Day 1 Part 2: Abbeyhill, Edinburgh to Borthwick Castle, Midlothian

Virtual Walk: Scotland 2021

5th January 2021: 73.90km virtually walked today of 8854km. 2.5% of 467 people's totals submitting 2955.91km.

Route 1A: Edinburgh to Traquair

We arrive at Abbeyhill, this road taking us past Queen Mary’s Bathhouse, as we are now on the approach back to the front of the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the Scottish Parliament building. The bathhouse, once part of the boundary wall, is supposedly where Queen Mary bathed in sweet white wine. It is more likely to have been used as a summer pavilion because it was part of the King’s Privy Garden. It looks isolated today due to several structures, including the wall, having since been demolished. We arrive on Abbey Strand where we peak through the gates at the palace.

As said previously, David I founded Holyrood Abbey in 1128. It was founded after David I was attacked by a stag whilst out hunting; he saw a cross appear in the stag’s antlers after which the stag then fled. The King founded the abbey on the spot where it happened, dedicating it to the Holy Rood, another name for a cross. The Abbey was often used by monarchs and the abbey guesthouse was developed into a royal residence in the 15th century. Mary Queen of Scots saw the murder of her Italian secretary, Rizzio, by a group led by her husband Lord Darnley, in the tower; the floorboards still said to be stained with his blood. Over the centuries of conflict, the palace has been extended, attacked, burned, used as barracks by Cromwell, restored and rebuilt. Bonnie Prince Charlie held the palace in 1745 after seizing Edinburgh during his attempt to restore the Catholic line to the throne. A new roof was put on the abbey church in 1758, which collapsed a decade later, never to be restored, hence the atmospheric ruins at the back of the palace today. The royal link with the palace was only restored in the 1920s when it became the Royal Family’s official Scottish residence. Holyrood Week happens annually at the end of June to the beginning of July when the Ceremony of the Keys, engagements across Scotland, the Investiture and the Holyrood Garden Party take place.

The buildings in the Abbey Strand were once part of the Holyrood Abbey precinct built c1500 and were within the boundary of sanctuary, spanning 5 miles and included Holyrood Park. Its boundary is marked on the road with an ‘S’ in brass studs. Thomson’s Court was used for accommodation for the debtors who lived within the sanctuary area of the Abbey c1850. At one time there were Taverns on the ground floor and housing above. This building now has apartments for lease, function rooms and a shop, at the back of which is a Physic Garden recreated for us to experience the first Physic Garden which went on to become the Royal Botanic Gardens. Some of the buildings to the other side of the Strand were also used as debtors' homes and now houses The Queen’s Gallery. The Cafe at the Palace is also located in the Mews Courtyard.

We leave Abbey Strand and join Horse Wynd. This was the first part of the road to London and it was from here that the Royal coaches would depart. The royal stables, followed by an old brewery, sat on the site where the new Scottish Parliament buildings now reside. Designed by Spanish architect, Enric Miralles, and opened in 2004, the complex is a campus of several buildings built from steel, oak and granite. Landscape also played an important part in the design with 60% of the site covered in vegetation. The building caused a lot of controversy at the time of its construction but is said to be one of the UK’s most innovative buildings and was awarded the Stirling Prize in 2005. Queensberry House, which looks out onto Canongate, is a 17th-century building which was fully restored, strengthened, then integrated into the Parliamentary complex design by Miralles. Now government offices, it started life as a home but has also been a hospital, army barracks and house of refuge. One of the former owners, the 2nd Duke of Queensberry, was very influential in the abolition of the first Scottish Parliament - oh, the irony!

We pass the 3 water features on the Scottish Parliament forecourt and walk around Holyrood Park, passing St Anthony’s Chapel at St Margaret’s Loch on Queen’s Drive. The only building within the park, it was probably owned by either Holyrood or Kelso Abbey who had divided the land between them. The building dates from at least the 1300s and probably fell into disuse after the Reformation. The ruins are accessible today if you are reasonably fit, as there is no official walkway up the steep hill.

Holyrood Park is a rough circle of 650 acres, its hills formed from a volcanic eruption of which Arthur’s Seat is the plug. During the Iron Age there were 4 forts occupying the area by the Votadini tribe: one on Arthur’s Seat itself! From the 1100s the Park became a royal hunting ground and, after the Palace was completed, it was enclosed as a Royal Park. During Victoria’s reign, although still a Royal Park, she opened it to the public and oversaw the creation of the 2 lochs. Today the Park is cared for by Historic Environment Scotland.

