Parker transforms a simple walk into a masterclass by grounding Edinburgh’s urban history in its deep geological foundations. It is a rare example of travel content that respects the viewer's intelligence through multidisciplinary storytelling.
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Live from Edinburgh City Centre! A fascinating guided tour
Added:biggest streams of the year. Everyone absolutely loves our Edinburgh city center stream from Edinburgh during our Highland show coverage. We come into the city center at night and we have a guided tour. This year we have a guided tour with Bob Parker and we are going to be going around and having a look at the sites and fascinating kind of historical places around.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Mixture of historical places and stories and >> Okay, great. I'm very much looking forward to How did you get into this, Bob? First of all, >> I don't know.
>> All right.
>> So, I have a brother that you might have heard of. He does a little bit of YouTube dabbles, you might say. And he um so he started a YouTube channel and I thought I could probably do something like that.
>> True.
>> And I started doing kind of like Scottish things. Channel's called Scotland Unplugged. And I started doing kind of Scottish things. So, I went wild swimming or as they used to call it back in the day, swimming. Yeah.
>> Did that made a video. My brother was like, "You should do more of those." And then one day I told a story about um Evan or Scrooge and it was a kind of historical story and people liked it. So I started doing more and more of those.
>> So you got into it?
>> Yeah.
>> And that's how it started.
>> That's how No.
>> That's how started.
>> Born through social media. So awesome.
So I'm really looking forward to this tonight. I'm going to spin you around because we're going to go a wander around Edinburgh and we'll show you all the sites and again Bob will be taking the lead here and showing you everything that's round about Edinburgh that's of some interest and cool stories as well.
So let's spin you around. Let's go a wander and get into it. Now everyone, if you could give us a share on this stream, it would be awesome. It's It takes a bit of organizing. It takes a wee bit of travel to get in from the Highland Show, especially at this time of night. So, it'd be great if you could all put a share in the stream. Be amazing. Show your support and get as many people on here as we possibly can, which would be excellent. Right, where we going, Bob? Tell us. Well, let's look this way for a kickoff. So, these are Salsbury cracks. So, it's kind of what you can see from here of Arthur Seat.
Arthur Sea is an extinct volcano um in the middle of Edinburgh. Robert Louis Stevenson called it a hill for scale and a mountain in virtue of its magnitude basically. I mean it's it's it sets heavy in the kind of Edinburgh consciousness and this is how the whole city was formed. So if you start here, you can see that basically there's a volcano in the middle and there are volcanic rocks that have been either sort of flung out and then they've solidified over time and that's what the city's formed on. So if you look over there you can see just over the top of Crystal's head. Um there's um uh Edinburgh's disgrace they call it or Scotland's disgrace that's on Colton Hill and over there is the castle and both of these are volcanic rocks and they've cooled over time obviously and what we're about to walk up when we walk up the Royal Mel is what they call a cra volcanic rock but over time the glaciers have spread the tail out behind it and that's what we're actually going to be walking on. Um, and yeah, so Arthur's seat probably one of the most famous bits of Edinburgh along with >> Yeah. Yeah. Everyone knows Arthur's seat in Edinburgh, don't they? So, >> and along with the actual Cton Hill monument as well. So, most of the stuff that you see is on top of volcanic rock.
>> There we go. Who would who would have thought there's something learn something new every day. So, there's the first bit right off the bat on our Edinburgh tour.
>> So, the bit you're seeing here is Salsbury Cracks. So Salsbury crags um the this is kind of the birthplace of modern geography, geology, sorry, modern or the bedrock of >> the bedrock. There you go. That's what we're talking about.
>> Um so during the enlightenment, which is a kind of a period of discovery in Scottish history in the kind of late 18th and early 19th century, a guy called James Hutton, who's known as the father of modern geology, came here and studied these rocks. And his theory was that you could tell everything about how the world was formed by studying the rocks around you. And this is kind of where he did it. And actually, he's kind of right, isn't he? Yeah. So, he's Yeah.
He he influenced the way. And lots of stuff. We'll we'll see lots of stuff as we go along that happened as the result of the Enlightenment during that kind of period. Um Yeah. But this is a good place to start because you can see how the city's kind of laid out.
>> Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Great place to start. Start with the foundations and then go from there. So, we're in Hollywood at the moment. It's called Hollywood because of the um the cross of the Holy Rid. David the first founded the abbey here. Um his mother was Queen Margaret, later St. Margaret. Most of our mothers are saints. My mom definitely is, but his actually was a saint, right? And for that reason, he did lots of kind of pious religious things. And one of the things he did was found Holy Holy or Holy Abby. Um, and the the cross of the Holy Rid supposedly is the original cross and his mom had a fragment of it. And he was out here hunting one day. This was a just a big part for hunting. And um, he came across a stag and he thought he was about to be gored to death, but a burning cross appeared between the stags antlers and he realized that he was saved. And in order to give thanks for not being gored to death, he founded the abbey on the spot.
And that's what we're about to head for now. And you'll see as we walk around you may spot I'll point them out when we see them um stag's heads with um a cross between the antlers and this is that's the symbol of the burrow of the cannon gate.
So we're working towards the road palace just now.
>> So this is where Scottish Parliament is, isn't it?
>> Yeah. Is it?
>> Yeah. Yeah. What's your opinion of this now? We were just talking about that as we're walking along what our opinion of the building was. Well Bob, your opinion is >> I like it but that's because I studied architecture. I like modern architecture.
>> My opinion is it looks like a jail. It's hideous in my opinion just because of everything's so beautiful round about and it's so historic and then I just don't think it ties in at all because it's it's it's so modern I guess.
>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's built from concrete and and um concrete and steel pipes.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. And nothing else in Edinburgh kind of is. So I'm like that's that's why I don't think it fits in very well.
Everyone's going to have their own opinion on the on the parliament, I guess. But, um, it's it's good to have a different opinions as well because it's, you know, that's what makes the world go around, isn't it?
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Um, it's what actually used to be there is kind of um coincidental to what actually what you're here for at the moment cuz that's where the original Highland show happened.
>> Oh, is it?
>> Yeah.
>> Oh, no way.
>> It's the grounds of Queensbury House.
So, as we walk past here, you can see Holl Palace as well. and that grew out of the abbey which we'll see in a minute. Look at that in there. Let me see if I can get parked because of the garden parties preparations. But you can see over there the bit just sticking out to the left hand side. That's King James's tower and that's named for James V who had it built originally that had a quite high up and it was the upper levels that he would have lived on. He was kind of a paranoid king. So he basically um he was one of the Stewart kings. Um and he his uncle and then his stepfather kept him prisoner and and basically ruled in his place. So when he got out and became king in his own right, he was quite paranoid. So he built that tower in order to keep himself safe and never wind up being taken prisoner again. And that is the oldest bit you can see today. So it worked. Yeah. Right. But some more interesting stuff happened in there.
I'll tell you right about it right there.
>> Where we can kind of see it a we bit closer.
>> Is that Mary Queen of Scots son, Charlie Sim?
>> Uh, no. So that's um that's Mary Queen of Scots's dad.
>> Oh, there you go.
>> Mary, Queen of Scots's son was also James Stewart. So the >> Well, well done, Charlie, on your knowledge there.
>> You weren't far off really, were you?
>> No, no, no, that's all. um a lot of James's um yeah the Stewarts are like um best way to describe them is that they were the the king's stewards and that's where the name comes from. So they basically ran the royal household and then they managed to kind of invigle their way in because one of them married Robert the Brit's daughter and then their son Robert Stewart became Robert II and that's why the Stuart dynasty came in.
Um, but what I'll show you just now actually 9860. I don't know if you're going to be able to see this.
>> But give us a we mic test as well. Uh, if you can everyone.
>> So yeah, the first one happened here in 1822 in these grounds and George IV came up in 1822. But after that it moved around.
They even let them have it in Dree. And that's the poster for 1930 Highland show on July 22nd Highland Show which is a bit weird. Dump free Highland Show.
>> Yeah, it is a bit weird, isn't it? It's like an oxymoron.
>> In 1822, George IV came up. He was the first Scottish.
>> Well, they swapped you with that so you can see that. Watch it doesn't ping off because they're saying that your mic isn't working but mine isn't. Oh, no.
>> I know. Well, >> let me just >> Unless these mics aren't working at all.
Let's try that.
>> Testing. Testing.
>> No, they're not working. Ah.
>> Yeah, I know. It's just not working on there. Bear with us. Just while we're sorting things out. It's always difficult with the mics on uh on Facebook. They're always a bit of a nightmare. Uh working everything's working okay on YouTube. On YouTube, we are on landscape as well. If you want to watch on your TV and listen to Bob as we're as we're wandering along, I might actually h I'll keep the the mics I'll keep the phones right close to Bob as well so you can hear what Bob's saying and uh and that should help things along with the Have you got another set?
Kristoff Kristoff, look at him.
>> He's going like a maniac >> working hard behind the scenes. Uh, we have like four sets of mics on the go just now, but classic always say this time of year, Facebook's always difficult, but we'll keep working on the sound as we're heading along. And I'll keep the I'll keep the phones close to Bob so you can hear exactly what he's saying. And everyone says everything's absolutely fine on YouTube, so if you do want to come over there, then absolutely do so. And uh, >> okay, cool. Cool. No problem. We'll just carry on. So yeah, this is the Scottish Parliament. Most controversial building in Edinburgh, possibly Scotland, possibly the world. It's h you can see the blocks. The granite blocks are designed to kind of imitate the granite of Scotland. You've got kind of trees or kind of branches sticking out. You've got rock formations there that look kind of lot like a Glock.
>> Yeah, they do actually. Yeah, they do.
>> You've got like lots of kind of stuff around there that just mirrors the kind of landscape. And this is supposed to be an upturn boat. So, it's supposed to mirror like farming and fishing. Do you think do you think there's a case here that they're maybe just reaching a wee bit for the what they're trying to achieve?
>> Possibly.
>> And the symbolic the symbolic nature of the building is potentially we're just reaching a wee bit.
>> So possibly I've been known to my time but again >> but again >> I mean they spent 400 million.
>> Yeah. It was originally supposed to cost 40 million and they spent about 400.
>> Yeah. Because that was a big scandal at the time, wasn't it? the way the budget went >> huge. Um, and Enrique Morales, who was the um, Catalan architect that designed it, actually died during the building of it, which wouldn't have helped. 911 happened as well. So, the security had to beefed up. You'll see big gates around there. We'll have a look down here as well.
