Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Robert Burns, who paid for the gravestone and penned the epitaph - take a look at the in-
scription on the back. (An information board just inside the gate lists famous graves and
their locations.)
OUR DYNAMIC EARTH
| Exhibition
(
www.dynamicearth.co.uk
;
Holyrood Rd; adult/child £11.50/7.50; 10am-6pm Jul & Aug, to 5.30pm Apr-
Jun, Sep & Oct, 10am-5pm Wed-Sun Nov-Mar, last admission 90min before closing; )
The modern-
istic white marquee pitched beneath Salisbury Crags marks Our Dynamic Earth, billed as
an interactive, multimedia journey of discovery through Earth's history from the Big Bang
to the present day. Hugely popular with kids of all ages, it's a slick extravaganza of whiz-
bang special effects and 3D movies cleverly designed to fire up young minds with curios-
ity about all things geological and environmental. Its true purpose, of course, is to dis-
gorge you into a gift shop where you can buy model dinosaurs and souvenir T-shirts.
HOLYROOD PARK
In Holyrood Park, Edinburgh is blessed with a little bit of wilderness in the heart of the
city. The former hunting ground of Scottish monarchs, the park covers 263 hectares of
varied landscape, including crags, moorland and a loch. The highest point is the 251m
summit of
Arthur's Seat
(
Click here
)
, the deeply eroded remnant of a long-extinct vol-
cano. Holyrood Park can be circumnavigated by car or bike along Queen's Dr, and you
can hike from Holyrood to the summit in around 45 minutes.
| Park
SOUTH OF THE ROYAL MILE
| Church
GREYFRIARS KIRK & KIRKYARD
(
www.greyfriarskirk.com
;
Candlemaker Row; 10.30am-4.30pm Mon-Fri & 11am-2pm Sat Apr-Oct,
1.30-3.30pm Thu only Nov-Mar)
One of Edinburgh's most famous churches, Greyfriars Kirk
was built on the site of a Franciscan friary and opened for worship on Christmas Day
1620. In 1638 the
National Covenant
was signed here, rejecting Charles I's attempts to
impose episcopacy and a new English prayer book on the Scots, and affirming the inde-
pendence of the Scottish Church. Many who signed were later executed at the Grassmar-
ket and, in 1679, 1200 Covenanters were held prisoner in terrible conditions in the south-
western corner of the kirkyard. There's a small exhibition inside the church.
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