Monday we took advantage of our Lothian Buses Ridacards and took the #41 bus from our hotel to George IV Bridge at the High Street. From there it is but a short walk, uphill, to Edinburgh Castle where we bought an Historic Scotland 7 day family pass which gets us into both Edinburgh and Stirling castles as well as many more historic sites.

We arrived at the Castle Esplanade around 12:45 and made our way up to the One o’clock gun battery just in time to witness the ceremonial firing of the gun at precisely 1 p.m. This coincides with the dropping of the timeball mechanism at the top of Nelson’s Monument on Carlton Hill the original purpose of both being to set the maritime clocks on ships needed to navigate the oceans.

Edinburgh Castle