toast of Edinburgh

 

On the 10th August, Arthur Seat, the extinct volcano in Holyrood Park came to life with a huge explosion, swallowing hundreds of tourists and festival goers in plumes of molten lava. It was such a tragedy they cancelled the festival this year and tearful singed jugglers and drama students returned home without putting on their pathetic shows.

Or was that just wishful thinking?

Mary and I were in Calton New Burial Ground on the tenth, when smoke could be seen pouring off the far side of Crow Hill just after 4pm. We both felt gutted. Mary called the emergency services and was put on hold for 5 minutes because half of Edinburgh were reporting the clouds of thick smoke over the capital. Nobody has ever claimed responsibility but the smart money is on a see-you-next-Tuesday dropping a lit cigarette or mis-employing a disposable BBQ. Almost certainly a manmade fire; and it tore through the tinder-dry grass quickly. It was still smoldering the next morning. 

I suppose that's what happens when you invite thousands to come to Edinburgh for a 3 week piss-up. I think it hasn't happened for a couple of years but it wasn't the first fire in Holyrood. It was mostly contained on the East side of Crow Hill and no human corpses were found so I suppose we should be thankful. However I hate to think of the wildlife caught in that conflagration. 

smoking again, after all those years

Fast forward exactly a fortnight to the 24th and we went for one of our daily walks to Holyrood Park. We started with a quick tour of New Calton Cemetery where there were a few butterflies on the buddleia and valerian. Nice to see a painted lady (with a distinctive notch out its wing).

a stationary peacock

a clump of daisies growing out a crack in the masonry

a red admiral briefly perched for a photo

Airbnb-er

This struck me as a rather smart inexpensive spot to overnight in festival Edinburgh. We'd seen notices to the effect that the cemetery was locked up at 5pm. Not sure if this was definitely enforced, but if it is, it would discourage much of the passing traffic, drunk or disorderly. There are certainly rumours and occasional evidence of drinking and fornication after hours but this spot might have been silent as the grave on a good night and although it was open to the stars, the resident seemed to have a fairly cosy bivvy bag. Does that cup say "leave the herd behind"?

valerian and buddleia: favourites with pollinators

Batman hoverfly - Myathropa florea
(common name from batman-like logo between wings)

From Calton cemetery we made our way over to Holyrood Pk.

a Dobson in the wild - I had a chat with Ken and we spoke about
the possibility of wheatears up crow Hill

We told him we were off to see hummers at Samson's Ribs. However there weren't any there. A few whites flying through and occasionally perching on the valerian but no humming-bird hawk-moths.

large white

Histerical Environment Scotland have built (out of permanent concrete slabs and Trump grade barriers) the Great Wall of China underneath Samson's Ribs. And filled the road area with a foot depth of gravel. It has been cunningly designed to catch all the rockfall they are so worried about. So far it has caught nothing larger than gravel. This coincidentally is exactly the same amount of boulders caught in their suspended net along the top of the crag. (Exactly where it wouldn't catch loose rocks falling off anywhere immediately below the netting.) Since they have a nearly unlimited budget and very little sense, along with a huge fear of rockfall and a joy of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, we can surely expect more of these expensive elephant traps around the park.

On the upside this blocks any car traffic on a permanent basis, which is the only thing it does really effectively, and may be the actual reason for its existence. (Cars can no longer drive under these 'rockfall prone cliffs' where cars have driven without incident, since the invention of the car.) The upper road was also closed on this occasion as further rockfall was over-anticipated there, presumably after the fire loosened the grip the grass had on all the loose rocks and then the fire brigade's water might have washed away the last of the substrate keeping teetering rocks in place. I haven't checked if
A/ any rocks rolled loose, down onto the road or
B/ the road is open again yet.
It must have been a nearly unbearable hair-pulling anxious few months for the risk assessors at HES. 

