Trekking up Arthur's Seat

Imagine standing on top of an extinct volcano. One that had erupted millions of years ago. People say that it is extinct, but who knows when it will erupt again. Imagine seeing an entire city from the heights of a towering mountain with the graceful ocean at the far fringes of the city. Imagine icy cold wind hitting you on the face, and sending your hair flying in all directions. And above all, imagine breathing fresh, clean air, and the feeling of being on top of the world! Wouldn’t it be an amazing experience? I definitely thought it was, as I trekked up to the peak of Arthur's Seat.

Today I would like to share with you my experiences while trekking up Arthur’s Seat during a trip to the scenic city of Edinburgh. Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland is a city of brooding castles, towering churches and ancient cobbled streets. Arthur's Seat was a refreshing and cheerful change after all these serious sights.

There are many, many interesting legends regarding Arthur’s peak and what it stood for in the ancient times. Here’s an interesting one. An ancient Celtic story talks about a dragon who used to fly around the sky, terrorizing the region and eating all the livestock. Eventually it ate so much, that one day it had to lie down to sleep, and never woke up again. And the mountain that we see today is this sleeping dragon! Imagine trekking up a sleeping dragon!

Moving on from the legends, let me now tell you about the first time I saw Arthur’s seat, which was from the window of our living room at the place we were staying in Edinburgh. It appeared as a slanted table rising up from the urban sprawl of Edinburgh. Looking closely, I could see tiny human figures walking up the slant. Then one sunny afternoon, we set out to climb up Arthur's Peak. As per the weather forecast it was to be a fine afternoon, but soon we could see dark clouds building up in the skies, and the sun play hide and seek. But then, we just decided to go ahead with the trek anyways.

The trail was long and winding. The initial few minutes were very nice and easy, and my parents and I walked up full of excitement. I could see many other tourists just like us, all of them waiting to get to the top. As we walked along, I saw a few local families had brought their dogs along, I guess to give them some good exercise! The children kept throwing balls and sticks for the dogs to fetch. At that moment I really wished I had a dog for a pet!

Once in a while as the trail curved, I could see lush green grass growing on the mountain slope, and a lot of snow white and fluffy sheep grazing. They appeared like white polka dots on a green carpet! Did you know, the number of sheep in Scotland is twice the number of its entire population?!  That’s way too many sheep really! Don’t you think?

Coming back to the trek, as we walked uphill, it started getting colder and fierce wind was almost pushing us back. At this point the trek was beginning to look difficult. I was able to keep walking somehow, but my mom seemed to need a break at every corner! Just as we were trying to keep up against the wind, it started raining. We zipped up our jackets and continued walking. My fingers were numb with cold, and I just couldn’t feel my nose any longer.

Now that it was raining, the climb had become even more tiring, but the promise of the breath-taking view was our motivation to keep at it.

Finally, after a lot of huffing and puffing, and stopping at every turn, we made it to the top. The summit was just a collection of uneven, black volcanic rock. The uneven rocks, plus the howling wind was making it difficult to walk without stumbling. At one point I was scared it would blow me off the mountain.

Just as we reached the top, the sun peeped out of the clouds and illuminated the city of Edinburgh down below. The view was perfect, and worth the climb. At this point I wondered how people climbed up tall mountain peaks, while it took all my energy to climb a small hill!

After taking some pictures, and resting for a few minutes we started our descent. What I like best about climbing down a hill is seeing tired people huffing and puffing to get to the top! The trek down was nice and easy, and now we could concentrate on the beautiful views. The sloping sides of the mountain were covered with bushes full of bright yellow flowers.  They were a treat to the eyes.

We could see rolling meadows and lush green grasslands towards the outskirts of the city. And further beyond we could see the North Sea.  The sea, the mountains, farmlands, castles, building, skyscrapers – a perfect balance between nature and mankind. As we were reaching the bottom of the hill, we saw couple of lakes, around which the locals were playing and having picnics.

Finally, our trek had come to an end. For me this trek up Arthur’s Seat was one of the best parts of the Edinburgh trip. At this point, I couldn’t help but wish that we had a place like this in Bangalore where people could find calm in the chaos and unwind! Then wouldn’t we all be lining up to trek up our very own mountain peak every weekend?

         
Here's the route map that we followed for our trek - https://www.earthtrekkers.com/arthurs-seat-volcano-edinburgh/