3354 UNITED KINGDOM (Scotland) - Scott Monument - part of Old and New Towns of Edinburgh (UNESCO WHS)

Placed in Princes Street Gardens in New Town, opposite the Jenners department store on Princes Street, the Scott Monument is a Victorian Gothic monument to famous Scottish author Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832), designed by George Meikle Kemp and inaugurated in 1846. Sitting proudly at the base of the monument is Sir Walter himself, carved in Carrara marble by Sir John Steell. This monumental statue, fashioned from a single piece of marble weighing 30 tons, took the sculptor six years to complete. It features Scott and his beloved hound Maida.

3350 UNITED KINGDOM (Scotland) - Greyfriars Bobby Fountain

Greyfriars Bobby (1855 - 1872) was a Skye Terrier who became known in 19th-century Edinburgh for spending 14 years guarding the grave of his owner until he died himself. The story continues to be well known in Scotland, through several books and films. A prominent commemorative statue and nearby graves are a tourist attraction. A year later, the English philanthropist Lady Burdett-Coutts was charmed by the story and had a drinking fountain topped with Bobby's statue (commissioned from the sculptor William Brodie) erected at the junction of George IV Bridge and Candlemaker Row (opposite the entrance to the churchyard) to commemorate him.

0059, 3225 UNITED KINGDOM (Scotland) - Edinburgh Castle - part of Old and New Towns of Edinburgh (UNESCO WHS)

0059 Edinburgh Castle during the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo

Posted on 03.12.2017, 24.12.2017

Edinburgh Castle, which dominates the skyline of the city from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock, is a recognisable symbol of Edinburgh and of Scotland. There has been a royal castle here since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century, and the site continued to be a royal residence until the Union of the Crowns in 1603. It was involved in many historical conflicts, from the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 14th century, up to the Jacobite Rising of 1745.

3225 View of the Edinburgh Castle
from West Princes Street,
with Princes Street Gardens and
Ross Fountain in foreground

During the Lang Siege (1571–1573) the medieval fortifications were largely destroyed by artillery bombardment. The last monarch who sleeping in the castle was Charles I, on the night before his coronation as King of Scotland (1633). In nowaday the castle houses the Scottish National War Memorial and the National War Museum of Scotland and it's the backdrop to the annual Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, performed by British Armed Forces, Commonwealth and International military bands.

2823 UNITED KINGDOM (Scotland) - The map of Pabay Island

Pabay is an island in the Inner Sound of Skye, the largest and most northerly major island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It lies south of Longay and east of the larger Scalpay. The island is formed of fossil-containing limestone, and forms a flat plateau with cliffs on the North and East shores. The surrounding low reefs encroach on its shores and double the area at low water. Pabay was inhabited in the 19th century, but now it has a single house and is only accessible by boat or helicopter. It issues its own postage stamps.

1112 UNITED KINGDOM (Scotland) - A Highlander piper near the Eilean Donan Castle

For centuries the inhabitants of Scotland have been building fortifications and strongholds of one kind or another, so that at one time there were over 3,000 castles, larger or smaller. Many of them are in ruins or have disappeared completely, but hundreds still remained, to remind the tumultuous history of these lands. One of the most picturesque of them is the castle located on the Eilean Donan (Island of Donnán), a small tidal island where three lochs meet, Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh, in Wester Ross.

0838 UNITED KINGDOM (Scotland) - Heart of Neolithic Orkney (UNESCO WHS)

0838 Skara Brae

Heart of Neolithic Orkney refers to a group of Neolithic monuments found on the Mainland, one of the islands of Orkney, consisting of a large chambered tomb (Maeshowe), two ceremonial stone circles (the Standing Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar) and a settlement (Skara Brae), together with a number of unexcavated burial, ceremonial and settlement sites. It is an exceptional testimony to an important indigenous cultural tradition which flourished over 500-1,000 years but disappeared by about 2000 BC.

0611 UNITED KINGDOM (Scotland) - St. Kilda (UNESCO WHS)

The archipelago of St Kilda, the remotest part of the British Isles, lies 66 km west of Benbecula in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, in the North Atlantic Ocean, and represents the remnants of a long-extinct ring volcano rising from the seabed plateau. Regarding the archipelago's name, there are several theories, but none seems to be satisfactory, especially there isn't known a saint by the name of Kilda. The largest island in the group is Hirta, which comprises more than 78% of the land area of the archipelago.

0261 UNITED KINGDOM (Scotland) - Old and New Towns of Edinburgh (UNESCO WHS)

On the current territory of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland since the 15th century, was a settlement at least in the Bronze Age, but the town was truly established by the 12th century. In the 16th century it was in the centre of Scottish Reformation and the Wars of the Covenant a hundred years later, that in the 18th century to be the heart of the Scottish Enlightenment. The city has two distinct areas: the Old Town, dominated by the medieval fortress, and the New Town, whose development from the 18th century onwards had a far-reaching influence on European urban planning.

0117 UNITED KINGDOM (Scotland) - The Hub - part of Old and New Towns of Edinburgh (UNESCO WHS)

0117 Ramsey Gardens (in the front) and the Hub (in the back)

 

About the Ramsay Gardens I wrote here, so I'll pass straight to The Hub (former Tolbooth Church), of which can be seen only the steeple, the highest of Edinburgh (73m). Located on the Lawnmarket, just down from the Edinburugh Castle, this Gothic landmark, also known as St John's Highland Church, it was built in 1839-1844 to served as both a parish church and the annual meeting place for the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

0074 UNITED KINGDOM (Scotland) - Ramsay Gardens - part of Old and New Towns of Edinburgh (UNESCO WHS)

0074 The Ramsay Garden and the Edinburgh Castle

The Ramsay Garden is a block of sixteen private apartment buildings developed into its current form between 1890 and 1893 by the biologist, botanist and urban planner Patrick Geddes (the inventor of the term conurbation). Designed by the architect Stewart Henbest Capper, it was build by Sydney Mitchell, who had also taken over as architect, the result being a combination of traditional Scottish domestic architecture and a rather fanciful proliferation of balconies, towers and eaves.