>> Um, and so all of that interfered with it and that's why it ran over. That's one of the reasons it ran over, but I think incompetence might have come into it as well a little bit.
>> No, no, Bob, we wouldn't say that.
Um, so ahead, you can see what I was talking about there. That's um, King James's Tower. You can also see the abbey just off to the side there. And really the the the actual palace itself grew from the abbey. So we know that Robert the Bruce was here in 1328 when he signed the Treaty of Northampton and that basically set the borders of Scotland. Um, and he would have stayed in apartments there, but a lot of the building came from James IV. So he was um another Steuart King, James the F's dad. Um and he married Margaret Tudtor, who was Henry VII's sister. So there was a little bit of keeping up with the in-laws. He was a great ship builder, like to build stuff, palaces, ships, all sorts of other things. Um and he did a lot of this, but you can't actually see any of the stuff that he built. Then later it was built by kind of subsequent kings and queens after that. Queen Victoria would have had a lot to do with it as well. But after so after um James the so Mary Queen of Scots son James V 6th um he when Mary Queen of Scots was taken prisoner down south and she was beheaded. Um James V 6 became he inherited the throne when Elizabeth the 1 of England died and he became James the 6 of Scotland and James I of England. He'd obviously been James the 6th of Scotland for a while before that. um and he didn't really like spending too much time here. He went down south where the for the bammy weather and um so this place kind of fell into neglect and then Oliver Cromwell came in and damaged it a bit.
And the next person that really rocked up here was Charles II. So after Cromwell, but he just came here to get crowned and then he went straight back down south again. And then Bonnie Prince Charlie came here during the Jacobite rebellion, the 1745 rebellion. and he lived here for about six weeks. Um, and then it was really kind of patched up by. So I mentioned George IV came after Charles II. There were no real monarchs.
Nobody visited Scotland. And that was in the mid kind of 17th century right up until the 19th century in 1822. Walter Scott um wrote a lot of novels that romanticized Scottish history and George IVth loved it and he was right into the books and they had dinner and he said you should come to Scotland because you are descended from the Stewarts. They're all kind of intermarried anyway. So you're as much of a jackabite as Bonnie Prince Charlie as you should come here.
You should wear a kilt. That's why we had a show behind us. Um celebrating Highland life and that's why we all wear skirts or winds these days. It was always more of a Highland thing in the past, but then George IV because he loved the idea and because they kind of um put all that show on for him, everybody who's anybody wanted to wear a kilt and the the mills who didn't have all the tartans for different families.
Family tartans weren't a thing before then. They decided, well, we'll just invent some family tartans or we'll just repurpose this old military tartan or this old kind of tartan that was used in slave trade. Um, and we'll just put a name on it.
>> So, it's a bit entrepreneurial.
>> Yeah.
>> Nice.
>> There were two brothers as well. So, they were called the Soies Stewarts. Um, and but they were actually called um Charles Manning Allen and I can't remember what the other one was called, but they were two brothers and they basically invented detard, but claimed that they discovered them and they wrote a big huge book called the Vetori Veststerium Scoticum. It's like this great big book full of tartans. Um, and they they lived as kings. They claimed to be the longlost grandsons of Bonnie Prince Charlie. And they lived on an island and they were put up by um, Lord love it. Put them on an island and they were rode to church every Sunday with bag pipes.
>> Oh wow. They were quite grand.
>> Oh god. Yeah. But they were a couple of frauds.
>> Yeah.
>> See, a bit dodgy.
>> It's a good story. But >> that's a great story. Yeah. I mean, I kind of they lived out their days just researching Scottish history and stuff and they had like special pens with kind of royal orbs and things on the top of them. Oh, yeah. Um I mean, >> they're a bit delusional, do you think?
>> Oh, yeah, a little bit. They're um Yeah, I don't I mean, yeah, they're quite something. They're well worth a Google.
Um what we're looking at here is supposedly the national animal of Scotland. It's kind of a funny one because it's really kind of a symbol of royalty. And then it was later there was a poll a few years ago that they said who what do you think should be the national animal? And ever since it's kind of been said that the unicorn's the national animal of Scotland. That does symbolize Scotland. Um it's obviously in kind of competition with the lion for being sort of king of the beasts.
>> Um I don't know. It's It's kind of weird, isn't it, that you could have a national animal of Scotland that's mythical?
>> Yeah.
>> Isn't it? We do exist.
>> Yeah.
But yeah, our national animal is a bit mythical. You'll see the gold chains there. So, the gold chains symbolize that um it's basically the power of Scotland. The gold chains symbolize that only the monarch can control them.
>> Oh, right. No way.
>> Mythical king of the beasts symbolizes strength and whatnot. And yeah, the monarch can control it. And you can see the gold chain links into the lion rampant which isn't really a Scottish flag. It's more the flag of the seal of the the monarchy in Scotland.
>> Yeah.
>> But I would say the the lion rampant would have been more famous than the unicorn in Scotland.
>> Yeah.
>> Recently that people have been talking about unicorn. It's always been on that >> you know actually recently now that you say that recently is actually when I found out that unicorn was actually the >> Yeah. national animal of Scotland. kind of a recent thing. Um it was a guide told me that when I went to um Sterling Castle. He was like, "Everybody says it's the national animal." It's not.
Look it up. Um over there you can see Queen Mary's bath house. And uh it dates to around the kind of 1560s about the right time for Mary, Queen of Scots.
Legend has it that she bathed in there in wine, maybe champagne. She was French. She liked that kind of thing. Um but we have no proof of what it actually was or whether she bathed in there or not. I mean it looks it looks bloom and ancient, doesn't it? Like from my my very unsophisticated mind, it looks >> it looks like I mean how how old would that be? Oh yeah, that's 16th century.
So it dates from about the 1560s, >> but they think it's maybe part of a cast. The wall would have gone around there. You think it's part of a sports pavilion? She like playing tennis and golf and stuff.
>> All right. So they would have played in the in the courtyard kind of thing there.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Um, it's funny. They've got that unique kind of they've got that kind of look from the time period, don't they? Just the way that it's built with the shallow kind of roof, the shape of it, the tiny little windows. It kind of looks Lord of the Ringish.
>> Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's good. It's I like it. It's one of my favorite buildings.
>> It's very It's very cool. It's so like it's bursting with character, isn't it?
>> Yeah, totally. Looks like kind of Hansel and Gretle might >> that vibe it does. most famous thing that probably happened in there was um on the night of the 9th of March 1566, Mary's Queen of Scots was having dinner with her private secretary David Ritzio and um her ladies in waiting and her husband, you actually mentioned this on the bus tour. I saw the video earlier on that you did a couple years ago, but her husband Lord Darnley so she m it was her second husband. Her first husband died in France when she came home from France and she married her first cousin Henry Lord Darnley.
>> Bit questionable >> who was who was also a Stuart. Yeah, totally questionable.
Darnley was a bit of a womanizer, a bit of a drinker. Wasn't just women like to um and he um he wanted the crown match memorial. So he wanted to be able to rule equally. And he uh on the night of the 9th of March, he got a group of nobles and a bunch of them went up into the department where they were and they stabbed Ritzio, who was our favorite, in front of her 57 times.
>> Did he live?
>> No. He was a bit like a civ after that.
>> There wasn't much left to hold anything in. Um so um they kind of basically the message was do as you're told or just >> and this was all in with the idea of making it matrimonial so that he would get equal share and get rid of the rest of the competition. He would effectively be king. She was actually pregnant at the time with his son who would be James V 6th. Um and part of the reason it was some people think it was maybe because he supposedly thought Ritzio was cheating. She was cheating with Ritzio and maybe it was Ritzu's baby and he was trying to trigger a miscarriage. It's pretty dark. That is pretty darn. But then that's the ages, isn't it?
>> Yeah, totally. Um he was like, as you said on the on the live feed, he was um he died in Kirkfield. So about a little over a year later, he stayed at Kirkfield. Manny went to the wedding of one of our servants. They were at this party. He wasn't up to it. He was ill with um possibly syphilis. I'll let you decide.
>> Oh god.
>> Stayed at Kirkfield and um in the middle of the the night there was an explosion probably about 2:00 in the morning and um he was found in a nearby orchard strangled. such a nice guy. They murdered him twice. Um, and the irony was that the person Moritzio was actually sleeping with was Darly himself supposedly.
>> No way. Really? What a turn of events.
>> Oh, yeah. Thickens.
>> Yeah, it does.
>> She She was accused of a TV program, is it?
>> Oh, totally. I think it is a TV program.
>> Has to be.
>> It's definitely a film anyway.
Um, yeah. So the h she then presided over the trial of her the the guy who was accused of it and then married him.
>> Wow. And and that's really part of the reason that kind of that triggered her kind of undoing and Scotland was also going through the reformation. So becoming a a Protestant country, moving from being a pro a Catholic country into a Protestant country >> during that time. Um John Knox was kind of People have seen pictures of John Knox with it. We'll see him later on probably. Um big beard, angry man. Yeah.
>> Kind of. You could kind of see why he was angry because he'd been done for when he was preaching these kind of Protestant um faith. He um he he got tried for um basically he was sold as a heresy. That's what I'm trying to say. He got tried for heresy and sold to the French as a galley slave. No, he was sold. He was sent off to become a galley slave. So when he came back, he brought some like hang-ups with him and he like preached against the evils of Mary being both a Catholic and a woman.
>> All right.
>> But she let him do whatever he wanted like they could have their Protestant faith and she was quite kind of easy come easy go. But that probably made him even angrier.
>> Yeah. and um was obviously saying things to people and then she was effectively there was a um she there was a battle she lost the battle um her husband I'll just show you this actually um there's a bunch of these kind of plaques in the wall on the side of the parliament I think some of them are waiting to be filled or they've fallen out I'm not sure which but this one's a when we had a king and a chancellor and parliament uh of our own. We could all pebble them with stones when they weren't good bears, good kids, but nobody's nails can reach the length of London. Scott, >> which is quite a nice quite a nice resentment, but there's all sorts of kind of things in here.
>> So, so basically he's saying that when they're ruled by England, they don't have a say. Yeah.
>> But when they're closer to home, you can >> you can help them and stuff. Uh, I might actually just show you this while we're here. We'll need to be a wee bit harsh tones when we walk in here because this because people live here. But this is quite a cool spot that it's just hidden off the Royal M.
This is White Horse close. So people actually live here. This is a living close. Um, and this is a a kind of we think it's 16th century coaching in. One historian described it as being basically so fake that you can forgive it for being fake because it's been kind of patched up over the years. It's a really cool >> thing. Supposedly the white horse comes from Mary Queen of Scots stable the white horse here and there were stables and that would have been a coaching in back in the day. So you would have caught the coach to maybe London or something back then. It's just a cool we >> isn't it smart? Like >> again bursting with character.
