Views from Salisbury Crags

Ordered approximately clockwise
Views from Arthur's Seat or back to the Views Menu

	Lion's Head 1152 x 864 282K	A summer's day on the summit of Arthur's Seat. About a dozen people can be seen on the skyline on this Monday morning in June 2003.
	Arthur's Seat 29 New Path 1152 x 864 515K	Lots of detail in this long-lens shot of the new zig-zag footpath up Arthur's Seat to the right of the eroded Gutted Haddie.
	Arthur's Seat 28 New Path 648 x 864 309K	This vertical shot shows more of the zig-zag path and the badly-eroded Gutted Haddie on its left.
	Radical Road 21 InfraRed 1280 x 851 306K	This is at the south end of Radical Road facing back towards the start of the walk from the Queen's Drive road.
	Radical Road 20 InfraRed 1280 x 851 370K	This view is also at the south end of Radical Road. To compose infrared shots it's best to do so on a tripod before attaching an R72 filter. Handheld shots will be hit or miss even with wide angle lenses, almost impossible with telephoto ones.
	Arthur's Seat 44 1152 x 864 359K	The main path up Arthur's Seat as seen from the southern end of the crags. The eroded area known as the Gutted Haddie may eventually become covered again, now that there's a footpath.
	Roundabouts InfraRed 1280 x 831 290K	Twin roundabouts connect Queen's Drive (foreground) and Holyrood Park Road. It's obvious from these photos that plants reflect more infrared light than inanimate surfaces.
	Crags View 04 1152 x 864 63.8K	Salisbury Crags looking rather sinister, especially when you remember that these cliffs in Holyrood Park have been the scenes of murders and suicides. A lone figure walks into the mist.
		These misty pictures are part of a set and interrupt the clockwise sequence.
	Calton Hill Mist 1152 x 864 135.7K	Nelson's Monument stands totally alone in a sea of cloud. Calton Hill, Leith and the Firth of Forth are submersed in fog. The sun shines down on the grass on top of Salisbury Crags. On the far horizon the tops of some hills in Fife are just visible.
	View to Nelson Monument 1152 x 864 153K	Taken on a different day with rain sweeping along the Firth of Forth.
	Crags View 08 1152 x 864 105.1K	Far below, the Dumbiedykes district is partially obscured by the mist. Further away Edinburgh Castle and Corstorphine Hill are poking through into the sunshine.
	Crags View 10 1152 x 864 57K	Twin cranes poke up through the mist, but the Dynamic Earth building lurks in the shade, looking more like a sea-cucumber than an armadillo. The nascent Scottish Parliament building is invisible.
	Crags View 11 1152 x 864 62.3K	A similar image to the previous one, but with a slightly wider field of view. Here we can see the sun shining down on the mist, as well as a glimpse of a Fife hill-top several miles away across the Firth of Forth.
	Crags View 15 1152 x 864 125.4K	In this shot the sunny foreground contrasts with the mysterious gloom far below.
	Crags View 20 1152 x 864 51.1K	This was a very odd experience. The sun is casting a shadow of Salisbury Crags onto the layer of mist below. Our two shadows are also visible because we were standing on the edge of the cliff. Moray House College of Education is barely visible but a reflective road sign catches the sun's rays and shines brightly through the gloom.
	Crags View 23 1152 x 864 41.6K	Looking down onto the 'armadillo' building and the new roundabout on Queen's Drive, adjacent to the new Scotsman newspaper premises. The Parliament building is barely perceptible.
	Crags View 25 1152 x 864 124.4K	The sun shines on Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile area while mist continues to ebb and flow around Dumbiedykes and Holyrood Road.
	Crags View 26 1152 x 864 62.8K	This view looks like some mysterious undersea scene but it's only the Dynamic Earth building and one or two trees.
	Hunters Bog 04 1152 x 864 80.3K	Looking for all the world like the haunted landscape that time forgot - but it's actually Holyrood Park in the centre of Edinburgh. The ruined building is St Anthony's Chapel; the valley is Hunter's Bog. Ordinarily, the houses at Spring Gardens and Royal Park Terrace would be visible, but on this Sunday morning in October they're hidden by fog rolling in from the North Sea.
		The clockwise sequence now reverts to normal.
	Bonaly & Oxgangs 1152 x 864 193K	Photographed through a long lens from Salisbury Crags.
	Holyrood Park Road 1152 x 864 265K	As seen through a long lens from the Radical Road. To the left is the car park for the Commonwealth Pool. On the right, hidden behind the trees, is the Scottish Widows building. Dalkeith Road runs across the top of the picture.
