Antiques and Art

A Brief Visit to Edinburgh

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On a Sunday morning in mid-September, after our English buying was behind us, we boarded a London North Eastern Rail train to Edinburgh.

We hadn't been to Scotland for a couple of decades, and we hoped to explore the city in some detail.

We invite you to join us as we revisit some of the high points of our stay.

All aboard!

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We hailed a taxi on the street in front of our Kensington hotel and were taken to King's Cross station on the northern edge of Central London.

Our train left on schedule, and we enjoyed watching the English landscape through our window.

This train normally travels up the eastern coast of England, but this weekend's maintenance closings sent us on a detour that would cause us to enter Edinburgh from the west.

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Crossing one of the bridges over the River Tyne at Newcastle.

When we left the station in Newcastle, the train was moving in reverse. This is how we would continue until we arrived in Edimburgh.

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The diversion caused us to arrive in Edinburgh nearly one hour late.

Outside, the legendary Scottish drizzle made the few blocks we needed to walked to get to our hotel a displeasing arrival.

Nevertheless, we chose a restaurant near our hotel, ate an early dinner, and finalized our itinerary for the next morning.

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We woke on Monday, anxious to explore the Old Town, high above our hotel in the 18th-century New Town.

Edinburgh has a fascinating history, and the changes that occurred in the 18th century, after the unification of the kingdoms of England and Scotland as the United Kingdom, led to plans to create the Georgian New Town below the lofty heights of the old. Our hotel was located on Rose Street, named for the Tudors in recognition of the British monarchy.

On Monday morning, unbrellas in hand, we climbed the steep road to the main artery of the Old Town, The Royal Mile.

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Our first stop was Gladstone's Land, a stone house built in 1550.

The six storey building was set to be demolished in the 1930's, but the intervention of the National Trust for Scotland saved it.

Tall buildings (as high as eleven storeys!) were common in the Old town, as space was in short supply, and the the population was growing rapidly.

The Trust has restored the house to recapture life as it was lived in the nineteenth, eighteenth, and seventeenth centuries.

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Visitors climb three flights of stone steps to the third (fourth) floor, which is furnished in the fashion of the Victorian era.

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One flight lower, on the second (third) floor we move back to 1766, when Elizabeth Pillans and William Dawson were among the tenants in the house.

The rooms are furnished as they might have been at that time.

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Another flight down, and we find ourselves in 1632, when John Riddoch was a tenant and the house was owned by Thomas "Gledstane". 

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During the restoration, the remarkable paint decoration that covered walls and ceilings, quite normal in 17th-century Edinburgh, was discovered and preserved.

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The lavishly decorated tester bed offers testimony to the wealth of the owner.

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A short walk down the Royal Mile took us to St. Giles' Cathedral.

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We walked to the end of the royal mile and arrived at Holyrood Palace, the Scottish residence of the King.

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We took a different route back to our hotel, walking along Calton Road with New Calton Burial Ground above us on our right.

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We enjoyed a delightful dinner at a restaurant near our hotel.

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On Tuesday, we spent four hours in the Scottish National Gallery.

While we had read about the the quality of this museum, we were not prepared for the extraordinary experience we had. In content and presentation, this is a gem.

 We photographed many of our favorite paintings and had planned to include a few here, but the selection is so rich that we've decided to save them for our December newsletter.

It will be our gift to you.  

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On Wednesday morning we took an early train back to London and then on to Gatwick for our flight to Florence.

It was an exhausting day, but a most pleasant one.

We were particularly rewarded by the views of the sea that were denied to us on our northward journey.

Thanks for joining us on this mini-holiday.