In 1882-4, Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland described Arthurs Seat like this:
Arthur's Seat, a picturesque and conspicuous hill in the immediate eastern environs of Edinburgh. It culminates at a point above 1¼ mile SE of the centre of the city; has an altitude of 822 feet above the level of the sea; descends rollingly, to the N and to the E, over a base each way of about 5 furlongs; presents an abrupt shoulder to the S; and breaks down precipitously to the W. ...
A narrow dingle, called the Hunter's Bog, extends N and S along its western base. Salisbury Craigs rise in regular gradient from the western side of the Hunter's Bog to a height of 574 feet above the level of the sea; break sharply down in a semicircular sweep, with bold convexity toward the city; are crested round the brow of the semicircle, to an average depth of 60 feet, with naked wall of rugged greenstone cliff; and thence descend rapidly to environing low ground, with smooth and regular declivity, in form of a talus. Both Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Craigs are within the Queen's Park; and the Queen's Drive runs 13/8 miles round them, at altitudes of from 112 to 390 feet. Both command most magnificent views of the city, and of a great extent of country, away to distant horizons -from Ben Lomond to North Berwick Law, and from the Ochils to the Lammermuirs. A fragment of the chapel of St Anthony's Hermitage, founded in 1435, is on a precipitous knoll at the N base of Arthur's Seat; and a spring, St Anthony's Well, celebrated in the old plaintive song, `O waly, waly up yon bank, ' is at the SW foot of the knoll. Mushet's Cairn, marking the scene of a terrible wife murder in 1720, was in 1822 transferred from Hunter's Bog to near the Jock's Lodge entrance, that George IV. might see it without wetting his feet. Three lochs lie around the hill-to the N, St Margaret's (240 x 85 yards); to the E, Dunsappie (233 x 67 yards), at 360 feet of altitude; and to the SE, Duddingston (580 x 267 yards). The S end of Arthur's Seat,
Additional information about this locality is available for Edinburgh
Arthurs Seat through time
Arthurs Seat is now part of Edinburgh district. Click here for graphs and data of how Edinburgh has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Arthurs Seat itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Arthurs Seat, in Edinburgh and Midlothian | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/26123
Date accessed: 23rd April 2024
Not where you were looking for?
Click here for more detailed advice on finding places within A Vision of Britain through Time, and maybe some references to other places called "Arthurs Seat".