Arthur's Seat

Arthur's Seat's bold outline marks the site of the city from afar and illustrates one of Edinburgh's unique characteristics. In a single step, as it were, one may pass from city life to wild nature.

Entering the King's Park from the Newington district, we are dramatically confronted by the great rock masses of the Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat. These have something in them elemental and awe inspiring.

The perpendicular cliffs of the crags face the west, unchanged from those prehistoric times when they were thrown up in a cataclysm of fire. The broad masses and contours, as we approach, break into fantastic and more individualised shapes.

Let us take the long path which slopes gradually up to the Queen's Drive, and pass along by this magnificent road to the east, under the precipitous slopes of the hill. After the first bend, there opens before us the rich and fertile country to the south-east, with Duddingston Loch lying far below us.

We keep circling round until on our right we have the lonely hill loch of Dunsappie. Striking off by a path to the left, we begin the long ascent to the summit. Here we are indeed amongst the wilds. Great hollows in the brown hills open below our path. Nothing that meets the eye suggests that we are in a city.

The last steep climb at the edge of the ancient volcanic crater, takes us to the summit, where an engraved indicator directs us to the far Ben Lawers and the other points of interest in the distant vista.

This viewpoint is a place of pilgrimage for many of the citizens of Edinburgh. Young and old make regular ascents, and refresh themselves physically and spiritually, Sunday morning being a favourite occasion.

On the first of May, congregations of young people may be encountered in the early hours of the morning, gathering May dew, and giving some hint of similar gatherings in far-off times when the world was younger.

The ruins of St. Anthony's Chapel and Hermitage arrest attention away on the northern slopes of the hill, and carry the mind back to the days of hermits and mythical Holyrood stags, and to the tradition of the visit of King Arthur himself.

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