View from Calton Hill looking South East

Category

Library Item

Item no

3518

Title

View from Calton Hill looking South East

Description

The view from Calton Hill over to Holyroodhouse and Arthur's Seat. Below the hill lies the houses of the Canongate and to the right the classical Robert Burns Monument.

Artist / maker

Keith, Thomas

Date

1856

Size

25 x 28 cm

Type

Paper negative

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Calton Hill is situated at the east end of Princes Street in Edinburgh. It rises to a height of 108 metres and is another of the city's hills created by volcanic activity. Several monuments stand on the hill. Most prominent amongst these are the Nelson Monument, built in the shape of a telescope, and the unfinished National Monument, modelled on the Parthenon in Athens.

Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags form an unmistakable part of Edinburgh's skyline. Rising 247 metres above sea level Arthur's Seat is one of five visible volcanic vents left over from volcanic activity in the area 354 million years ago. The peak's name is possibly a corruption of the gaellic Ard-na-saith, meaning height of arrows, indicating a past usage as a practice place for archery. It is also known as the Lion's Head. 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.

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Related subjects

Architecture > Monuments > Memorial monuments

Homes > Residential buildings > Castles and palaces

Homes > Residential buildings > Houses

Landscape > Land > Hills

Places > Edinburgh areas > Canongate

Places > Edinburgh areas > Holyrood

Places > Edinburgh areas > Old Town

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

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