St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh

St Giles' Cathedral is the historic City Church of Edinburgh. With its famed crown spire it stands on the Royal Mile between Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

Also known as the High Kirk of Edinburgh, it is the Mother Church of Presbyterianism and contains the Chapel of the Order of the Thistle (Scotland's chivalric company of knights headed by the Queen).

Kinghorn in the Kingdom of Fife

A view of Kinghorn on the Firth of Forth taken from the Fife Coastal Path with rain falling in the distance over Edinburgh. Kinghorn  is a town in Fife, Scotland. A seaside resort with two beaches, Kinghorn Beach and Pettycur Bay, plus a fishing port, it stands on the north shore of the Firth of Forth opposite Edinburgh. According to the 2008 population estimate, the town has a population of 2,930.
Known as the place where King Alexander III of Scotland died, it lies on the A921 road and the Fife Coastal Path. Kinghorn railway station is on the Edinburgh to Aberdeen and Fife Circle railway lines. Kinghorn only has a primary school so high school pupils must travel by bus to Balwearie High School in Kirkcaldy.

The town's lifeboat station is one of Scotland's busiest - regularly getting called out to all sorts of emergencies in the Firth. The meaning of the name Kinghorn derives from the Gaelic ceann gronn, 'head of the bog'. 
The historic Royal Burgh of Kinghorn lies on the golden coastline of the Kingdom of Fife. The former castle in Kinghorn was frequently visited by the Scottish Court in the period of the House of Dunkeld. The King's castle, controlling the sea way, stood on the headland above Pettycur. A later structure, Glamis Tower, stood just behind the High Street. Both buildings have totally disappeared and the sites built over in modern times. It was because of King Alexander III wanting to return to Kinghorn to see his new wife that he fell on the horseride from Burntisland and was found dead on the beach of Pettycur bay.
The castle remained an important possession of the Scottish crown, and this was recognised by the creation of the Earldom of Kinghorne in 1606. A burn fed from the freshwater Kinghorn Loch above the town once provided the town with its water and subsequently provided the source of power to drive the machinery of flax mills. 
The old town was dramatically transformed in 1846 by the construction of the railway viaduct across the valley of the burn and the opening of Kinghorn Station by the Edinburgh and Northern Railway which had its terminus at Burntisland for ferries across the Forth to Granton. Much of the former horse ferry traffic from Pettycur bay was lost to Burntisland. 
Following the opening of the Forth Railway Bridge in 1890,the North British Railway started to promote Kinghorn's picturesque sheltered bay and beach as a resort which led to considerable development of the town.

Georgian Townhouses of Edinburgh

Coates Crescent lies in the West End area of Edinburgh and like the New Town area has some fine examples of Georgian architecture. These townhouses built in an arch with cobbled streets is very typical of many of the streets in this area.

Black Bull

The Black Bull pub sits right in the heart of the Grassmarket area in Edinburgh and takes me back to my student days in Edinburgh where we used to frequent many of these fine establishments on the route to inebriation! The Black Bull is a traditional pub selling many fine ales and the frontage onto the street is rather deceiving as the bar is extremely long and runs for a long way inside. The bar can be very busy at weekends so you need to get there early and during the summer many people sit outside.