We continue to follow the drive past Dunsapie Loch to then hike up to Arthur's Seat (251m), where there are magnificent views over Salisbury Crags and Edinburgh. Returning to Queen’s Drive we leave the Park via Holyrood Park Road onto Dalkeith Road. We continue our route for 3.5 kilometres to pay a visit to Craigmillar Castle on our way out of the city.

One of the most complete of medieval castles in Scotland, Craigmillar Castle began life as a tower house in the late 1300s for the Prestons who went on to extend it in the 1550s and sold it to Sir John Gilmour in 1660. The Gilmours extended the property but abandoned it for a new property, Inch House, in the early 1700s. Mary Queen of Scots stayed here for lengthy periods in 1563, after a tour of the south-west of Scotland, and in 1566, fleeing to safety after the murder of Rizzio. She stayed that often that the village nearby became known as ‘Little France’ because all her courtiers were French. Craigmillar fell into a ruinous state and was passed into state care in 1949, cared for today by Historic Environment Scotland. It is a popular filming location, having been used for scenes in the ‘Outlaw King’ (2018) and Outlander Season 3.

We follow our plotted route through the streets south out of Edinburgh crossing the City Bypass onto Biggar Road; we are now in Midlothian. At Lothianburn we leave the road and walk through Hillhead Country Park, the location of Midlothian Snowsports Centre, to hike over the Pentland Hills. The Pentland Hills Regional Park was designated in 1986 and is used for hillwalking, horse riding and mountain biking. Several rivers have their source here including the Water of Leith and the North Esk. Robert Louis Stevenson enjoyed walks through the Hills and wrote about it. From the peaks, you can see across Fife, East Lothian, the central belt and beyond. We walk over Caerketton Hill (478m), Allermuir Hill (493m) then Fala Knowe (439m) following a path on the perimeter of Castlelaw Ranges. The Ranges are used by the military for live and dry firearms training. From Castlelaw we follow the route eastwards to reach Glencorse Kirk.

Glencorse Old Kirk sits in the grounds of Glencorse House at the foot of the Pentland Hills. Glencorse House dates from 1812; the land was granted to the Abernethy family in 1464 so there have been other buildings and owners on the land since. Glencorse Old Kirk (1665) was rebuilt after a fire in 1699; Robert Louis Stevenson attended this church in his youth. A new parish church was completed in 1885, the Old Kirk being too small after new barracks were erected at Glencorse. The Old Kirk has been used in filming ‘Outlander’ (S1) and is a popular location for weddings. From the Kirk, we press on south through the village of Glencorse, past the Glencorse Parish Church, the Barracks and the golf course to pick up the North Esk Way. This path takes us through the countryside to reach the edge of Roslin Glen Country Park.

Set within a wooded glen near the village of Roslin we pick up the route through the Park on the southside. This takes us across the North Esk River into the ruins of an old gunpowder mill, started here by Hay and Merrick in 1804 and became the largest in Scotland. The Mill supplied munitions for several wars including the Napoleonic, First and Second World Wars. The Mill closed in 1954 and only fragments of the structure remain. ‘Outlander’ used it as a filming location in Season 1. Continuing along the course of the river we exit the Mill gates and cross the road to reach the next section of the Park. This place was a hive of industry in the 1800s with a carpet factory (1868) and bleaching works (1719) in operation. The factory was famous for its tapestries and Queen Victoria would have worn linens which were bleached here. The Council purchased the land in 1977 to make a park out of the derelict area so the factory which stood here is now a car park. We follow the river round, crossing the wooden walk bridge, to follow the muddy track up steep steps next to a huge archway near the top of the Glen. The archway holds the bridge carrying the road to Rosslyn Castle, located on a rocky promontory overlooking the Glen. A castle has stood here since 1304, burned during the War of the Rough Wooing in 1544, then rebuilt only to be damaged again during the 1600s. The east range of the castle, however, always remained habitable since that time. It was inherited in 1977 by the 7th Earl of Rosslyn, Peter St Clair-Erskine, who had it restored 1982-88 and leases it as holiday accommodation.

