It's like binge-watching, only with hills

I honestly had not known until a few days ago that Edinburgh, like so many other cities, is traditionally said to be built on seven hills. Thanks to this video, I learned that I had already walked up four of them. One walks up Castle Rock in the normal course of touristy things. I've been on Calton Hill any number of times, most memorably after the early-morning Easter Vigil at Old St Paul's a few years ago, when I joined the choir for their traditional singing of the Hallelujah Chorus on the National Monument (albeit in C, because who has those notes at that hour?). I've posted here about my occasional outings to Arthur's Seat. And this past weekend I went up Craiglockhart Hill.

Having put in a particularly good day of work yesterday -- though honestly I still don't know whether my brilliant set piece about sins ex certa malitia in Aquinas and Scotus is actually any good, or just one of those cases of my typing outrunning my thinking -- I decided that this afternoon I would bag hill #5: Blackford Hill.

The walk started at the entrance to the Hermitage of Braid, where some very sensible person has placed a coffee shop, which was doing a brisk trade. I walked along Braid Burn,


past Hermitage House, a lovely piece of 18th-century architecture,


and on up Blackford Hill. It's a very different ascent from Arthur's Seat. It's much quieter, for one thing; one sees far fewer people. It's more gradual as well. The path, instead of narrowing, opens up as it gets near the top; the summit is much more of a plateau than a peak.

Looking west from the top of Blackford Hill,
just before sunset

The views are, I think, even better. Here's the Castle.

And, needless to say, you can't get this view of Arthur's Seat from Arthur's Seat.

Plus, there's a Royal Observatory near the summit,


and other lovely views,


including Corbie's Crag.

The path returns through the woods along Braid Burn.

Do I need to bag the other two hills in the three weeks I have left here? I do not.

But I think I probably will. I want to see this show through to the end.

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