	Montague St 01 1152 x 864 281K	Montague Street has been pronounced 'montaygay' (with the emphasis on the 2nd syllable) by locals for many years. The long x10 zoom lens seems to flatten the perspective and give the image an isometric appearance.
	Rankeillor St 03 1152 x 864 275K	Just north of Montague Street is Rankeillor Street. The LRT double decker bus is in Clerk Street having just passed the lane known as Gifford Park. This area has many student flats being close to Old College and other parts of Edinburgh University.
	McEwan Hall to Murrayfield 1280 x 938	At the bottom left corner is the top of the tower of the Mosque and Islamic Centre at 50 Potterrow. To its right is the Medical School and McEwan Hall. The old Royal Infirmary lies in front of the light grey triple chimney. To the right is the sloping roof of the Scottish Widows Headquarters. Murrayfield Stadium is at the top of the picture.
	St Leonard's 7 1024 x 553 129K	Not a good photo - but it illustrates the difference between this picture from c.1967 and 1999 (below) with trees!
	St Leonard's 1999 1024 x 768 208K	Looking west across The Meadows from the top of Salisbury Crags. The white tent was used in the 1999 Edinburgh Festival. For comparison see a 1967 view (above) from the Radical Road.
	St Leonard's 2005b 1152 x 864 337K	Six years have elapsed since the picture above and the trees (completely absent in the first picture) have grown appreciably.
	Radical Road 15 768 x 1024 283K	A stroll round the Radical Road is a pleasant walk at any time of year. Breathtaking views of the city and the surrounding countryside can be had. The path's northern end is near Holyrood Palace and the southern end is about 600m from the Commonwealth Swimming Pool.
	Radical Road & Crags View 45 768 x 1024 299K	This shot shows more of the crags with a slightly different view of the city. The black shape of the Walter Scott Monument in East Princes Street Gardens can be seen just left of centre, with Fettes College behind the trees of Inverleith Park. It was Walter Scott who suggested building the Radical Road as a job creation exercise to relieve unemployment.
	Crags 0310b 1152 x 864 300K	Here you can see the path along the top of the crags and a walker coming down the slope towards the camera.
	Crags 0310c 1152 x 864 239K	This shows a cliff-edge walker with the city and the Firth of Forth down below.
	Queen's Drive 0310 1152 x 864 368K	The road through Holyrood Park called Queen's Drive runs along the bottom of the picture.
	Radical Road 04 648 x 864 231K	Looking down from the top of Salisbury Crags onto the Radical Road. Two walkers admire the view over the city.
	Radical View 1024 x 768 218K	Taken from the Radical Road, the footpath around the bottom of Salisbury Crags. Dumbiedykes is the district below. The Firth of Forth can be seen Behind the city of Edinburgh.
	Crags View 31 1152 x 864 335K	I was attracted by the colourful but sparse vegetation on the cliff edge, and was able to emphasise this because the middle distance was in the shadow of a cloud.
	Crags View 32 1152 x 864 295K	In this shot I zoomed in to have a closer look at the flowers and the reduced depth-of-field blurred the the distance.
	Dumbiedykes 1152 x 864 245K	Amazingly, this area bounded by Holyrood Park, Holyrood Road and The Pleasance lay derelict for so long, the city fathers could possibly be forgiven for this scheme.
	Dumbiedykes 2005 800 x 600 168K	The stark, boxy architecture still makes me cringe. I've included this recent snap which shows the trees doing a reasonable job of hiding the houses from Queen's Drive, but not from up here on Salisbury Crags.
	Crags View 46 Edinburgh Castle 1152 x 864 196K	The castle lies in the distance on the left. The cliff edge is unfenced - people's natural fear of heights prevents most accidents. Good walking boots are advised, especially near the south end.
	The Pleasance East Adam Street Edinburgh Castle in the '70s 1040 x 1518 307K	A new scan of an old negative. The image is taller than virtually all screens but only slightly wider than some in 2005. Scroll down to see The Pleasance running across the bottom of the picture. In the foreground the car park has long since been built on. Those houses behind the triangular patch of grass at the back of The Pleasance are still there today. The Edinburgh University Old College dome can be seen about 1/3 down on the right of the picture. Corstorphine Hill is in the distance,
