Day 4 - Last Day in Edinburgh

 9 April 2023 – Easter Sunday

A big day of exploring today. This morning we headed up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle. We were in the first group for the day and headed straight up to the top of the castle, where The Honours of Scotland: The Scottish Crown Jewels are kept. Being the first up there, we had time with the crown jewels without anyone else – definitely a very special moment, which we had plenty of time to savour. The Stone of Scone was there but will soon be moved down to London in preparation for the Coronation. One of my favourite places in the castle was St Margaret’s Chapel, which is the oldest part of Edinburgh Castle and the oldest intact building in Edinburgh. It was built between 1124 and 1153. It is a very small, simple and lovely building. It spent a few hundred years as a gun powder storage room with its original purpose being forgotten. It wasn’t until 1845 that it was restored back to a chapel. The Great Hall was another impressive part of the castle.

Photos from Edinburgh Castle

Once we had finished exploring the castle, we headed back down the Royal Mile to catch a local bus out to Roslin. It took just under an hour for the trip and cost 2 pd each – bargain!  We had a chance to walk out to Rosslyn Castle and the Roslin Glen Country Park on the banks of the River North Esk. Rosslyn Castle sits on a small, very steep hill, and is currently undergoing some emergency repair works. So while we couldn’t visit the castle itself, we were able to explore the woodland around it, which is one of the last remnants of medieval Scottish woodland in the county. It was very peaceful walking through this area, and we felt a million miles away from civilization – being towered over by the ruins of the castle. Very special.

Roslin Glen with glimpses of Rosslyn Castle on top of the hill.

We then visited Rosslyn Chapel, made famous by Dan Brown’s book and the movie The Da Vinci Code. Founded in 1446 by Sir William St Clair, as the Collegiate Church of St Matthew, the Chapel took forty years to build. The stonework is incredible and contains lots of mysterious symbolism including lots of Green Men (faces with vines sprouting from their mouths, representing nature’s growth and fertility). The Chapel guides give a very informative 30-minute talk which helps to explain some of the symbols. Definitely a very interesting place to visit, and you can spend hours studying all the carvings.

Photos from Rosslyn Chapel. The bottom right photo is of the sacristy which is the oldest part of the Chapel and was probably used as a workshop when the upper Chapel was being built.

Tomorrow we leave Edinburgh and start to explore other parts of Scotland, on our way up to the Highlands.