Edinburgh’s Royal Mile: Scotland’s History Underfoot

Story and photography by
Nancy & Eric Anderson 

 

Edinburgh’s castle area has been a hillside fort for more than 2000 years. Edinburgh’s oldest street, the cobblestoned road that wanders from the Castle down to Holyroodhouse Palace one mile below, had its beginnings when King David I fortified the area in 1124. He wasn’t the last to see the value of the high land. After Scotland’s defeat by the English at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, the City Council created a defensive wall to protect its Old Town. Dwellings along the main street couldn’t expand beyond the wall so they grew upwards, in some areas as tenements 14 stories high. They have been called “the earliest skyscrapers in Europe.” They were more like a medieval ghetto and the unchanged passages (“closes”) around and below them show fascinating glimpses of ancient times.

You could spend several days rambling down the Royal Mile peeking into the past. Especially if you like museums. Here many museums, in particular, pay tribute to the Scottish regiments. It’s been said that in far-off days the fertility of Scottish women eclipsed that of the soil. The rock-strewn land couldn’t support large families causing the younger sons on the farm to leave home. Many joined the British Army. Both the kilted Highland regiments and the Lowland regiments (who wore tartan trews) earned their place in the legends of the days of the British Empire.

The city has strong connections with Scottish regiments. The oldest infantry regiment in the British Army, the Royal Scots, formed in 1633 -- its age so revered it has been called “Pontius Pilate’s Bodyguard” -- has long maintained its regimental headquarters in Edinburgh. Its museum occupies private premises in Edinburgh Castle as does the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Regimental Museum and the National War Museum of Scotland.

Some of the art in those museums is famous in particular Robert Gibb’s 1881 painting A Thin Red Line, at the Battle of Balaclava in 1854 when a large force of Russian cavalry in the Crimean War bore down on a regiment of British infantry, a formation so small it had formed in two rather than the conventional four lines.

The 93^rd (Highland) Regiment stood firm, repelled the cavalry attack and again showed the nation the Scottish soldier has a special place in military history.

The Castle is the usual place to start an Edinburgh visit. Edinburgh may be famous now for its fantastic Festival -- and its busiest tourist time certainly is when visitors come in the fall for the music and theatrical extravaganza that almost overwhelms the city – but, to us, this has always been a city of magnificent museums, a great place where you can walk through Scotland’s past and duck indoors if the weather turns cold or wet.

It would not be excessive to allow yourself at least half a day for the Castle. It has so many corners and special places, one being the Great Hall and the other the Scottish National War Memorial created in 1927 to commemorate the 150,000 Scottish casualties in the Great War, “the war to end all wars.” This somber war memorial was built at the very top of the rock the castle stands on, and part of the stone was incorporated into the shrine itself. Regimental books contain the names of the dead and 50,000 more were added for World War II. Families, in moving displays of sadness and pride, still visit to search for relatives’ names. Thankfully when they walk down the castle esplanade to walk the Royal Mile, few of those families recognize the statue on horseback of Field Marshal Earl Haig, the British Army commander whose determined but ruthless strategy lost so many of his men in the farmers’ fields of France.

Less morbid scenes greet you as you wander down the Royal Mile. The Outlook Tower, its camera obscura throwing panoramic images of the city on to a white table, lies over on the left, a tourist attraction for a century and a half. And beyond it over on the right, the most significant church in Scotland, St. Giles Cathedral although the statue of the grim Calvinist, John Knox, never raises our spirits. This time the presence of this forbidding preacher (it’s said he disapproved of smiling on the Sabbath) is mellowed by the presence of an American choir traveling the UK to sing in its churches.

The John Knox house, built in the mid-1500s, lies farther down the Royal Mile on the left. He was the nemesis of the young Catholic Queen, Mary, and opposed his monarch every way he could. He horrified his Catholic queen by marrying a 16 year-old girl after his first wife died. She had borne him two children.

Says our guide, “Knox was convinced of his own salvation and the damnation of his opponents. The stark, joyless system of church discipline he bequeathed to the country coupled with his spiteful and dictatorial personality make him a hard man to like.” He sure was. His house is a museum of the times. Upstairs lie a cloak and cap similar to what he wore. Tourists like to don the robe and hat and express their disapproval of happiness for the camera. This dwelling has portraits of Mary Queen of Scots. The National Library of Scotland, 50 yards off to the right on George IV Bridge has the original letter she wrote to her cousin Henri II of France the night before she was beheaded by Queen Elizabeth of England, her cousin -- a painful episode of Scotland’s history.

Worth visiting farther down on the right is “the noisiest museum in the world,” Edinburgh’s Museum of Childhood. Created in 1955 it was the first museum in the world devoted to the history of children. It’s jam-packed with the stuff children have loved for generations – and probably still do.

Ahead of you now is Holyroodhouse, the Queen’s Palace when she is in residence in Scotland. It’s a sprawling complex building with awkward stairs which probably adds to its charm. It didn’t have much charm for Mary Queen of Scots when she lived there. Her Italian private secretary, David Rizzio, was stabbed to death in her private chambers by Scottish lords working for her husband Lord Darnley. Darnley, himself, was later murdered and the Queen kidnapped by Lord Bothwell who forced her into her third marriage. As good a summary as any of this complicated part of Scotland’s history can be read here. It’s a sober reflection on how few Scottish monarchs died in their beds and on the violence of medieval times in general. Those were not necessarily the Good Old Days and a walk along the Royal Mile rather reinforces that idea.

For a less bloodthirsty and more cheerful experience in Edinburgh check to see if the Famous Taste of Scotland at Pretonfield House is in season (usually April to October).. Many of the museums and attractions along the Royal Mile are included in the Edinburgh Pass. Contact VisitScotland.com for more details. And check out the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions for discounts allthough its website is non-intuitive and even confusing. If you’re flying up from London to Edinburgh, you have many airline choices including the serene bmi that competes so successfully with its competitors.