1.
Edinburgh
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Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 local government council areas. Located in Lothian on the Firth of Forths southern shore, it is Scotlands second most populous city and the seventh most populous in the United Kingdom. The 2014 official population estimates are 464,990 for the city of Edinburgh,492,680 for the authority area. Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century, Edinburgh is home to the Scottish Parliament and it is the largest financial centre in the UK after London. Historically part of Midlothian, the city has long been a centre of education, particularly in the fields of medicine, Scots law, literature, the sciences and engineering. The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582 and now one of four in the city, was placed 17th in the QS World University Rankings in 2013 and 2014. The city is famous for the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe. The citys historical and cultural attractions have made it the United Kingdoms second most popular tourist destination after London, attracting over one million overseas visitors each year. Historic sites in Edinburgh include Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, the churches of St. Giles, Greyfriars and the Canongate, Edinburghs Old Town and New Town together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has been managed by Edinburgh World Heritage since 1999. It appears to derive from the place name Eidyn mentioned in the Old Welsh epic poem Y Gododdin, the poem names Din Eidyn as a hill fort in the territory of the Gododdin. The Celtic element din was dropped and replaced by the Old English burh, the first documentary evidence of the medieval burgh is a royal charter, c. 1124–1127, by King David I granting a toft in burgo meo de Edenesburg to the Priory of Dunfermline. In modern Gaelic, the city is called Dùn Èideann, the earliest known human habitation in the Edinburgh area was at Cramond, where evidence was found of a Mesolithic camp site dated to c.8500 BC. Traces of later Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements have found on Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat, Craiglockhart Hill. When the Romans arrived in Lothian at the end of the 1st century AD, at some point before the 7th century AD, the Gododdin, who were presumably descendants of the Votadini, built the hill fort of Din Eidyn or Etin. Although its location has not been identified, it likely they would have chosen a commanding position like the Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat. In 638, the Gododdin stronghold was besieged by forces loyal to King Oswald of Northumbria and it thenceforth remained under their jurisdiction. The royal burgh was founded by King David I in the early 12th century on land belonging to the Crown, in 1638, King Charles Is attempt to introduce Anglican church forms in Scotland encountered stiff Presbyterian opposition culminating in the conflicts of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. In the 17th century, Edinburghs boundaries were defined by the citys defensive town walls
2.
The Meadows (park)
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The Meadows is a large public park in Edinburgh, Scotland, to the south of the city centre. It consists largely of open grassland crossed by tree-lined paths, but also has a childrens playground and it is bordered by the University of Edinburghs George Square campus and the Quartermile development on the site of the old Edinburgh Royal Infirmary to the north and Marchmont to the south. To the south-west it becomes Bruntsfield Links where there is a free, public pitch, the Meadows originally contained a loch, known as the burgh loch or, later, the South Loch. The loch drained from east to west, where the known as the Loch-rin was sluiced to prevent the water from draining out. It is from this burn that the street names Lochrin Buildings, until Edinburghs first piped water supply from Comiston arrived in 1621, the loch provided much of the towns drinking water. It was partially drained in the century and for a time named Straitons Loch or Straitons Park after the burgess who tried to improve the area. The central tree-lined path known as Middle Meadow Walk followed, and it is the traditional practice ground of the Royal Company of Archers, whose meeting-place is nearby. In 1827 an Act of Parliament protected the Meadows from being built upon, an exception to city council rules against building on the land was allowed for the temporary large glass pavilion of the 1886 International Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art. The whales jawbones forming an arch over the Meadows path called Jawbone Walk originally formed the display stand of the Zetland, having been severely affected by weathering, the Arch was removed in 2014 for restoration. In the 1870s the Meadows became an important venue in the development of football in Edinburgh. The Second World War brought more than 500 allotments to the east end of the Meadows as part of the effort to make the nation more self-sufficient in food. By 1950 many local residents wanted the area re-turfed, but it was 1966 before the last signs of cultivation were removed. In the late 1960s, plans to complete a flyover over the Meadows for a road were defeated. The size and prominence of the park has led to many sporting events being hosted in the summer. Every March, nearly 1,000 runners take part in the annual Meadows Marathon, a charity half marathon and five-kilometre fun run, and, from 2013, between 1975 and 2005 the Meadows Festival was held on the first weekend in June, returning from 2008 onwards. The Meadows is one of the host venues for the Edinburgh Festival and it is also the venue for the start and finish of the Edinburgh Moon Walk, an annual event involving 12,000 walkers raising money for breast cancer research and treatment. Circuses also frequently visit the Meadows around June, in 2013, a Giant chess set was placed at the childrens play area on the east side. The Meadows remains noteworthy for its mature elms, though Dutch elm disease has taken a toll over the years
3.
