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.

Edinburgh. Dynamic Earth. Holyrood Road. Arthur's Seat And Extra Mural Day

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Some more of my solo Edinburgh bus trips from October 2025 when a three week long warm and sunny spell of glorious autumnal weather persuaded me to make about a dozen journeys to Scotland's capital city in one month. Just when I thought I was finished with Edinburgh for the year I read an article about another new mural in the city just off Holyrood Road. As this was directly under Arthur's Seat I could easily combine it with other outdoor attractions in the area that I remembered from previous visits a decade ago so off I went again. A view of Greendykes bing from the bus, above,  a massive pile of discarded spent shale from paraffin oil extraction that makes a good high level walk in it's own right.

Found right beside this distinctive red building just up Holyrood Road from The Scottish Parliament and the Dynamic Earth exhibit lies this mural wall.

It's by the same artist that painted The Colinton Tunnel and other city murals, Chris Rutterford. The rest of them featured in my previous Edinburgh posts from a few months ago.

This explains the legend of Holyrood.

The cross of Holyrood above the stag. In those days it was all about signs and wonders and religious messages supposedly seen in nature.

Butterflies and dove.

The King. Looks a bit clueless in this. At least he's not thundering into it with a long lance. The normal sport of kings and princes in past times.

A game of crows.

The horse bolts leaving the king alone to face the mighty stag... and remarkably it doesn't kill him. In nature it's usually humans that attack things without a good reason. Most animals will leave you alone if you don't bother them. But of course he had to see something holy in it.

The proud stag.

The jay. Best photo I've ever taken of this illusive woodland bird. I've heard it plenty of times but they always darts away before I even get the camera out. Need to be either very lucky or have a garden that backs onto jay habitat. Only snapshots of this mural as it's a narrow lane and hard to photograph the full spread in one go.

After visiting the mural I had a wander around Cowgate and Holyrood Road. Not as many tourists here although it is a student hangout. Loads of modern student apartments, University of Edinburgh buildings and old period streets. I liked it here. Quieter than the Princes Street and Royal Mile seething hordes yet still full of interesting architecture.

Same place looking up at Edinburgh's multi level street design where some of the old tenement buildings are 10 to 12 floors high. Early skyscrapers. Streets running above and below.

Contrast that with the modern apartments on Holyrood Road just a short distance away. Like architects everywhere, slightly imitating the older buildings in the same vicinity.

The Dumbiedykes flats on the opposite side of Holyrood Road. And a first glimpse of Holyrood Park on this outing.

Blackfriars Street.

The modern part of Holyrood Road

Local shops. All within a short distance of each other.

Dumbiedykes Flats. Ordinary folk.

The + UN building. Holyrood Road. Students.

St Mary's Street and Holyrood Road.

Same row of shops - different angle.

More new apartments.

With the inclusion of the Scottish Parliament Building and the Dynamic Earth exhibit/white pavilion I cannot think of another road I've ever been in, of comparatively short distance as this one, with such a different range of building styles. I give you Holyrood Road.

Scottish Parliament building. Also Holyrood Road.

Calton Hill from the Dynamic Earth Exhibit.

Dynamic Earth walkway.

As it was a lovely day outside and plenty more to see in the surrounding area I didn't bother going inside as I knew it was £18:50 concession and £21 adult each admission ticket. I was also very puzzled as it looked an empty large hall apart from a busy cafe and this big hanging ball. Nothing else. I was so puzzled by this view today doing the post I looked it up online. Surely that can't be it? Like many parts of Edinburgh the real attraction here lies deep underground in tunnels and basement level. Worth another Edinburgh trip just to to see it for myself.

I also had a wander down Edinburgh's famous tight lanes running between the various period streets.

There is graffiti in Edinburgh's city centre district but mostly it's confined to dark back lanes or stairways.

Unsightly but only in odd corners.

Glasgow. City Centre Waterfront. The tiger mural. Around ten years ago. No other graffiti here then.

As I've mentioned in previous posts visitors to Glasgow might enjoy staying in the Finnieston hotel district/ West End/Partick area just west of Glasgow city centre. Botanic Gardens, World Class museums and art galleries, vibrant shops, nightlife, public parks, Byres Road and its trendy lanes, Glasgow University and good walks all exist in this compact area and Glasgow city centre is just 5 mins away by public transport on subway, bus, or train. If I was visiting Glasgow currently that's where I'd stay nowadays.

Meanwhile, back in Edinburgh, I had a walk around the bottom of Holyrood Park, just as the mist was burning off. Although Arthur's Seat is the main draw here some of the quieter corners of this park are well worth exploring.

Walkers on the cliff edge seen from Holyrood Road. Dumbiedykes district.

It was studying the various rocks of this ancient volcano in the middle of the city and at other Scottish locations in the 1700s that Scot James Hutton ( the father of modern geology) formulated his radical idea that the earth was far older than previously thought. And had been twisted, melted, eroded then reformed many times in its long history. The subject of the Dynamic Earth exhibit next door to these same cliffs.

I met a student walking along under Arthur's Seat and we both remarked how this view above could easily be from the Pyrenees in France/ Spain, where she came from. Even though there was 7000 to 9000 feet of a height difference between them.

 

Seeing this cyclist here and the other photo above brought back so many memories of younger days. Backpacking through the high Pyrenees during a summer heat wave and on solo bike explorations across Edinburgh decades ago. Peddling and panting up this very same road. Happy times.  

At the junction of Holyrood Park Road and Dalkeith Road this Scottish Widows building gained awards when it was completed in the 1970s consisting of 12 interlocked black glass hexagons. Thousands of workers were gradually transferred elsewhere when it closed in 2020. The last time I was here pre- covid I was fascinated by the large colourful goldfish swimming in these outdoor pools. Never seen that before outside of a protected glasshouse fish pool setting. In Glasgow they'd soon be stolen and eaten so quite sad to see this building and it's impressive pools lying half drained and abandoned now. Apparently some of it will be getting demolished soon with something else taking over this corner site. Cities are always changing. And only older folk remember the past.... as it was then.