A sunny climb up Arthur’s Seat

Part of my plan to climb Arthur’s Seat (at least) once a month in 2018 is to explore different parts of the hill. So whilst I generally take the route past St Anthony’s Chapel on the north side of the hill, today I wandered around to the south side to make my ascent. I have taken the route before, but today was the first time I’ve taken the route on my own, with the luxury of enjoying the experience at my leisure.

The route to the south is the shortest route to the top if you start from the carpark. Of course, as I was walking I had to get to the carpark by walking along Queen’s Drive from the southern entrance to Holyrood Park. But the weather was absolutely beautiful, which made the journey very pleasant.

One of the things I love about this route is that it tends to be less busy. And as the entire grassy hillside is available for climbing (as opposed to a single trail on the north side) you can walk at your pace without having to worry about trying to pass slower walkers (or being passed by faster walkers). Just before the summit, this path meets up with the path from the north where there’s a nice little plateau of sorts. Today, the area was filled with people enjoying the views, some with picnic lunches. It was nice to see so many people out enjoying the day.

Of course, the nice weather also meant that the summit was overcrowded. There were so many people at the top that it was difficult to enjoy the views. And so, I just took my “proof of activity” selfie and started my descent.

On my way back down Queen’s Drive, I stopped off for a geocache just off a little trail. Whilst the spot didn’t offer the same sweeping views as the summit, it did offer me a lovely view of the castle – without the crowds. So I sat there for a while just enjoying the peacefulness of it all.

I am hoping that I have nice weather for my next climb, and have even thought that I might do the climb on a weekday to avoid at least some of the crowds. Whilst I do like people, it is a lot nicer to enjoy the outdoors without hordes of them taking away from the peacefulness of it all.

Anyhow, here are a few photos from my day out for you to enjoy.