>> Yeah. kind of strange they've got kind of a UPVC window up in there.
>> Yeah, >> it's Yeah, it's cool. I like it. It's um It's a we quiet spot.
>> Yeah, it is. It's really nice. And people are actually living in here.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Some of this would be much more modern.
I was I was actually saying to I was saying to Kristoff on the way in here, it's like Edinburgh's full absolutely full of little nooks and crannies we would say where it's like everywhere you turn there's like a little doorway off here or a little alleyway off here and they all kind of lead onto each other or lead onto a main gate and it's if you knew your way around like the the tourists kind of go all the main streets then back down the proper way but actually there's probably a lot of little shortcuts So you wouldn't even realize and it's just down little alleyways and side streets and things like that. And it's a it's a fascinating city. It's not just all in blocks. It's kind of there's little runs everywhere I think.
>> Yeah. So this is um the closes all run off. So if you look at it, it looks like a herring bone. Um it's just constant closes running off it. And in Scotland, the close is basically a tight street or the entrance to a flat sometimes as well.
And yeah, you'll see them all the way up. Actually, I'll show you this while we're here. This is Queensbury House. H Yeah, let's scoot across. Um, this is Queensbury House. It's now part of the Parliament, but in 1707, this is where they signed effectively signed away the original Scottish Parliament.
And um, a crowd kind of gathered up outside because there had been bribery.
Effectively, what happened was there was a thing called the Darian Scheme. So Scotland wanted an empire and somebody came up with the idea of um taking a a part of Panama and ships would come across the Atlantic and normally they go right around the bottom of the Americas.
But if they stopped at the Darian Gap in Panama, the Scottish kind of colonists could pick up their luggage or their their sort of cargo and take it across land and then load up another ship on the other side and claim tax for doing it. Right?
>> And that was their scheme. But loads of people went, loads of people invested, and loads of people died. I think something like 60 70% of the people that went died. And then they tried again from like malaria and just >> on the boat or Yeah. boat as well. I mean, just just grim conditions.
>> Obviously, um the English government, they didn't want them to succeed because they had a big empire of their own. Um the um the Spanish um crown didn't want them to succeed as well because they had a big empire of their own. So can you see in here?
>> That was kind of a competition thing.
>> Sorry. Yeah. The Spanish Empire, >> they didn't want them to succeed.
>> Yeah. So everyone was against them basically. Um and they had two attempts and basically it bankrupted the country and some so when the kind of the government in London wanted to expand they wanted basically resources, human resources, soldiers. So they came up with the idea of we'll get rid of the if if we have one parliament then we can use the kind of Scottish troops and various there were various interests involved and there was money put up for it. So of course the higher ups got money for agreeing to it and there was a crowd outside here and the young Marcus of Greensbury who's about I think 10 years old at the time was a little bit touched and they kept him locked up most of the time. Right. But the the nobles that were in there legged it and left the crowd outside. But they left the Marcus of Queenry in there with an unlocked cell door. And when they came back, they found something cooking on the range. And effectively they' um they left behind the Marcus of Queensbury and a servant kid. And the Marcus of Greenbury was basically roasting the servant on a spit.
>> Oh my god. There are all sorts of stories about kind of bad things that happened to people that signed it in here. Yeah, >> it's grim, isn't it?
>> That is.
>> This is Edinburgh. This is the darkest.
>> So grim. Bob, >> I didn't think we were gonna get roasting a servant on a spit on the on today's >> stream. I know. Bob's like Bob's like >> Oh, is that right? Is that right? Still a ghost in there, is it?
>> Yeah. There you go. I didn't know that.
>> Fireplace was done in.
>> Is that right? You still see the fireplace?
>> The fireplaces are still there. They're enormous great big things. You can go in if you do the tour, it takes you in and let you see.
>> There you go. Thank you very much.
>> Cheers.
>> How creepy. Yeah.
>> Going in there and it's like that was in that like So why was that guy So why was that guy locked up? What was the reason they kept him in there?
>> I think he was just a bit mad.
>> Well, you know what? I can understand right.
>> I know. It's probably a politically correct term for it now.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> So, so you'll see these flags as we wander up. Where we are now is the canate named after the cannons down in the abbey. And so cannons as in monks, not cannons as in guns. All right. Um and you'll see these are all heraldic flags for noble families. Um and they come out in the summertime.
I'm not quite sure which is which.
Um but we'll wander up here. This is the cannon gate and it's it was its own bur before Edinburgh became part of it or Edinburgh took it and annexed it basically and made it part of the Royal Mile but this is the Cannon Gate still the name of the street they were on you'll see up here this is the Canon gate toll boobth and it was a kind of a center of administration and um a jail and maybe where you would have come and paid your taxes and all sorts of stuff like that we are out with what we do.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're we'll come up to the old city walls pretty soon. Um and the old city walls are well. So the old city walls are So there'll be the flooding wall that we'll come up to. In 1513, James the fourth, James the fifth's father, the one that was trying to keep up with his brother-in-law, um went into battle in Faudin, which is in Northland, and he died. Um, and he after he died, the city panicked and basically built a wall right the way around the city. And back in the day, it would have enclosed 10,000 people. Um, obviously >> terrified of invasion. Is that >> Yeah. Yeah. It was for an English invasion that never came, right?
>> It's like a complete waste of time.
>> Complete waste of time. But you can still see bits of it in the city today, which I'll show you >> uh soon.
>> But this is Yeah, this is the Canate.
Look at the look at the view up here as well. Isn't that cool?
>> That's a to So that's actually the museum, the people's story.
>> So you can go in there now and you can see how people lived in Edinburgh through the ages.
Um and it's like you can see the jail cell and stuff. My favorite story about that was in um in the 17th century some covenanters were imprisoned in there.
I'll tell you a bit more about the Covenanters later, but they were imprisoned in there, but they managed to escape and as a punishment, the prison guards were stuck in jail and basically for letting that happen. All right. I don't know if it's bribery or not, but maybe one of the coolest things here is just here.
So, yeah, that's a great place to go if you're ever like a visit. Well, yeah. If you're you're about a loose end or it starts raining and you can see remember I was talking about the stag.
So, you can see the stag there with the cross between its antlers.
>> Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. I do see on the on the side of the building there.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Clock's cool as well. The clocks is the clock's excellent. Yeah.
It's got the stag on it too with the cross.
>> So, have you seen um grab you seen uh Frankenstein?
>> New movie?
>> No.
>> Have you seen Outlander?
I think 95% of our audience have seen it.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> So, this will be wasted on me and you.
But >> have you seen it?
>> I haven't. No, I've been in it, but I've not seen it. Um, so this is Bake House Close.
>> This is used in Outlander. It's also in the new Frankenstein movie as well. So, down here. Yeah. So, you just see like a cutaway shop where he wanders through and it's it's covered in just mud and stuff and stalls selling chickens or whatever. This is basically how Edinburgh would have looked in the 18th century. So the kind of jackabite era where um when Outlander would have happened or when the the historical part of it happened and this was used in Outlander. This is where Jamie comes to sorry Claire comes to visit >> Jamie I think it's called Carfax Close in the film >> and you get a lot of people coming down to take photographs of it because of the Outlander.
>> Is that famous? Is it?
>> Yeah.
>> Who's seen Outlander in the comments?
Let me know.
>> Everyone's surely miss. I haven't seen it. I've been in the the the pre the sequel prequel, sorry, which is out in September. I probably shouldn't say anything else about that, but yeah, it's um it's cool. They go into so much effort with the costumes and things.
>> Loads of people saying they seen said they've seen this in the in the video.
>> Ah, there you go.
>> In the in the movies. So, they're like, it's so weird that we're seeing this here when I've seen it in the movie.
>> No, they did this here.
>> They would come in here and it was all covered in mud just to recreate the scenes. it would >> just some some like insane amount of investment stuff to try and get it looking.
>> You can you can see footage of it and the whole of the street out there is covered in mud as well. It's all blocked off. Um but this is so it's called bake house close because it was the association of bakers of the cannon gate. It was also a notorious red light district. So if you wanted to come here for like I don't know dice or >> prostitutes or um [ __ ] fighting or whatever you wanted to do back in the day this is where you would come.
So, if I lose Kristoff later on, I'll just come here and see what he's looking for.
>> Looking for a tight slip.
>> Yeah. So, over here we've got the Canon Gate Kirk.
Um, not quite as famous as Grafire's car, but it's pretty cool.
Um, >> ah, Grayfire's car. Are we going to get to that later, Bob?
>> Yeah, we'll get to that. Have to.
>> You have to.
>> Yeah. So that over there is Robert Ferguson the poet and when Burns >> came up here when he kind of made it big and he came up here um he published poems chiefly in a Scottish dialect um and Robert Ferguson he was a fan of Robert Ferguson's and he died with no money so burned for a tombstone for him and that's of >> so back in the day with uh so we're talking about Robert Burns here obviously world famous and very very much tied to the freeze Mhm.
>> Um and was he like a celebrity in the day?
>> He was. Yeah. He um I mean he came to Edinburgh and he mean famous in Scotland and the the wider world. I mean he he traveled around. If you go to the Globe and Den you can see where his stylus scratched on the window and stuff and he would come in and he would it's worth doing the tour there actually. um you go in and he would actually read the papers to people and stuff and he would like you know they would come off the stage coach and he would read the news and tell them what had happened and he had like he would hold court in there and ended up pretty wealthy. He well he started he made a bit of money and then he tried to like all of us tried to plow it back into farming >> you know >> there's history we always say >> history has a habit of repeating itself doesn't it that's old saying >> that that that that tickled me quite yeah that was good there >> he tried to play it back >> made a bit of money and played it all in the farm and lost it all he bought farm and he built a house there you can go there Right. Um and yeah, it was stony ground. It wasn't very good.
>> And they took a job with customs and excise and that's how he became an excise man was because he just couldn't make a go. Right. His father was the same. Um he really struggled in to try and make a go of it and they moved around a lot.
>> But yeah, as we know it's a precarious business.
>> It is a precarious business. And also Ellis Farm uh Ellis who used to work for us when we first got started on social media. She's a designer, fantastic graphic designer and and artist. H she works she worked at Ellis Farm. Oh, cool.
>> So, yeah, it's funny. There's always a little connection here or there. No matter where you are in the world, there's always a we connection back to Dree somehow, isn't it?
