Mary King's close

Last night we arrived at the B&B at 23:35. So after some sleep and a nice breakfast we left the house around 10:30 and walked in to town through Meadow park from where we could see Arthur's seat, which we want to climb on Saturday.

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We had reservations for a tour of Mary King's close at 11:00.

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A "close" is a very narrow street, like an alley but with actual houses and shops on it. In Edinburgh, the main shopping street is the Royal mile. It leads from the castle to the palace and it's positioned on a high ridge. The closes start at the Royal mile and then go 3 to 4 floors down in height to exit in a street parallel to the Royal mile. In the picture above the Royal mile is the street on the right. The first entrance at the bottom is the entrance to Mary King's close.

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Here you can see how Mary King's close slopes down.

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Basically the closes run down from the Royal mile like a fishbone. In between the closes were high apartment buildings, sometimes 10 floors tall! The bottom apartments were for the poorest people. The richer folks would occupy the top floors.

In the picture above you see mary King's close at the bottom and the close next to it.

Some closes had 500-700 people living in them. At the bottom level an "apartment" was often nothing more than a cellar with no windows, no chimney and it was not divided in rooms simply because it was too small. And it would be occupied by a family of 10.

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The closes have a long and dramatic history and underwent a long series of re-construction. At some point the close was mostly demolished but part of it was used as the foundation for a new building that was put on top. The entrances were closed and people slowly forgot about what lay beneath the building.

In 2003 however the close's remains were opened up again and turned in to a tourist attraction. Apart from all the ghost tales etc. it now also shows how people lived in those days. Like at no. 1 where a gentleman lived who had a shop at no. 2 where he made saws and saw-blades.

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Close-up.

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Compare this picture with the one from 2 pictures up and you'll see that the close was longer, even longer than this maquette shows. About twice as long I believe.
Mary King's close actually exited right next to a pub we will visit as well called The Hebrides bar.

Mary King's close is a mighty interesting visit if you like old, hidden, secret places with a very rich history with tales of ghosts and mystery!

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After visiting the close we walked down the Royal mile which is a very nice shopping street with a gazillion wool/cashmere shops.

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There is also a building with a big clock.

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Marjolein had lunch at a tea house where they served a smashing chicken soup and great applepie.

This is the "Heart of Midlothian". It's a mosaic into the pavement in front of St. Giles cathedral. As we walked past we noticed people spitting on it. At this very spot used to stand the Old Tolbooth which was the towns administration but also prison. This was also the place for public executions.

The spitting is now said to bring good luck but it's also said to still be a sign of disdain for the former prison.

I just think spitting is a filthy habit...

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Up the Royal mile we walked, all the way up to the castle. We didn't go in though.

Close to 16:30 it was time to walk down again for light night. The city of Edinburgh was going to light the big Christmas tree and there would be fireworks. We saw the fireworks being set up but unfortunately most of the display was cancelled due to strong winds :-(

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The only part that was still done was the lighting ceremony itself which was nice though.

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After a final round on the fun fair (including a ride on the ferris wheel!) we went home.