The Arthur's Seat Failure

Introduction

I had intended to try to climb Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh on my current visit to actually do the climb and get some photographs from the summit. I do like being up a height (even though I have a fear of heights) just to prove to myself that I can do it. At the end of this story are two other stories documenting my climbing exploits (successes and failures) in Edinburgh which you may find interesting if you enjoy my ramblings in this particular piece.

Arthur’s Seat

There are a lot of sites with information, but I have taken this from Wikipedia:

Arthur's Seat (Scottish Gaelic: Suidhe Artair, pronounced [ˈs̪ɯi.əˈaɾt̪ʰəɾʲ]) is an ancient volcano which is the main peak of the group of hills in Edinburgh, Scotland, which form most of Holyrood Park, described by Robert Louis Stevenson as "a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design".It is situated just to the east of the city centre, about 1 mile (1.6 km) to the east of Edinburgh Castle.

The hill rises above the city to a height of 250.5 m (822 ft), provides excellent panoramic views of the city and beyond, is relatively easy to climb, and is popular for hillwalking. Though it can be climbed from almost any direction, the easiest and simplest ascent is from the east, where a grassy slope rises above Dunsapie Loch.

My Failed Attempt

I will include a video later, documenting my attempted ascent of Arthur’s Seat with some impressive views of Edinburgh when I finally got to a place where I could take some video interspersed with some photographs too. This is stuff from my phone and my camera basically stitched together for you to get an indication of what it is like to go up there.

I walked along looking up at where I was going, but the weather was windy and grey and I soon left the road footpaths to take the muddy rock trail paths that mark the way up to Arthur’s Seat. Even at the lower levels there are plenty of rocks, stones and muddy slippy areas where you could easily end up on the ground with maybe even a bruised or broken bones, so while you are ascending with the effort that that takes you have to be very careful to keep yourself safe.

As I continued my path Arthur’s Seat looked closer that I thought it would be, but I had only given myself about two hours to get to the top and back to my hotel room, and ascents like this should not be done in a rush as that makes an accident more likely.

I continued and saw that there was a long drop from the path as I ascended. And the wind and misty rain started to hit me even more. I did have to sit and rest a few times feeling extremely unfit and out of shape although over the day I did walk over ten miles.

As I got close to the final ascent to the summit the wind was getting stronger and the path much steeper and muddier. In the interest of my safety, and to make sure I got back to my hotel to check out in time I found an area maybe a hundred feet below the summit to take some good pictures and video before turning round and making my way back down.

Lessons Learned

This ascent needs to be done in good weather with plenty of time to get up and get back down. When I tried it was not good weather and I was on a time limit, so next time I will make it to the top

I have included "Move Any Mountain" by Scottish band The Shamen from their groundbreaking album "En-Tact" which sort of fits with what I was trying to do

Other Climbs In Edinburgh

These are the two