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Edinburgh (pronounced /ˈɛdɪnb(ə)rə/; Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Èideann) is the capital of Scotland and its second-largest city.[1] It is situated on the east coast of the central lowlands, on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, on the North sea and, because of its rugged setting and vast collection of Medieval and Georgian Architecture including numerous stone tenements, it is one of the most dramatic cities in Europe. It forms the City of Edinburgh council area; the city council area includes urban Edinburgh and a 30sq mile rural area.
Edinburgh is well-known for the annual Edinburgh Festival, a collection of official and independent festivals held annually over about four weeks from early August. The number of visitors attracted to Edinburgh for the Festival, is roughly equal to the settled population of the city.[citation needed] The most famous of these events are the Edinburgh Fringe (the largest performing arts festival in the world), the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, and the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Other notable events include the Hogmanay street party (31 December) and the Beltane celebrations (30 April). The city is one of Europe's major tourist destinations, attracting roughly 13 million visitors a year, and is the second most visited tourist destination in the United Kingdom, after London.[3]
EtymologyImage:EdinburghFromCastle.jpg Edinburgh viewed from the Castle Image:Hereford Mappa Mundi detail Britain.jpg Detail of the Hereford Mappa Mundi, Edinburgh is clearly labeled on this T and O map of the British isles from c. 1300
Documents from the 14th century show the name to have settled into its current form;[citation needed] although other spellings ("Edynburgh" and "Edynburghe") appear, these are simply spelling variants of the current name. Other namesThe city is affectionately nicknamed Auld Reekie, Scots for Old Smoky. This is because when the only fuels available were coal and wood, all the chimneys would spew lots of smoke into the air. Auld Reekie also referred to the less than sanitary living conditions that would lead to a strong odour covering the city. "Reek" means "smell" in lowland Scots. Some have called Edinburgh the Athens of the North for a variety of reasons. The earliest comparison between the two cities showed that they had a similar topography, with the Old Town of Edinburgh performing a similar role to the Athenian Acropolis and for its intellectual history.[6] Edinburgh has also been known as Dunedin, deriving from the Scottish Gaelic, Dùn Èideann. Dunedin, New Zealand, was originally called "New Edinburgh" and is still nicknamed the "Edinburgh of the South". The Scots poets Robert Burns and Robert Fergusson sometimes used the city's Latin name, Edina. Ben Jonson described it as Britaine's other eye,[citation needed] and Sir Walter Scott referred to the city as yon Empress of the North.[citation needed] AreasAreas of the centreImage:Princes Street Gardens.jpg Looking northeast across part of Princes Street Gardens The historic centre of Edinburgh is divided in two by the broad green swath of Princes Street Gardens. To the south the view is dominated by Edinburgh Castle, perched atop the extinct volcanic crag, and the long sweep of the Old Town trailing after it along the ridge. To the north lies Princes Street and the New Town. The gardens were begun in 1816 on bogland which had once been the Nor Loch. To the immediate west of the castle lies the financial district, housing insurance and banking buildings. Probably the most noticeable building here is the circular sandstone building that is the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. Old TownThe Old Town has preserved its medieval plan and many Reformation-era buildings. One end is closed by the castle and the main artery, the Royal Mile, leads away from it; minor streets (called closes or wynds) lead downhill on either side of the main spine in a herringbone pattern. Large squares mark the location of markets or surround major public buildings such as St Giles Cathedral and the Law Courts. Other notable places of interest nearby include the Royal Museum of Scotland, Surgeons' Hall, the University of Edinburgh, and numerous underground streets and vaults, relics of previous phases of construction. The street layout, typical of the old quarters of many northern European cities, is made especially picturesque in Edinburgh, where the castle perches on top of a rocky crag, the remnants of an extinct volcano, and the main street runs down the crest of a ridge from it. Image:Edinburgh Royal Mile01.jpg The Royal Mile in the Old Town during the Edinburgh Festival Due to the space restrictions imposed by the narrowness of the "tail" the Old Town became home to some of the earliest "high rise" residential buildings. Multi-storey dwellings known as Lands were the norm from the 1500s onwards. New TownThe New Town was an 18th century solution to the problem of an increasingly crowded Old Town. The city had remained incredibly compact, confined to the ridge running down from the castle. In 1766 a competition to design the New Town was won by James Craig, a 22-year-old architect. The plan that was built created a rigid, ordered grid, which fitted well with enlightenment ideas of rationality. The principal street was to be George Street, which follows the natural ridge to the north of the Old Town. Either side of it are the other main streets of Princes Street and Queen Street. Princes Street has since become the main shopping street in Edinburgh, and few Georgian buildings survive on it. Linking these streets were a series of perpendicular streets. At the east and west ends are St. Andrew's