	View 0 1024 x 768 180K	This picture has the camera pointing directly west with McEwan Hall at the centre, Murrayfield Rugby Stadium at the far left and Corstorphine Hill in the distance to the right.
	Crags View 33 1152 x 864 232K	Landmarks visible in this shot include: Tron Kirk, Scott Monument, Fettes College, blocks of flats at Muirhouse, Firth of Forth, Ochil Hills and distant mountains.
	Crags View 34 1152 x 864 248K	A similar picture but with the camera panned left slightly to show both the Forth Bridge (rail) and the Forth Road Bridge. Any help in naming the distant mountains would be appreciated.
	View 9 1024 x 768 172K	The Scott Monument is right-of-centre. Behind that, in the middle-distance, is Fettes College where Prime Minister Tony Blair went to school. Both Forth Bridges are visible in the distance.
	View A4 1024 x 768 190K	North Bridge is in the centre, crossing above Waverley Station. The Scott Monument as at the left and The Balmoral Hotel is at the right at the east end of Princes Street.
	North Bridge, Balmoral Hotel 1152 x 864 257K	Double decker buses crossing the bridge over Waverley Station and ships sailing up and down the Firth of Forth. The clock on the Balmoral Hotel says it's 3.25pm. I preferred the hotel's original name, the North British Hotel or NB for short.
	Crags View 50 1152 x 864 305K	Photograph taken mid December 2004. In the middle distance a double decker bus has crossed sloping North Bridge over the top of Waverley Station. Part of Princes Street is visible between the Scott Monument and Balmoral Hotel.
	North Bridge 40 1280 x 851 349K	From the top of Salisbury Crags is this view showing two spans of North Bridge over Waverley Station. Part of Princes Street can be seen behind the Balmoral Hotel.
	Balmoral Hotel Granton Gasworks 791 x 1024 275K	A monochrome view from the Radical Road at the foot of Salisbury Crags. Two features can date this picture: The single gasometer shell at Granton and the remaining scaffolding on the old GPO building, soon to be a hotel with roof gardens.
	View 1 1024 x 768 131K	Two people are approaching the top of Salisbury Crags in this picture. The Forth Bridges are just visible behind Corstorphine Hill.
	View 2 1024 x 768 129K	A good view over the Firth of Forth to Fife, and a good place to bring children - as long as you don't let them fall over the cliff...
	View 3 1024 x 768 169K	Another view over to Fife but this time with the site of the new Scottish Parliament building in the foreground, as well as the Dynamic Earth exhibition. January 2000.
	View A3 904 x 768 133K	Old St Andrew's House is the large building in the foreground, behind which is Waterloo Place. Some of the Year 2000 fairground shows are visible. Granton Gas Works is in the distance.
	View A1 800 x 600 93K	Contrasting architecture. The older buildings are on either side of the Canongate, part of the Royal Mile which runs left to right across the picture.
	Holyrood Road 0306b 1152 x 864 300K	The view from Salisbury Crags through a long lens in June 2003. The city is changing round here with a mixture of old and new. On the left is Lochview Court, part of the Dumbiedykes council housing development built in the early '60s. More info at Scottish Gazeteer. If you fancy visiting the TUN then read about it here.
	Parliament June 2003 c 1152 x 864 234K	The text on the green-painted wooden fence reads "This is our land, this is our Scotland, these are our people, these are our men, our works...". Behind the fence is a plethora of portacabins populated by the people building the new parliament. Let's hope it's going to be worth the escalating expense.
	Parliament June 2003 e 1152 x 864 393K	Considerable quantities of concrete have appeared since I took the photograph View 3 above. Most of the building is obscured by sheets of plastic over the scaffolding. Watch this space, but don't hold your breath.
	Parliament July '04 1152 x 864 222K	It's supposed to be occupied by our MSPs soon, but it still resembles a building site when seen from the crags. It must have been fun designing all these sweeping curves but a nightmare to put them into reality. I'm sure builders prefer straight lines or simpler curves.
	Parliament Sept '04 g 1152 x 864 257K	There's still workmen here as the Scottish Parliament relocates to the new building. The new building contrasts with the Calton New [sic] Burial Ground between Calton Road and Regent Road.
	Parliament Sept '04 h 1152 x 864 213K	The elegant old beside the flashy new.
	Parliament Sept '04 p 1152 x 864 247K	A general view of the site as seen on 23rd September 2004.
	Parliament December 2004e 1152 x 864 254K	Strange geometry in the ground adjoining the new Scottish Parliament.
