Arthur's Seat
A volcano with a city at its feet: Arthur's Seat is the 251-metre-high eroded remains of an extinct volcano that helped prove how old the Earth really is.
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Quick Facts
- Location
- Holyrood Park, Edinburgh
- Height
- 251 metres (823 feet) above sea level
- Formed
- Around 340 million years ago, as a volcano
- Type
- Extinct volcano, shaped by glaciers during the ice ages
- Neighbouring landmark
- Salisbury Crags, the cliff line on its western side
- Famous for
- Wild views over Edinburgh, geology and the mystery of the tiny coffins
- Typical climb
- About 30 to 45 minutes from the foot of the hill
A volcano in the middle of the capital
Most capitals have a river or a cathedral. Edinburgh has a volcano. Arthur's Seat is the eroded core of a volcano that was active roughly 340 million years ago, when Scotland sat much nearer the equator. The fiery part is long over, but the hill still rises to 251 metres above sea level, a few minutes' walk from the Scottish Parliament and Holyrood Palace. The ice finished the job. Glaciers pushed across the area during the ice ages, scraping away softer rock and leaving the tougher volcanic stumps behind. That is why Edinburgh's skyline is so dramatic, with the hill, the crags and Castle Rock all standing out from the surrounding land.
The cliff that changed how we see time
Right beside the hill, Salisbury Crags are a long line of dark cliffs, and they have a big place in the history of science. In the late 1700s the Edinburgh thinker James Hutton studied the rock here and saw that molten rock had forced its way into the layers of sedimentary rock around it. That meant the igneous rock was younger than the layers it had pushed into. For Hutton, this was evidence that the Earth was shaped by slow processes over unimaginable spans of time, not a few thousand years. He is often called the father of modern geology, and the crags are one of the places where his ideas took shape.
Who was Arthur, anyway?
The name suggests King Arthur, and people have enjoyed the link for centuries. There is no proof that the legendary king had anything to do with it. Nobody has settled where the name really comes from. One popular suggestion is a corruption of a Gaelic phrase meaning something like the height of arrows. Another is that it is simply an old local name that picked up Arthurian glamour along the way. The hill's genuine human history goes back much further than any medieval legend. Traces of prehistoric hillforts and old farming terraces can still be made out on its slopes, and the ruins of St Anthony's Chapel, a medieval building, sit above Holyrood.
Seventeen tiny coffins
In 1836, a group of boys hunting rabbits on the hill found a small cave in the rock. Inside were 17 miniature coffins, each holding a little carved wooden figure dressed in cloth. Eight of them survive and are kept by the National Museum of Scotland. Nobody knows who made them or why. Some have linked them to the Burke and Hare murders, which had shocked Edinburgh a few years earlier, but that idea is only speculation. The mystery has inspired writers and artists ever since, and it remains one of the city's best unsolved puzzles.
A road built for rebels
The Radical Road runs along the foot of Salisbury Crags, and its name is a clue to its origins. It was built in 1822, after the unrest of 1820, by unemployed weavers, with the scheme commonly attributed to a suggestion from the novelist Walter Scott. The path later became a favourite walk, but it has been closed since September 2018 because of rockfall risk.
What to look for on the way up
The standard route from the Holyrood side climbs steadily, and the final scramble to the summit is short but steep and rocky. From the top you can see the whole city, the Firth of Forth and, on clear days, the hills beyond. On the way, look out for Samson's Ribs, a cliff of rock columns on the Salisbury side, and Dunsapie Loch, a small body of water beneath another volcanic knoll. Duddingston Loch lies to the south-east. There is also an old May Day tradition of climbing the hill at dawn to wash your face in the morning dew, which is said to bring a beautiful complexion. Many people still go up at sunrise, whether or not they believe it.
Notable people
- James Hutton
- Walter Scott
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