Square and Charlotte Square respectively. The latter was designed by Robert Adam and is often considered one of the finest Georgian squares in the world. Bute House, the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland, is on the north side of Charlotte Square. Sitting in the glen between the Old and New Towns was the Nor' Loch, which had been both the city's water supply and place for dumping sewage. By the 1820s it was drained. Some plans show that a canal was intended, but the Princes Street Gardens were created instead. Excess soil from the construction of the buildings was dumped into the loch, creating what is now The Mound. In the mid-19th century the National Gallery of Scotland and Royal Scottish Academy Building were built on The Mound, and tunnels to Waverley Station driven through it. The New Town was so successful that it was extended greatly. The grid pattern was not maintained, but rather a more picturesque layout was created. Today the New Town is considered by many to be one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture and planning in the world. SouthsideA popular residential part of the city is its southside, comprising a number of areas including Saint Leonards, Marchmont, Newington, The Grange, Bruntsfield, Morningside, and Merchiston. "South side" is broadly analogous to the area covered by the Burgh Muir, and grew in popularity as a residential area following the opening of the South Bridge. These areas are particularly popular with families (many well-regarded state and private schools are located here), students (the central University of Edinburgh campus is based around George Square just north of Marchmont and The Meadows, and Napier University has major campuses around Merchiston & Morningside), and with Festival-goers. These areas are also the subject of fictional work: Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus lives in Marchmont and worked in St Leonards; and Morningside is the home of Muriel Spark's Miss Jean Brodie. Today, the literary connection continues, with the area being home to the authors J. K. Rowling, Ian Rankin, and Alexander McCall Smith. George Mackay Brown lodged in Marchmont when a student at the university. LeithLeith is the port of Edinburgh. It still retains a separate identity from Edinburgh, and it was a matter of great resentment when, in 1920, the burgh of Leith was merged[7] into the county of Edinburgh. Even today the parliamentary seat is known as 'Edinburgh North and Leith'. With the redevelopment of Leith, Edinburgh has gained the business of a number of cruise liner companies who now provide cruises to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. Leith also boasts the Royal Yacht Britannia, berthed behind the Ocean Terminal shopping centre. Image:Edinburgh-panoramic.jpg Panorama of the Old Town and Southside of Edinburgh from the Nelson monument. Panorama was originally coined by the Irish painter Robert Barker to describe his panoramic paintings of Edinburgh ViewpointsImage:Edinburgh-scottm.600px.jpg View of Edinburgh from the Scott Monument on Princes Street, showing Waverley Station in the foreground and Arthur's Seat beyond The varied terrain of the city includes several summits which command sweeping views over Edinburgh. To the southeast of central Edinburgh stands the eminence known as Arthur's Seat, overlooking Holyroodhouse and the Old Town beside it. The crag is a collection of side vents of the main volcano on which Edinburgh is built. The volcano slipped and tipped sideways, leaving these vents as the highest points for miles around. Arthur's Seat is now part of Holyrood Park, originally owned by the monarch and part of the grounds of the Palace of Holyroodhouse. It contains the United Kingdom's largest concentration of geological SSSIs, as well as providing the people of Edinburgh with spectacular views of and from Arthur's Seat and somewhere to relax after a long day in the city. To the northeast, overlooking the New Town, is Calton Hill. It is topped by an assortment of buildings and monuments: two observatories, Nelson's Monument (a tower dedicated to Admiral Horatio Nelson), the old Royal High School (once almost the home of a devolved Scottish Assembly), and the unfinished National Monument, which is modelled on the Parthenon from the Athenian Acropolis and is nicknamed "Edinburgh's Disgrace". The nickname of the city, "Athens of the North", also hails partly from this monument. Calton Hill plays host to the Beltane Fire Festival on May 1. The Royal Observatory rests on Blackford Hill, the third and Southernmost viewpoint of the city. GeographyClimateLike much of the rest of Scotland, Edinburgh has a temperate maritime climate, which is relatively mild despite its northerly latitude. Winters are especially mild, considering that Moscow and Labrador in Newfoundland lie on the same latitude, with daytime temperatures rarely falling below freezing, or 0°C. Summer temperatures are normally moderate, with daily upper maxima rarely exceeding 23°C. The proximity of the city to the sea mitigates any large variations in temperature or extremes of climate. Given Edinburgh's position between the coast and hills it is renowned as a windy city, with the prevailing wind direction coming from the south-west which is associated with warm, unstable air from the Gulf Stream that can give rise to rainfall - although far less than cities to the west such as Glasgow. Indeed Edinburgh has a lower annual precipitation than most UK cities outwith the South East and over 100mm less than Dublin. Winds from an easterly direction are usually drier but colder. Rainfall is distributed fairly evenly throughout the year. Vigorous Atlantic depressions - sometimes called European windstorms can affect the city between October and March.