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
>> Small world, isn't it, Bob?
>> The Scottish Parliament. It's Yeah, it's um It is. It really is. Like I I remember being in Australia in McDonald's and bumping into somebody that went out with my mom went out with my next door neighbor or something like that.
>> No way.
>> Yeah.
>> It's crazy, isn't it?
So this is the kind of gate cart.
The most famous story about the kind of gate cart probably isn't real, but I'll tell you anyway because it's my favorite story about kind of about the place. The story goes that Charles Dickens um after he became kind of famous was wandering around um the kind of he was about to give a lecture. He was wandering around in here and it was kind of this time of day. It was a little bit kind of dusky.
Um he was famously shortsighted and he walked past a graveyard a grave and he read it as um it was the grave of Ebenezer Scroggy who was um sold oats and corn. He was a meal man. And the story goes that Dickens read it as here lies Ebenezer Scroggy mean man. And he thought to have that on your gravestone how mean would you have to be?
>> Um and went we wrote a Christmas Carol.
I love the story. I made a video about the story. Lots of other people then made videos about the story. Edinburgh has like tours that talk about the story, >> but I don't think it's true because I tracked it down to it's a it was first published in the erotic review in 1998 >> by place. It's like weird. Yeah, it's like a weird monthly publication. It's not kind of what it sounds like. It's strange.
>> And the journalist that published it, his editor went, I didn't really check up on the story. That's probably nuts story.
>> Oh, it's a fantastic story. Now the OCD side of me can't tell you that it's true.
>> Yeah, I know. Yeah, >> love it to be true. I don't think it is.
>> Brilliant story. Look at this view around about here. Look at that.
>> The view over there as well is quite something.
>> This is Colton Hill.
>> No, if it ever was. So, the story goes, it might not have been it was taken away in the 1930s when they were restructuring. Um, so up there you'll see see that's Nelson's um Nelson's monument. So that was built in 1816 to um commemorate Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson's victory at the battle of Trafalgar and it mirrors the upturn telescope that they blind ships. It's also where I proposed to my wife.
>> Ah >> there you go.
>> It's got a time ball on the top that drops at 1:00 around the same time that the 1:00 gun goes off >> and that's historically to tell ships out in the bay what time they could set their chronometers so they could navigate properly. Um you can just see Edinburgh's disgrace behind you.
>> So So Edinburgh's disgrace I don't what is what is that? Tell us because we mentioned it earlier on first right at the start here. What why is it called that?
>> So >> because it looks like kind of like a Greek temple really doesn't it from far away.
>> That's exactly what it was supposed to be.
>> So it's um it was modeled on the Parthonon in Athens. It was supposed to turn the top of Edinburgh's Cotton Hill into the Athenian Acropolis. And you'll see a lot of this architecture mirrors Greek architecture.
>> Yeah, it does. Yeah. The little building just up there has got the pillars and in fact the whole building actually has got the pillars right in front of it.
>> You can't see it so well for the scaffolding, but >> so that's the old Royal High School and it's actually been turned into a music center. It sat empty for years that was proposed as the Scottish Parliament back in the day. I don't think it was big enough or people just wanted a new one or whatever. But that was one of the proposed sites. Um behind it you can obviously see you can just see the edge of it. We'll probably get a better view of it from somewhere else.
Um it was supposed to be the Athena Acropolis. They only got about half of it done and it was a memorial to the um soldiers who'd lost their lives in the Napoleonic War, >> right?
>> Wars.
Um but they ran out of money and it became known as Scotland's disgrace or Edinburgh's disgrace or >> because of the fact it was mismanaged.
>> Yeah. Basically, >> history has a has a habit of repeating itself.
>> Yeah. Yeah. There have been various other things that have been suggested for it. It was suggested as a memorial to Queen Victoria. It was suggested as a monument to the Union. It's been suggested as I can't remember what the last one was, but it was supposed to be like a Scottish Valhalla. So like the the great and the good could be buried in there.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Got >> a monument to the Union as in >> the United Kingdom.
>> Yeah. Yeah. So >> you get you get some critiques around about here for that, wouldn't you?
>> That a long time ago.
>> Yeah. I was going to say that's that's before the >> the kind of current political climate.
Yeah.
And this as well kind of >> and that. Yeah.
>> It kind of looks a bit Greek, doesn't it?
>> So, this replaced the actual the abbey down there. So, during the Reformation, I talked about John Nox. He would he would give great big of sermons in front of people and people would get riled up and they'd go to cathedrals and churches and they'd riot and trash them. And so, that's why you see like St. Andrew's Cathedral is basically just a pile of blocks. It was because people trashed them and they took all the idols from the churches because Catholicism has idols or um relics I should say not but they saw it as idolatry.
>> Um so they took away all the kind of icons and um and trashed what was left and then the locals would take the stone to build the houses. So St. Andrew's Cathedral is still part of >> Yeah. still it's still all around about houses. So this replaced the abbey down there. Although that wasn't I don't think that was trash in the same way.
But this is what replaced it. Right. Got you.
>> Look at the ancient build. That's what I mean about the we tiny. Look at the size of the windows and stuff in there. You wonder >> is it?
>> It's like the it's like they start building the house and then like you know what? Let's just stick a we window in there. Like why not? Like it's doing nothing, is it? It's not even on the same height or level or nothing. It's it's just it gives so so many different little characters and it each one I would imagine will tell its own story in a way.
>> And you've got a strip light in there.
It's weird.
>> Yeah. Know and you got like a modern strip light in it. It's just it's bizarre, isn't it?
>> It is bizarre.
>> Mhm.
>> Oh, Adam Smith. So, Adam Smith was um he wrote the Wealth of Nations. So, he's basically um I should have showed you his grave actually. He wrote um the wealth of nations which is basically the foundation of capitalism. Again, this all happened in the >> actually read about him not long ago.
Ah, there you go. Well, people throw coins at his grave.
>> So, and I think they come in and collect them and give them to charity, but if you ever go to his grave, there's usually loads of coins on it. Um I don't know if it's like an anti- capitalism thing.
>> So, is this the same guy that um is almost like the founder of the the modern day bank? Is that the same guy?
I'm not sure.
>> Might not be the same. Might not be the same guy.
>> I don't think so, but tell me in the comments if I'm wrong. I think um >> or the way it was maybe the way the way that I was reading it was almost like he's the he's the founder of modern day commerce. It might Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, you're right. It's thought of as the the founder of modern day capitalism. Yeah.
>> Um and it's it's a I don't know enough about him if I'm honest. No, it was it was a a BBC article. I was reading about him and yeah, it was I don't know what the reason was now. It was about six months ago, but yeah, I remember I remember reading something about it.
>> Kind of weird tangents I go on. You ever go on these and you you like you get a deep dive into like a random fact and you're like, "Right, okay. We'll just let's h let's let's find out a little bit about this and it still stuck in my mind there when you mentioned them."
>> Yeah. Yeah. I love a tangent.
>> As anybody anybody who watches Scotland unplug will know.
Oh, it really is. Yeah, because you can never stop, can you? Like Yeah.
>> Just exactly. Yeah.
>> And they're talking about um you know this this social media ban that's coming out for under 16s and and in in the UK.
I know it's been implemented elsewhere.
Stop me if you've got something you need to say. By the way, Bob, don't let me interrupt. But um they're talking about how you know the Tik Tok will go for under 16s and Facebook and YouTube as a whole. YouTube kids will still remain and I do agree with that in some aspects and I think it's a very good way to keep the kids safe.
>> Um especially don't want things running out of control. But the only thing I do worry about is I think there should be an educational genre on each one that they should be able to access and that there is ways that these history lessons can come out and they're able to actually still learn because it's an incredible uh tool for education as well.
>> Yeah. Well, >> I mean 95% or 99.9% of it is stuff that probably shouldn't be watching, but >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> There is those diamonds in there.
>> Yeah. Well, my son was sitting in his um at primary school. He was about primary five at the time and his teacher they were doing a thing about um Mary Kuna of Scots and his teacher said here's a YouTube video with a very Scottish man and she turned it on and Jack's LIKE THAT'S MY DAD. NO WAY. No way. That's cool. Was lucky she never said anything worse than that.
>> Yeah.
But I mean we we get the same thing, you know, if we're especially one of the most common ones is if we are hatching eggs or with the with the popularity of Discon videos coming out a lot of schools because schools can't get on Facebook, they'll put her YouTube on and uh they'll they'll cycle through the videos and it's good educational content that they know is safe as well.
>> Yeah. Are you the busiest man on YouTube?
>> Yeah, I think so. Every day.
>> Yeah. Yeah. In fact, were you not on YouTube shortly before you left the showdowns? Uh yeah, one of the one of the videos maybe was Yeah. Yeah.
>> Oh, yeah. No, I was I was on the I was on talking to >> That's right. Yeah. Yeah, that's right.
>> We've had two or three videos out on YouTube possibly today. So, it's it's a >> we're a busy bunch.
>> Yeah, it's good.
>> We started at 600 this morning. We're still going. What time are we at? Half eight.
>> So, this is where the Canon gate ends.
You'll see the sign for Royal M and Cannon Gate. And this is where the high street begins. So we would have been coming this would have been the gates to Edinburgh. You can see the gold well kind of brass blacks in the ground.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Marking out the ter better. That's the emoji building. Um >> people have different feelings about that one.
>> Yeah.
>> So yeah, these are these would have been the gates into the city.
>> So it's quite interesting to do this in Edinburgh because is there not a few places that this happens where they've got the brass kind of or is it only in here?
>> There is further up. Yeah. Yeah.
>> So, the Adam Smith one I suppose we saw down there, but there's also the the toolb which we'll see further up um next to the heart of Meloian outside the cathedral. Um but these this is the flooding wall. So, this is what I was talking about the >> yeah 20 foot high wall or whatever it was. Um and yeah, you can see where the the Nether gate was when you would come in. And this hill you can actually see that the full outline of this is where you'd enter into the city. And this so the idea is that all of this would be enclosed in these walls.
>> Yeah.
>> So this would at that time it was 10,000. I think it grew to something crazy like 60,000.
>> That was when Yeah. Just sky high. And that is called the world's end because as far as the inberers were concerned that was the world's end.
>> Ah right. Yeah it makes sense.
>> Yeah.
>> They can go no further.
>> Yeah basically. So they weren't allowed out.
>> Oh no, they weren't allowed out. It's justively that was like I suppose was >> there wasn't much outside.
>> Can be a little bit like that these days. My wife thinks nothing happens outside in but sometimes she's watching this. I'm going to get help with this one.
