Scotland, one of my ancestral homelands. I was very excited about going to Scotland for the first time. Twenty years ago, I travelled to Europe for the first time (I had been out into Paris during a layover from India when I was 5, but it's not the same). I was thinking I might get up to Scotland as I had a cousin living there at the time, but a last-minute change to my itinerary took me to Spain instead, to live with a friend's family for a month to work on my spoken language skills. In any case, I had been excited to tell my grandpa all about my trip and certainly about going to Scotland, if I made it, since he was born there. But about a month or two before I left, he passed away. While I was in Spain, 9/11 occurred, and when I returned to London to fly home, after booking a ticket home from there, I was in one of those insanely long lineups to check in due to increased security measures and the rush of people wanting to get back to their home country. While standing in line, I started chatting to a couple of elderly ladies behind me in the queue, and it turned out they were from Scotland, and from a town close to my grandfather's hometown. They described it to me and said there were many people with his surname in that region. I must admit it made me teary. It felt like a gift from God--if I couldn't visit Grandpa's hometown on that trip, especially in a year where he had passed away, at least I got to meet a couple of ladies who knew it and could share a little bit about it with me. And now, 20 years later, I have finally made it.
When we mentioned to people that we were going to Scotland, they all wanted to know what part, and they often expressed disappointment to hear we were heading to Edinburgh and area. Why not Glasgow, they wanted to know? Apparently it's much nicer there and less touristy. Well, the main reason was for me to do some family research. Edinburgh was on my list because there was a church there where my great-great grandparents got married, and I wanted to see it. There was also an old hospital where my great grandmother died from TB when my grandpa was about 11, and then there was also an addresses listed for my great grandfather as the place he was staying at the time of my great grandmother's death, although I suspected it was a guest house or hotel since he had come back from the front to deal with her death during WWI. Anyway, I hoped to see those places if I could.
As we took the train up, and as we got nearer to Edinburgh, I started feeling teary. The landscape became a bit more rugged but also more forested, with much more coniferous cover than what we see around London. It was really beautiful. But I started thinking about my grandpa, wondering if these were the scenes he had seen before, and if he travelled these same tracks--albeit older ones that have since been replaced. What did he think about when he saw them? How long did the trip take? These are all things I'd love to know and wish I could have known to ask them all those years ago.
South Leith Parish Church
My great-great grandparents were married here. After we checked into our hotel, we went off to find it as it was only a 20-minute walk from the hotel. It's a really old church, and I loved that it was still standing, unlike the church where my great grandparents got married, which was destroyed and rebuilt on a new location. We couldn't get inside because they have limited office hours, so no one could let us in. That was unfortunate because photos show the inside to be beautiful, and I wanted to see for myself the bronze likeness made of the minister, James Mitchell, who married my great-great grandparents. He became somewhat of a notable figure in Scotland, and it was neat to think that my family members, who have always been hired help, were married by someone like him. It was where he was assigned at the time, in the late 1800s, and the parish itself was one of the largest in the area.
I strolled around the cemetery, and it was interesting to see the various gravestones, many of which were surprisingly well preserved. I am used to seeing gravestones in old churches, where the writing etched into them has worn away over centuries of footsteps walking upon them. So it was interesting to see some really old stones, many from the 1700s and the earliest from 1666! I included a number of the gravestones in my photos because many of them featured skull-and-crossbones carvings, known as memento mori symbols. You'll also see some with angels, hourglasses, and tools. They actually all have meanings! The quick-read version is here, but if you're interested in detailed info about headstone carvings, check out this website. I read somewhere that the reason certain tools were put on a headstone, like carving tools or farming tools, was to indicate the profession of the person that died to help the masses understand what the person did, since many were illiterate. I can't find a lot of confirmation for this, but I found it to be a plausible explanation. I wish I could say that I was able to find and visit my own ancestors' graves, but I was told by the archivist helping me with family research that--as today--gravestones are expensive, and often unaffordable for the poor. My family were all domestic help, farmers, and tradespeople, and as a result, we probably don't have any gravestones to find, unfortunately.