Old Town, Edinburgh
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The Old Town is the name popularly given to the oldest part of Scotlands capital city of Edinburgh. The area has preserved much of its street plan and many Reformation-era buildings. Together with the 18th-century New Town, it part of a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site. Narrow closes, often no more than a few feet wide, the area has a number of underground vaults and hidden passages that are relics of previous phases of construction. No part of the street is officially called The Royal Mile in terms of legal addresses, the actual street names are Castlehill, Lawnmarket, High Street, Canongate and Abbey Strand. This crag and tail landform was created during the last ice age when receding glaciers scoured across the land pushing soft soil aside, the hilltop crag was the earliest part of the city to develop, becoming fortified and eventually developing into the current Edinburgh Castle. The rest of the city grew slowly down the tail of land from the Castle Rock and this was an easily defended spot with marshland on the south and a man-made loch, the Nor Loch, on the north. Access up the road to the settlement was therefore restricted by means of various gates. The original strong linear spine of the Royal Mile only had narrow closes and these began to be supplemented from the late 18th century with wide new north–south routes, beginning with the North Bridge/South Bridge route, and then George IV Bridge. The Edinburgh City Improvement Act of 1866 further added to the north south routes and this was devised by the architects David Cousin and John Lessels. It had quite radical effects, St Marys Wynd was demolished and replaced by the much wider St Marys Street with all new buildings, Leith Wynd which descended from the High Street to the Low Calton was demolished. Jeffrey Street started from Leith Wynds junction with the High Street, opposite St Marys Street, east Market Street was built to connect Market Street and New Street. Blackfriars Street was created by the widening of Blackfriars Wynd, removing all the buildings on the east side, Chambers Street was created, replacing N College Street and removing Brown Square and Adam Square. It was named after the then Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Sir William Chambers, guthrie Street was created, linking the new Chambers Street to the Cowgate. Multi-storey dwellings became the norm from the 16th century onwards, the construction of new streets including North Bridge and South Bridge in the 18th century also created underground spaces, such as the Edinburgh Vaults below the latter. Traditionally buildings were less dense in the eastern, Canongate, section and this area underwent major slum clearance and reconstruction in the 1950s, thereafter becoming an area largely of Council housing. Further Council housing was built on the fringe of the Canongate in the 1960s and 1970s in an area generally called Dumbiedykes. From 1990 to 2010 major new housing schemes appeared throughout the Canongate and these were built to a much higher scale than the traditional buildings and have greatly increased the population of the area
4.