>> Yeah, >> sorry.
>> We're live. Sorry. Can't take that one back.
>> She doesn't really.
>> Hey, it's too late. Well, Bob been so this is the Scottish storytelling center. What you can't really see so well is John Noox's house.
Someone said earlier on my I've seen it on the comments earlier on at the start of the scene when you first mentioned John Nox said her husband had flooded John Nox's house.
>> All right. Well, that's it. Where is it?
Just behind us. We're just coming past it now, but you can't really see it very well at the moment. that cool you shop in there.
>> It's um it's a very cool house. It's it's um the oldest house you can see kind of in this in the city. There's obviously Queen Margaret's chapel and the that kind of thing, but this is a house obviously and you can see you got I think it's Moses on a sundial there.
You've got bits of gold. You've got kind of words of scripture and stuff on there. Got quite bad sound.
>> Yeah, I know. We might have to hit only in the city would they be using a peck or it half night.
>> So yeah, you can see that is John Knox's house that originally I'll tell you as we wander up.
>> John was here. Yeah.
>> Very cool house. Very cool.
>> Very cool house.
>> It was originally it belonged to a man called James Mossman who was the son who was the queen's jeweler. Um his father made the Scottish crown.
>> Oh. um and he he um during what they called the Marian civil wars. So after Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned on an island. Um she escaped um had another battle, lost that battle, went down to England, got put into captivity, but the war carried on without her. Um and James Mossman lived in that house, but he moved up to the castle and it was called the Lang Siege. So early 1870s, they were all up in the castle. There were kind of troops outside seek besieging at he was minting coins to try and keep her war going while she was down south and um when he was brought out eventually he was hanged drawn and quarter.
>> Oh no that's never good.
>> John Nox moved in there but he only lived there for a few months. It's not really John Nox's house but because it was known as John Noox's house it survived and that's why you can still see it like that today. So it >> does kind of jot out doesn't it? It kind of does stuck in you would Yeah. It's surprising they let it stay like that, but they did. And it's um it shows you how the city would have looked once upon a time.
>> Yeah.
>> This is um one of my favorites. These are the little nooks and crannies I was talking about, aren't they?
>> I never actually been in there, but this is um Tilt Maker down there. I couldn't get any more Scottish, could you? So, this is um Hazley Close, and that is Joseph Macyver. And you can see there's a sign above his head, and it's been kind of tidied up. I suppose the language has been reason. So in 1861, this would have been I think about 12 stories high. Um and a lot of the new well the old town was like that. Um really high buildings.
People claimed the world's first skyscrapers. A lot of cities probably claimed to have had the world's first skyscrapers, but Edinburgh had crazy high buildings packed together. And um this one was 12 stories high. And then on the morning in question, it basically somebody was called in. A builder was called in because there was some kind of saga in the roof. And he was like, "Oh, we'll prop it up. It'll be fine." By the next morning, the whole thing had come crashing to the ground. Pile of rubble.
People were digging, trying to get people out. A lot of people died and heard this voice from under the rubble saying, "He chaps, I'm no dead yet. It's been climbed like ch I'm not dead yet."
But that was 12-year-old Joseph Macyver underneath the level. We don't know what happened to him after that, but he became a kind of a famous overnight. Um, and it was printed in the paper, which is why we've got a slightly cleaned up version of what it was.
>> Yeah, it's cool.
>> Really cool.
>> It was rebuilt and they had a housing act, I think, in 1867 that basically made the council clean up the city and because there were a lot of slums. Um you'll see the new town in a meanwhile and that's you would know the new town anyway but it's um that was built as a reaction to these really high tight buildings.
>> So if these buildings in theory are they are they lower now than what they were?
>> Yeah. Yeah. They would have been higher 12 stories.
>> Yeah. 12 I think they go down at the back as well. So they be like >> another two or three stories on top kind of.
>> Yeah. It's like many kings close drops down about three stories or something.
And so they were really high but they were really rickety. These aren't these have obviously been rebuilt over time.
>> Yeah, but it' be interesting to see back then, wouldn't it? Like how high they actually were. Wouldn't that be nuts?
>> How do they so dodgy?
>> Totally. Totally. But yeah, it's one of my favorite places. It's um I've never been in there. You can go take a look.
>> It couldn't it couldn't um It couldn't be any more Scottish, could it?
>> The maker. Celtic craft kilt maker. Also worth noting it smells like a little bit ripe, isn't it?
Ah, >> not a lot to see.
>> Okay, well that's probably the worst part too ever. But >> possibly is.
>> Oh man, this stension.
>> I did say I'd never been down here.
>> Well, you'll never have to go again, Bob.
That's the recording studio where we record our audio books >> up there.
>> Yeah.
>> Oh, no way.
>> That's where Graham did Bruce Soul and uh hated every second of of talking to the audio. I think you just it wasn't it's not a fun thing to do.
>> No. Is it quite tedious?
>> Yeah. I think just cuz you make a mistake, you have to go back over it.
>> Yeah.
>> And it's just you have to concentrate so hard. I would >> I cheated and hired an actor who did a much better job than I did.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Because it's fiction. So >> then you got >> Graham would have had to do it.
>> Um >> Yeah. So that for the scene of a pub.
>> It's cool, isn't it?
>> That is really cool.
>> Like that's how you theme a pub, isn't it?
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Well, maybe go and uh have a we look inside.
We'll have to suffer a pint, Bob.
>> Yeah, >> it's tough work, but someone's got to do it.
>> Tough work. Yeah. Yeah.
>> Be gasping by the end of this.
>> Yeah, I think you may be.
>> It's Edma is all built really on a hill, isn't it?
>> Yeah. So, so the story goes it's built on seven hills just like Rome, but that's kind of a invention of the same people who tell you it's the Athens of the North. Um it's really kind of a big group of hills. So even the seven hills, there's actually eight of them if you count them out. And one of them is a range of hills. So it's kind of But yeah, they say it's seven hills like Rome.
>> Um you can see over there that's St. Giles Cathedral with its famous crown spire. So that's 900. The original cathedral would have been 900 years old.
>> Wow.
>> Two years ago. that was founded by David the First, who was the guy that painted Hollywood Abby and nearly got gourd's death by a by a stag. There's a crazy looking rainbow over there.
>> So, it is. Yeah, look at that.
>> Can you see that down there? That rainbow down there, right then?
>> Almost was the Northern Lights or something.
>> It's a bit nuts, isn't it? It's like a It's almost like a like just like a haze, a rainbow haze rather as a shape that Yeah. What where we want to go, Bob? Over.
>> Straight over. All right.
>> Over there, you can see the the Balmoral Hotel. Used to be called the North British Hotel because of the North British Railway Line, and it's all just connected to the train.
>> Oh, it's right on the Waverly station, isn't it?
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Quite nice. We had a a work night out there once.
>> That's another controversial building over there.
>> Yeah. So, so this is what did you call it? The Emoji.
>> The Emoji. Yeah. That's the W Hotel. Um, so there's sushi sambas underneath it and double hotels in that building as well. So, and it's part of the St. James's Center. What it replaced was a really ugly 1960s building.
>> All right. So, so I mean where it's a lot prettier than what it replaces, but yeah, it's known locally as the the emoji. That's the flight.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
>> Mr. Whippy maybe would be the >> Yeah. PC way.
>> This is my favorite street in Edinburgh.
He's very careful how you pronounce it, though.
>> Yep.
>> This is um >> Coburn Street.
>> There you go. Thank goodness you've done it. That's why I stayed silent. Go ahead. So, this is named after Henry Lord Coburn. Um he was an advocate and a judge and an advocate for the city. Um so, people wanted to basically bulldoze big parts of the old town. Not bulldo, but knock it down. Um and he proposed so that he wanted it to retain its character and this is really constructed just to be pretty. It's a serpentine link from the old town in the Royal M down to the brand new at the time Waverly Station. Um and Henry Lord Coburn it was named in it used to be called Lord Coburn Street. So it was named after him. I quite like this building here. This is >> the milkman.
>> The milkman. Yeah.
>> Just a crazy kind of a thing. Flesh Market close is the title of a new rank and novel. It's also where my favorite character from Edinburgh history used to hang out.
>> Who's that?
>> That's Deacon Broady. But I'll show you Deacon Broady a little bit further up.
We can go down there.
>> Market close. That sounds also gruesome, doesn't it?
>> It does, but it's actually where you could buy chickens and things.
>> It's delicious.
>> We'll maybe head up there. We can see the bottom of that later on, but maybe head back up just even just taking in that view a lot.
>> Or you can we can go down to the bottom if you want.
>> No, it's fine. We'll just carry on. Just just keep going on your tour. But it's just looking down that view is >> Yeah, it's my favorite street.
>> Yeah, >> it's um >> and even with the bunting and all the different colored shops and things down there, it's it's very very cool.
>> So the tartan parade in Edinburgh, which is kind of mirroring what happens in New York, it starts up here and it comes down here >> and it's just really I was standing at the bottom. I was supposed to be filming it but um >> Bob forgot my camera.
>> Bob, I can't be doing this.
>> What a video that would have been. I know it would have been actually um Yeah.
So, here we are.
Back up on the Royal Mail.
>> It's the Royal Mail. Really? This is the hub for kind of where the tourists go, isn't it?
>> Yeah.
>> Straight onto the Royal Mail.
>> It's funny. It's busier than I've seen it in a while at night. Really? It just gets busier from here.
>> Um >> what? At this time of year, even?
>> Yeah. I think the show's maybe had more of an impact than I thought it would when I was driving in. I know this is much busier than I thought it would be.
Um, it could be something else, but I think just show traffic coming in. There's Well, there's young farmers in front of us.
>> Check check shirt and dealer boots.
That's your young farmers. You can't mistake them.
>> Yeah, I still feel the same way myself.
>> You've al got whiskey shops, you've got cashmere, you've got all sorts of things. Some of them are what they call tart and tat and some of them are actually really good.
>> Good quality. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
>> I mean it's the same everywhere, isn't it? Like you've got the cater for all kind of tastes.
>> Yeah.
>> Um I mean there is there is some proper chat in your >> Oh yeah. Yeah. See you Jimmy Hats.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> I mean going to I went to Egypt when I was younger. Mine and Claire's first holiday abroad.
>> Hated it. Just not my kind of place. But everywhere I went, they're like, "Hey, Jimmy. Hey, Jimmy." They didn't know I was from Scotland. They just looked at me and knew.
>> Yeah, I know. Hey, Jimmy. Hey, Jimmy.
