Edinburgh. Corstorphine Hill. Water of Leith. Murrayfield. Balgreen Tunnel Murals.

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Another solo bus trip through to Edinburgh in October 2025. Three full weeks of glorious sunshine to look back on in wonder after a mild but gloomy and frequently wet winter thus far. I got off at Edinburgh Zoo as I wanted to go up Corstorphine Hill again, the largest area of public woodland within the city. It's also the only summit not to have a panoramic view, unless you climb the stone tower on a Sunday to rise above the trees, an early tribute to best selling writer Sir Walter Scott and his famous period books. This is a view of Corstorphine Hill, above. 

The info board at the start of the walk. A single km past The Holiday Inn and the Spire Murrayfield Hospital entrance you come to an obvious gap in the wall, still on Corstorphine Road with deep mature woodland immediately encountered. Follow the path or paths uphill through this wood and you eventually arrive at an open meadow section with views above the trees. A better maintained foot path is also available slightly further along Corstorphine Road if you don't fancy the look of the deep woods path. This leads to the same place.

The meadow area on Corstorphine Hill with views over the city to The Pentland Hills. It was fairly murky for distance views so I'd deliberately picked this heavily wooded hillside as I knew it had limited views in certain places. The summit itself covered in high trees with zero views. Having been up it several times in the past, most memorably with Anne on our hedonistic crawl across the seven city summits spread over two laughter filled days I was not too bothered. As nothing could match that trip. ( Good hill runners can do all seven hills in a few hours but we indulged ourselves to include an overnight outdoor stop halfway round, savouring every single step upwards.) A best ever Edinburgh trip from august 2018 on this blog.  

The sun came out briefly for this view over the golf course towards the city centre. Edinburgh Castle and the three black spires of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral being obvious landmarks in this photo. I've been inside both during previous visits to the city.  

Calton Hill in this one.

Another viewpoint higher up looking across to Muirhouse/ Granton Districts. That last time with Anne we had walked over the summit on the John Muir Way, down past Davidsons Mains to the seaside. This time I skipped that long descent route as I wanted to retrace my steps back to Murrayfield, The Water of Leith Walkway, and a mural tunnel I had just heard about.

Murrayfield Stadium. Home of Scottish and International Rugby.

And right beside it a section of the Water of Leith walkway which I followed down to the Balgreen Tunnel on Balgreen Road where it passes under a railway line.

Although bone dry weather for weeks all through a sun drenched October of 2025 these slabs reminded me of flash flood channels I've seen in Australia and the USA so maybe they do get heavy rain here on occasion.

The Balgreen Tunnel art project. An unavoidable dark tunnel, especially in the winter months for school children, the elderly, and lone females, with schools and jobs either side, this has been transformed into a cheerful place. Well, As much as any underpass tunnel can be when it's dark by 4:00pm in the drab winter months.   

I was impressed. Think how long this section took just drawing in all the prickles.

Butterfly, Swifts and blue flowers.

A different style of painting to the previous murals featured as a different artist involved.

Bee and bluebells.

Inspired....I even had a go myself........ with a passing pedestrian makeover :o)

Bee and frog.

Grey Heron.

Magpie. Our 'parrot of the cold north' with its long tail.

I then retraced my route, this time up Balgreen Road, where I spotted this decorated Post Box.

And then ended at a statue I've flashed past dozens of times on the city to city bus, back on Corstorphine Road. Always wanted to see it properly.

This info explains it. In Robert Louis Stevenson's famous book 'Kidnapped' the two lead charters part company here, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. ( I think it was actually on Corstorphine Hill itself with a view over the city where they parted but a statue like this one stuck up there, unsupervised, would not last long un-vandalized and unmolested.) 