DemographicsAs of 2005, the General Register Office for Scotland estimated that the City of Edinburgh council area had a resident population of 457,830.[8] The 2001 UK census reported the population to be 448,624, making the city the seventh largest in the United Kingdom[9] The General Register Office also reported that this resident population was split between 220,094 males and 237,736 females. Whilst Edinburgh's population is ageing a very large and transient population of young students studying at the universities in the city offset this demographic problem somewhat. There are estimated to be around 100,000 students studying at the various Higher Education institutions in the city.[10] The population of the greater Edinburgh area (including parts of Fife and the Scottish Borders) is 1.25 million and is projected to grow to 1.33 million by 2020. City of Edinburgh Council hopes this will continue to grow to 1.5 million by 2040, which is in line with the current average population of the three leading city regions in northern Europe: Stockholm, Helsinki and Oslo.[11]
GeologyImage:Edinburgh Castle princes.jpg Edinburgh Castle, as viewed from Princes Street Some 320 million years ago, the cores of several volcanic vents in the area cooled and solidified to form tough basalt volcanic plugs. Later, during the last ice age, glaciers moving from west to east eroded the area to it's current conformation. Old TownCastle Rock is one such plug, which during ice ages sheltered the softer rock to the east forming a mile-long tail of material to the east, creating a distinctive crag and tail formation. This structure, along with with a ravine to the south, and a swampy valley to the north, formed an ideal natural fortress and recent excavations found material dating back to the Late Bronze Age, as long ago as 850 BCE.[12] Over the last few hundred years, the area occupied by this geological feature has come to be known as the Old Town. Edinburgh Castle stands on the crag, and the Royal Mile follows the narrow crest of the steep-sided tail, descending from the castle to meet general ground level at Holyrood Palace. The Grassmarket and Cowgate run east-west through the ravine to the south, while the swamp of the Nor Loch has now been drained to form Princes Street Gardens, and accommodates Edinburgh Waverley railway station. Arthur's SeatLike the castle rock on which Edinburgh Castle is built, Arthur's Seat was formed by an extinct volcano system of the Carboniferous period, which was eroded by a glacier moving from west to east during the Quaternary, exposing rocky crags to the west and leaving a tail of material swept to the east.[13] This is how the Salisbury Crags formed and became basalt cliffs between Arthur's Seat and the city centre. Image:Edinburgh wiki.jpg Panoramic view of Edinburgh from the top of Arthur's Seat CultureFestivalsImage:EdinburghgeorgeIV.jpg View up George IV Bridge Culturally, Edinburgh is best known for the Edinburgh Festival, although this is in fact a series of separate events, which run from the end of July until early September each year. The longest established festival is the Edinburgh International Festival, which first ran in 1947. The International Festival centres on a programme of high-profile theatre productions and classical music performances, featuring international directors, conductors, theatre companies and orchestras. The International Festival has since been taken over in both size and popularity by the Edinburgh Fringe. What began as a programme of marginal acts has become the largest arts festival in the world, with 1867 different shows being staged in 2006, in 261 venues. Comedy is now one of the mainstays of the Fringe, with numerous notable comedians getting their 'break' here, often through receipt of the Perrier Award. Alongside these major festivals, there is also the Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival. T on the Fringe, a popular music offshoot of the Fringe, began in 2000, replacing the smaller Flux and Planet Pop series of shows. Tigerfest is an independent music festival which ran concurrently with the Fringe in 2004 and 2005 before moving to a May slot in 2006. Running concurrently with the summer festivals, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo occupies the Castle Esplanade every night, with massed pipers and fireworks. The Edinburgh International Science Festival is held annually in April and is one of the most popular science festivals in the world. CelebrationsImage:Edinburgh Hogmanay Longship.jpg A Viking longship being burnt during Edinburgh's annual Hogmanay celebrations. Equally famous is the annual Hogmanay celebration. Originally simply a street party held on Princes Street and the Royal Mile, the Hogmanay event has been officially organised since 1993. In 1996, over 300,000 people attended, leading to ticketing of the main street party in later years, with a limit of 100,000 tickets. Hogmanay now covers four days of processions, concerts and fireworks, and the event regularly attracts thousands of people. On the night of 30 April, the Beltane Fire Festival takes place on Edinburgh's Calton Hill. The festival involves a procession followed by the re-enactment of scenes inspired by pagan spring fertility celebrations. Museums