Where Rebus Lives

Ok, OK I am beginning to sound a bit obsessive about those Ian Rankin novels. But my sense is that real fans would like to see what Arden Street looks like.

Rankin was living in a basement flat on Arden Street when he came up with the idea for a police novel with Rebus as the cop. He then figured why not have Rebus live there.

Arden Street was a bit more upscale than we expected. I think Rebus made a good investment when he bought the flat.

Authur's Seat Coffins

In The Falls Ian Rankin weaves the story about the Author's Seat Coffins into DI Rebus' case. A coffin is found near a missing young woman's home and Rebus digs around the idea that there might be some kind of connection between the missing girl and the coffins.

The historical record claims that in 1836 five young boys, hunting for rabbits on Arthur's seat found 17 miniature coffins hidden inside a cave. They were arranged under slates on three tiers, two tiers of eight and one solitary coffin on the top. Each coffin, only four inches in length contained a little wooden figure, expertly carved with painted black boots and custom made clothes. The ones on the bottom tier were more deteriorated suggesting that they had been placed there at different times, the ones on top being the most recent.

The reason the coffins were placed there and who might have been responsible has never been discovered and remains a mystery. We had a bit of a challenge finding them in the museum but we tracked them down. Eight of the coffins remain today and they are housed in the National Museum of Scotland.

The Museum is a stone's throw from Edinburgh City Apartments, Greyfriars flat.

The Oxford Bar

I have been on the Rebus trail so in seemed fitting that we drop in at the Oxford Bar around 7:oo this evening.

It is smaller than I ever imagined. Fifteen or twenty people would absolutely fill the front room of the bar up. The back room is a bit bigger but there isn't much to it.

The place has a clubby feel to it. It is very much a local pub and those having a beer were local clientele. Everyone was quite nice though and they didn't seem to mind a stray Canadian dropping in for a pint.

No sign of Ian Rankin though.

The Witches Memorial

It took us quite some time to find the Witches Memorial. Every time we walked up or down the Royal Mile we looked for it to no avail. This afternoon Shelley spotted it on the side of a building up near the castle.

It was a fountain originally but now there are flowers planted in it. The memorial recognizes the fact that there were over 300 witches burned in Edinburgh. The last one in 1722.

If someone accused you of being a witch it was a bit of a no win situation. The accused were often bound with their thumbs tied to their ankles and the accused would be dunked in a pond. If you died the perpetrators were comforted by the fact that you were innocent and would go to heaven. If not, you were obviously a witch, so they burned you at the stake.

Practicing this this type of tough justice was finally abolished in 1736.

Fleshmarket Close

One of the things I look forward to in Edinburgh is digging up locations and situations which turn up in Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels.

Fans will remember his 2004 novel Fleshmarket Close in which two skeletons, one of a woman and another of an infant which turn up under a cellar floor during a restaurant renovation.

Well, this is Fleshmarket Close.

One hates to think of how they came up for the name for this narrow passageway.