The journey did not end there for them....

or for me either. No 26 bus on Corstorphine Road. A very handy local bus indeed.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaL90sMAzbY

Emily. A 2022 film. Unlike the much hyped Wuthering Heights current film adaptation, still to be released, which I've no intention of seeing having already watched several different versions including a classic black and white one. Emily was different. No hype at all so when I watched it on TV recently it came as an unexpected surprise. I really enjoyed it. Not much is known about Emily Bronte and her private life so the director/writer had to fill in the gaps with imaginative speculation. This results in a very different film that really captures the spirit of being young and outdoors in any time period. A nature lover. Quiet and sensitive yet filled with a youthful restless energy I well remember. Great acting and filming of the moors both dark, unpredictable and brooding at times yet sun filled, lush and majestic in summer. This film captures all the various moods including a wayward friendship with black sheep brother Branwell, which gives it spice, a hidden love affair, and a joyful intensity. I read Wuthering Heights as a teenager, was impressed by its obsessional destructive love story, very different from many other female works of the period, especially her two sister's books, so I was smitten with this film after such a long gap of exploration into that world. It even rekindled long half forgotten memories of my own youthful outdoor escapades at that age, early voyages in the fields and woods of 'Demeter'. A burst of unexpected remembering like a fizzy drink pouring into my mind in a stream of tasty happiness. Not something I get very often watching any film... if ever. So I recommend it if its on TV or on a paid subscription channel. Some traditionalists may not like it though. It's not a film for them.

And a good meal to go with it. Chicken Balti, rice and seedless grapes. For the zing! A few tinned peach slices work well also if grapes are unavailable.

Edinburgh. Quartermile. The Meadows again. McEwan Hall and Bristo Square. U of E.

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Having mentioned in the previous post of a trip 10 years ago in early March cycling across The Meadows in Edinburgh and the spectacular and unexpected display of crocus there I thought you might like to see the photos from that time. In part because late February, early March is nearly here again, when the crocus come out to play on the grass. I can't promise they will be as good as this after 10 years away but they are starting to appear in my own garden again so a few more weeks should see them fully out in bloom if they are still there. Quartermile- the glass towers in the distance in this photo, above, newly constructed upmarket apartments back then, caught my eye. Everywhere in Edinburgh old buildings get renovated into luxury apartments. What makes this set unusual is its complex insertion into the far older stone behemoth of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh buildings. Now the Edinburgh Futures Institute.

Take a peak here at the view from these luxury penthouse apartments.

https://www.qmile.com/index.php?option=com_realdev&view=category&catid=82&Itemid=603

I thought it was just over five years ago, pre-pandemic,  since this multi-coloured trip so time seems to be highly elastic in blog land, in my memory at least. Another difference is that I would no longer take my car and bike through to Edinburgh as the places I used to park at no longer exist... all have double yellow lines now so I go through by bus. Much easier. Also the volume of traffic between cities is worse.

James Gilliespie's High School for Girls. Built 1803. Featured in the last post on The Meadows but I've had time now to look it up. As usual in Edinburgh it is now upmarket apartments apparently. Maybe Glasgow lacks the money, clientele, or ambition of Edinburgh but so many of Glasgow and Paisley's grand buildings, even if cat A or B listed, are left to crumble and decay into ruin whereas Edinburgh's are usually saved. One big difference between the cities I've noticed.  

I also thought I didn't really do The Meadows full justice in the last post to give readers/ viewers a better impression of this large grassy rectangular area. In Edinburgh you can easily take too many photos and get overwhelmed by the sheer number of them. most high quality views or interesting in some other way. Arthur's Seat from The Meadows.

Looking in the opposite direction back towards Bruntsfield Links and The Barclay Viewforth Church. ( the highest spire.)

This is a solid looking church from any angle. Edinburgh has loads of grand churches.

The Golf Tavern. Where you presumably hire the equipment to play on the nearby pitch and putt course. Bruntsfield links. This pub found beside the large church in the above photo.

Jubilee Hall. Showing the blend between the old Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh buildings and the modern glass and steel of Quartermile. Now part of Edinburgh Futures Institute belonging to the University of Edinburgh which covers a large stone chunk of Central Edinburgh around The Meadows District. Street after street.

