Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Edinburgh Highlights
Taking in the views from the battlements ofEdinburgh Castle(
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)
Feasting on steak and oysters at theTower(
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)
restaurant as the
sun sets over the city
Nosing around the Queen's private quarters on the former Royal Yacht
Britannia(
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)
at Leith
Listening to live folk music at Sandy Bell's(
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)
Trying to decipher the Da Vinci Code at mysteriousRosslyn Chapel(
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here
)
Exploring Edinburgh's subterranean history in the haunted vaults of South
BridgeandReal Mary King's Close(
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)
Climbing to the summit of the city's miniature mountain,Arthur's Seat(
History
Edinburgh owes its existence to the Castle Rock, the glacier-worn stump of a long- extinct
volcano that provided a near-perfect defensive position guarding the coastal route from
northeast England into central Scotland.
In the 7th century the Castle Rock was called Dun Eiden (meaning 'Fort on the Hill
Slope'). When it was captured by invaders from the kingdom of Northumbria in northeast
England in 638, they took the existing Gaelic name 'Eiden' and tacked it onto their own
Old English word for fort, 'burh', to create the name Edinburgh.
Originally a purely defensive site, Edinburgh began to expand in the 12th century when
King David I held court at the castle and founded the abbey at Holyrood. The royal court
came to prefer Edinburgh to Dunfermline and, as parliament followed the king, Edinburgh
became Scotland's capital. The city's first effective town wall was constructed around
1450, enclosing the Old Town as far east as Netherbow and south to the Grassmarket.
This overcrowded area - by then the most populous town in Scotland - became a mediev-
al Manhattan, forcing its densely packed inhabitants to build upwards instead of outwards,
creating tenements five and six storeys high.
