Athens of the north

YOU can’t leave Edinburgh without trotting the path to Calton Hill. From here, you get a sweeping view of the capital of Scotland, hailed as the most beautiful city in Britain. And for two consecutive years since 2015, readers of the leading UKbased travel guide publisher, the Rough Guides, voted it as the world’s fourth most beautiful city.

I walked up the hill from Princes Street, one of the main shopping streets in the city. As I ascended higher, I saw jaw-dropping views at every turn. Pointed tops and Georgian- and Victorian Gothic-style buildings spread across the skyline. It seemed to merge with the sea in the distance. The enormous North Bridge, the ancient Edinburgh Castle perched on the hilly Castle Rock, and the numerous Gothic churches, all like fairy-tale structures rising to gigantic heights, formed a panoramic view unlike anywhere else I’ve ever seen.

Though it was summer, I felt the cold winds. Fifteen degrees Centigrade was Scotland’s warmest temperature of the year! The weather made the climb uphill pleasant though I was huffing and puffing like bellows most of the way. Pretty wild flowers greeted me wherever I turned. Flowering plants sprouted even on craggy surfaces or grew abundantly on the green fields that formed part of the summit park.

Calton Hill once sat on an active volcano, dating back some 350 million years ago, even before dinosaurs roamed the Earth. In the 19th to the 20th centuries, development of a “New Town” encroached into the hilly area, including six other hills. Researchers believed that the city of Edinburgh was built on these seven hills, all volcanic in origin.

Arthur’s Seat volcano, once with a tilted top, lies to the south of Calton Hill. I could only see fragments of Arthur’s Seat, where molten rock had come to surface. Other surrounding hills had signs of volcanic lava flows from many past eruptions. Protected by Scottish Natural Heritage as a site of special scientific interests, Calton Hill is part of Arthur’s Seat volcano complex, which extends to the Edinburgh Castle Rock. The whole area had also been a geological gem since time immemorial.

At the top of Calton Hill, you can’t miss the imposing Roman pillars of the National Monument, dedicated to Scottish servicemen who perished in the Napoleonic Wars in the 19th century. Its builders were inspired by the design of the Parthenon in Athens, which epitomises the glory of ancient Greece, and in keeping with Edinburgh’s coveted moniker as “Athens of the north”. The project was ambitious in its time, and failed due to a lack of funds to complete it. What stood till today were its 12 columns. Several attempts were made in modern times to complete it but none materialised. Locals rarely call it the National Monument, preferring instead to call it Edinburgh’s Disgrace or The Pride And The Poverty.

Other historic monuments are also located on the hill, making it an important place for you to visit and learn about the city’s history. The 19th-century Nelson Monument with its up-turned telescope commemorates the death of Admiral Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar about 21 decades ago. A time ball sits atop this monument, which back in the day, helped ships moored in the Firth of Forth to set the time of the day on the dot. Another eye-catching structure is the City Observatory, with a design reminiscent of a Greek temple, the Four Winds. It was here that Scotland’s first Astronomer Royal, Professor Thomas Henderson, discovered how to measure the distance of the stars and parallax, which is the way an object’s position or direction seems to change depending on viewing angle.

Calton Hill was also once the home for the notorious Calton Jail, comprising a Debtors’ Prison and other jails used in the 18th to 19th centuries. Demolished in 1930, the prisons were replaced by Saughton Prison, and later became a site for St. Andrew’s House, where Scotland’s senior civil servants lived. Only one building,

Inspired by the design of the Parthenon in Athens, these 19th-century Roman pillars have now become Edinburgh’s iconic National Monument; Another vantage spot on Calton Hill is the City Observatory, an astronomical station with classical architecture that blends many examples of telescope craftsmanship; Part of the public park on Calton Hill with a sweeping view of the city of Edinburgh; Wild flowers thrive on the hill, once part of an active volcano; The fairyland landscape of Edinburgh, the most beautiful city in Britain; The view from one of the vantage points on Calton Hill. The Edinburgh Castle sprawls on Castle Rock facing the sea.

the Governors House, has survived the ravages of time. It stands near the lower walls of the prison on the south side of St. Andrew’s House, above Calton Road.

Historic significance aside, Calton Hill is a popular recreational spot for locals. It is also the venue for many of the city’s festivals, including the famous year-end Hogmanay

fireworks and torchlight procession at midnight with thousands of torchbearers creating a “river of fire” from the centre of the city to the hill. Standing there on the hill, I could imagine the torches blazing through the streets, and then casting their fiery spell right up to where I stood — in the shadows of what to have been Edinburgh’s Parthenon.