Palace of Holyrood, Holyrood Abbey and the Royal Mile!

Edinburgh Day 2 part 2

Looking up at the Governors House on Calton Hill. The building built from 1815-1817 is what remains of the Calton Gaol. It looks a bit like a fairytale castle but it was the largest prison in Scotland at the time.

I'd left the outdoor food fest over at George Square and was making my way down the Royal Mile ...

Here's a little Scottish Renaissance lute music for the post.

Love the detail of the signage and beautiful old buildings!

Kirk of the Canongate

Founded in 1688, Completed 1691

This cute church below is just about a 5 minute walk from the Palace of Holyroodhouse. It serves the Parish of Canongate, the Scottish Parliament, Palace of Holyroodhouse, and is the parish church of Edinburgh Castle even though its at the opposite end of the Royal Mile!

It's also where the Queen worships when she's in residence at Holyroodhouse.

I didn't go into the cute church because I realized I was only going to have about an hour at Holyrood.  The thing is, everything takes longer than you think it will take.

In Scotland, there is a lot of "last entrance" times that are a half hour to an hour (or even more) before closing.

Palace of Holyroodhouse

16th and 17th Century

"House of the Holy Cross"

At one end of the Royal Mile, sitting atop an extinct volcano, is Edinburgh Castle and clear at the other end is the Palace of Holyroodhouse. It is the official residence of Queen Elizabeth when she's in town but its history is long and fascinating. 

Pipers and Dancers at the Palace, 1948

Queen Elizabeth arriving in Edinburgh, 1953

(It's goes on a little long but it's fun to see the beginning especially.)

My favorite thing in the Palace were the rooms of Mary Queen of Scots. Her bedroom has stayed much as it was in the 16th Century. Maybe it was my imagination or all the documentaries and visions of Katherine Hepburn in my head but I got such a strange feeling in her bedroom. It was as if its history was just a breath away and I was just for a moment stepping back in time.

It was there, in the little adjacent supper room, that her private secretary (the Italian musician David Rizzio) was grabbed and dragged through her bedroom to her Chamber room and murdered by her husband and his conspirators! 

Mary was witness to the whole violent murder while 7 months pregnant with her creep of a husband's baby. Not really surprising that her hub wound up dead shortly after, with her married to a hunk played by Nigel Davenport (opposite Vanessa Redgrave in the 1971 version). Sorry, I got cinematically distracted!

It was very cool to see the state rooms, the thrown room, and one of the big visiting areas where the Queen still receives people. It does feel lived in. Sadly you can't take photos inside so you'll have to do a Google image search and check their website. I originally had a BBC documentary posted on here but it was removed from YouTube. 

Holyrood Abbey

Founded 1128 AD

 

The ruins of Holyrood Abbey were so beautiful. This structure adjoins the palace and was my favorite thing about my visit to the grounds, along with Mary Queen of Scots rooms. The energy here was much more pleasant though! Happily, I had some beautiful moments of blue sky!

Here is a quick video with short history of the abbey.

Palace Gardens

I loved this little spot under the buttresses ... It would be a lovely spot to go back and sketch!

After Holyrood, I headed back up the Royal Mile and past the Parliament Building.

It was closed and I was getting hungry, so I didn't get good shots of this interesting building but I loved that on the outside wall, there were quotes by famous Scots.

This is my country

the land 

that begat me

These windy spaces

Are surely my own.

And those who toil here

in the sweat of their faces

Are flesh of my flesh

and bone of my bone.

~Sir Alexander Gray

 Then let us pray

That come it may

As come it will for a'that

That sense and worth

O'er a the earth, shall bear

The gree, an' a'that

For a' that, an' a'that

It's coming yet for a'that

That man to man

The world o'er,

Shall brothers be

For a'that.

~Robert Burns

The beautiful spire silhouette, below, is that of St. Giles Cathedral.

My parents were trying to figure out where to meet up, so we met at the Whisky Trail on the Royal Mile. My dad and I did our first Whisky tasting of the trip. (That might have been my idea.)

I go for the very peaty stuff, while he goes a little more mild and not quite so smokey.

The Whisky Trail

These were the 4 that we tried. I have to say I'm a often a sucker for packaging and a pretty label but when it comes to Scotch I am able to focus. My dad ended up with the bottle of Scotch, second from the right. A lovely smooth award winning Speyside Scotch. I got the one on the far left, and pictured below.

My mom was rolling her eyes at us. "You guys realize it's the second night of the trip, and you're going to have to carry around those bottles for the next 3 weeks?!" Yeah, it might not have been the brightest idea. In fact, it wasn't. But, when my niece and I popped open the bottle after a dinner when I returned to L.A., it felt awfully worth it. Delicious and 1 of only 875 bottles.

Somehow, after we left the tasting we scored a table on the next block down at the Whiski Bar and Restaurant without too much of a wait! Thank goodness! It had been a while since I'd eaten those snacks at the park! On top of that I'd done the Scotch tasting and eaten a couple of short bread cookies to boost my blood sugar after the palace. Um, protein please?

They played great music and when we were seated we ended up having a wonderful meal. I don't remember what my parents ordered but I had the Scottish Salmon and lemon cream sauce with mash potato. Yum! Why is the Scottish salmon so amazing?? It's so mild and lovely. I ended up eating a lot of it on the trip and just copious amount of seafood in general!

Apparently, they have live traditional music every night but we were done for the day! We'd have to wait for our live music for another time.

The following day? Mary King's Close, The National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh Castle and out to see the Royal Yacht Brittiania. Yeah, lots to do in and around Edinburgh!

Palace of Holyroodhouse and Holyrood Abbey

 The Whisky Trail

Whiski Bar and Restaurant

Blessings and light!

(And sorry for the typos! Editing in wee hours!)