George Square Gardens. Autumn. Nice colours.

Which brought me out here at Bristo Square and Potterrow. One a modern name the other ancient, predating JK Rowling books by centuries. University of Edinburgh's main central open plaza. The building above is getting refurbished at present.

A plaza dominated by McEwan Hall which was purpose built in 1897 for student graduation days as well as other big prestigious events. Restored and refurbished in 2015/2017 at a cost of £35 million. Sorting hats take a bow.

To my admittedly uniformed eyes Glasgow definitely feels like a poor relation nowadays. Especially wandering down a rather shabby Sauchiehall Street, or the graffiti strewn Clydeside Waterfront at Clyde Street or Bridge Street between Carlton Place and St Andrew's Cross..... the derelict zone last time I visited it.

You can see the splendour inside this great hall here. History and interior photo gallery.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McEwan_Hall

Anyway, the Quartermile district was what I was here to see as well. Probably 10 years since the last visit so this might well be my final trip to this particular location in October 2025.

Still a quiet place. Not much sign of the 49,000 Edinburgh students based here ( a student population slightly smaller than the size of Kilmarnock.or Torquay. Both UK towns.) Yet only a street away in Bistro Square it's full of students.

I don't remember this building the last time I was here. Wharton Square. But maybe it was. It has a sheltered interior courtyard in brighter colours tucked away behind this wall. For residents only.

Certainly different for its mix of building styles.

Always seems a fairly empty area this although in fairness I've never visited it in summer or in sunshine. And only twice. Might get lively at night. No idea.

Another street away but still the Futures Institute buildings continue marching onwards across Edinburgh....

The spire on the same period building. Voted number 1 by happy starlings.

Late February crocus strip cycling through The Meadows. A sight I will probably never see again in this location. So worth including a photo here.

Bruntsfield Links. The Meadows. University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh Castle. West Bow.

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Another walk from my autumn (October) solo bus trips to Edinburgh. On this one I'd taken the bus from Princes Street to Blackford Hill, Hermitage of Braid, Braid Hills, and Braidburn Valley Park. This pleasant high level route took under 3 hours or so to walk so by early afternoon I'd done it. As it was around 3 hours to get to Edinburgh from Glasgow and 3 hours back. ( including my bus journey from the outskirts of Glasgow into Buchanan Bus Station, city to city heavy traffic, waiting times, then local Edinburgh bus up to the hill start point.) I wanted to make the most of each trip. The Blackford Hill walk I've already posted a couple of months ago so this is the second half of that day.

Coming out at Comiston Road, A702, near the Braid Hills Hotel I jumped on a local bus to take me down to Bruntsfield, seen above. A lot of Edinburgh's outer ring of suburbs looks like this one, above, what I would consider middle class districts. Edinburgh does have rough working class estates but not as many as Glasgow so my overall impression of the city of Edinburgh is middle class.

And a lot of well built prestigious buildings in every district. This is Bruntsfield Links, a grassy large rectangle which runs into The Meadows with a pitch and putt course and various paths running across it. After a certain age you do wonder if you will make it back to certain places so I was determined to visit the meadows again. The last time was over five years ago, pre covid lockdowns, when in early spring I cycled past vast carpets of multi coloured crocus, twice the size of Glasgow's blooms. Not expecting to see that full on display it was a vivid experience I'll always remember. On this journey I noticed something I'd missed back then. Murals in the red close entry to the right of the black establishment.

Don't know if these buildings are/were owned by the co-op but the paintings were certainly different and unusual.

A blue angel. Yes, student co-op housing units. I checked. Explains the paintings.

This large grassy rectangle runs into The Meadows, the Edinburgh equivalent of Glasgow Green only without a large river beside it. Prestigious buildings run along the edges, as seen here.

Also mural billboards depicting the long history of The Meadows.

Muriel Spark, the author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie grew up in Bruntsfield, went to school in Edinburgh and mentions The Meadows in her famous book, as depicted above. I don't think she liked Edinburgh very much though, similar to her lead character, as she soon travelled the world as an adult, ending up in Italy, which suited her better.

