© 2017 Snapping the Globe, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
In 1850, an apostle of Church or Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, Orson Pratt, climbed Arthur’s Seat to pray to God for more converts.
In 1884, Emile Rey, an alpine mountain guide, estimated that climbing Arthur’s seat would take much of an entire day to reach the top, before he did so in a shorter time period.
In 2016, Leah and Ethan, two American tourists, climbed the hill in record time (theirs anyway) trying to summit and then enter Holyrood Palace before closing time.
Okay, so we are not prominent figures in history! But we did climb Arthur’s Seat… the hard way…in record time!
My son and I had spent the morning at Edinburgh Castle. Heading down the Royal Mile, we made it to Holyrood Palace around half past one. The day had cleared and as we approached the palace, we could see many people along the ridgeline of Arthur’s Seat. Watching the tiny figures, my son said, “I wish it didn’t get so dark so early, we could have climbed Arthur’s Seat after we finished touring the palace.”
Wanting to make sure that he enjoyed his time in Edinburgh, I suggested that we verify the closing time of the palace and see if we couldn’t fit it in first. Surely climbing that hill wouldn’t take that long!
The ticket agent at the palace let us know that the palace was closing at 3:30 that day and the last ticket would be sold fifteen minutes prior. We told her what we wanted to do and she gave us her input. Climbing the hill would take about 45 minutes to the top and about 30 minutes to get back down and to the palace.
If we hurried, we could make it.
Hurrying out of the palace gates, we turned left towards the hill and crossed the car park toward the start of the path.
Only…there were two paths.
One to the left and one to the right. People were walking off both ways and we weren’t quite sure what to do. Well, we wanted to climb and the one on the right appeared to ascend. Right…we’ll go right!
The path was pretty steep and even though I like to think I am in shape, I began to realize that I’m not. My son, the much better athlete, began to pace himself and wait every now and then to let me catch up. Stopping every now and then, however, not only gave me a chance to catch my breath, but gave us the chance to appreciate the astonishing views.
As we neared a bend, we assumed the path would continue upward, only when we turned, the path leveled off and then descended. Wait..what? We continued down and could see on the next hill where people were climbing a much steeper route. As we got to the bottom of the path, we looked to the left and could see a trail that appeared to have wound itself around the hill we had just climbed and then descended…and…it was pretty level. Could this have been where the people who walked to the left ended up? That’s what it looked like!
We moved on to the next hill, climbing slowly, breathing heavy. Watching the time carefully, we realized that it had taken us a lot longer to get to this point than we had anticipated. Deciding that my son could possibly make it without me, I sent him on ahead. I would get to whatever point I could and hopefully meet him on his way back.
At the top point of the hill, I did meet up with him, however, he pointed over to another elevation in the distance…the summit. I decided that we would continue. We were so close and even turning back now did not guarantee us making the closing of the palace.
Taking another path, we found ourselves at the base of the final push. After a treacherous rock scramble, we made it! 823 feet high! On the summit, there was a trig point and beautiful views of the city and along the coast to the east. Breathtaking!
Fighting the strong winds, we managed to snap a couple of pictures and with a glance at our watches, we decided that if that path we missed on the way here was indeed a quicker, shorter way, we then had thirty minutes to make it back to the palace before the ticket counter closed.
Scrambling down the rocky route, quicker than any mountain goat could, we quickly reached the level path and began to sprint in intervals. As we finally neared the end of the walkway, it did indeed take us back to where we started (the hard way) and the car park.
Crossing the car park, we had about four minutes to spare. Stumbling into the ticket office, sweating and gasping for breath, I expected the staff to be closing up. Instead, I found a group of Chinese tourist standing in line. Taking our place behind them, we breathed a sigh of relief! We did it!
For more pictures, check out Facebook, Snapping the Globe and Instagram, @snappingtheglobe.
Arthur’s Seat
- https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/lothian/arthurs-seat.shtml
- Summit: 823 feet
- Getting There: Bus to Holyrood Palace, east end of the Royal Mile. By car, utilize car park near Holyrood Palace. From here, cross Queen’s Drive to head towards the grass of Holyrood Park.