A brief Introduction to Edinburgh.
I once had a passenger in my taxi who said that Edinburgh wasn't a real city, but a theatre set to provide a perfect backdrop for the Festival. O.K., he had been celebrating a bit, and sobriety and he were complete strangers, but I know what he meant even if he didn't. It was one of those beautiful still autumn evenings and we were driving along Princes Street with the Castle floodlit above us and the fireworks at the end of the Tattoo had just burst in the sky; there were still crowds of festival-goers wandering the streets and I was very proud of my city.
The overpowering image of Edinburgh for most visitors is, of course, that of the Castle. The ancient volcanic activity of the region having left the Castle rock as a naturally defensible site which could only reasonably be approached from one direction, along the ridge of the rock itself.
This was the original reason for Edinburgh's existence. In the beginning, it grew from a collection of huts on the eastern side of the Castle rock, huddled close for protection. In the valley to the North was a loch which formed part of the Castles defences (and also, apparently a handy garbage disposal place), this was later drained and turned into the present Princes Street Gardens.
The origin of the name "Edinburgh" is open to several theories, any one of which could be correct as far as I know, (if you have a favourite explanation then you'll get no arguments from me), but there is definite archaeological proof of human habitation back to the Bronze age - somewhere about 1,000 B.C. The fort on the Castle rock appears to have served as the main Southern strongpoint of Scotland until about 1018 A.D. when King Malcolm pushed the border down to the River Tweed. Fifty years later, Edinburgh was given the title of a Royal Burgh and became one of the main seats of the Scottish court. This began a real expansion of the town and in 1128 King David I established Holyrood Abbey at the foot of the slope from the Castle rock, at the time this was not actually in Edinburgh but the seperate burgh of Canongate. The major importance of this stems from the fact that the monks of the Abbey discovered that the water from the springs at the foot of Arthur's Seat (the extinct volcano nearby) were perfect for brewing purposes. Hallelujah!