Mary heads home aptly through Hunters Bog
seen from the Gutted Haddie

Mary had had plenty fresh air and opted to head home. I was swayed by the possibility of wheatears, a beautiful nearly exotic visitor, but also fairly curious about the damage the fire did to Crow Hill. I decided to hike up the Gutted Haddie and take a look. Once again the stepped route up the front of the hill had a notice saying path closed which I ignored. There was nobody actually working there but towards the top I had to climb over or skirt round the boulder filled drop bags. A while back (on the 25th June) a helicopter moved a large number of stone-filled white bags to the zig-zag stairway route up the Gutted Haddie. I was surprised to see this as that area has already had the soft dirt trail turned into a hard sharp-edged staircase that threatens to kneecap and de-shin hillrunners as they make their way up or down. 

small copper

I initially thought they had made a mistake and dropped the rock-bags at the wrong spot. Then was surprised to see they have extended the width of the path; presumably to accommodate outsize tourists to allow other xxxl visitors to pass without either one getting rolled off the path and bounced down the hill. I apologise for any offense caused and have just googled more PC ways to describe plus size tourists. Google suggests body positive words like curvy, generous or abundant even though these words don't mean fat. Then it seemed to forget the PC part of the algorithm and suggested Butterball, Fatty, Roly-poly, Hulk and Whale. Oh my! Anyway I doubt very much whether enough nutritionally overenthusiastic tourists will find themselves up there to justify the extra width, and the chances of two meeting, one ascending, one descending, in a perfect cuddly storm, seems (ironically) slim to none. 

fire damage

It was intersting to see the damage the fire had done as it swept up and across the East slopes of Crow Hill. The gorse caught and burned fiercely and quite a large area is entirely reduced to black sticks. The grass, which was tinder-dry after the best Summer in years also burned, but you can see at the edges it burned quickly and the fire has passed over swiftly without lingering to take out small trees, shrubs and even rosebay willowherb sticks. It was both much worse and much less bad than I expected, if that is not contradictory. Much worse because I was vexed by the idea of rabbits hiding in their burrows and being cooked. Less bad because I could already see lots of insects (alive) on the blackened ground. And if the insects have moved back, the birds will move back too, and poop the seeds of plants and in a couple of years the place will be as it was before. Maybe with less gorse? Most of the hill is untouched by the fire. Time will tell how it fares, but I was optimistic. 

the flames stopped short of the summit

just as well for that canoodling couple

although the grass burned, the shrubs, trees and
rosebay willowherb at the edges seemed to have survived

wheatear - with shoulder feather

As I wandered about the top of the hill surveying the damage I spotted a wheatear. The number of times I have climbed this hill looking for them vs the number of times they have shown up does not favour an appearance, so I was fairly delighted to spot a couple. They were definitely keeping each other company but looked so similar I would guess they were 2 (same sex) friends rather than a mating pair. But I am no expert. I only got one photo with them both in, although you can tell one from the other due to a stray white feather on its right shoulder! They were fairly friendly hopping about in a curious manner, once or twice coming right over to me, although more interested in keeping to the burned area. I was hoping they'd move onto the unburned ground as the heather and blaeberries were in fine colour and would make a prettier picture. The charred remains are perhaps more atmospheric and dramatic, if less cheerful. Interesting they were drawn there - I wonder if it was more easy to spot insects and bugs to eat, against the uniform charcoal colour. There did seem to be lots of insects about. As shown in the video below.

wheatear in slo-mo
soundtrack: Sa meget godt i vente by Stundom

looking down to Duddingston Loch

a painted lady - also chose the blackened ground

just the grass burned toward the edge of the fire

this magpie chose the unburned ground to explore
- much prettier

sad to see the extent of the damage...

but life was returning to the blackened ground

I left the hill by Dunsapie Loch. Where I noticed three little grebe. 2 males and this female* who was over near to the road. I snuck down to the water's edge behind some bushes and tried not to scare her away. She was catching minnows at quite a rate. 

*I am assuming the males are the ones with the red heads and the female is the buff coloured version but am not sure and could easily be wrong. They were all catching fish fairly easily although the males stayed some distance away. I am not a huge fan of these dumpy little birds (aka dabchicks and also Tachybaptus ruficollis (a name longer than themselves) if you prefer the Latin) mainly because they shun human proximity. However it was a nice finish to the day and I walked home happy with an SD card full of goodies.

7.4 miles in 3hrs50

BONUS!
as an extra treat because it is very funny here is a clip from Veep which although a US sitcom had Armando Iannucci at the helm. We have been watching it and this clip over the finishing titles had us in stitches. With reference to plus size people...