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Arthur’s Seat (251 m), Holyrood Park, Edinburgh

Arthur’s Seat, view from the South entrance at the Queen’s Drive.

After running up to Arthur’s Seat, I am now half way at 251 m. A spectacular view on a rare clear and windless evening in Edinburgh. The run was mostly up for the last half hour.

Old Edinburgh

Old Edinburgh is built on a one-mile long East-West ridge of lava some 50 to 70 meters high. Most of the buildings are from past 1767 when Edinburgh rebuilt the old town, see description in [1]. It still looks like a fortified city with high buildings on the ridge side. The old castle was built on the highest point of the ridge on the West side and dominates the sky line of Edinburgh.

Edinburgh castle. View from the Apex European Hotel roof top restaurant on the Grassmarket.

Old buildings on the ridge near the castle.

In the summer, the castle is open from 9.30 AM to 6 PM, with the last tour at 5.15 PM. Being on a business trip, I missed the openings hours.

Holyrood Park

On the South-East side of the ridge, near the Queen’s Palace and the Scottish parliament buildings, there is an even more interesting land mark, the lava flow hills of Holyrood Park.

100 m high lava flows of Holyrood Park, view South from the Scottish Parliament buildings.

You can already the lava flows in the distance standing on the bridge East of Waverly Station but few tourist go there as it outside the city.

The park is about two km across and is dominated by Arthur’s Seat, at 251 m the highest point. It is a favourite walking and jogging area with numerous official and in-official trails dissecting the park. Doing a big loop walking including the highest hills, will take you 1.5 to 2 hours.

Some die-hards run the same route but most joggers, generally female students from the nearby university, use the circular Queen’s drive, a 6 km run. The Lonely Planet Walking in Scotland guide has a good map of the area.

Another one is from, see below: http://www.mirang.nildram.co.uk/OurSite/Assets/newwin/map.htm

Holyrood Park in the mist

The first day visit on Sunday night was in typical Scottish weather, 10 Celcius, misty, change of rain, strong winds.

Starting at Holyrood Place, I went up the Salisbury Crags using the small trail (see above, in grey). Edinburgh Castle was faintly visible in the cold mist.

Edinburgh Castle in the mist.

I continued up to Arthur’s Seat (251 m) using the steep SW trail (not on the map) which starts with a good staircase.

Arthur’s Seat in the clouds. Stair case right, easier trail going left. View from the South-West.

It was cold and windy on top of Arthur’s Seat and the clouds thickened to a complete white-out.

Going down I wasn’t sure where I was going, unable to see more then 10 meters. Following a long grassy slope down, I ended up at Dunsapie Loch, an old volcanic vent. An ideal trail to go back up running.

Going North and West I reached the entrance again.

The walk from the start of the park took some 1.5 hours plus 20 minutes each way to go back the to the hotel at the Grassmarket.

Running the trails of Holyrood Park

The weather changed to unusually nice weather this week, 16 Celsius with clear blue skies and no wind.

I did a reconnaissance with Chima [1], walking leisurely across the hills and visiting the only remaining building, a derelict chapel from the 16th century.

Old chaple in Holyrood Park.

Most runners were doing the 6 km loop, the Queen’s drive, and very few were tempted by the hills.

I started at the North Entrance and followed the main loop to Dunsapie Loch, going up most of the time. It was very busy with joggers.

Past the loch, I followed the grassy trail up and continued all the way up to Arthur’s Seat. The last 50 m up is not easy as the trail is steep and has loose gravel.

Last 50 m up, with Chima posing

After a rest on top I went down to the South-West following the trails and continued along the asphalt of the Queen’s drive (West side).

The total run took about 45 minutes.

A more challenging route would have been the one marked in red on the map above but this has a lots of loose gravel so is harder on the ankles and foot soles.