re enjoying the photos, and interested that you’ve been involved in relaxation recordings. I made a recording of a relaxation CD, which we still hand out in Maggies, about 8 years ago, and keep meaning to do some new material. People find it such a powerful and helpful tool when life is throwing complex and difficult stuff at them. So glad you found the blog, and now I’ve found yours! Xx
Oy, this made me HOMESICK. I loved the couple of days I spent in Edinburgh and wished for more time to explore that amazing city. Thanks!
Sorry to make you homesick, but happy to hear you enjoyed your visit 🙂
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What gorgeous photos! I love Edinburgh. If I ever move back to the UK I would like to live either there or York.
I am writing a post about Edinburgh for a link up and this post was suggested by Zemanta. I’m glad it was!
Oh I love York too….again seeped in history 🙂 I’ll take a look at your Edinburgh inspired post, and thanks to Zemanta!
I’ve posted it now 🙂 http://confuzzledom.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/travel-tuesdays-edinburgh/
Very good 🙂
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Really nice collection, Seonaid!
Thanks! They were all taken a couple of weeks ago in the space of about an hour, in one small part of the city.
Beautiful photos, and very well written as well! Someday I’ll be able to travel to Scotland, hoping to try some Laphroaig from the source!
Thanks Peter. If you like whiskey, as your great choice would suggest, you will love a visit to Scotland. You could do a distillery tour, and it would take you to some magic and remote parts of the country 🙂 Each area produces different flavoured water, which in turn changes the whiskey….but you probably already knew that 🙂
My wife has relatives there, so a visit could happen at some point!
I have been to Switzerland (for my daughter’s wedding) but never anywhere else in Europe. You live in a world steeped in history (just so). Nothing on this continent can compare. And in the bargain you have many more wonderful subjects. Thanks for the travel log.
Switzerland is so beautiful…what a great place to visit 🙂 I have to confess to loving the steeped layers of history around me….it all helps me to know how small I am in the face of human history 🙂
Wonderfully informed and fluid account of your beloved city, I almost felt it unfolding around me as I read, and of course those photos to illuminate the words! I really must tackle a complex galley layout, such as you’ve used here…
Thank you Penny…the gallery layout is very easy…it almost creates itself. Just pick create a gallery from the options on the left, after you have clicked add media, and then choose from 1, 2 or 3 columns after you have ticked all the photos you want to include. I’ll look forward to seeing what you create:-)
I just knew I would love your entry!
Thanks for the vote of confidence…so glad you loved it 🙂
I enjoyed this visit. I am having trouble with picture uploading and making pictures the size I want. NZ you offer me any quick guidance ? Also I would like to be able to upload a collage as yiu have here. How an I do this…
Thank you. Andrea
I enjoyed this visit. I am having trouble with picture uploading and making pictures the size I want. Can you offer me any quick guidance ? Also I would like to be able to upload a collage as yiu have here. How an I do this…
Thank you. Andrea
Great impressions – you convinced me that one day I’ll have to visit and see it for myself. (We only visited Scotland once, and I was very pleased with driving my car through the country. We left out Edinburg though, considering we could always fly there for a weekend.)
Of all the places to miss out 🙂 oh well it just means you’ll need to comeback again!
That’s what we thought.
absolutely stunning! i am not ashamed to admit i am an anglophile (i know scotland is technically not covered under that word, but in my own definition it IS 😛 ), and edinburgh has always been a place i’ve dreamed of going.
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I have visited Edinburgh several times and I am enjoying the memories that your photos brought forth. And then I read your words and they captured all the feelings that I experienced as I wondered through old town all those times. I brought students on a study trip and we stayed in the youth hostile across from the castle. I have fond memories of getting a Mark & Spencer’s take-away lunch and sitting on a bench in the park looking at Old Town skyline while listening to Princess Street traffic behind me. I miss you, Edinburgh!
