Nessie Revealed

December 10, 2011

Woke up at a gorgeously early hour and slumped downtown to the train station where the train was waiting to take me to at least part of the way to Edinburgh.  

On the way I talked with the lady sitting beside me - she had just come from a family wedding and apparently the reception had gone on quite.quite.late.  She also told me about her son in Australia and his girlfriend (to whom the family wanted him to propose because she was a lovely young lady) and she recommended the Great Ocean Road as a must-see when going to Australia.  She and her husband of many years go every year for a month at a time.  She told me the secret to making a marriage work was to stay honest with yourself as well as with your partner.  Pretending to like or not like something can take away from who you are - the bigger the pretense, the more harm may be caused.  Anyways, that's the advice she gave when I asked her what her secret to staying in love for so long was.    

I had also signed up for a free walking tour around Edinburgh and after hurriedly dropping my stuff off at the hostel, I booked it to the rendez-vous point.  Our tour guide looked like a cross between Hagrid and Blackbeard and he was delightful.  

These are found on the top of the Mercat Cross, a structure on the Royal Mile which used to be where criminals had their ears nailed.  They were told that they could either stay there with their ears pinned and get waste thrown at them or they could rip their ears away and escape.   

Some men think it's romantic to propose to their ladies on this spot.  This makes the locals giggle because this is where the tax booth used to be and so many people spit on this spot as they walk by.  

This is a sculpture of David Hume, a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher and if you rub his toe, apparently you will gain wisdom.  Hence, his toe is very shiny from all the people who rub it.  

THE TARDIS

The Scholars Museum

A random red door

The castle!!!

Grass Market Square.  We stopped to warm up in a small cafe nearby

Another TARDIS!!!!

Biddy Mulligans - where the last public hanging was...  Miss Biddy was a lady who was put on trial for, not being pregnant out of wedlock, but for hiding it.  She was sentenced to be hanged in the public square aka the Grass Market Square.  She was given a shot of whiskey (oh the Scots...) and then hung.  After being pronounced dead, her body was put in a coffin and driven to the cemetery.  On the way, there were a few bumps on the road and the driver hears a noise coming from the coffin.  Biddy is alive and kicking.  What does the driver do?  Turns the cart around and drives right back to the square where Biddy is sure to be executed again.  A keen lawyer puts a stop to this, claiming that her sentence had been to be hung from the neck until dead.  She had died and therefore her sentence had been carried out.  She was freed and lived for forty more years.  

Found in Greyfriars Kirkyard - recognize the name 'Moodie?'  JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in a cafe overlooking this cemetery and she used some of the names on headstones.  

Beside the cemetery is Heriot's School, which used to be an orphanage and it shares quite a few features with Hogwarts...

George Mackenzie was a Scottish lawyer who imprisoned 1200 Covenanters in the above prisons after the Battle of Bothwell Bridge.  There were no roofs over these buildings and hundreds of prisoners died from the elements.  At night the prisoners were made to lie still and if someone moved, the person next to him would be shot.  Because of his brutality, Mackenzie was known as 'Bloody Mackenzie.'  He died in 1961.

The mausoleum of George Mackenzie, whose ghost is said to haunt the cemetery.

Greyfriar's Bobby was a Skye Terrier who is known as the most loyal of dogs.  When his owner, John Gray died, Bobby guarded his grave for 14 years until his own death on January 14, 1872.  He would leave the grave at night and would return every morning.  People would stop by and give him food and at one point, when it was argued that a dog without an owner ought to be destroyed in 1867, Sir William Chambers (director of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) paid for Bobby's license and so Bobby became the responsibility of the city council.  

Bobby couldn't be buried by his master in the cemetery since it was consecrated ground and so he was buried just outside the gate within sight of John Gray's grave so he can still keep watch.  

People often stop by to put food and sticks by Bobby's grave.

In 1873, Lady Burdett-Coutts had a statue and fountain erected to commemorate the loyal companion.  It can be found at the southern end of the George IV bridge.  

Where JK wrote a rather famous book

The Castle

Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties - it was very tasty

Woke up bright and early from the Hostel Sleeping Dragon Pose (the act of placing all your valuables in a bag/purse and then curling around it as you snooze.  Of course, this must take place in a hostel, where all the vagabonds go to rest.  Kidding, hostels can be lovely and I haven't had a bad experience yet other than the one time when a guy snored so loudly I wanted to throw something at him but I didn't want the item to be traced back to me so I refrained. 

Edinburgh was covered in a light dusting of snow- just enough to leave squishy black footprints- and I made my way over to the St Giles Cathedral where our tour group was leaving.  There was a sign on the door that said the location had been changed for the time being so that caused a wee bit of panic.  Fortunately, the coach showed up and I sat down in a window seat to the sound of Celtic Women.  Enya followed shortly afterwards as well as Loreena Mckennitt and I knew it was going to be a good time.

Only in Scotland...

The swan that trapped me in the restaurant...

Stalking stalking...

The Loch Ness

As the story has it, these marks were made by Nessie as she tried to escape from the Loch

NESSIE!!!!!!!!!!

The water is very dark- almost black- due to the high content of peat particles in the water from the surrounding soil.

"The Well of the Heads" or "Tobar nan Ceann"

In 1663, Alexander MacDonald (young chief of Keppoch) and his brother Ranald were killed were stabbed and killed by rivals within their clan.  Eventually, the Privy Council in Edinburgh issued letters 'in fire and sword' against the murderers and they were hunted down and decapitated by Ian Lom (member of the Keppoch family) and a few other members of the MacDonald clan.  On the way to Invergarry to present the heads to the chief of Clan MacDonald of Glengarry, Lom wanted to make the heads more presentable so he stopped at a spring to wash them. 

  In 1812, an obelisk was erected to commemorate the occurrence.  On the top of the column are seven stone heads and in the center there is a hand holding a dagger. 

So many santas!!