Edinburgh Castle
We have a Lonely Planet guide for the UK, and we found that there were several pages of things to do in Edinburgh. There was no way we 'd get to do even half the list, but we settled on a couple of activities so that we wouldn't be trying to pack in too much. We went to the castle, and there are several exhibits you can see within it, including some crown jewels, a hall, a huge war memorial, and a really old chapel. Unfortunately, about half of those exhibits are ones where photography isn't allowed. I used to try to sneak photos in the past, but there are many cameras monitoring everything, and ultimately, those rules are there for a reason. So I don't do that anymore. But it's nice because there is enough to do at the castle that you can easily spent half a day there. It's also still used by one military regiment, and there is a mess hall (not open to the public) and also a museum for that regiment. It was nice see the regimental museum's holdings for an unexpected reason: it had the 3 most common medals that were given out during WWI in to British soldiers, and it turns out that they seem to match with those listed on my great grandfather's service record. Speaking of the military, the war memorial hall there is an impressive mausoleum-type facility. I think the Vimy one would be much grander in terms of stature, as a large monolithic type structure, but the one at Edinburgh had more to do with its elaborateness. There are several large stained glass windows dedicated to the various regiments and corps by representing them with symbols of what their units did (infantry, navy, and such), intricate stone carvings, lists of the various regiments and corps that lost members, and a number of books with the lists of names in them, books that you're not allowed to touch due to their age. It was also another place where photos aren't allowed, although presumably more because it might be considered inappropriate in a place that is meant to elicit solemn reflection vs. other reasons that photography is usually not allowed. One highlight of the castle is that there is also a dog cemetery for service dogs. It's more common in the British military to use dogs for certain activities that it is in Canada, so it was sweet to see a cemetery there for them. The only downside of our visit was that it was rainy, so we didn't get to enjoy the views from the top, but we made up for it the next day with our climb.
St Giles' Cathedral
This is a pretty long post, so I'm not going to write too much detail about it, but coming back from the castle, we checked out St Giles' Cathedral, a beautiful, huge cathedral in the heart of Edinburgh. It also happens to have the Heart of Midlothian mosaic just outside--something with its own long history. Anyway, a few highlights for me were the bronze wall statue of author Robert Louis Stevenson, the many beautiful stained glass windows, and the chapel dedicated to the Order of the Thistle, founded in 1687, with its intricate wood carvings and stone masonry. For those of you that don't know, the thistle is Scotland's national flower. Oh, and there was also an original, handwritten copy of the National Covenant, signed by a number of nobles, which was a declaration of independence for the Scottish church--meaning they didn't have to join with the Church of England. It's always interesting for me to see original copies of written works. One highlight that was more entertaining than anything was to see holy hand sanitiser in the gift shop. That gave me quite a giggle!
Arthur's Seat
The next day in Edinburgh was also the day we were leaving, but we wanted to get up to the peak of Arthur's Seat before we left. The main reason we had picked the hotel we did was for its proximity to hiking/walking trails within the city. We hadn't realised at first that the beautiful, rocky hill you see when the train pulls into the city is Arthur's Seat, so we were excited to learn that our hotel was close enough to the trail to climb it. The morning was sunny, with a cheery, soft glow through the trees. As we went through Holyrood Park, we were surprised by a sight on our right, which turned out to be Holyrood Abbey, another casualty of battles between Catholic and Protestant kings and other nobles.
We figured we'd have enough time to spend about half a day doing that and then be off to the next town. We did have enough time, but barely, mainly because the map provided in the brochure from the hotel wasn't detailed enough for us to follow correctly. Fortunately, Google Maps with satellite view came to the rescue, but we lost a good half hour and ended up really having to huff to get up. We weren't even sure we'd have the time, but we saw a pathway that seemed to lead straight up, almost, so we decided to try that and hope for the best. As for me, I wasn't even sure I'd make it; although there is a staircase kind of carved into the side to get up, it was quite windy going around in a kind of zigzag manner, I am not in the best shape for these kinds of activities. I told my husband just to go on without me and that I'd just do what I could. But I surprised myself and made it to the top--and we made it back right at the time we said we'd check out! OK, I was red-faced and really sweaty, but I was proud I made it.
Arthur's Seat is actually an ancient volcano at least 335 million years old--no chance of it spewing unexpectedly like the volcano in La Palma, Spain! Anyway, it's just over 250m high (822ft), and next to it is the Salisbury Crag, another beautiful, though lower, peak you can also climb. You can see really far out from the top, over all of Edinburgh as well as out into the sea. It was super windy and a bit chilly, but it was really worth it. It definitely would have been a shame if we hadn't been able to get all the way up when we were so close. I have to admit, the photos from the very top, except for the panorama shot, are from my husband. I was just so relieved to have made it, felt a little unstable in the wind, and just wanted to sit and rest a bit, that I didn't even think to take more photos than just the one!
Final Words on Edinburgh
We loved Edinburgh. We also love Georgian architecture, which there's a lot of in Edinburgh. The only thing is that many of the buildings are dark and sooty, owing to the coal production industry. But we enjoyed ourselves there. There were also unicorn things. I didn't get it. Why unicorns? Well, it turns out, they are Scotland's official national animal! Apparently it's from Celtic mythology. Who knew?!
Anyway, I didn't get to the hospital where my great grandmother died, as it was too out of the way, but I did get to the address where my great grandfather stayed when she died. It was indeed near the train station, but it wasn't clear what the actual address was. The old buildings didn't have the right numbers on them, and across the street, there's a brand new building with a huge John Lewis department store occupying it, so it might have been there but is no more. I leave with some photos around the city, and I promise my next post about Galashiels will be much, much shorter!
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