The Pentland Hills & Edinburgh Walks

Arthur's Seat

Date: 7th July 2006
Distance: 5.0 miles
Ascent: 984 feet
Time: 2 hours 10 mins
With: Lisa
Start Grid Ref: NT277743

Walk Summary:
A smashing little walk to the top of Arthur's Seat with stunning views over the city of Edinburgh.

Route Summary: Meadowbank Stadium - St Margaret's Loch - Arthur's Seat - Salisbury Crags - Horse Wynd - The Royal Mile

Pictures:

1. St Margaret's Loch

2. St Anthony's Chapel

3. Approaching Arthur's Seat

4. Whinny Hill

5. Looking across Edinburgh to the Pentland Hills

6. The trig point on Arthur's Seat

7. On the top of Arthur's Seat

8. Salisbury Crags

9. Salisbury Crags looking towards Edinburgh Castle

10. Lisa on Salisbury Crags

11. Arthur's Seat

12. Calton Hill

Walk Detail: We decided to take advantage of the fact that we were spending a long weekend in Edinburgh for a wedding to go and climb Arthur's Seat, in fact we headed straight out for this walk almost as soon as we’d dropped the bags off at he B&B.

The walk was quite lovely and after leaving the surrounds of St Anthony’s Chapel it would have been quite easy to forget you were in the middle of Edinburgh. The route we took probably offered one of the easier climbs to the top which was quite rocky and more dramatic than I had imagined it.

The view from the top was superb and included the Firth of Forth, the Pentland hills to the south-west and of course the centre of Edinburgh. On the way down we passed about 50-60 possibly Spanish tourists filing up to the top. We were rather lucky then that we didn’t coincide our arrival at the summit with all of them.

The walk along the dramatic line of Salisbury Crags was delightful and we treated ourselves to an ice cream before walking the famous Royal Mile. Arthur's Seat, along with Castle Crag in Borrowdale, proves that even fells less than 1000ft in height can still be fascinating and provide a good climb with outstanding views.

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