A walk up Blackford Hill to see the Royal Observatory

My wife and I recently went for a nice walk up Blackford Hill here in Edinburgh. Edinburgh has 7 main hills, and we'd never been up Blackford Hill, so wanted to check it out.

The Royal Observatory is a key feature up on the hill. It has quite a stunning building dating from the late 1800s which houses one of the main telescopes there. Although over 100 years old, the observatory is still active. The School of Astronomy & Physics of the University of Edinburgh is also located there.

Our walk started at the base of the hill, where we had to pick up this steep muddy path, which soon took us to the top.

As we got near the top by the Observatory we were starting to get some nice views out over the city. This view looks Eastish, with the hill you can see on the left being one of the other 7 hills of Edinburgh. Its called Arthur's seat and is the tallest of them.

We then made our way around the outside of the observatory. It really is an impressive building, and it was our first time seeing it close up. I love the octagon tower with the amazing copper roof at the top - its so ornate.

Thats the main gate into the observatory compound. I was actually surprised at how much was up there and there is a decent size campus with a number of organisations being based there, as you can see on the pillar. At the top of the pillar, you can see the royal seal of Queen Victoria, as she was still on the throne when it was built in the 1890s !

From the observatory we made our way around the side of the hill. It was a lovely clear day, although it was a tad cold. The views out across the countryside were quite nice (the view above looks South Eastish away from the city and down towards a part of Scotland called the borders).

We worked our way around the top of the hill. There is quite a large expanse of ground up there, and we passed this coms tower on the way round.

We made it up to the absolute peak (fairly easily - its not a difficult walk) to where they have a trig point. The UK Ordnance Survey uses these features on peaks across the country for survey and mapping purposes. Again thats Arthur's Seat in the background. I know someone who actually collects these trig points. That is, she purposely goes out climbing the peaks where they have been built and is trying to go and see as many as she can. They are all individually marked. Its not a common hobby, but there are a number of people who do it - its called trig point bagging or just trig bagging.

From the top we worked our way down the far side of the hill via these fairly large steps.

That then took us around the base of the hill where we found this nice pond, which I didnt even know existed. I've driven past here on occasion, but its completely obscured from the road by the tress around it. So that was a bonus find.

Working our way around the pond, we started to get back to our starting point. We were actually surprised at how short the whole walk was - maybe 40-50mins in total - but it was really nice. I would definitely go there again - especially to see the observatory.

And the last wee surprise on the walk was the lever on the gate by the pond - shaped just like a swan !

Well that wraps up my wednesday walk post for this week. We fair enjoyed our walk up Blackford Hill, and the views it provided. We now need to make sure and complete the rest of the 7 hills in Edinburgh (I think we just have one to go - Craiglockhart Hill).

All the best from Scotland !

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