Edinburgh. St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral. Dean Village. Water of Leith.

                                                  ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN.

A return to Dean Village by skirting the edge of Edinburgh's New Town district. Getting off the Glasgow to Edinburgh bus just before Haymarket at Coates Gardens for the magnificent Gladstone Memorial. This is just one single level of this multiple level  structure as it is a very impressive sculpture for a Prime Minister/ Politician. I can't think of any I've seen in the UK, certainly in Scotland, that is more impressive. Not just the great man himself up top but a galaxy of surrounding figures sprawling out below his feet.  Margaret Thatcher's sculpture was smaller I'd imagine....as was Winston Churchill's ... though both had a large impact on the UK in modern times.

Info board. The man himself stands on top, with a lower plinth of noble virtues supporting his mighty weight below. 

I then visited St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Palmerston Place, which is also worth a visit and not far away. 

Three distinctive spires that can be clearly seen from all over Edinburgh and beyond.... from up in the surrounding hills even.

A real touch of Gothic art. I think so anyway..... and appropriate for what follows. 

The entrance doors.  Built  throughout the 1870s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary%27s_Cathedral,_Edinburgh_(Episcopal)

Part of the gardens and cottages built around the cathedral....

Which led me down to Dean Village. This used to be an industrial mill hub, making flour from grain originally powered by the Water of Leith flowing past down in this steep gorge. When the various mills closed in the 1960s the place fell into a slow decay, then, during the 1970s and 1980s, it received a makeover and gentrification. It's now a major tourist hot spot.

It is unique though. Nothing else in Scotland comes close. It's fascinating history here. 800 years of milling. Additional gallery of photos in here... under gallery.

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

I've known it through it's many changes over the decades from the semi abandoned 1970s onwards. It used to be fairly quiet. Now it's a social media hotspot for photos for instagram... facebook... etc...  But no wonder. It is scenic perfection. The hard part nowadays is trying to capture images of it without loads of tourists standing in the way :o)

I just about managed it. 

I also thought I would add in my own take on Dean Village. Flowers. I found these elsewhere in Edinburgh, floating half submerged in water. The nicest displays I've seen so I had to capture them before they vanished... forever.... below... as fish food.

Of course it's hard to think of flowers and water without that famous painting by Millais. There is a point to this inclusion. Mill. Danish woman. water's edge.

Edinburgh's West End sculptures.

Dean Village School.

Ornate building. Dean Village.

You can walk from here all the way down the Water of Leith to Leith Docks and the Sea in a few miles but as I've done that walk many times I decided to go another way. Upwards.

But I will save that walk for another time and post... and leave you with this. Edinburgh's elaborate National Portrait Gallery. I loved the building inside and out. Not so much the portraits inside... most of them unknown and quietly forgotten from the unremembered past, only head and shoulder portraits mostly... so not much to get excited about.

But I did like the building.

and it's not far from the bus station.

I've recently discovered the hypnotic yet delicate piano melodies and voice of Danish singer songwriter Agnes Obel. If you haven't heard this haunting ballad before you should give it a listen. It really grows on you as a true epic. A modern classic fairy tale. Both the song and this enigmatic video. A perfect match for this scenic colourful post. I think it is anyway. I do my best to bring sparkling gems I've found and place them on the table. Up to you to examine them. It is in English, not Danish.

Personally I still love discovering new talent/ artists from every country. In any language. But that's a harder sell. This isn't... or shouldn't be.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjncyiuwwXQ&list=RDvjncyiuwwXQ&start_radio=1