University of Edinburgh
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The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582, is the sixth oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotlands ancient universities. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city of Edinburgh, the University of Edinburgh was ranked 17th and 21st in the world by the 2014–15 and 2015-16 QS rankings. It is now ranked 19th in the according to 2016-17 QS Rankings. It is ranked 16th in the world in arts and humanities by the 2015–16 Times Higher Education Ranking and it is ranked the 23rd most employable university in the world by the 2015 Global Employability University Ranking. It is ranked as the 6th best university in Europe by the U. S. News Best Global Universities Ranking and it is a member of both the Russell Group, and the League of European Research Universities, a consortium of 21 research universities in Europe. It has the third largest endowment of any university in the United Kingdom, after the universities of Cambridge and it continues to have links to the British Royal Family, having had the Duke of Edinburgh as its Chancellor from 1953 to 2010 and Princess Anne since 2011. Edinburgh receives approximately 50,000 applications every year, making it the fourth most popular university in the UK by volume of applicants, after St Andrews, it is the most difficult university to gain admission into in Scotland, and 9th overall in the UK. This was a move at the time, as most universities were established through Papal bulls. Established as the Tounis College, it opened its doors to students in October 1583, instruction began under the charge of another St Andrews graduate Robert Rollock. It was the fourth Scottish university in a period when the more populous. It was renamed King Jamess College in 1617, by the 18th century, the university was a leading centre of the Scottish Enlightenment. The universitys first custom-built building was the Old College, now Edinburgh Law School and its first forte in teaching was anatomy and the developing science of surgery, from which it expanded into many other subjects. From the basement of a nearby house ran the anatomy tunnel corridor and it went under what was then North College Street, and under the university buildings until it reached the universitys anatomy lecture theatre, delivering bodies for dissection. It was from this tunnel the body of William Burke was taken after he had been hanged, towards the end of the 19th century, Old College was becoming overcrowded and Robert Rowand Anderson was commissioned to design new Medical School premises in 1875. The medical school was more or less built to his design and was completed by the addition of the McEwan Hall in the 1880s. The building now known as New College was originally built as a Free Church college in the 1840s and has been the home of divinity at the university since the 1920s. The two oldest schools – law and divinity – are both well-esteemed, with law being based in Old College and divinity in New College on the Mound and they are also represented by the Edinburgh University Sports Union which was founded in 1866. The medical school is renowned throughout the world and it was widely considered the best medical school in the English-speaking world throughout the 18th century and first half of the 19th century
5.
Dominican Order
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Members of the order, who are referred to as Dominicans, generally carry the letters O. P. after their names, standing for Ordinis Praedicatorum, meaning of the Order of Preachers. Membership in the order includes friars, nuns, active sisters, the order is famed for its intellectual tradition, having produced many leading theologians and philosophers. The Dominican Order is headed by the Master of the Order, in the year 2000, there were 5,171 Dominican friars in solemn vows,917 student brothers, and 237 novices. By the year 2013 there were 6,058 Dominican friars, a number of other names have been used to refer to both the order and its members. In England and other countries the Dominican friars are referred to as Black Friars because of the black cappa or cloak they wear over their white habits, Dominicans were Blackfriars, as opposed to Whitefriars or Greyfriars. They are also distinct from the Augustinian Friars who wear a similar habit and their identification as Dominicans gave rise to the pun that they were the Domini canes, or Hounds of the Lord. The Dominican Order came into being in the Middle Ages at a time when religion began to be contemplated in a new way, men of God were no longer expected to stay behind the walls of a cloister. Instead, they travelled among the people, taking as their examples the apostles of the primitive Church. Out of this emerged two orders of mendicant friars, one, the Friars Minor, was led by Francis of Assisi, the other. Dominics new order was to be an order, trained to preach in the vernacular languages. Rather than earning their living on vast farms as the monasteries had done, at the same time, Dominic inspired the members of his order to develop a mixed spirituality. They were both active in preaching, and contemplative in study, prayer and meditation, the brethren of the Dominican Order were urban and learned, as well as contemplative and mystical in their spirituality. While these traits affected the women of the order, the nuns especially absorbed the latter characteristics, in England, the Dominican nuns blended these elements with the defining characteristics of English Dominican spirituality and created a spirituality and collective personality that set them apart. The orders origins in battling heterodoxy influenced its development and reputation. Many later Dominicans battled heresy as part of their apostolate, indeed, many years after St. Dominic reacted to the Cathars, the first Grand Inquistor of Spain, Tomás de Torquemada, would be drawn from the Dominican Order. As an adolescent, he had a love of theology. During his studies in Palencia, Spain, he experienced a famine, prompting Dominic to sell all of his beloved books. At the age of twenty-four or twenty-five, he was ordained to the priesthood, at that time the south of France was the stronghold of the Cathar or Albigensian heresy, named after the Duke of Albi, a Cathar sympathiser and opponent to the subsequent Albigensian Crusade
6.
