An awful lot of strangeness, good and bad, goes on at Calton Hill. The hill, which appears to be more of a hillock if approached from the popular Princess Street end, could easily be dismissed as nothing much. Calton Hill is covered in liberal scattering of moments and home to some of the more colour activities of Edinburgh residents and visitors.
> Burns’ Memorial
I’ve started with this because I feel it is both one of the most attractive architectural sites in Edinburgh and, at the same time, one of the most over looked moments on the Hill. This construction is the perfect model of the Georgian style in which the architect Playfair designed some of the more lavish terrace rows of the City’s New Town. The top of the structure can be best described by conjuring up the image of a large, stone wedding cake. A cake, though, that has been put together with careful restraint and the effect is regal rather than tacky. All this, though, sits on top of a ring of a dozen circular pillars that rise up from a tall hexagonal base. Oh yes, if you hadn’t guessed from the name this small “shrine” was built in honour of the poet Robert Burns.
> National Monument
I’ve said that too many people fail to take in the beauty of the Burn’s Memorial. No one fails to notice the National Monument. If you stop, stand and stare at the sky line from one side of Calton Hill then you could be forgiven for thinking (just for a second
- before the cold hits you) that you’re in ancient Greece. Work began on the Monument in 1816, a year after the battle of Waterloo, as a memorial for all those who had lost their lives in the Napoleonic Wars. The architect, Playfair again, had initially designed the monument to be a copy of the Parthenon of Athens but the cash to finish the building ran out.
In place as a somewhat appropriate comment on the horrors of war are just over a dozen mighty pillars which support massive stone cross pieces which always manage to remind me of Stonehenge.
> Nelson Monument
This long and rather “thin” looking tower stands as a commemoration to the success and the victory of the Battle of Trafalgar. It is possible, in theory, to climb all the way to the top via an internal staircase however the tower is almost always closed.
> Observatories
There are two observatories on Calton Hill and although neither of the buildings are ugly enough to warrant an attack on the architecture, neither of the two are particular handsome constructions either. The first, known (strangely enough) as the Old Observatory, was designed by James Craig and completed in 1792. James Craig was the architect responsible for oldest parts of the New Town. The second, known as the City Observatory, was finished in 1818. They’re both very old for observatories but despite being superseded by the Royal Observatory, are still in use.
> Smaller memorials and shrines
In the cemetery of the Old Calton Burying Ground (which you have to reach by walking down from the top and crossing Regent Road) there is a memorial to those Scottish soldiers who died in the American Civil War. The statue of Abraham Lincoln on the memorial is believed to be the first of the president to be built outside of the United States of America.
There is a circular temple back on the main section of the hill was erected by Playfair to celebrate Dugald Stewart the philosopher.
The Martyrs’ Monument commemorates those (attempted) political reformers who were exiled for sedition in the last years of the eighteenth century.
The End.
Only joking. I mentioned something about topless dancing and strange girls (I nearly typed “strange girls”) at the top of this review and I wasn’t teasing.
Once a year, April the 30th to be exact, Calton Hill becomes the focal point of Edinburgh’s Beltane Fire celebration. Right, if you don’t know anything about Beltane then I’ll do my best to sum it up for you. The historical details are just a touch vague and lots of Celtic, Wiccan, neo-pagan, pagan, etc groups have all managed to tie themselves to the celebration and so it means something different to different people. Someone’s bound to comment and say I’ve got something wrong.
Belinos is one name for one Sun God. Whether the “Bel” in Beltane directly pertains to that, I couldn’t tell you, but Beltane is certainly a time of fire, life, of birth and of warmer things. Beltane is May Day, historically, Beltane starts on the night of April the 30th and goes on until the first morning of May. Young people would dance around the phallic Maypole (there is that old Nelson Monument on Calton Hill), older couples would be allowed to remove their wedding rings and those “rules” that come bundled with the ring. Traditionally, it was the time of year in which people became handfasted; married for a year and a day.
A half dozen years ago Beltane on Calton Hill was a wild time. People would gather on the hill en mass, there would be large bonfires, live music, dancing and drinking. It was a great experience, people tended to relax and be naturally very friendly.
Ah yes, this is where the topless dancing comes in. Whether it was the drink, or just the heady mix of ancient rituals, peer pressure as well lots of dancing, good music and, of course, the heat of the flames, more than a few people would strip down and prance around. On the same token, you’d encounter people sauntering around who seemed happy and oblivious enough to try and sell - or just offer for free - the sort of chemical concoctions the Police do not approve of.
These years, though, the festival has a very much more tourist face. As a result the celebrations tend to be very much tamer. This isn’t entirely a bad thing, though, I feel a lot safer with the greater police presence. You can even purchase your own flaming torch if you’re feeling rich - and they certainly beat trying to dance around with a burning stick in your hand.
Calton Hill craziness isn’t kept to just that night of the year, though. The Hill used to be a dangerous place, bad during the day and awful during the night. One thing to stress is that the Hill is in the very heart of the city. You walk off the popular Princess Street and the East End and you’re at the base of Calton Hill. Bored kids with nothing to do but suck up drugs and steal your wallet would drag their girlfriends up to this patch of darkness and isolation. It is much better these days and this has to do with the growing success of Calton Hill as a tourist attraction in its own right (hey, Ciao had a category here for it, I didn’t have to ask). You’ll often be able to watch a police car drive up the twisting path to the top of the hill and then slowly craw back again in an attempt to catch troublemakers.
I’ll end this review with one final shout as the “voice of the consumer”. Never, ever, ever, ever be tempted by the burger/hot dog shed at the bottom of the Calton Hill steps. Urg.
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I went to Beltane this year and it wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped. I got past my drinking-cider-from-the-bottle-in-the-freezing-cold-up-a-hill phase when I was fifteen. Nice view though, if you like under-construction parliament buildings :o) Ruth.
Crazy-Christian 24.03.2001 22:38
Very good op, Manx. I feel guilty about having lived in Edinburgh for 34 years and never having visited it! But, hey, thanks to your op, now I don't have to!
Squidget 21.02.2001 16:51
A fantastic opinion on one of Edinburgh's finest spots. I love to go up Calton Hill when the festival fireworks show is on!
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