Edinburgh
Sometime around the first century AD, the local Scots in Edinburgh built a fort upon a hill to defend against Romans. It worked, and if you’ve seen how steep the hill is, you’d not be surprised. Later, a full castle grew up, and a beautiful city filled with gothic architecture (I *love* fancy old architecture). The gothic architecture will actually probably inspire some locations in a future gothic project, while the Highlands I’m visiting for a whole different Celtic project.
Spreading out down from the castle runs the Royal Mile, a street steeped in history and the prime point of interest for someone like me. It ends with Holyrood Palace. We actually didn’t get the chance to go into the palace because of the ever-changing COVID situation. I did, however, spot a clock-tower and realize my former designer had used it to create the cover of The Shadows of Svartalfheim. It was seriously cool to walk past a place and say, “hey, isn’t that …?”
Inverness
We left Edinburgh unexpectedly early due to impending movement restrictions, traveling to Inverness (capital of the Highlands). While we hadn’t been able to leave the city of Edinburgh, we imagined in the Highlands (which had no COVID restrictions) we’d be able to see some stunning Highland vistas. That wasn’t quite what happened. T
he movement restrictions meant that no one could come to the Highlands (we got out on the last day). Which meant the tour companies shut down (retrospectively this makes perfect sense, but we didn’t plan on it). After all, pretty much the only people in the Highlands were those who lived there. Not the people who most use tours to said vistas. So … we didn’t actually get the chance to see anything outside the city of Inverness.
As far as the place itself, it is a quiet city that seems more like a town to me. The lovely Ness River runs through it, toward Loch Ness (again, didn’t get to see it) and we got to live right by the river, about ten minutes walk from town. Along the way, you can see a few neat churches and a castle on the hill. The castle itself was also closed, but we still got to climb up there and see the view from the hill.