Edinburgh University Library
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Edinburgh University Library is one of the most important libraries of Scotland. The University Library was moved in 1827 to William Playfairs Upper Library in the Old College building, the collections in Edinburgh University Old College were moved in 1967 to the purpose-built eight-storey Main Library building at George Square. Today, Edinburghs university-wide library system holds over 3. 8m books, e-books, the University was founded by Royal Charter from King James VI in 1582 and opened in 1583, but the library pre-dated this by three years. The initial collection was a bequest of 276 theological books from Clement Littill, the Special Collections Department has about 200,000 items in all branches of knowledge. There are 1,200 incunabula, about 9,000 printed books from 16th century,35,000 from the 17th and 18th centuries, an important part of this collection is German Reformation tracts. Among the many collections of the library are two which were formerly in the possession of the 19th-century Shakespearian scholar James Halliwell-Phillipps. The first collection was acquired by the library between 1872 and 1889, including a Shakespearian collection, the second collection was acquired in 1964 by purchase from Sothebys. The Main Library is situated on the south west corner of George Square, opened in 1967, the eight storey building was designed by Sir Basil Spence. The horizontal library exterior is designed to look like a bookcase. Upon opening, it was the largest university library in the UK, glasgow Universitys similar,12 storey, brutalist library was opened the following year. The current Librarian to the University of Edinburgh is Gavin McLachlan, the current Director of Library and University Collections is Jeremy Upton. University of Edinburgh Finlayson, Charles P. Clement Littill and his Library, the origins of Edinburgh University Library
7.
Appleton Tower
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Appleton Tower is a tower block in Edinburgh, Scotland, owned by the University of Edinburgh. When the University developed the George Square area in the 1960s a huge swathe of Georgian Edinburgh was demolished, leading to accusations of cultural vandalism and megalomania. The Appleton Tower was intended as the first phase of the proposed interlinked Fundamental Science buildings, in the post-war period, vociferous support for the George Square scheme, and impassioned opposition to it, were so intense as to elevate it to a national debate. Thus, many were glad that some of Appletons vision was not completed, a block containing five lecture theatres clad in conglomerate concrete and pebble-imbedded slabs is attached to its southern side. An associated teaching block for east George Square, and a Mathematics and Physics building for the ‘car park site’ on north Crichton Street, were intended to interlock at this sector. The Tower was left isolated - and without a proper entrance, Appleton Tower was built to allow first-year science students to be taught in the Central Area. It has five theatres, together accommodating around 1,200 students. The upper floors originally housed teaching laboratories, which, with the development of modern facilities at Kings Buildings, had become outdated by the end of the 20th century. The five lecture theatres and teaching space on the ground and first floors were refurbished over the summer of 2006, the Towers external cladding of pre-cast concrete slabs with mosaic detailing has suffered badly from the Scottish weather. Contrary to rumour, however, the structure has been declared sound, the University plans to complete the renovation by recladding the exterior, with a planning application submitted in late 2013 and approved in January 2014. At the same time it plans to rework the podium, create a proper entrance, the geneticist Steve Jones has nominated the ugliness of the Appleton Tower as one of the wonders of the world for a BBC2 TV show. Early in 2005, a student newspaper launched a campaign to nominate it for the Channel 4 series Demolition – a series about the worst buildings in Britain, the Tower did not make the final twelve. Later, in the year, Historic Scotland considered giving the building listed status. The venue is designated as Venue 2 of the Fringe, Edinburgh University CompSoc – Appleton Tower Photo from the BBC blitzandblight. com / Appleton Tower
Media related to George Square, Edinburgh at Wikimedia Commons