April 05, 2006

Old Town Buildings


We're looking over towards some of the striking buildings of the Old Town. You can see the way they rise up, and in fact, beacuse of the hills the centre of Edinburgh was built on, some of these buildings will be 11-12 storeys high. Not bad for 500 or so year old buildings! These buildings hide a lot of secrets and stories! This is where everyone lived in the past as Edinburgh confined itelf to the hill and inside the walls for protection from the invading English armies. As a result, people lived on top of each other and sanitation didn't really exist. During the plague, an entire street called Mary King's Close, to be found directly under what is now the City Chambers, was bricked up at both ends leaving everyone inside to die. You can visit it now and hear the chilling stories (for a small fee of course!). Once peace descended on the city, after Union with England, the city began to spread out into what we now know as Edinburgh. Previously it really was just 'Dun Eideann' (its Gaelic name) - the fort on the rock.

20 comments:

yori said...

Wow~ beautiful shot!

Ineke said...

Indeed, but what a horrible story about the street simply being closed. We've just decided to visit Edinburg (and Glasgow) for a couple of days this June, so i'm following your blog with even more interest!

Rob said...

Grisley story. Edinburgh sounds interesting.

G Fraser said...

lots of stories in this city stuttgart! great to hear dutchie...will keep the photos coming!!
cold noodle - kamsahanmida!

Bob said...

I was up there at Christmas. Love the austerity.

Nicola said...

How old are they? Are we looking at some of the oldest "skyscrapers" here? Very interesting story!

Kris said...

facsinating! 500 y.o ? wow ! salute to the engineers of that time :o

Pierre said...

Beautiful. And the sky matches the monochrome buildinds! Looks like a sepia picture, even if it isn't...

G Fraser said...

it was taken using one of the automatic settings for sundown on my little digital camera...just helps add a little atmosphere to the pic

Nuno said...

Outstanding shot, i love this kind of buildings.

Edwin Sumun said...

The sky is amazing! the pink hue is very comforting, to say the least.

kualalumpurdailyphoto

G Fraser said...

thanx for the comments everyone...great to get feeback for doing something so enjoyable!

Sam said...

Oh, great picture and great history lesson! (I want to go see that street now! lol)

Anonymous said...

Great picture? On the other side of that buildings runs the Royal Miles, doesn´t it?

Anonymous said...

Been me the comment before ;-)

G Fraser said...

yeah, saint, the Royal Mile is on the other side of the taller buildings. The building with the flags is the City Chambers so it's half-way between North Bridge and George IV Bridge

Eric said...

I love this shot too. Bravo.

midnitebara said...

great shot! And thank you for telling that piece of history about your city. Im learning so much about people and places since joining dp's.

Anna said...

Very nice shot!!

la femme said...

Oh, beautiful shot (and story).