View of Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat

Category

Library Item

Item no

687

Title

View of Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat

Description

A view of Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat. Smoke hangs over the cityscape, the outline of the castle rock is just visible. The rocky formations on Arthur's Seat are visible in the foreground, sheep are grazing and two men tend the flock.

Artist / maker

Skene, James

Date

1818

Size

14 x 25 cm.

Type

Watercolour

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

The city of Edinburgh is built around seven hills, mostly volcanic in origin. It is bordered to its north by the Firth of Forth, and to its south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh has been Scotland's capital since the mid fifteenth century, but evidence of human habitation on the site stretches back some 7000 years. The central city is made up of the Old Town area immediately surrounding the Castle and the Royal Mile, and the New Town to the north, an important example of eighteenth and nineteenth century neoclassical town planning. These central areas were designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. Other more modern developments, from the nineteenth century to the present, radiate from this central area incorporating many older villages. Edinburgh attracts more tourists than any other city in the UK except London, especially during the annual festivals in August.

Arthur's Seat is the remains of a now extinct volcano which rises 250 metres (823 feet) above Holyrood Park in Edinburgh. Remains of an Iron Age Hill fort were found on the east side of the hill. The origins of the peak's name have been somewhat lost. One theory is that it is a corruption of the gaellic Ard-na-saith, meaning height of arrows, indicating a past usage as a practice place for archery. Arthur's Seat is also known as the Lion's Head.

View a map of Arthur's Seat

Sailsbury crags were formed by a combination of volcanic activity and glacial erosion. James Hutton's studies of the Crags formed an important part of his 1788 work 'Theory of the Earth', the book that earned him his reputation as the founder of modern geology.

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Related subjects

Animals > Mammals > Sheep

Homes > Residential buildings > Castles and palaces

Landscape > Land > Hills

Landscape > Water > Seas

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

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