Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh Castle Upper Ground

 

Yay, managed to put another sign post photo up! This time, about the places in the upper grounds of the Edinburgh Castle. After witnessing the 1pm gun ceremony, we were now free to wander upwards to the main key areas of the castle! Excited. Actually, the previous post on St Margaret's Chapel was already at the upper grounds of the castle.... 

As the ground at the top is kinda smaller than the one at the lower level, the photos above shows that there seems to be a crowd there. It does felt a bit crowded, especially at the Crown Jewel's building, but it was still manageable. 

This was one of the grander and nicer building at the top. It looked old and with splendid windows. I think this was the war memorial if not mistaken. I thought it was a church of some sort when I first laid eyes on it. I actually that this was the St Margaret's Chapel, expecting something grand for the oldest building here.... I was humbled by it. 

The sky was just beautiful that day. This was early afternoon, perhaps 2pm? And yes, as confirmed by the sign here, it was the National War Memorial. There was a no photograph taking policy inside the memorial, probably due to respect the fallen inside. It was lovely inside, small and narrow, but with much tribute given to all the names found inside. I only went in briefly, but I knew there were people who were inside combing the names to find their loved ones or ancestors. 

The outside of the building was also decorated with small details. Like this statue in the wall here that kinda looked like a window. It does made it look like a church, doesn't it?

The war memorials is more for modern wars. If you're wanting to see memorial for the Highland wars, Culloden Battlefield would be the place to go as those are dated way back in time. I guess I will be headed there in April 2026. I've been continuing my watch on the Highlander Series, a series I started watching after I came back from my first trip to Scotland. I just finished Season 1, and their latest Season 8 was launched recently...... I doubt I can finish everything before my next trip. But the more I watched, the more I realised that maybe I might want to visit the battlefields after all, if only to see the memorial of the clans. I hope those are  in the free to access area. 

Above, the small entrance into the war memorial. I think it's a lovely building. But when you enter, it's just halls and halls of names of the fallen.....So much war in Europe....

Little touch on the building, mini golden flags at the top of the building.

The next crowded place was the entrance to the Crown Jewels. There was also the Great Wall which you could wander into. I'll show that in the next few post or so. But here you could see to even enter the Crown Jewel building, you had to queue. It was mainly cause it was narrow to go inside, kinda reminded me of those old castle in Balkans with their narrow steps and corridors designed mainly to make it easier to protect when invaded. 

The clock tower outside looked like something out of my story book. Very British-European. 

And there were signs too, symbols on top of entrances. I don't really know what they meant, but they do look cool! Kinda like a protection spell at the entrance. 

Here is the official sign outside. 

And some of the more official information. Again, no photograph allowed inside. Heck, I can't even remember what it looked like. But I guess a photo of it exist surely in the internet if you google it. :P

I also saw these on the walls of the building. After returning from Balkan, I'm wondering, is this a grave? Cause during my trip to Balkan, visiting some of the castles and old town, the tour guide actually showed us some of the graves just like this one lining some of the stone corridors of the old town and buildings. Usually it was of someone important. 

I don't know why I have this knight appearing again. I could have run around exploring and ended up at the gates again before I went back up to queue up for entering the other more popular attraction. Knights are always cool. Maybe it's also a grave with the knight stuck inside? Kinda like Han Solo.....

Different view of Scotland from different area of the castle :) View is one thing you will get plenty of as I explore Scotland. Wait till we reached my Highland post! So many many views of the Highlands......