	Parliament May 2005 789 x 1024 294K	Looking a bit tidier now. An unusual building in an unusual environment.
	Parliament July '05 c 1152 x 864 254K	There has been some recent controversy about the grass at Parliament. There's also been mention of traces of coke in the toilets, but that's another matter. In the previous picture the grass was green. Here it's brown and that's upsetting some people.
	Parliament July '05 b 1152 x 864 219K	The grass is not only quite brown in places, it's also wild, unkempt and going to seed. Apparently the intention was that it would mirror the appearance of the grass on nearby Arthur's Seat. I'm broadly in favour of having mowing plans, e.g. The Meadows area now has parts left uncut for longer and this gives a flowering meadow environment a chance.
	Parliament July '05 d 1152 x 864 209K	If this area was going to be wild, then why arrange its 'wildness' in converging concrete curves? I can just imagine this Italian dude drawing sweeping artistic curves on his drawing board... Maybe a grassroots poll is called for: Should it be strimmed or mowed, weeded manually or with chemicals etc. Should native plants be encouraged and foreign invaders be weeded out?
The above image included as part of a set althought it's not from the crags. More parliament-related pictures are on Royal Mile page 4 and page 10 - go to top of this page
	Parliament Oct '05 1152 x 864 250K	A monochrome study taken from the top of Salisbury Crags.
	Crags View 51 1280 x 1024 406K	This large wallpaper-sized photo was taken from Whinny Hill. The green area at the bottom left of the picture is the top of Salisbury Crags. The armadillo-like Dynamic Earth building is at bottom right. North Bridge and Princes Street lie beyond.
	Flour Mill 19 1152 x 864 159K	This one was taken from the Radical Road using the digital equivalent of a 420mm lens, roughly about a x9 optical zoom. The foreground is in shadow but the white flour mill at Leith is picked out by the sun, as is the town of Burntisland over in Fife. The Craigkelly TV transmitter stands high above.
	View A2 1024 x 768 157K	Abbeyhill leads to Easter Road which leads towards Leith Docks in the distance.
	Easter Road 11 1280 x 965 408K	This replaces two previous pictures both taken from the same part of Salisbury Crags. A large part of the Edinburgh population live in flats like these, most often 4 storeys high but sometimes more. The chimneys don't emit much smoke any more.
	St Margaret's Loch 1024 x 768 223K	Bright November sunshine throws the surface of Arthur's Seat into relief in this shot looking down onto St Margaret's Loch. This is an earlier picture with a rather different view of St Anthony's chapel.
	Crags 0911 1280 x 854 350K	Six photos from the Radical Road at the foot of Salisbury Crags. Whilst boots are recommended for walking along the top of the crags, normal shoes are OK here.
	Crags 0911a 1280 x 854 266K	In this age of litigation disclaimers are everywhere including here. At the top of the crags the authorities depend on our natural fear of heights rather than post signs stating the obvious.
	Crags 0911b 1280 x 854 340K	This view illustrates the geology quite well. The figure perched at the top shows the scale.
	Crags 0911c 1280 x 854 236K	The sun occasionally broke through the clouds drifting off the sea on this November day.
	Cragsview 61 Sunny Leith 1280 x 927 185K	Sunny Leith and sunny Burntisland town across the Firth of Forth.
	Cragsview 62 Sunny Leith 1280 x 903 201K	This view shows sunny Leith and the caravans near Kinghorn in Fife.

Views from Arthur's Seat or back to the Views Menu

Clockwise?

Previously I had divided the Views section into Edinburgh Central Views and Edinburgh South Views. Images were generally located according to where the photograph was taken from, rather then the place(s) it was a view of. It got messy and even I had trouble finding pictures.

Salisbury Crags form quite a large U shape when viewed from above. Images on this page should roughly correspond to a clockwise journey from the Gutted Haddie (south) end of the crags to the Haggis Knowe (north) end. Some of the pictures date from the 1960s. I've ordered the pictures in a clockwise direction according to where they were taken from - and where the lens was pointing.

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New page December 2009 Views over the mist on Arthur's Seat
Also Views from Arthur's Seat pages one and two

Views from Salisbury Crags

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