and librariesEdinburgh is home to a large number of museums and libraries, especially ones that are considered the main national institutions, the most important are the Museum of Scotland, the Royal Museum, the National Library of Scotland, National War Museum of Scotland, the Museum of Edinburgh, Museum of Childhood (Edinburgh) and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Music, theatre and filmOutside festival season, Edinburgh continues to support a number of theatres and production companies. The Royal Lyceum Theatre has its own company, while the King's Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, and Edinburgh Playhouse stage large touring shows. The Traverse Theatre presents a more contemporary programme of plays. Amateur theatre companies productions are staged at the Bedlam Theatre, Church Hill Theatre, and the King's Theatre amongst others. The Usher Hall is Edinburgh's premier venue for classical music, as well as the occasional prestige popular music gig. Other halls staging music and theatre include The Hub, the Assembly Rooms and the Queen's Hall. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra is based in Edinburgh. Edinburgh has two repertory cinemas, the Edinburgh Filmhouse, and the Cameo, and the independent Dominion Cinema, as well as the usual range of multiplexes. Edinburgh has a healthy popular music scene, despite the recent closure of The Venue and the attempted closure of Studio 24. Occasional large gigs are staged at Murrayfield, the Liquid Rooms, Meadowbank, as well as the relatively new Edinburgh Corn Exchange. Visual artsEdinburgh is home to Scotland's five National Galleries. The national collection is housed in the Scottish National Gallery, located on the Mound, and now linked to the Royal Scottish Academy, which holds regular major exhibitions of painting. The contemporary collections are shown in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and the nearby Dean Gallery. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery focuses on portraits and photography. The council-owned City Arts Centre shows regular art exhibitions. Across the road, The Fruitmarket Gallery offers world class exhibitions of contemporary art, featuring work by British and international artists with both emerging and established international reputations. Edinburgh is also home to several of Scotland’s galleries and organisations dedicated to contemporary visual art. Significant strands of this infrastructure include: The Scottish Arts Council, New Media Scotland, Inverleith House, Edinburgh College of Art, Talbot Rice Gallery (University of Edinburgh), The Travelling Gallery, Edinburgh Printmakers, WASPS, Artlink, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Doggerfisher, Stills, Collective Gallery, Out of the Blue, The Embassy, Magnifitat, Sleeper, Total Kunst, OneZero, Standby, Portfolio Magazine, MAP magazine, Edinburgh's One O'Clock Gun Periodical and Product magazine and the Edinburgh Annuale. Written worksEdinburgh has a long literary tradition, going back to the Scottish Enlightenment. Writers such as James Boswell, Robert Louis Stevenson and Walter Scott all lived and worked in Edinburgh. More recently, Edinburgh has become associated with the crime novels of Ian Rankin; the work of Leith native Irvine Welsh, whose novels are mostly set in the city and are often written in colloquial Scots; and two of Edinburgh resident Alexander McCall Smith's book series. Edinburgh has been declared the first UNESCO City of Literature. Edinburgh's Enlightenment also produced philosopher David Hume and the pioneer of economics, Adam Smith. Further scientific and philosophical enquiry was discussed at The Poker Club in the city. NightlifeImage:Edinburgh from the Illustrated London News 1868.jpg A panorama of Edinburgh published by the Illustrated London News in 1868 Edinburgh has a large number of pubs, clubs and restaurants. The traditional areas were the Grassmarket, Lothian Road and surrounding streets, Rose Street and its surrounds and the Bridges. In recent years George Street in the New Town has grown in prominence, with a large number of new, upmarket public houses and nightclubs opening, along with a number on the parallel Queen Street. Stockbridge and the waterfront at Leith are also increasingly fashionable areas, with a number of pubs, clubs and restaurants. A fortnightly publication, The List, is dedicated to life in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and contains listings of all Nightclubs, as well as music, theatrical and other events. The List also regularly produces specialist guides such as its Food and Drink guide and its guide to the Edinburgh Festivals. There are also many competing magazines that can be found for free such as Flash Edinburgh or Gig Guide. SportImage:Murrayfield Stadium 2005-05-13.jpg Murrayfield Stadium Edinburgh has two professional football clubs: Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian. They are known locally as Hearts (or the Jambos) and Hibs (or the Hibees). Both teams play in the Scottish Premier League: Hearts at Tynecastle Stadium in Gorgie and Hibernian at Easter Road Stadium near Leith. Non-league sides include Spartans and Edinburgh City. Edinburgh was also formerly home to Meadowbank