Arthur's Seat
Mary Beth Hicks
Today a bunch of us walked up to Arthur's Seat it is described as follows:
The remains of a volcano that erupted under water during the Carboniferous period, Arthur's Seat is located within Holyrood Park in the centre of Edinburgh. Although only 250m (823 feet) in height, Arthur's Seat is a notable landmark, dominating the city. Known also as the Lion's Head, Arthur's Seat is the highest of a series of peaks which take the form of a crouched lion.
Geologically what remains is a basalt lava plug that choked the neck of a volcano which would have been active around 335 million years ago. The action of glaciation has cut into its heart, making it one of the most accessible exposures of an ancient volcano.
Two stony banks on the east side of the hill represent the remains of an Iron Age hill-fort and a series of cultivation terraces are obvious above the road just beyond. In 1836, just below the summit, seventeen minature wooden coffins each containing a carved figure were found in a small cave. Their existence has never been satisfactorily explained; associations with witchcraft have been suggested or perhaps they were memorial to the seventeen victims of the infamous William Burke (1792 - 1829) and William Hare (died c. 1860).
I have to say this was quite a walk. It took us and hour and a half to reach the summit and it was pretty rough going! But it was TOTALLY worth it the views were spectacular!! I put some of the pictures on the link at the bottom of post. Most of the way was pretty muddy and rocky. I slipped a couple of times but I'm okay I just got mud on my pants! When we were walking up to the summit we went one way that we thought was a path but the path actually ended! We ended up having to climb up some rocks with our bare hands to get up to where we were supposed to be. At the time it was scary and funny at the same time. I wish we would have gotten a video of all of us trying to climb up there because I know it would have been funny.
Here are the long awaited pictures of the guys from Norway. They look really intimidating at first but they are all really nice guys. They said that the avg. age of everyone in the group was 19-20 so they are all right around our age. In Norway you are required to serve 1 year in the military. One of the trumpeters is actually leaving on Wednesday because his one year is up. He said he will be returning to Norway to finish school. Chris (one of the trumpet players) said that most of the people go to school for a couple of years take a break do their one year then go back to school. I'll put more up when I get a chance to make a facebook album.