Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh Dean Village

 

It was hard to tell when we reached Dean Village. There wasn't a very clear sign pointing you to the place. Probably because this is a residential area more than a tourist attraction, and it was considered one of the hidden gem of Edinburgh. I wanted to come here mainly for the river view. The place we ended up with was Belford Road. There was a church nearly, and some sakura trees too, so we briefly got distracted there. We knew we were nearby, but some places just takes faith to find them!

And by faith I meant that you have to have faith and bravely walked into small alley that seems to lead to someone else's apartment area! Lol. I don't know if this is the official way people usually ended up in Dean Village, but it was definitely ours! We had to walk in via some residential area, and we found these yellow looking Tudor buildings. It kinda looked like a village housing, yet they were concrete, and well, looked like a modern themed apartment.

Walking by them, and finding some stone stairs that seems to lead downwards, we eventually found the river! I believe it was called the Water of Leith, and the was a Waterway that you could follow that lead you all teh way to Leith! That's another place I wish I have more time and money to explore! 

The apartment view, with the bridge and the water below. This alone was already beautiful!

Here is the view from the other side of the review, more apartments. But I've saved the best for last. The view wasn't from either side of the river, it was from the middle of the river looking up!

And here is the morning sunrise view of Dean Village. Yes, I know it's a bit bright to see the beauty, but I will have more photos below. I just wanted to show you the sun ray shinning on the river. And yes, you could make your way all the way to the river to take your photo, or just stay on the bridge or side of it I recommend you just go down the river bank cause the angle is so much better there, and you get better wider view of the river and the buildings. 

Here you go, a nice sleepier photo of Dean Village. It's very old village feel to it. Calm and peaceful. Almost french :P Like perhaps Belle could have lived here, and maybe do her laundry by the river?

The clouds and sky was fabulous that day. 

It almost looked like a painting, doesn't it?

I am not sure if above is still at the same site, but it's definitely the same river! You could see my husband walking up the slope. We were looking to see how to start out walk into the Water of Leith Waterway. I can't say the signs were that helpful. But with the help of Google Map, we eventually found ourselves on the right path.

You little sneaky sign! 

Us at the bank of the river at Dean Village.

Just me with my sun ray <3  

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh Sunday Morning Walk to Dean Village

The walk to Dean's Village from Waverley was a lovely walk and took maybe 40minutes? The only issue we had was identifying the entrance to Dean Village, but after that, the rest of the walk, even to Stockbridge was just as lovely if not so! 

Here are photos of some of the spot we walked pass as we make ourselves there, first going through the Princes Street Garden.

The path from the garden also lead us towards the National Gallery, which we didn't visit on our previous trip, but will surely be visiting in the next upcoming trip! It was such a lovely building right in the middle of the garden too! There are actually 4 National Galleries in Edinburgh alone! I am just aiming for 2 next trip. Actually, I have a feeling I will keep going back to Scotland.... 

The parallel road Princes Street and Princess Street Garden. Given a choice, do walk inside the garden!

View of the castle on your walk. The castle is never far from view in Edinburgh.

Here is the view from Princes Street looking towards the National Gallery and towards the old town. The Royal Mile is just beyond those tall buildings behind! It's almost a joke that you have to walk downhill towards the garden, and then climb all the way up again to the Royal Mile. 

My fairy tale imagine of Edinburgh Castle with Sakura flowers. Isn't it strange, that my motivation to visit Scotland is mixed with my love for Japanese culture? My mind was so stuck that I never imagined that sakura viewing could be done anywhere except Japan! And especially not in Western country, those western people surely can't appreciate the beauty of these lovely pink flowers. Thank goodness for Facebook and what it has shown me is possible! No matter what people say about social media, it does opened up my world a lot!

More views of Edinburgh Castle and pink flowers on trees. This is such a dramatic looking castle. I just love it! Next on my goal is to view these from a cafe in a bookshop. I hope I have time for that!

The Royal Scottish Academy building door. Couldn't go inside. I wonder if this was just a school?

Soon we were walking more and more away from the New Town that I know off, and came across Johnnie Walker experience shop. Ah, I have yet to have a whiskey tasting in Scotland! How dare me! I must get that situation rectified on my next adventure there!

Walked pass a lot of big buildings. The road seems to get wider and wider after St Cuthbert Kirkyard. 

From this crossroad onwards, I think we were out of the new town? Cause it looked more like residential neighbourhood after this. There were buses running up and down the road, and people grocery shopping and just about going about their normal Sunday morning. 

We also walked by this cool building which at first we thought it was a church, but turns out its just a restaurant. No wonder dining out is so expensive here, every meal seems like a theatre experience! 

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh St Cuthbert's Kirkyard

 

Just right next to Princes Street Garden, right at the end if you're walking from Waverley Station, you will find yourself at the entrance of St Cuthbert's Kirkyard. It was a sudden gloom when you reach there, so different from the colourful garden. Being us, and checking the map that we could walk through the church ground, we decided to venture in.

Here is the gate we went in from, it looked greener inside, but with less flowers, cause well, there was a cemetery at the ground area. But many people seems to just walk right in, some even jogging inside. So again, I guess this was just an extension of a park, but on a church ground?

Here is a information board about the church. 

And here we go again! Another graveyard visit. This place was a lot more serene than Greyfriars Kirkyard. Perhaps because it was in the morning, or perhaps because it was less well known? But I do think it was a lovely kirkyard. And the fewer crowd made it a much lovely place to walk through and admiring the grounds here. 

In the middle of course, was the church. Again, we did not venture inside. 

