Scotland England and the Wall: Edinburgh is a Walking Around Kind of Town

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Edinburgh is a Walking Around Kind of Town

Edinburgh is a town made for walking. Most things you might want to see are within a reasonable walking distance. That would make it easy if Edinburgh was flat. Believe me, it isn’t

We started our day with a walk along Cowgate then walked up the hill to the Royal Mile and along to Deacon Brodie’s Close where we had some good strong coffee and some toast. The restaurant is located in what they claim was where William Brodie, the deacon’s son lived, William was a respected councilor and cabinet maker who often plied his craft in peoples homes. The only problem was that he duplicated the keys of the houses he was working on and went back in the evening and helped himself to their belongings. He basically was a reno-man by day, burglar by night. He was caught and hung in 1788, ironically on a scaffold of his own design.

They claim that the image of Brodie and his two personas gave Robert Lewis Stevenson nightmares as a child and subsequently served as the inspiration for his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Hadrian's Wall Background

Hadrian's Wall was built following a visit by Roman Emperor Hadrian in 122 AD. He was quite concerned about raiders from the north. The Roman's were experiencing military difficulties in Britain and he was eager to impose order. He also most likely saw the building of such an impressive wall as a symbol of Roman power in occupied Britain. It was constructed to keep Roman Britain safe from hostile attacks from the Picts. It took somewhere between four to six years to complete.

It was the northernmost boundary of the Roman Empire at that time. The wall stretches from Newcastle, Wallsend-on-Tyne in the east to Bowness on the Solway Firth in the west.

The wall was 73 miles or 117 kilometres long, about 8 to10 feet wide, and 15 feet high. In addition to the wall, the Romans built a system of small forts called milecastles which housed by 60 men every Roman mile along its entire length, with smaller towers every 1/3 mile. Sixteen larger forts holding from 500 to 1000 troops were built into the wall, with large gates on the north face. To the south of the wall the Romans dug a wide ditch called a vallum with six foot high earth banks.

The width and height of Hadrian's Wall was dependent on whatever construction materials which were available nearby. East of River Irthing the wall was made from squared stone and measured 3 metres (9.7 ft) wide and five to six metres (16–20 ft) high, while west of the river the wall was made from turf and measured 6 metres (20 ft) wide and 3.5 metres (11.5 ft) high. This does not include the wall's ditches, berms and forts. The central section measured eight Roman feet wide (7.8 ft or 2.4 m) on a 10-foot (3.0 m) base. Some parts of this section of the wall survive to a height of 7 or 8 feet