Edinburgh, Scotland: Part 4 – Arthur’s Seat & The Ghost Tour

Last year, we traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland for a quick mini-moon after our wedding in Somerset, England. We spent 4 days exploring old castles, climbing rolling hills and of course, sharing some Scottish whiskey with friends. I want to keep each part of these Trip Reports as short and sweet (and maybe picture-filled) as I can, so you can easily pick out the major details.

This Part 4 in a series about our trip to Scotland.  Stay tuned for more.

Edinburgh, Scotland –  Trip Report Index

Part 1 - Planning & Introduction

Part 2 - Flight & Accommodation

Part 3 - Edinburgh Castle & The Whiskey Tour

Part 4 – Arthur’s Seat & The Ghost Tour

Part 5 - St. Andrews, Castle Course

Part 6 - Conclusion

Arthur’s Seat

Arthur’s Seat (as in King Arthur, from King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table) is part of the large and gorgeous, Holyrood Park. Arthur’s Seat is often mentioned as one of the possible locations for Camelot. It’s less than a mile from Edinburgh Castle and you can just walk the Royal Mile to get there!

You’ll pass Parliament.

Then, Holyrood House (say hello to the Queen for me, she often stays there).

And in no time you’ll be at the bottom of this beautiful extinct volcano.

The first time my newbie-hubster and I tried the trek up Arthur’s Seat, we only made it a little over half-way up. Remember how friggin’ sick I was? Yeah, it’s sort of hard to breathe with no functioning nostrils when you’re hiking.

After we left and had a few pints of Guinness, I was feeling bummed we didn’t go all the way.

Huh, huh. Go all the way…

So when my friend, Phil (affectionately called Philbert) said he wanted to try it the next day, we were totally up for tackling it again. This guy has hiked the Inca Trail in Peru to Machu Picchu!

Soooooo, basically, they were waiting for my sick ass to catch up a lot.

But we made it!

It’s a really fun memory for me. I can’t tell you how much it fills my heart to travel and discover things with friends. This trek meant a lot.

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The Ghost Tour

Have I ever talked about how I don’t “do” haunted houses or haunted corn mazes or haunted…anything. I love scary movies, but “real life” experiences? NO THANKS. Edinburgh is known for it’s scary tales, haunted alleys and ghostly folklore.

So, what I’m trying to say is,  I have 1 picture of this tour. Mostly because I drank enough to make myself feel pretty okay to go on it (excellent coping skills, Caroline) and also because most of it is in the dark, underground, in freakin’ haunted vaults. Therefore, picture taking was not encouraged.

 

What I can say is that I had a fun time. (Thanks, pints ofGuinness!) This is something you should definitely do with friends as it made the whole tour a lot more fun and full of immature giggles. (Thanks again, pints of Guinness!)

There are several ghost tours you can take in Edinburgh. I would recommend the Mercat Tours as that’s the one we did. But you honestly can’t go wrong with most of them.

Next up, perhaps my favorite part of the trip – Seeing my newbie-hubster play a round at St. Andrew’s.

Until next time, travel buds!