I did went up all the way to the front door. But it was closed. And I noted it was also a Sunday, so perhaps there were mass being held inside. So I didn't venture in. Besides, we were on our way to Dean Village, no time for worship!

Here is the front view of the old church. I love the tress surrounding it. 

I may not have time for worship, but I always have time for graveyards and tombstones. As mentioned, this was a smaller area than Greyfriars, but it was still a sizeable area. And the morning light shining through the dark ground was really mesmerising. 

I saw this lovely triple tombstone at one corner. They looked kinda dark somehow, and I don't remember walking all the way up to them. I did just zoom with my phone camera to capture this photo. It was the largest view of them I go from my collection. Sometimes I do wonder, why I would look into the mausoleum of Bloody MacKenzie, yet stayed away from this lovely looking one? I don't really know. But when travelling to unknown places, I do tend to listen to my intuition a lot, especially so if I am alone.

The kirkyard do have some other lovely stone carving, and I recall white flowers growing on some graveyard, and people were just sitting there having a picnic. It was all, so, un-oriental! Lol. Yet, lovely and peaceful, none of those horror movie vibe. Maybe the vibe would be different if I walk through it at night? 

Again, more views of the castle from a different location. Not sure if you could see it, but at the left bottom area of the photo, you could see a train track and a yellow train running through it. I think that was were our train went through too when we pulled up to Waverley Station from Manchester. 

Castle Rock?

Here is the side path that many people used to cut across and avoid walking on the boring road. 

Here is a nicer view of the building next to it. I like the round shaped tower and windows. It's cute that the church has red doors too! That is so striking!

Lovely morning sun ray shining into the graveyard as we walked by.

After walking around, we could exit back to Princes Street, but that wasn't the direction we were headed, so we went back to the church area and found the other exit that would bring us closer to Dean's Village. I'll show you the walk along the way and perhaps if you are familiar, you would recognise some of the buildings in the next post.

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh Princes Street Gardens

 

Beautiful Sunday morning in Edinburgh! We were going to walk to Dean Village and then to Stockbridge for the Sunday Market, and then walk all the way back again! Weeeeee! I love a good long walk! And it was such a lovely morning too! I think we might have set off around 8am from our hotel near Waverley Station. We decided to walk through the Princes Street Garden park which was parallel to Princes Street anyway. Walking through the park is always nicer than walking along a road! Above is the view from Ross Fountain inside the park and looking towards Edinburgh Castle at the back. What a view!

The walk started off innocent enough, by us entering into the nearest side road to the park. It was a quieter entrance from the main gate at Princes Street. We were basically walking in general directly after having mentally mapped out the orientation of the city :)  This path lead us to more tree views than flower view, but it was still nicer than street view!

It was nice seeing all the different angle of the castle from almost any part of the city. So here we go again, photographing a side view of the castle from the park.

You could also see the lovely buildings of Edinburgh among the flowering trees, and the churches or school towers at the background. All too postcard perfect!

It was still early in the morning, but at some part of the park, people were already starting to gather to soak in the sun. I like that some part of the park has terrace ground where you could just lay there and still get an awesome view. Park seems to be such a big deal here, I guess aided by such lovely weather and cool temperature. If we did this in South East Asia, we would be perspiring and sweaty and getting bitten by ants or mosquitoes!

There were also some bench tables and chairs where you could sit down and eat at near the Ross Fountain. I mean, how wonderful was it to spend a day here with such a beautiful surrounding? Edinburgh people are so lucky! Noted hotels and dine-in are super expensive here, but still, if you were already living here, and there is always home cooked food to fall back on! You could have such a lovely life here!

This was also the first time we actually took time to explore and admire the gardens. The previous time we were here was I think our first day when we were just getting orientated around the New Town area. That Sunday, we had more time, so we took a good look around, especially of all the sculptures that could be found here. 

More were dedicated to war. Scotland, such a culture of war in their history. Just last night I was watching a clip on the 100yrs war between England and France, ended only when Joan of Ark died and became the symbol of the resistance of France. It's weird, I don't believe we read about Joan of Ark in our history book. She died at 19! She must have been quite a lady! To inspire a whole country to fight the English!

Anyway, here is another sculpture that reminded me more of Russia than Scotland. Apparently the bear is Polish! And name Wojtek the Bear. You can read more about him here. I find it interesting that I learn more about the place I've visited more when I blog about it, cause I felt that I should know something about these things when I post about then on my blog. I guess that's a good thing. 

So back to the gardens, eventually the path lead us back to Princes Street path stretch, and that was were all the flowers were mainly found. It was the season of tulips and cherry blossom, so it was such a love sight!

I love the shape of tulips. They always looked so plasticky, almost unreal. Perhaps it was because I've only seen fake ones from my country. But here, here they are just found almost everywhere!

The pink ones were especially soft and lovely too. I couldn't get enough of them. I will be going to Scotland again in 2026, but just 1 week later than in 2025. I hope the flowers will still be blooming, and I especially wanted to see the cherry blossom trees tunnel at the Meadow. So I am really keeping my fingers cross that I would be in time :)

Here are some cherry blossom trees, or sakura! How lovely! Ever since I stopped working, I have somehow managed to see sakura almost every year during spring time! I hope to carry on this for as long as I can! The past two years have been in Scotland, and the previous one was in Korea. The year before that was a brief one in Fukuoka at the end of spring. I wonder where next year would lead me :)

A selfie of me with the sakura trees.

And one of us at the Ross Fountain and the Edinburgh Castle :)  

It was hard not to fall in love with Edinburgh.