Arthur's Seat from Pollock

And to complete the series on Arden House; this is the view from the window of yesterday's room, or rather just in front of it on the lawn. The hill is of course Arthur's Seat, but seen from a more unusual angle.

Pentlands

OK - I know that this is not strictly speaking Edinburgh, but it's not far off. This is in fact Saturday's sunset over one of the Pentland Hills, just to the south of Edinburgh near the village of Penicuik. This is a very beautiful area, and very easily accessible from the city - and it usually gets much more snow than the town itself!

Snow again!

Last night we had 1-2 inches of snow across Edinburgh - more than we've had so far, but not as much as some areas of England last week, where there has been widespread disruption (but then, they're really not used to it...). This was the view from the car on our way to work this morning; Arthur's Seat looking even more imposing than usual.

Over the coming days I'll post some more pictures of yesterday's beautiful snowy walk just south of Edinburgh.

Walking to Work - Pilrig Street

My walk to work takes me along Newhaven Road which turns into Pilrig Street at the crossing with Bonnington Road. I took this picture from the crossing, looking eastward with the Crags and Arthur's Seat looming in the distance.

As you can see, this photograph also demonstrates the well-known fact that buses either don't turn up or turn up two at a time. These ones are returning from town and one of them must have been delayed by rush hour traffic.

Blackford Hill

Today's offering is courtesy of Mr DiDo, who works in the south of Edinburgh. This is Blackford Hill, some 3 km south of the city centre and 164m high. The green-domed building is the Royal Observatory, which houses the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Edinburgh. Like Arthur's Seat and the Crags, Blakford Hill gives stunning views of the city and the surrounding country - and there are no less than three golf courses attached to it!

Edinburgh hills (view part 1)

They say that, like Athens, Edinburgh was built on seven hills. To be honest, some of these hills were not so much built on as built around, and that goes for the two in this photo: Arthur's Seat & Salisbury crags to the left and Calton Hill to the right and closer to the camera. The former sit in a large area of wild parkland called Holyrood Park and at its heighest point Arthur's seat (far left) reaches 251m - not bad for a hill in the middle of a capital city! Calton Hill is not nearly as high and boasts a collection of rather odd but nevertheless iconic monuments. Needless to say, the view from both these hills onto the city is fabulous.

This picture was taken from our friends' fourth floor flat in the north of Edinburgh, looking south-east. If you were to continue turning to the right (so facing south) you'd see the city centre and the castle - so come back for tomorrow's view part two!