Greyfriar's Bobby - a devoted wee dog

Greyfriar's Bobby Statue at George IV Bridge in Edinburgh

Here's a couple of other things about Edinburgh, the beautiful capitol of Scotland, that tourists may not hear about.

Edinburgh Castle overlooks a park, Princes Street Gardens, with trees, flowering shrubs and a bandstand for concerts.

 When I was a girl, there were many games and dances in front of the bandstand (outside) for children every day in the Summer and on Saturday mornings until it got too cold. 

All the activities were free, we just had to make sure we were dressed warmly as it gets very

cold and rainy in Scotland.

The castle is built high up on a rocky hill so enemies could not attack and people are always trying to climb up from the base to prove they can. My brother and sister and I always scrambled up for a bit when we were in the Gardens for a picnic. My mum's idea of a picnic was some rolls with a tin of corned beef. We might be lucky enough to get an ice cream slider or a "99" from the stall which sold "Ices".

 Soldiers with cannons still live at this castle and every day at one o’clock you can watch a soldier fire a canon (blank) over the city.

All citizens of Edinburgh can be seen checking their watches and smart phones to see if they are correct when the canon goes off. (While you are there to see the gun firing look for the doggie cemetery).

Across the city to the east of the castle there is a tower where a large ball on a pole is lowered at the signal from the castle.

This tower can be seen from the sea so the sailors can also check their timepieces.

Calton Hill with statues, an observatory and Memorials. The Tower with the ball can be seen from the ships in the Forth Estuary

The Bandstand where in 1947 I watched "Swan Lake" being performed. We sat outside the seating area to watch it for free in the freezing rain. The dancers were all wet too.

This Floral Clock is entirely covered with flowers and plants, even the hands of the clock watch for the cuckoo

Don't just stop at the Floral Clock to take a picture.

Read whatever is written on the clock as it is there to memorialise some important event.

The bird comes out of his house on the hour and half hour and you will hear him "Cuckoo".

Just below the Floral Clock you can see the "Gardener's Cottage".

When I was a girl a family lived in that house and my chum knew them. We three little girls would go there to visit with the little boy who lived there quite often. He was only about 10 years old and he was very ill with TB.

Now the house is used to store the gardening tools and equipment for maintaining the Gardens.

How nice would that be as a Holiday Let?

Gardener's Cottage Princes Street Gardens

 Greyfriar’s Bobby

Statue and Water Fountain for Dogs

in Edinburgh

A statue to Greyfriar’s Bobby that is a drinking fountain for dogs.

***Greyfriar's Bobby***

In 1850 a gardener called John Gray, together with his wife Jess and son John, arrived in Edinburgh. Unable to find work as a gardener he avoided the workhouse by joining the Edinburgh Police Force as a night watchman.

To keep him company through the long winter nights John took on a partner, a diminutive Skye Terrier, his ‘watchdog’ called Bobby.

 Together John and wee Bobby became a familiar sight trudging through the old cobbled streets of Edinburgh. Through thick and thin, winter and summer, they were faithful friends.

The years on the streets appear to have taken their toll on John, as he was treated for tuberculosis.

John eventually died of the disease on the 15th February 1858 and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard. Bobby soon touched the hearts of the local residents when he refused to leave his master’s grave, even in the worst weather conditions.

The gardener and keeper of Greyfriars tried on many occasions to evict Bobby from the Kirkyard. In the end he gave up and provided a shelter for Bobby by placing sacking beneath two table stones at the side of John Gray’s grave.

Bobby’s fame spread throughout Edinburgh. It is reported that almost on a daily basis the crowds would gather at the entrance of the Kirkyard waiting for the one o’clock gun from the Castle that would signal the appearance of Bobby leaving the grave for his midday meal.

Bobby would follow William Dow, a local carpenter and cabinet maker to the same Coffee House that he had frequented with his now dead master, where he was given a meal.

In 1867 a new law was passed that required all dogs to be licensed in the city or they would be destroyed.

 Sir William Chambers, The Lord Provost of Edinburgh, (Mayor) decided to pay Bobby’s license and presented him with a collar with a brass inscription “Greyfriars Bobby from the Lord Provost 1867 licensed”. This can be seen at the Museum of Edinburgh on Chamber Street.

Baroness Angelia Georgina Burdett-Coutts, President of the Ladies Committee of the RSPCA, was so deeply moved by his story that she asked the City Council for permission to erect a granite fountain with a statue of Bobby placed on top.

William Brody sculptured the statue from life, and it was unveiled without ceremony in November 1873, opposite Greyfriars Kirkyard. And it is with that, that Scotland’s Capital city, Edinburgh, will always remember its most famous and faithful dog.

The kind folk of Edinburgh took good care of Bobby, but still he remained loyal to his master.

For fourteen years the dead man’s faithful dog kept constant watch and guard over the grave until he died.

Bobby’s headstone reads  “Greyfriars Bobby – died 14th January 1872 – aged 16 years – Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all”.

The Chamber Street Museum is where you can see the Bobby's collar and tag.

There are many weird and wonderful things in this huge museum. There are Lots of exhibits where you can push a button and see huge machines perform. It is a very Interactive museum.

The Millenium Clock is here. It was installed for the new Century 2001and this clock does weird and wonderful time keeping. When it "strikes" the hour - it plays - and figures dance - and things move everywhere. The museum has a cafe too so you can take a break and rest your feet.

Millennium Clock

The Millennium Clock Tower is located in the National Museum of Scotland too. 

The clock tower is made of wood, metal, and glass and the clock's levels represent the stages of a church's construction. The bottom level depicts a scene of Hell and the top level has a rotating display of ivory figures. The clock 'strikes' on the hour from11:00 am - 4:00 pm.

This is something to behold with so many figures moving around and turning wheels and figures swinging around the top - all the time to music and bells.

• 
  

There are 10 major museums in Edinburgh that are all free.

The Scottish National Gallery is home to some of the finest art in the world, you can expect to see some of Titian, Raphael Rembrandt, Vermeer, Renbrandt and Bottticelli’s masterpieces as well as some more contemporary artists including Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, Dégas, Gaugin, and Cézanne. The grand Georgian galleries on the ground floor display large canvasses that mostly focus around biblical scenes and important historical Royals.

Don’t miss the Scottish Café & Restaurant housed in the Galleries and overlooking Princes Street Gardens – a real gem of a place.

My most favourite place to visit in Edinburgh is the 'Botanics' or the world class

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

If you can visit the 'Botanics' in the spring, you will see so many and such a variety of colours of rhododendrons here that are bigger and better than any I have seen anywhere else. It's easy to get there by public bus. The garden is located right across the street from Robert Louis Stevenson's childhood home. Don't drive there because there is very little parking nearby. Admission is free.

Go to www.rbge.org for more pictures and videos of these lovely gardens

Rhododendrons bloom in spring

Monkey Puzzle Trees are native to Chile - there are sequoia trees here too.

The blooms on the Horse Chesnut Trees are called candles seen in May in Britain