Edinburgh at One O'Clock

Here I am in Stirling, and I've given the gutless Peugeot back to Eurocar and will be on the train for the remainder of the week. You'll need to look lively if you're coming to Edinburgh with me in the morning.

Here we are on the train to Edinburgh with all the early morning commuters. When we arrive I seek out the Hop-on-hop-off bus for a getting-to-know-you tour. I do the full circuit and, as in London, money well spent.

Next stop the Australian Consulate with the intention of voting but, no sorry, you can only vote in London. Okay, I surrender. Tried to vote in Australia before I left: papers not out yet. Postal vote? No fixed address to receive mail. In London: too early. Now no voting in Edinburgh. I shall send an apologetic email.

I've wasted at least thirty precious minutes doing that so I hasten on to the business of the day: Castle, Royal Mile, Holyrood House Palace, and the best I'll save for last.

The queue at the Castle is long. I'm entertained by a pair of Americans, a young man and a young woman, behind me in the line. Actually they are pointing out to each other that they are Texans first and Americans second. I discover that Texas used to be part of Mexico and the predictions are that by 2050 it will be 90% Hispanic. They are related somehow but I can't quite figure out how. They're delving into family history. Cousins perhaps? If we're in this queue much longer I'll just have to ask them!

At last, we're in. Not long until the One O'clock Gun which has been fired every day, except Sundays and during the two World Wars, from the Half Moon Battery since 1861. My audio guide answers the inevitable question of why one o'clock? The suggestion is that, being Scots and famed for their thrifty ways, a one o'clock gun will use a whole lot less gunpowder than any other o'clock!

BANG! Oh, wow, yes, that was fun!

Around the castle grounds I see the simple little chapel of St Margaret, the oldest building in Edinburgh; the enormous Mons Meg cannon which is over 550 years old and fired stone cannon-balls weighing 150 kilograms; Scotland's crown jewels and the great wooden box they were sealed inside for 100 years; and finally the ancient Stone of Scone, Scotland's pride and joy returned to its rightful home.

Then it's off for a stroll down the Royal Mile to the Palace which is situated at the opposite end from the castle. But who the heck are all these singers and dancers and street performers cluttering up the roadway, and their audience filling every other space?

Ah, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. All very entertaining I'm sure but I can go to Adelaide for this sort of thing.

I pick my way through the crowds and head for Holyrood House. It's quite a domestic size for a palace and you can imagine the Royal Family comfortable ensconced here when they visit Edinburgh. The most outstanding feature of the decorations to be seen here are the wonderful and enormous tapestries which cover the oak panelled walls.

And now, strangely, the best bit of the day, was a detour to the Greyfriars Kirkyard to visit the memorial to Greyfriars Bobby, the little Skye terrier who lingered near the grave of his master, John Gray, for fourteen years.

He became a legend in his own time, his picture was painted (now hanging in the church) and, not long before he died the Baroness Burdett-Coutts asked permission to erect a granite drinking fountain with a statue of Bobby in bronze. It stands at the corner of Candlemaker Row just outside the Kirkyard. It is the second most photographed attraction in Edinburgh after the Castle!

Bobby's story has a link to the One O'clock Gun at the Castle. It seems that a sergeant of the Royal Engineers trained Bobby to go for his dinner at the eatery in Candlemaker Row each day when he heard the one o'clock gun.

When Bobby died in 1872, he was buried in a flower bed near the church wall because it was not deemed proper to bury him in the consecrated ground of the Kirkyard. But today the first stone you see as you enter the Kirkyard is a red granite memorial stone for Bobby erected by the Dog Aid Society of Scotland in 1981. Was this when it came to the attention of the movie-makers?

A matching stone was erected marking the site of John Gray's grave by 'American Lovers of Bobby'.

The story of Bobby is also the story of the people touched by it, those who offered him food and shelter in the cold of winter, and those who parted with their cash to erect memorials that would ensure the faithfulness of a little dog would always be remembered.