The Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow

Edinburgh, Scotland is an amazing city with lots of history, gorgeous scenery, and amazing pubs. From climbing Scott's Memorial to walking around Edinburgh Castle, it's clear that the best way to see this city is from as high up as you can get, and one of the best vantage points around is from Arthur's Seat.

Arthur's Seat is a natural land formation with multiple peaks and is certainly the highest point in Edinburgh. Although it's a bit of a trek from central Edinburgh (approximately a 20 minute bus ride), it is most certainly worth it.

You get off the bus and begin walking in the direction of the BIG MOUNTAIN. It's really hard to get lost (which is a plus for me), and even though you have to cross a couple roads, it's very clear that you're going the right way. As you get closer, the peaks start to loom over you, and you see a map with various trails on it. These trails vary in how steep they are and how long they are. The shorter trails will be the steepest, and the longer trails will be more gentle. If you have to hike in a bit of a hurry, like I did, then the short and steep trails are for you. One you get to the base of the mountain, you'll be looking at "stairs". These rocks are in a kind of step-like formation, and at first, it's fairly simple to climb. Hint: it gets a lot harder if you have to do it in the rain. When we were about half-way up to the first peak, it started to rain very hard and get windy. While it's now fun to say "hey, remember when we climbed Arthur's Seat in the rain?", at the time, it made the steep path (that already had a lot of loose gravel on it) downright treacherous. However, we kept going. Also, as you climb, you'll reach points where the path widens- these are good spots to take pictures. Unless you're alone on the trail, please don't stop and take pictures (although you'll be tempted to), as the people behind you might think of throwing you off of the mountain.

Once you get to the top of the first peak, it kind of dips down into a valley, which has awesome spots to take pictures, but why stop there? From the valley, you can choose to climb one of two peaks (one is considered "Arthur's Seat" and the other one is just kind of there). The one on the left as you are looking at it is Arthur's Seat- I'm glad we chose the correct one. It was really just luck. This pathway is a lot steeper and has more gravel on it than the last one. However, this might be just the path we took up. Like the way up to the first peak, there are many ways to get up the second one. Since it had rained beforehand, we were lucky enough to see a rainbow from the top of Arthur's Seat- and what a view!

If you like to hike, and even if you don't, if you're in Edinburgh, consider taking 3 (ish) hours out of your day to hike Arthur's Seat. Who knows? You might even get to see a rainbow.

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