I then wandered up to George Square, many places in Edinburgh named after King George, an area I hadn't visited before. And all around me wandered students. I'm used to passing through all three Glasgow University areas. The University of Glasgow, Caledonian University and the University of Strathclyde and usually I might see 100 or so students in these areas while walking. 

Yet here it was as if a major football team's supporters were leaving a match, many thousands strong. And I also noticed nearly every building I spotted belonged to the University of Edinburgh. Not just this square, but everywhere, street after street.

I'd naively assumed, Glasgow traditionally being twice the size of Edinburgh's population at one million ( 1930s- 1960s period) compared to just under half a million in Edinburgh that Glasgow would have bigger universities ... but not so. Even someone as unsophisticated/ dense, as me, not having looked up or wondered about comparative university sizes before... started to get the message that this assumption was completely wrong....It was like Michael Palin in Ripping Yarns in his tiny holiday cottage surrounded and dwarfed by a full u boat crew pretending to be his 30 cottage servants for the week. The more I walked around this area the weirder this assumption felt.

Another large University of Edinburgh building/complex filling yet another street. So I looked it up. Turns out the University of Edinburgh is the UK's 4th largest after London, The Open University, and Manchester, at 49,000 students. Glasgow University is 9th. Even the three Glasgow universities put together fail to match the University of Edinburgh. And it also has Scotland's most exclusive private/public schools like Fettes College and George Heriot's which I also wandered past ( and tried (unsuccessfully)  to explore on previous occasions. Just out of curiosity.

I also stumbled across Burke and Hare's lap dancing pub. Through I'm fairly sure the only lap dancing the famous murderers did was when teeth fell out of any recently deceased corpse, helped along the way by smothering hands.

It was a convoluted route I took which also included West Port, seen above,

 Lady's Wynd, Seen here, A lane leading down to Edinburgh Castle...

Where it looked at its highest and most imposing. " We shall attack it from here lads! Looks the easiest side to storm up and capture it...."

It was a connoisseur route picking out various highlights of old Edinburgh on the way to the bus station.

A cornucopia. A common motif in both Glasgow and Edinburgh and probably many other UK cities on buildings constructed during the golden years of the British Empire. Good for the UK elite anyway. Soot and grime for the working class, exploitation, slavery and death abroad. 

The White Hart Inn. Grassmarket. 

 West Bow. One of my favourite streets and a tourist haunt. Unless you arrive very early it's impossible to take a photo here without a crowd in it although I did try to get everyone facing away from the camera. Around ten levels high, roughly where the white building is in this photo, a narrow staircase wormholes steeply up into the Royal Mile. I remembered it from years ago. Also an interesting and truly bizarre story about this place and maybe another inspiration for 'The Strange Case of  Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Weir     Worth a look. Unique. Although of course in those days they could have both been suffering from a shared mental illness/aberration and or delusions caused by parasites, disease, bacteria and the like... which did occur frequently in old Edinburgh with its cramped house living on top of house conditions. 

Edinburgh in general is a lot busier than my first visits to the city thanks to the internet but you can see why. Paint anything in vivid primary colours and it will be an instant hit. Had to miss out the lower section of shops here as the street was crammed with tourists.

 West Bow Shops.

I then took the narrow staircase steeply upwards to arrive out on the Royal Mile, around here. Then across this road... then steeply back down again to Princes Street Gardens via another long narrow descending lane. The best bits of old Edinburgh for a hill walker.

Then up and down to the bus station via George Street and Edinburgh's New Town elegance. As old Edinburgh is built over volcanic ridges and sills you do climb a great deal traveling across it south to north, as I was here. West to east is much easier... but tame. With more crowds.

One of many fine period buildings in George Street.

A pediment detail. The triangular space on top of a period building, often filled with decorative figures from Greek, Roman or occasionally Egyptian history. Another great day out.