Travel tips: Scotland, Edinburgh & Rossyln

I was lucky to visit Edinburgh in summer where the beautiful weather contrasted bright blue skies against its authentic brown and beige architecture. It is to my mind, the most loveliest city of the UK that I have seen so far. The grand old castle and St Mary’s gothic towered cathedral rest high on a mountainous ridge and hill, overlooking  a huge city park. Their height on Carlton Hill, lend natural royalty in stature. St Giles church lies on the flat ridge at a park entrance with one main majestic tower, and his dedicated monument below in its arches that reach from the ground. Opposite, way up high on the other side horizontally and juxtaposed is a St Mary’s two steeple gothic cathedral. In the distance away from the park perched up high are the fortified stone castle walls with rock turrets, and one can imagine all the battles fought there throughout history: arrows shot through small slits and canons fired from this height provides understanding as to why it has survived the test of time. Its strategic elevated position gives a bird’s eye view over the valley , adding the allure of natural surroundings to all the ancient stone architecture predating backs to 1400 AD or more.   there is also a daily canon shot from the castle’s old once military barracks. 

The old city and park gardens are beautiful and walking its perimeter of iron fences protecting rose gardens are monuments or statues of famous people, for example, Simpson, the pioneer of anesthesia, who died in 1870. 

 

 

Look at the couple bottom right to gauge the height of the castle  

Below, St Mary’s Catholic cathedral whilst walking the park 

 

 

Below, St Giles cathedral 

 

 

 

At the bottom of this church, also on the park’s edges  are four archways and a huge statue

 

 

Take the Hop on hop off bus as there is  a lot to see, so you get height views and there is quite some real estate to cover. It also drives up close to the bottom of the castle hill where there are paths up.  Through the old town part of the city, Edinburgh's authentic style of brown brickwork gives an original and pure aura. Of course you should walk the Royal Mile in the Unesco heritage protected place to the Balmoral smaller castle/palace, passing kilt shops, Bagpipe players and the Frankenstein museum, Shelley’s notorious created novel monster. The tourist bus is close to St Andrew’s square if you arrive bus or train from outside Edinburgh. 

 

 

 

Riding in by train from Glenroth over this beautiful bridge viewing the other

 

 

 

Balmoral Castle

 

Love the Balmoral castle gate!

Outside Houses of Parliament

Fifteen minutes south of Edinburgh by car is the small village of Rosselyn, known for its now famous chapel which according to historical evidence is pagan and it has secrets carved into its pillars by the  Knights Templars. It is run by various Trusts and the Rothschild foundation with the names Sinclair on the board. The latter is the theme in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code (fictional) but also research of Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas in the books the Hiram Key and Second Messiah, who trace back Sinclair to ancient buried Solomon Temple scrolls, rediscovered by the then military Knight Templars who were part of the crusades.  They say the secrets were carried through to Europe and were the founding principles of  modern day Free Masonry. Free masons say their first Lodge only began in the 1800s. For those who don't know, the Masons are a  moral movement without God, and the Tarot cards could have been the pagan pages from which they learnt how to live in grace.  The temple certainly does not have carvings of angels or religious figures but rather fruits, corn and little demon men whose engravings were meant to protect it.  All in all, very worth visiting.

 THE FAMOUS ROSSELYN CHAPEL

 

  

 

 

One of the scores of little big eared men engravings.

That's it, bon voyage folks... when Covid allows.... Until then if you are interested in Scottish culture I thoroughly recommend watching Netflix's Outlander series!