Location: Near the East end of Princes Street and above Waterloo Place
As you start to climb up the stairs to Calton Hill, there is a plaque on the right hand side of the steps. This is a memorial to Saint Volodymyr the Great. He was an early King of Ukraine who lived about 1,000 AD and introduced Christianity to Ukraine.
From the top of Calton Hill you can admire a panoramic view of Edinburgh. This stretches from the romantic labyrinth and cobbled streets of the old town in the South to the Classical order of the New Town in the East. In the background to the north, you can see the Firth of Forth as well.
The Portuguese cannon was built in Portugal (when it was part of Spain) and brought back to Edinburgh after campaigns in the Far East. The old City Observatory (no longer in use as an observatory) is an example of the scientific curiosity of the Enlightenment that was sweeping Europe in the nineteenth century.
The iconic National Monument on the top of Calton Hill was built with the Greek Parthenon as a model. It was built to celebrate the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. Nelson’s monument was also built about that time to celebrate the Battle of Trafalgar between the British and the combined French and Spanish fleets off the South West Coast of Spain.
There is a Holodomor monument (to the millions who died of starvation because of the forced famine in Ukraine by Stalin in 1932-1933) on Calton Hill. It is best approached from Royal Terrace after visiting the Finnish Honorary Consulate towards the end of this walk.
Find out more about Calton Hill at this link.
To get to the next of this stage of this EuroWalk (Regent Terrace) walk about 500 metres down the tarmac road to the Waterloo Place/Regent Road roundabout. Turn left along Waterloo Place which changes into Regent Road and walk for about 300 metres when you will come to Regent Terrace on your left. Walk for about 500 metres along Regent Terrace and you will come to the next stop – 11 Regent Terrace.
Picture credits: Stuart Baillie Strong/Edinburgh4Europe