Thistle, until they moved to Livingston in 1995, shedding their old name and becoming Livingston F.C.. The Scottish national team usually plays at Hampden Park, in Glasgow, although in recent years it has played occasionally at Easter Road (three matches since 2000) and Tynecastle (1998 and 2002). The Scotland national rugby union team plays at Murrayfield Stadium, which is owned by the Scottish Rugby Union and is also used as a venue for other events, including music concerts. Edinburgh's professional rugby team, Edinburgh Rugby, play in the Celtic League at Murrayfield. It is the largest capacity stadium in Scotland. The Scottish cricket team represent Scotland at cricket internationally and in the C&G Trophy and play their home matches at The Grange in Stockbridge. The Edinburgh Capitals are the latest of a succession of ice hockey clubs to represent the Scottish capital. Previously Edinburgh was represented by the Murrayfield Racers and the Edinburgh Racers. The club play their home games at the Murrayfield Ice Rink and are the sole Scottish representative in the Elite Ice Hockey League. Edinburgh has also hosted various national and international sports events including the World Student Games, the 1970 British Commonwealth Games, the 1986 Commonwealth Games and the inaugural 2000 Commonwealth Youth Games. For the Games in 1970 the city built major Olympic standard venues and facilities including the Royal Commonwealth Pool and the Meadowbank Stadium. In American football, the Scottish Claymores played WLAF/NFL Europe games at Murrayfield, including their World Bowl 96 victory. From 1995 to 1997 they played all their games there, from 1998 to 2000 they split their home matches between Murrayfield and Glasgow's Hampden Park, then moved to Glasgow full-time, with one final Murrayfield appearance in 2002. Their most successful non-professional team are the Edinburgh Wolves. The Edinburgh Marathon has been held in the city since 1999 with over 13,000 taking part annually. EconomyImage:Wfm edinburgh.jpg Edinburgh viewed from Arthur's Seat. See also this picture for a panoramic view from Holyrood Park towards Ocean Terminal Edinburgh has the strongest economy of any city in the UK outside London.[14] The economy of Edinburgh and its hinterland has recently been announced as one of the fastest growing city regions in Europe[15] Education and health, finance and business services, retailing and tourism are the largest employers.[16] The economy of Edinburgh is largely based around the services sector—centred around banking, financial services, higher education, and tourism. Unemployment in Edinburgh is low at 2.2%, which has been consistently below the Scottish average.[17] The city is one of the most prosperous parts of the country and has the strongest economy of any city in the UK except London.[18] Banking has been a part of the economic life of Edinburgh for over 300 years with the invention of capitalism in the city, with the establishment of the Bank of Scotland by an act of the original Parliament of Scotland in 1695. Their headquarters are on the Mound, overlooking Princes Street. Today, together with the burgeoning financial services industry, with particular strengths in insurance and investment underpinned by the presence Edinburgh based firms such as Scottish Widows and Standard Life, Edinburgh has emerged as Europe’s sixth largest financial centre.[19] The Royal Bank of Scotland, which is the fifth largest in the world by market capitalisation, opened their new global headquarters at Gogarburn in the west of the city in October 2005; their registered office remains in St. Andrew Square. Manufacturing has never had as strong a presence in Edinburgh compared to Glasgow; however brewing, publishing, and nowadays electronics have maintained a foothold in the city. Whilst brewing has been in decline in recent years, with the closure of the McEwan's Brewery in 2005, Caledonian Brewery remains as the largest, with Scottish and Newcastle retaining their headquarters in the city. Tourism is an important economic mainstay in the city. As a World Heritage Site tourists come to visit such historical sites as Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the Georgian New Town. This is augmented in August of each year with the presence of the Edinburgh Festivals, which bring in large numbers of visitors, generating in excess of £100m for the Edinburgh economy.[20] As the centre of Scotland’s devolved government, as well as its legal system, the public sector plays a central role in the economy of Edinburgh with many departments of the Scottish Executive located in the city. Other major employers include NHS Scotland and local government administration. Edinburgh has seventy post offices, one in St Mary's Street (in the Old Town close to Waverley Station) is "central", in that it is the only one within the EH1 1 postcode zone, but the Royal Mail sorting office at 10 Brunswick Road has the latest collection. Edinburgh's General Post Office building, in Waterloo Place, no longer houses a post office, which been moved into the nearby St James' Centre. The façades of the Waterloo Place building still stand, but the interior has been removed and replaced with offices. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
