Letter 84

One of the best and most popular things to do in Edinburgh is to take a walk up Arthur’s Seat. Arthur sits within Holyrood Park and watches over the medieval city. The views are breathtaking and stretch out towards the city, the hills and the coast. I feel pretty lucky to live a mere 10 minutes away from it. I’ve had such a great time relaxing and enjoying some of my favourite parts of the city this weekend, so I thought I’d share some of Edinburgh’s highlights with you all today!

 Starting in Newington we first made our way up to the main event, Arthur. It actually felt like spring with beautiful blue skies and the sun shining down on the bright yellow gorse that’s beginning to coat the area. It was even pretty warm and the coats came off as soon as we started to ascend.

We then made our way down the back of the seat towards the east of the city and the beach. It wasn’t quite warm enough to grace the sand with our presence and instead stopped off to have some lunch. On the way we passed one of my favourite lochs in the area, Dunsapie. It’s nestled into a hill attracts both wildlife and walkers.

On the way back we circled around Dunsapie Loch and then continued on Queen’s Drive, the road that runs around Holyrood Park, instead of detouring up the seat. The views from this road are also magnificent as you can see over Holyrood Park, across the countryside towards the Pentland Hills and down to the pretty village of Duddingston and the big loch. Despite the sun and deceptively warm spring temperatures, the wind was in full force and cooled us down before going home. A lovely walk nonetheless.

To finish the day off, we arrived back home to a stunning smokey sunset over Edinburgh’s rooftops. It was a wonderful day getting out into the fresh air and spending time in Holyrood. Visitors to the city will all head up Arthur’s Seat but neglect the rest of the vast park which is well worth spending a day exploring. I got a taste of spring and now can’t wait for warmer sunnier days in the near future.

From Lou

PS. Here’s a map of where we went today…

PPS. Work has really caught up with me this week and it’s going to be very busy until we break up for Easter so I’m not sure how often the letters will come. I’m starting to think that my goal of ‘100 for 1 year’ was a little too optimistic. I’ll still try but it’s looking unlikely! Thanks for reading everyone!