Picture of Edinburgh
Caption: Hiking the Edinburgh seven
Picture
Caption: Go somewhere you know nothing about and see what happens.
Karl Ove Knausgård Cities from all over the world have this obsession of being built upon 7 hills with 93 different cities all making claims like this including Aalten in the Netherlands 🤔, Edinburgh is no different. Although there is some debate over which 7 make up the Edinburgh 7 I chose to head out and walk the "traditional" 7. I have been up these hills multiple times, particularly during this past year but I have never linked them all up into one walk. I decided not to bother looking at maps or use google during this walk, I knew I would be heading to parts of the town that I have spent little time in but the idea of getting a little lost in a city that I know so well was somewhat enticing. Would I make it up all 7 hills? Would I get lost? And most importantly would my phone battery last all day!
Picture of Arthur's Seat
Caption: Hill no.1 Arthur's Seat. It's rare to find the summit of Arthur's Seat so quite, particularly on such a sunny day, perhaps the wind had blown everyone away!
Video of Arthur's Seat
Caption: apologies for the shaky video, I was being blown backwards at the time!
Picture of Salisbury Crags
Caption: ↙️ This would be my second last hill of the day, or would it?
(foreshadowing!)
Picture of The Wee Café
Caption: Food stop no.1 The Wee Cafe, an amazing selection of food including an extensive veg/vegan menue and no extra charge for milk alternatives which I love, I will definitely be coming back here.
Picture of Margiotta Warrender Park
Caption: Food stop no.2 (that's right, 2 food stops after only 1 hill 😄 judge away if you want, I was having a great time!) Margiottas is something of an institution here in Edinburgh. They are a small chain of family run convenience shops.
Picture of Blackford Hill
Caption: Hill no.2 Blackford, you get some of my favourite panoramic views of Edinburgh from this hill.
Video of Edinburgh
Picture of The Hermitage
Caption: No time to soak my feet, only 2 hills down with 5 still to go
Picture of Braid Hills
Caption: Hill no.3 the Braid. I have really gotten into podcasts this past year (a little late to the show I know) but I thought I would try an audio book for this walk and went for The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher (I love this woman). I downloaded the book for free from Audible and for your free trial of Audible simply use coupon code... ...This story is sadly not sponsored by Audible or anyone else for that matter of fact but if you do work for Audible feel free to hit me up 😁
Picture of SOMEWHERE
Caption: So it happened, I got a little lost in suburbia. I did stumble across what looked like a great little Italian cafe though, turns out not all Italians love coffee, worst coffee in a long time 🤢
Picture of Craiglockhart Hill
Caption: Hill no.4 Craiglockhart mini volcano 🤔
Picture of Corstorphine Hill
Caption: Hill no.5 Corstorphine. Spotted some zebra on the walk up 🦓
Picture of Corstorphine Hill
Caption: Not yet, I am over 20k in but still have 2 hills to go
Picture of Corstorphine Hill
Caption: Edinburgh Castle is a historically protected building but so is this car park
Picture of Esplanade
Caption: Hill no.6 Castle Rock. I could not walk right up to the Castle I belive because of a bomb threat down at Holyrood Palace at the time. Edinburgh Castle is still an active military base and the armys bomb disposal team in Scotland are bassed at the Castle.
Picture of Calton Hill
Picture of Calton Hill
Caption: Boom, hill no.7 Calton! So my walk has taken me up the Edinburgh 7 hills. I covered 31k with 830m of assent in five and a half hours door to door. Do you live in one of the 93 cities built on 7 hills? Have you been up them all? If you don't have 7 hills what doorstep adventure can you go on where you live, I would love to know.
Picture of Abbeyhill
Caption: Bonus hill, Abbyhill
Picture of Cornelius Beer & Wine
Caption: Most important stop of the day! If you have made it this far into my story, thank you. I do have a few quick questions for you though. Do you mind that all these photos were taken from a phone? Would you like more or less information in my stories? Do you often watch stories that are longer than 10 slides long? Thanks in advance!
