Edinburgh and Salisbury Craigs[Crags]

Category

Library Item

Item no

15603

Title

Edinburgh, Salisbury Craigs[Crags], and the Weytes House

Description

People are working in fields enclosed by trees and hedges. They are loading hay or sheaves of grain onto horse drawn carts for transporting into the steadings. The cart on the right is an open-framed harvest cart (lang cairt) and the one on the left is probably a box cairt with a harvest frame (hairst frame) set over it. In the distance is the skyline of Edinburgh from the Castle to Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat.

Artist / maker

Clerk, John

Date

1855

Size

13cm x 38.5

Type

Etching

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags form an unmistakable part of Edinburgh's skyline.

Salisbury Crags are an igneous sill, composed of cooled magma during the period of volcanic activity and later shaped by glacial erosion. The steep cliffs of the crags provided natural defence for early human inhabitants. Traces of a stone rampart dating from the early part of the first millennium BC have been found there. More recently James Hutton's studies of the Crags led to the release in 1788 of his 'Theory of the Earth', the work which established him in the eyes of many as the father of modern geology.

This is a copy of an etching presented to George III in 1786 by John Clerk of Eldin.

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Related subjects

Agriculture and fisheries > Landscape > Fields

Landscape > Land > Hills

Places > Edinburgh areas > Old Town

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

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