>> Over here, you can see Adam Smith who we just went past. He's got a Dalek, I think, there by the looks of things.
>> Yeah. What is that?
>> I don't know what that actually is. It's um he's um >> I don't know what that is. I assume it's supposed to be. I'm not sure. Yeah, it looks like he's got a Dalek.
The pigeons seem the seagulls seem to like him.
>> They've had a good go at them, haven't they?
>> Yeah, this is this would have been 900 years old, this cathedral two years ago.
And again, David the first founded it and and that's when Edinburgh became a city because it had a cathedral. This is the Merket Cross. Um it's not the old Merket Cross. It's a kind of a newer version. the old there's bits of the old merc cross in Walter Scott's house in the borders but that that door opens and you can go to the top and speak to the crowd and on the day of the tartan parade the lord prost was up there addressing the crowd >> no way people on top of there as well above the sixth chambers on the walkway filming it >> just crowds all the way down here >> that's very cool but then >> it's it's kind of like >> so this would be 900 years old or no >> h not so the merket cross has probably been there for a long long time >> yeah because it just it looks It's like everything was built a lot smaller cuz like look at the size of the door.
>> So the people must have been smaller.
>> Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely. Um Yeah, we would have been tall.
>> Yeah. Yeah, we would have been really tall. Yeah. But um yeah, just back then it's all people were historically smaller, weren't they?
>> Yeah, definitely. Like Yeah, you're talking about I think in the very far back they were actually taller again. I think with agricultural and like um things like grain and stuff like that when people started to eat grain things, they weren't as healthy. They weren't eating as much protein and things and diets made them. It's like when people's teeth started to decay was when they started eating grain.
>> Yeah.
>> Before that they didn't. It's kind of But >> I know I know we we'd uh I went to Sarrento in Italy or Naples and that's where Pompei is.
>> Oh yeah.
>> And uh when we went to the ruins of Pompei, it was fascinating place.
Totally off on a tangent here, but bear with me. I'm going somewhere with it.
But when you go into the old buildings, they've actually uncovered everything.
It's more or less >> exactly as it was. Yeah. Um, even down to like the the drawings and the mosaics and things they had on the floor and the drawings that were on the wall. But when you go into like the bedrooms of the houses, it's all very very small. And I was like, "How's anyone sleeping in that?" They're like, "No, no, this is perfectly sized for the people."
>> Yeah.
>> So the beds were only maybe at the most it' be five foot, >> but people are very small.
>> Yeah. Well, like um >> which I find really interesting. So you talk about Edward Longs, he was 6'2 and that was really tall in those days and it was obviously it is obviously diet because they were just eating the best stuff.
>> Yeah. Man of Scots was 5'11 but the general population has like basically so five 5'11 for uh >> for a woman now >> for a woman now is is is reasonably tall isn't it?
>> Yeah.
>> But for back then it would be enormous.
>> Huge. Yeah. Huge. Yeah.
>> It's um so the market cross is where all sorts of stuff would have happened.
There business around here. There would been proclamations. There would have been executions. People would have been um broken on the wheel, which is a brutal worth of >> hit with a wheel. Um my favorite story is about um do you know Cardin Castle >> near Gate House of Fleet?
>> Um so Cardon Castle, the guy who owned that um before um to Godfrey Mullik. So he owned land round where we lived um man and whatnot and he sold it to the Maxwells because of his sort of debts and things but the story goes that he was rerouting these sewers and the king of the fairies popped up and said you're building that through my home and he said oh I won't do that I'll rerout it okay we won basically and so God for McAuliff was executed here in the end of the 17th century after a dispute with his neighbor where he shot the neighbor um and the story goes that the king of the fairies turned up and spirited ed him away. Or the other version of the story is that he was beheaded and his body shot up like a chicken and ran down the road.
>> I like that version.
>> Yeah, it's pretty good version.
>> But yeah, >> we got the unicorn on the top there.
>> Unicorn on the top and you've also got the stack.
>> So when you're saying in recent times it's kind of came to came to the four that unicorn's a national animal of Scotland. But how come the unicorn's up there? So it would have been I mean as always symbol but um >> but it's just more to the forefront of people's minds now.
>> Yeah.
Social media as well. You get a lot of kind of stuff on social media about it and it's like gray fryers Bobby's nose I think people rub Bobby's nose but that came from an urban myth that's really relatively recent and because it's on social media people rub his nose and now he has to be taken away and recotated on a regular basis because he's >> Yeah.
So this is I'll show you the back of this. That's James Braidwood. He was the founder of the world's first fire brigade. Used to be a bar up at the top of the graph market called Braidwood or the fire station >> and it had the fireman's pole and stuff.
>> All right.
>> I always like that. See the way you come across some pretty random pub names. I was in Edin I was in London last week and there was one called the Porcupine.
>> Nice. Um, but there is some there is some uh bars and and they have kind of like even like the World's End there.
It's uh you think like how does that actually come about? But then when you look into it and like it's so clever the way they've named them and it's probably stayed like that for the name is potentially been there for a long long time.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
I love all these old stories. This is the thistle chapel. So if you ever go into Have you been into St. Charles? No, never. So inside there is probably the most spectacular bit of it. It actually dates back to the early 1900s and it was designed by um Robert Limer who um did a lot of kind of he built a lot of kind of arts and crafty houses but he also renovated a lot of kind of stately homes and he designed this. It's amazing. And it's all kind of woodwork inside. But you can see you've got little windows there and they just shine in. And you've got the big kind of stained glass windows in there. And the light just it's quite dark, but there's a lot kind of colored light going in there.
>> Individual like chairs for all the knights of the thistle or the order of the thistle. Um there. Yeah, if you if you seen Yeah, you remember if you saw it. And it's got all their their coats of arms and things. It's really cool.
>> It's cool.
>> Well worth a visit if ever you get the chance. Um that's Charles II >> um riding into Edinburgh like a Roman obviously his father Charles the first was beheaded by Cromwell and then he came back to Scotland and got crowned.
Um the crown jewels were actually hidden from Cromwell for a while in Denotter Castle and then they were smuggled out either by wife or by a servant and hidden in a local churchyard we think um and then brought back out eventually and then they got lost in the castle for a long like a hundred years or something and George IV gave Walter Scott permission to go looking for them and eventually found them in a trunk somewhere. No way. The honors of Scotland so our crown jewels effectively.
>> So they lost them for hundred years and they're in a trunk. Yeah, >> I know.
>> Antique road show.
>> Yeah, something I've got in the sheep for the sheep.
>> And I'll have a statue like that sheen combs or something.
>> So that's the Supreme Court, but it was the original. It was a Scottish Parliament originally. And you can see on the top, somebody was asking me about this recently on a tour. Those are actually sphinxes and they're for wisdom and to guard the >> right.
>> How come they've got um how come they've got them looking distinctly Roman?
>> It's just kind of >> to make them look timeless. You see him on the Scot Monument Walter Scots in a like a toga.
>> Oh, really? Yeah. Look Roman, doesn't he? The way what he's dressed and the sandals and >> Yeah. try and make him look like a a Roman general.
>> If you're going to have a statue, that's the one to have.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. There's always the story about if there's a foot off the ground they during battle if there's two feet off the ground they died in battle but um it doesn't actually tie up. I think ties up in one place um in America but the rest of the world it doesn't quite tie up but there's always the story people will tell you that if they're two feet off the ground they died in battle. That's not true. Sorry. I'm going to get this microphone back before I drop it again.
This is um probably my favorite bit of this car park. There we go.
That's the thumbnail that we need to use.
>> The favorite pieces.
>> Big bowl of car key, isn't it?
>> So, this is John Knox's grave under car park 23.
So, when he died, before he died, he asked to be buried within 20 yards of the of the church. This is the church that he preached in. Um, and he was buried here. I don't think he thought it would become a car park.
>> No. But this basically this is why gray friars became gray friars because this it wasn't a cemetery anymore but this is where they buried them.
>> Cars parked over the top.
>> Isn't that random? Yeah, that's >> completely >> John is under there.
>> I think so. They don't know exactly where he is but >> he's in this he would have been in this area.
>> Why did I do that? Yeah.
>> Makes me seem like a monster.
I think he might have been more of a monster to be fair.
>> DC says, "This is so interesting. I really want to visit Scotland one day."
Well, that's why kind of why we want to do it, isn't it? And you know, it's like we're very much for trying to promote tourism in Scotland. I definitely think you should come to Scotland. Bob will definitely think that.
>> Oh, yeah. Definitely. Yeah.
>> I recommend it enough. Go off the beaten track. Find the places that nobody's found.
>> Especially Dre and Galloway I would say as well.
>> Dre and Galloway is sometimes you call it the gateway to the highs because everyone just passes through to go to the highlands. But the fusion gallery is a wonderful place.
>> Yeah, >> really is.
>> So, you agree, Bob?
>> Yeah, it's it's probably my favorite place, but I'm massively biased.
>> Of course, we both are. Yeah.
>> Um, I'll show you this over here. So, this is the front of St. Giles, obviously. Sorry, Crystal. Um, so I was talking about the heart of the Meloian and the we saw the toll booth down there. This is the old toll booth. This is the line of the old toll booth which would have been the most hated building in Edinburgh. And you can see the line of it how it was kind of picked out. I do actually have a picture of it.
I don't know how well it'll come up on um >> on camera how it would have looked back in the day.
Uh so I don't know how well that comes up.
>> Yeah, now we can see it perfectly.
>> So that's the cathedral there.
>> Oh, so it is. Yeah. They're told and that's the line of it and what you can see there is the heart of the medallion and tradition dictates that you when you pass over the heart you spit on the heart to show contempt for everything that ever happened in that place.
Um it's actually the heart of the Mloian is the title of a Walter Scott novel and it's based on some events that actually happened in here. Um the so the Portus riots happened in the in the 18th century. Um, Portus was the captain of the guard and a a smuggler who people like. Smugglers were kind of vote heroes in that era because they were stopping people paying too much tax. They were smuggling in brandy and whiskey and whatever else you couldn't get your hands on. Tobacco, um, sugar. They would smuggle on all this stuff in. So, they became like folk heroes. And this smuggler was to be hanged. Um, and a crowd gathered. And Cortez was the captain of the city guard. And he had his guards fire out into the crowd.
He was punished for that. He was set to be hanged for that himself and he was brought here. Would have been a jail would again have been a center of administration. Um he was brought here but an angry mob gathered at the door because the rumor was that the king was away in Portas who was well connected cuz he played golf with the right people. He's a very good golfer.
