Sunday, September 15, 2013

Master of the Mountain

A few days ago my flatmate and I decided over soup and coffee that we needed to climb Arthur's Seat. I can see the hill of legend rising up over the city from my flat, it's beautiful but misleading. It's a lot further a lot higher and a lot steeper than it looks from my desk. So, five miles and a couple hundred feet later we found ourselves out of breath and trying to take in a breath taking view as all of Edinburgh was laid out at our feet. I brought my camera along for the ride and pointed it in random directions hoping to capture some of the feeling of being literally on top of the- Scotland.
All hail the king.
You can see my flat from here.
It may have been a bit breezy.
The view from my flat.

We started our quest at a small cafe near our flat and walked in the general direction of Arthur's Seat until we stumbled upon the beginning of the path that we hoped led to the top. A series of steep rocky stairs wound its way up the side of the hill and we huffed and puffed our way up pausing occasionally to turn around and look at the increasingly spectacular view. After shedding our jackets and coming to the shocking realization that neither of us were in very good shape we reached a flat grassy plain that offered us a bit of a chance to relax before tackling the final flight of awkward and uneven stairs to highest point. The wind picked up and threatened to throw us over the edge but we forced our jackets back on, kept calm and carried on. Words could not properly express the view from the top, the city stretched out below us in every direction surrounded by green rolling hills and misty water. We sat and gawked at the scenery trying to soak up as much of it as we could. We found a significantly easier path back down through ancient green landscape and worked our way back down. By the end of the day we were both tired, sore, and a little wistful. That was my first journey up Arthur's Seat and my first adventure in the beautiful city of Edinburgh, but definitely not the last.

Ooo look, music!

1 comment:

  1. Great Blog and great pictures. Sounds like you may need to climb up there a few more times. Enjoyed the views!!!
    grandma & Papa

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