A day dark and dreary

I've been reading a few Victorian gothic novels lately that were written by Scottish authors or were even set in Scotland: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by R.L. Stevenson is one that I'm actually amazed I never read before -- since it's possible to read it in one sitting, it's totally worth picking up. The other was one I'd never heard of, preceding Stevenson's novel by over 60 years, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg. Memoirs and Confessions takes places in Edinburgh and the surrounding areas and, though published in 1824, is set in the early 1700s. Even then, there are mentions of the city that I can recognise.

When my sister and I climbed up to Calton Hill and checked out the adjacent Old Calton Burial Ground, it was blustery, as it had been all day, but the sky had clouded over and the air had a hazy, misty quality to it that made everything seem dark and quite ominous. It never actually rained that day, but going through these photos I couldn't help feeling a sort of atmospheric connection with all the dark and dreary literature I've been reading. So I went with it... dark and dreary Edinburgh! Sometimes that's okay... brings out the mysterious gothic feel of the city quite nicely.

Cheers!
Kate xx

St. Cuthbert's Churchyard

Part of my (usually late-) morning routine has been to walk north to New Town to grab coffee, and usually, since the shop I like to go into is extremely small, take the coffee to go and then walk around the northern neighborhoods for a while... or at least until my coffee is gone. Yesterday I took a brief detour through the churchyard of St. Cuthbert's, which sits off the western end of Princes Street Gardens. It's a quiet, eerie sort of place, made even more eerie by several series of broken tombs, which seem as though they are particular attractive to homeless people at night. During the day, however, it was quiet and almost totally devoid of people, even though it's right off busy Lothian Road (which was actually widened and built over some of the graves, interestingly). A wide train tunnel that serves Waverley Station goes underneath part of the churchyard, but from that part, where the trees have been removed, there are some unprecedented views of Edinburgh Castle (see my Instagram!).



At any rate, it was kind of an interesting, random little walk. Charles Darwin's uncle is buried here... somewhere. :)

Cheers,
Kate x