We clamber up the steep path to view the castle ruins, then retrace our steps to continue past a cemetery to arrive at Rosslyn Chapel Visitor Centre. Rosslyn Chapel was founded in 1446 by Sir William St Clair and took c40 years to build. He died before its completion and is buried in the vault; a much larger chapel had been planned. The chapel survived the time of the Reformation although its altar was ordered to be destroyed in 1592. It was used as stables by Oliver Cromwell’s troops when they sacked Rosslyn Castle. In 1736 the first repairs were done to the building to try and preserve it, but it was still overgrown and began to attract the attention of writers and artists. Sir Walter Scott wrote the poem ‘Lay of the Last Minstrel’ about the chapel in 1805. Restoration work was carried out in 1862 and church services recommenced for the first time in 200 years. Conservation work was carried out in the 1950s which did more damage than good. A canopy was erected over the Chapel in 1997 to allow the stonework to dry out. Big changes were ahead though with the publication of Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’ where the characters visit the Chapel. As over c200 million copies of the book have been sold, and a film made in 2006 which used the chapel as a filming location, Rosslyn Chapel was launched onto the world stage. In 2007 it received funding to complete the conservation work and build the Visitor Centre. The Rosslyn Chapel Trust cares for the site today as well as Collegehill House, dating back to 1660, which sits adjacent to the Chapel and is used as holiday accommodation.

We retrace our steps back down to the archway to pass underneath and follow the muddy path alongside the River North Esk. As we walk, we pass Wallace’s Cave on the other bank, 20 foot above the river on a 60-foot cliff face. There are rock carvings on the cliff which date to the Bronze Age and the cave extends 38 feet into the rock. Local tradition states that William Wallace hid here with his men during the Scottish Wars of Independence c1298-1305. The cave does appear to have had a door at some point and there are steps leading down to it. Further along the river, we see Hawthornden Castle; the ruined section dating back to the 15th century and the habitable part to the 17th century. It was owned by the Drummond family for centuries until they sold it in the 1970s. It was owned by Drue Heinz, widow of HJ Heinz II of food processing fame, who died at the castle in 2018 aged 103. She restored the castle in the 1980s and created a writer’s retreat, which it still is to this day.

We continue to follow the North Esk Way along the river until Polton Road where we pick up trails through the countryside, passing Rosewell, an old mining village, and crossing the River South Esk en route to Arniston House, near Carrington - 8.5 kilometres. Arniston House has been home to the Dundas family for over 450 years. Arniston estate was owned by the Knights Templar in the 12th century, but when they were outlawed it passed to the Knights of St John. They sold the estate to the Dundas family in 1571. This Palladian mansion was built after 1726 when William Adam was called in to design a replacement for the out-of-date property on the site; he was working on Mavisbank near Loanhead, at the time. The project was eventually completed by his son in 1753, the gardens being laid out by the fashionable Capability Brown, landscape designer. The house has been used for filming including ‘Outlander’ Season 4, featured as the theatre, and tours can be booked to view the interior.

We return to the River South Esk where we follow the riverside trail northwards through fields and woods to pick up the Gore Way. The Gore Way, part of the Gorebridge Circular Walk, runs south-west through Gore Glen Country Park along Gore Water. In the park area is another cave, ‘The King’s Cave’, which was used by a cattle rustler to hide, and not by one of the Kings of Scotland as the name suggests. Gore Way ends at Borthwick Castle, a beautifully restored 15th-century castle used as a private events venue. It was constructed in 1430 for the Borthwick family and is still the family’s ancestral home. It replaced an earlier structure on the knoll, ‘Mote of Lochwart’, an excellent position from which to protect the surrounding area. Prisoners kept here were invited to jump the gap between the U-shaped keep with their hands tied; if they survived, they could go free! Mary Queen of Scots visited here in 1563 and in 1567; she married into the Borthwick family, this her final marriage. Oliver Cromwell fired a cannon at the keep (the damage still visible today) after which they surrendered. The castle lay unused from that time until being fully restored by 1914. It was used as a secret store for national treasures during World War 2 then converted into a hotel in 1973. It is one of Scotland’s largest and best-preserved medieval castles. We walk through Borthwick Castle grounds, then retrace our steps along Gore Way to Fushiebridge.