>> Um and uh he he wrote to the queen and they thought he was going to get off of it. So they before that could happen, they actually came here and they took them down to the grass market and they hanged them. And the story goes that the guy that sold them the rope gave it away free or gave them a discount on the rope. They were so keen to be rid of them. But the city was kind of set to be punished and it was a long kind of debate about what should happen to the residents of the city for doing that as a kind of a collective punishment. And in the end it was like a it was a tax that was paid to his widow. Um, but you'll see where Portius was hanged down in the grass market in a minute.
How are we looking for time? Oh, we're fine. Cool. Well, 5 to 9. Cool. As long as you don't run out of battery or anything.
>> We're all good. The battery is all good.
>> You all good, Crystal?
I >> finally I finally dried off. I'm not joking. We were dripping wet after coming from the show. It was torrential rain.
>> I can imagine. and see our bag paper over here. Let's go and see him. Here I go.
Everyone's giving him a bit of a white birth. Bless him. Don't know why.
Quite something good, isn't it?
>> I think I would run out of air.
>> I know. Yeah. And the walk's been bad enough for us. All right, we'll crack on.
Here's your man, Bob, Deacon Brody.
There we go. So, Deacon Brody is my favorite character in Edinburgh history.
Not just because he was played in a film by um Billy Connelly. Um so, he um you get a better view here actually, but you can see the two signs there. And one, he's a respectable, upstanding gentleman of the city. He was deacon of the guild of rights and masons. He was a cabinet maker. We'll go across here. And a locksmith.
Um, fine, upstanding member of the community, family man with a couple of extra families his wife didn't know about.
>> Um, so by night, by day, he was a respectable man. By night, he was a a cat burglar. Well, a burglar certainly.
Um so as I said he was a locksmith and he um liked to hang out in flesh market gross gambling and and basically he did have a couple of mistresses and extra extra children but he um nobody knew about this. He had the chance to take an impression of a key in a bank um and he just used that key to go in at night and take money from the bank and then he carried on like that.
There was he had three kind of accompllices. One of whom was called the demon grosser. And I have no idea why it was called demon.
>> A great name, >> but I'd love to know. If you want a nickname, it's a good one. Um, but he basically got too bold and tried to rob the tax office, but they didn't break in with keys. They basically turned up with guns.
He um, one of them turned king's evidence. Deacon Broady fled to Amsterdam, but he kind of was a bit of a boster. He couldn't shut up. He just kept sending people letters going, "I'm Amsterdam. They don't know where I am.
I've got away with it." Blah blah blah.
Um eventually he came home thinking that he could sneak out the city. They got him. Um and he was hanged. Legend has it on a gallows of his own invention because he was a carpenter and it was supposedly it was a new kind of gallows that he'd invented. But um the story goes that he had um a collar fitted to his shirt. It was a metal collar so that he wouldn't break his neck when he was hanged, >> but he suffocated because they left him hanging too long, if you believe that version. Or there's the other version where he might have been seen in Paris a little bit later on.
>> Oh, I like that one as well. Yeah, >> he was he was a legendary poster. Would have been a nightmare on Twitter these days.
>> It's just like nobody knows more about Yeah, he's like kind of an absolute character from Scottish history. Um, and over there you can see it's close.
That's closed at the moment, but there's a cafe in there. And that's the close where he would have worked. He's also the inspiration for Jackal and Hyde.
>> Yeah.
>> Or as somebody pointed out to me, Jal and Hyde.
>> J.
>> Because apparently you don't pronounce it Jackal. You pronounce it JL. I still call him Jackal.
>> Yeah. I was going to say is for as long as it's been a story and it's as long as it's been Jackal, I think it is now Jack. Anyone that says it's J, I think it's maybe.
>> So, Robert has had some of Deacon Roy's furniture.
and he wrote a maybe um he wrote um a play called Deacon Broady, the double life and then he wrote Jack and yeah he's >> so he was the inspiration then.
>> Yeah. Yeah, totally. Um >> or it was certainly in the forefront of the mind then if he'd wrote about >> and Edinburgh somebody simply say that Edinburgh's jackal height because where we are right now is the old town and I'm telling you all these gruesome stories and you've got you know you've got a town that is literally >> kind of half it's hidden. So if we look here's >> maybe not here much you can see how it drops down and this is nothing. This is just like you can see how far it drops down there.
>> Yeah. Yeah. There's all these hidden Yeah. This is a bridge that we're on now. This is George the fourth bridge.
Um, and this still has the arches underneath. And some of them are sellers and some of them are bars and things like that, but some of them are said to be very haunted.
>> Um, and that's kind of also >> like Edinburgh has this kind of split personality. There's the gruesome old town and there's the supposedly nice and clean and kind of architecturally grand new town which had some darks on itself.
So thinking that Jack's the representation between the two, the old and the new town.
>> Yeah, it could be. But it's um I mean Robert Le Stevenson moved around a bit, but it's um I think it was Ian Rankin suggested that as well.
>> It's a possibility >> if he says it.
>> Yeah.
>> So you reckon have you been on this before, Bob? Ghostbust tours.
>> No, I'd quite like to go on a ghost bus tour.
>> I went on a a ghost walk in Edinburgh.
>> You can see down here. This is >> Yeah, it's nuts, isn't it?
>> This should make you feel at home. This is the cow gate. This is where the cows quite literally came into the market.
And if you you can't actually see it from up here, unfortunately, but there's a the back end of a cow sticking out of the wall where it's like jumped into the wall.
>> Oh, really?
>> It's like, >> do you know, you'd wonder you'd think there's almost like a city underneath the city, wouldn't you?
>> Yeah.
>> Because then you look up here and you're like, we're not on a bridge. Everything seems like, you know, we're in the in eye level with the rest of the >> with the rest of the building. So then how all of a sudden can you come across and there's the whole city underneath here you like >> how does it happen you know it shouldn't really be able to happen this is effectively a bridge going across a gorge or a valley >> and it's um and it's the same down there so when you get to the north bridge the north bridge is literally goes across Waverly station >> and it's it's just because it goes >> that's right yeah I know what you mean yeah >> um and under here so this is the um central library and there's actually a street hidden under there I believe much like Mary King's Mary King's Close, which is hidden up there.
>> Over there is the Bank of Scotland headquarters, or it was the old Bank of Scotland headquarters. And there's a million pounds in cash in there.
>> It's a museum on the M. You can go in.
There's a million C in cash. You can just see right in front of it.
>> No way. Kids love it.
>> Probably quite good. I would say a good shot of that one, would you not?
>> Yeah, he would. Wouldn't he?
>> Right across the road as well.
>> Must be torture for him.
Right. Where are we heading now, Bob?
>> We are we're heading to Gray Fryers.
>> I think we'll uh I think the a good plan is we'll we'll head to Gray Fryers and then kind of wrap things up from there.
>> Yeah, I think so. I think we're running out of daylight.
>> Yeah.
>> Which is maybe not the perfect time to go to Gray Friers, but it might be depending on what your your kind of risk appetite is.
>> Depending on how superstitious you are.
>> How's Fiona, by the way?
>> Great. Thank you. Yes.
>> Good stuff.
>> Great. Doing really well. She's uh You're on the You're on the rescue, were you?
>> No, no, no, no, I wasn't at all. No. Um I was I saw the protesters. That was about all I saw.
>> Oh, you see the pro? Absolutely.
>> I drove past. It was um drove past my way back up the road. So, we had a >> Oh, you you actually you actually seen them with your own eyes?
>> Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's just I mean, I think at that stage there was maybe about 10 of them outside or something.
So, it was probably the tail end. Well, I don't know because there was only really about 10, but I didn't wasn't aware they actually seen them outside the the protesters outside the door.
Yeah. What Hey, what a story we've got to tell about that one. It's uh it's a bit nuts.
>> Yeah. Yeah, totally.
>> Weird time of the weird time of life.
>> Yeah, completely.
>> It's one of them you look back like a once in a lifetime.
>> Let's go across here.
>> It's one of these things you look back.
What were you saying? Sorry.
>> It's just saying it's a once in a lifetime thing that will ever happen to you.
>> Yeah, it's Yeah. I mean, it's Graeme went over the story.
>> It was Graeme and who's who's your other brother? So, James was on.
>> Yeah, that's where I'm getting confused.
Yeah, it was James.
>> Yeah, he's the tall one.
>> James the ugly one.
>> Yeah, >> there you go.
So, this is the famous gray fryers Bobby.
Um, he is >> Oh, there's his nose. Yeah, as you're saying, >> yeah, people that comes from a kind of a recent urban myth thing. He's actually a dog fountain, but it's not running very well at the moment. So, for 14 years, um, his master was John Gray, who was a gardener. He came to Edinburgh, but couldn't find work as a gardener, so he got a job as a night watchman. Um, and in order to be a night watchman, you had to have a dog. Bobby was a sky terrier.
He he took with him. But he must have been really young because John Gray died. And then for 14 years, Bobby went and sat on his grave and he became kind of a local celebrity. And you can actually see his dog collar in there and the which the Lord Provice bought for him along with his dog license which you had to have back then, >> right?
>> Um and yeah, so Bobby John Gra's grave is just in there. Um and Bobb's buried in there somewhere. Um, and then there was a campaign to get the Bobby, the person from the Disney dog. Sorry, my I'm losing my >> No, you're right. You've done well.
You're good. Take a moment. You're all good.
>> The um Yeah. So, the dog that played Bobby in the Disney movie was um sort of exumed and was to be buried alongside Bobby.
>> Oh, no way.
>> So, it's uh Yeah. So, so why are they rubbing his nose?
>> I don't know where it comes from. It's just like swizzling for luck. But it's a very recent thing. It's not like an old tradition or anything.
>> Look how much they've rubbed his nose.
>> Yeah, he has to get taken away and recotated on a regular.
>> That's crazy how much that like they've actually rubbed the I mean, what is this?
>> Yeah, it would be it'll be um bronze.
>> And they've actually they're rubbing it away completely.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> I suppose that'll be the salt from people's hands and things.
>> And just the constant even just the constant motion of just in the oils and just taking taking it all off. But yeah, >> it's just shooting the sheer volume it has to do to do that. It's >> just collective effort, isn't it?
>> It's crazy.
>> It's supposed to be me for good luck.
>> I always love this story. You know that he came back every day stayed in top of the grave.
>> Yeah.
>> You think it's true?
>> I don't know.
>> It's a good story.
>> I'd like to believe it. Yeah, I'd like to believe it.
>> I'd like to believe it. I know there'll be exaggeration in there somewhere. But then dogs are creatures of habit. I mean, like the when they film dogs and their owners are at work, they get up half an hour before they come home or something.