You were sitting in Princes’s Street gardens, and I’ve done the same thing many times over the years 🙂 Soon we will have the sound of trams ( whatever they sound like) to add to the sounds from Princes Street! I’m so glad my post brought you back to fond memories 🙂
You motivated me to write a post and I included a link to your. 🙂
How wonderful…that’s what I love about blogging, all the sharing and creative inspiration!!Thanks for the link back, and what a wonderful post…I love it 🙂
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My graduate advisor (W.D. Russell-Hunter) was from Scotland, Glasgow I believe, and he always spoke poetically about it. Joanna would love to visit and take in the views of sheep on the moors. On another level – your reflections about individual histories is spot on. I’ve heard it said … we are who we have been. Nice post – great images. D
Well we certainly have plenty of sheep on mountain and moor 🙂 I like that quote, it’s so true, and thanks for the compliment!
Gorgeous shots of what is clearly an amazing place. So what do you think about writing a guest post for Field Notes from Fatherhood? I’d love to have you contribute something.
I would be delighted to write about child friendly Edinburgh…how do we do a guest blog?
You can write a post about anything you’d like, (and child-friendly Edinburgh would be perfect) and send the text and any photos to me at mmtread@fieldnotesfromfatherhood.com. I’ll format everything and post it, including links to your blog. I really like your stuff, so I’m looking forward to reading what you do.
Cheers,
Matt
the clicks depict the city architecture
http://amarnaik.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/phoneography-challenge-my-neighborhood/
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Amazing photos! Your neighborhood looks enchanting. I hope I get to travel there someday.
I’m sure you would have an amazing trip if you did visit. Edinburgh is very child friendly so maybe you don’t need to leave it too long 🙂
Lovely post … both words and pictures. A visit to Edinburgh is on my list of 50 things to do before I’m 50 🙂
Oh you’ll love it when you get here. So many wonderful old buildings to explore 🙂 I love the challenge you’ve set yourself, but I bet time flies!
Sure does … Only 2.6 years and an awful lot to do 🙂
Really beautiful. Looking at the buildings shows that this neighbourhood has a lot of history to it.
Thanks Colline…Edinburgh has history dripping from its walls 🙂
Your photos will take me to Edinburgh next year, Seonaid! What an interesting and grande city. Beautiful shots of your neighbourhood.
Thanks Marion. The architects long gone have done most of the photographers work, before cameras were even invented 🙂 It is such a pretty city.
Yes, you are lucky to live there! great photos of great places. I think I bought a postcard of Bobby – of course – but for photos I will have to return some day…
Oh lovely loyal Bobby 🙂 It always breaks my heart to think of him at his masters grave. Dogs are the best, and I love that Edinburgh has a famous one!
Thank you for the wonderful tour, Mackenzie! Beautiful photos.
Thanks!! You’re very welcome. I was playing around with settings on my new camera a few weeks ago, so this was the perfect chance to share them 🙂
Congrats to your new toy 🙂
You’re so inspiring – love how you talk about our own layers of history and how we can use them to create our future. Reminds me of what Rumi once said: Where there is ruin, there is treasure.
The photos are a treat too.
So kind 🙂 I love that Rumi quote, and its so true. We fear the ruin, but from it comes growth, and previously unimagined treasures
Your neighborhood is very cool! A vicarious visit is the closest I’m likely to get (at least until the kids are grown) so I really enjoyed the photo tour.
I’m so glad you enjoyed a wee peak at Edinburgh. No doubt there will be more in the future…..every corner here holds another great scene 🙂 I took these shots a couple of weeks ago, and they are all within a tiny area of the Old Town
Your photos are amazing. I am thinking of another trip to Edinburgh now that I have seen them 🙂
Thanks!! There are so many lovely parts of Edinburgh…I never seem to run out places to take photos. …so it’s definately worth a second visit 🙂
Amsterdam is the same. The architects who built it in the Golden Age have done the work for photographers like me. You just point and click 🙂
That’s so true in Edinburgh too 🙂 I haven’t been to Amsterdam for years, but you’re making me want to go back. I didn’t have a proper camera last time I went!
Yes, I need to go back to ALL the places I have visited and take proper photographs. A good camera makes all the difference 🙂
Ha so true!! I love my new camera 🙂
Beautiful pictures! Edinburgh is an amazing city. I’ve only visited it once, but I’d love to go back some day 🙂
Thanks 🙂 There is so much to see, so many layers of the past waiting to be noticed. I always feel so lucky living here 🙂