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

                                                 ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN.

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 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.

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 other female works of the period, especially her sisters books, so I was smitten with this film after such a long gap of exploration of 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.