>> Yeah. And it's you just know the timings. My um great granddad had a you know in Wigtown there's the big bookshop.
>> Uhhuh.
>> So he was a draper and he owned that and he had um a spananiel that would sit in the window every day and at 5:00 the spananiel would just kind of toddle at the window and that was how they knew it was time to lock up for >> he told them just yeah had enough.
>> There we go. So that's gray fries.
Bobby, you want to finish off anywhere else Bob? Are you quite happy there?
What do you think?
>> Take a wander through here if you want.
Let's do let's take a wander through here.
>> Well, I'll show you the scariest thing in gray fryers.
>> Yes, show us. Definitely. So, it's named gray fryers after the gray robed friers that used to live here that they're prior priary would be knocked down and then this kirk was created. It's famous because of the covenanters. Um so, you'll see that's my favorite gravestone in here.
>> What the skeleton on there? That's the >> um there you go. There's um grave fryers bobby there. Is that is that his grave?
>> I think so.
>> Hilarious.
Age 16 years.
>> I've had a lot of people sort of saying, "Oh, he can't be >> can't be buried in a cemetery." But we're not.
>> Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all.
>> 1981 it was put there. Now, if there's a dog been buried for nine years, I don't want to be skeptical here, but after 109 years, how do you know that he was buried there?
>> Exactly.
>> The most famous thing that happened in here was the the cabinet. to the national covenant. So in the in the 17th century the king the Steuart kings again Charles the first and Charles II wanted to impose like a um an episcopalian bible on the people of Scotland in in St. Giles Cathedral, a lady called Jenny Gettis, when it's the dean read out this book of common prayer and a lady called Jenny Gennis, we think she was a lady, she maybe wasn't, got up and threw a three-legged stool at the dean and there was a bit of a riot and in 1638 um in Hu people signed the national covenant basically declaring that they would never acknowledge the king as head of the church. Some of them signed it in blood and some of them paid for it in their lives. Um there were about 16,000 people died during periods known as the killing times and the person that was responsible for a lot of it is buried over here in what is said to be the most haunted cemetery in the world. I don't know why a cemetery would be haunted to be fair but some of the stuff that went on in here um kind of relates back to that. So I'll show you the covenanters tomb and then I'll show you this. Then we might be running daylight.
>> Yeah, we are. You can see the light fading a wee bit. And just as we're starting to come to the end of our tour, don't go anywhere until we're actually finished. But everyone put in their appreciation for Bob today because you're in your knowledge is crazy.
>> No, thank Crystal.
>> It's just like a good story.
>> Yeah. How do you have that in your head?
It's a big story. It's It's unbelievable. So, put it all in to uh put it all into the comments. Show your uh your appreciation of Bob for taking his time out and showing us around tonight. It's my absolute pleasure. It's a lot of fun. So, these are Mortafees.
So, have you heard of Burkinhair?
>> Burkinhair were body snatchers, but they weren't really body snatchers. During that enlightenment period, I talked about the big advances in medicine. And to do that, people needed to do dissection and they needed fresh bodies.
You couldn't donate your body to medical science. In those days, it was seen as kind of ungodly and things. And people would want to protect themselves from the resin rectionist who would basically come and dig you up and sell you to a doctor if they could. That's why you see some of these grand tombs over there.
>> And that's why you see these if you had enough.
>> So you can't get to them.
>> Yeah. Basically, they put you in there and >> lock you in so they can't dig you up >> until you were suitably cooked and then you in a grave somewhere. Um you could pay a man to stand over you with a blunder bus and guard you overnight. And could be other guns available, but I like saying the word blunder bus.
>> Yeah, great one.
>> But there's that one and that one. And near where I live, there's one that's actually coffin shaped and just solid cast iron. Wait, so they're not buried here?
>> No. No. So these will just lay here till you're cooked enough.
>> Put it in here. Yeah. And then they take you out once you decompose.
>> Are you like a coffee?
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> My god. Wouldn't >> it?
This place bones do come up to the ground because um because there are so many people have been buried over the years. You'll see there are stones in the walls. That's because they ran short on space and bones do sometimes float up. Yeah, just because they're not very deep.
>> That's crazy.
>> And there have been so many over the years.
>> Yeah, I wonder. Yeah. Also, whilst we're on here, everyone, as well, I hope you have enjoyed our tour tonight, follow YouTube, which is your handle is what?
>> Scotland unplugged.
>> Scotland Unplugged. And you can see loads of videos of Bob doing this kind of thing. Give you little insights. You can also book for his tour. You've got a code for us, Bob. Did you? have indeed for um Ben twisted my arm and Graeme twisted my arm and said give give the the Don a discount. So um you can get a discount if you pop in the word duskone.
>> There you go.
>> And that's a discount on tours. Yeah.
Website is just scotland.com.
>> There you go. And you can get a discount on Bob's tour. So you can uh yeah discount on a sink copy and a book.
>> Well, there you go. Good plug whatever you're wanting to plug. Absolutely. You deserve you deserve it for for tonight's tour. Remember I was talking about the flood wall?
>> Yep.
>> That's the flood wall. So it would be much higher.
>> Nuts. You can see tombstones in it there.
>> Um that's um in here you'll find the supposedly the inspiration for Hogwarts.
That's Het school and um down there Tom Riddle's graves down there as well. But JK Rowling denies all of that. So we don't know if it's true or not. Um but if your kids want to see it, it's maybe worth >> So why would you like if cuz we we kind of touched on this last year, we and was it Tom Riddle did you say? And that's what >> McGonogo. Yeah. Mos. Yeah.
>> So, so if so, how can she if that is a character in the book and it's in this graveyard, how can she deny it?
>> Yeah. I don't know cuz it's undeniable really. Is it?
>> Yeah.
>> No, I have no idea. I've not watched Harry Potter. But >> it it seems like just looking at the facts of it, you're like that has to be the way, doesn't it?
>> Totally.
>> So, yeah. Very fascinating. Love the tour. Is that all sorted? I'll show you this. Let's show one more. So, over there's the Covenanter's grave >> yard. Covenant's prison. Thousand men were kept in there for several months.
Um, during the the Covenant times and they were they had to swear an oath to the king or >> you want to see it because I don't actually know.
>> Show you that.
>> I don't want to trip over a bone.
>> Yeah. Kids in here and they absolutely loved it. Not this bit.
>> Right. Okay.
the Harry Potter stuff.
>> Yeah. You just you just wonder with JK Island things. You're like, it's kind of undeniable to to a point, isn't it?
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Totally. It's I don't know what it is. I think it's just maybe annoyed because so many people are doing chores based on it. I think that would be a compliment surely. Yeah.
Um so this is the Covenanter prison.
There are over a thousand people in here. Ma and they were trying to make them swear an oath or um some of them died. They were fed 4 ounces of bread a day. The locals threw in food they said over time um they were kept in here for I think about 3 months. Um and the ones that survived or didn't give in and and recant. There were 257 of them and they were loaded onto a boat to sail for the West Indies. The boat sailed out into the sea and basically sank. Oh, taking off your luck. Horrendous.
>> This is said to be the most haunted bit of the cemetery. So, what I was saying was like, why would you haunt a cemetery? Well, you might do it if you're in a prison.
>> Yeah. Inside and this wouldn't have been a cemetery.
>> This isn't a cemetery in here, or is it?
>> It is. Yeah. Yeah. There's there's actually tombstones in there. Yeah. But it's locked up. I'm not sure why it's locked up. I think it's basically >> just out of respect, I suppose, as well.
But there may be bits of that are less stable.
>> Yeah, maybe. Yeah.
>> And of course as prison you can't have a prison line open.
>> Yeah. I'll show you one more thing before we go.
>> Let's do it.
>> I feel like I'm cramming everything in.
>> Yeah, absolutely. Do we don't get this opportunity very often to definitely do.
>> So there was one man that was some people will argue about this. They say there's one man that the Lord Advocate was known as George McKenzie.
George the Bloody McKenzie. And this is his mole. and he was one of the a lot of people died on his orders. He was the king's lord advocate and this is his family mole and this is supposed to be highly haunted and if you're brave enough people will go up and knock on his door.
>> Oh no.
>> And people have said that they've knocked on the door and they've woken up with bruises or burns and all sorts of stuff. Um, in 1998, I think it was, um, a homeless guy broke in there to find somewhere to sleep, fell through the floor into one of the graves, and that's when reports of things started to happen. In, I think, 2003, the police were called here to find a couple of teenagers who' taken a skull from in there, playing football with it in the cemetery.
>> Yeah.
>> Um, and ever since there had been all these stories about people taunting McKenzie's ghost and waking up with scars and things. I don't really believe it myself. That probably means I'm gonna wake up with scars, but that's >> Yeah, I know. Tomorrow be black and blue.
>> Yeah.
>> But yeah, that's that's awesome. Well, thanks so much, Bob.
>> Thank you very much. That's been that's been awesome. I've really enjoyed myself.
>> Yeah, I've loved it. And there's been so many people watching all the way through. 5,000 people watching all the way through, which is fantastic. And I really hope you've enjoyed the history lesson. There's thousands of comments coming through saying, "Thank you so much. Really enjoyed it." People have been watching all the way through Scotland Unplugged on Facebook and YouTube and Scotlandunplugged.com.
>> Scotland ununplugged.com. Yeah.
>> If you want to book on one of Bob's tours and remember h you can put in the code Discon for a discount on the tours and definitely book them up. Fantastic.
You'll absolutely love it and loads of people come to Edinburgh and it's worth coming to Edinburgh just to go on one of Bob's tours.
>> You can also get a signed copy of one of these.
>> There we go.
>> That's yours.
>> Thank you so much. Thank you.
>> I hope you enjoy it.
>> So there you go, >> Kristoff. I'm sorry. I would have brought it if I known you were going to be here.
>> Bob's Bob's book is on his website as we can get a signed copy of that. So definitely get them. Check it all out and h yeah, thanks once again Bob. Very much appreciate it.
>> Thank you and thanks for watching and sorry Caroline.
>> Thanks guys. We'll see you all tomorrow.
Catch you in the next one. We'll be on live tomorrow morning from the sheet lines at the Royal Highland Show around what time Kristoff? Do you know?
>> Uh for every time you manage to get us out of bed, I guess. So around 11 a.m.
Yeah. No, probably probably around 8.
Yeah, 8 half 8 will be on tomorrow morning. Catch you all in the next one.
See you guys. Bye-bye. Cheers.
I'm drinking.
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