I’ve been out taking photos of lines and stanzas from poems I read on the poetry walks, at the places where I read them.
I’ve been posting these on my Facebook and instagram pages, but thought I’d gather a few of them here.
S.T. Coleridge at the Black Bull, Grassmarket
Gavin Douglas at Gladstone’s Land, Lawnmarket. The ‘soir gled’ is the red kite; the surname of the man after whom Gladstone’s Land refers to a ‘gled stane’, or kite’s stone, hence the golden raptor on the building’s front.
Ken Cockburn at Deacon Brodie’s pub, Lawnmarket
Angus Reid at The Scottish parliament building, Holyrood Road
Robert Fergusson at the Palace of Holyroodhouse
RLS at the High Kirk of St Giles, Parliament Square
Edinburgh, like Rome, is a city built on seven hills. I’m running three poetry walks later this month to some of those hills, as part of the preparations for World Heritage Day 2012 on 18 April.
Below Calton Hill
Here are the details: Calton Hill Thursday 22 March, 1.30pm–5.00pm, meet at Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, Edinburgh EH8 8DT, where we’ll return after the walk
Arthur’s Seat Friday 23 March, 1.30pm–5.00pm, meet at Scottish Poetry Library, where we’ll return after the walk
Castlehill Saturday 24, 1.30pm–5.00pm, meet outside the Scottish Parliament visitors’ entrance (opposite the Queen’s Gallery); the walk will finish at Edinburgh Castle
Arthur's Seat seen from the David Hume Tower
All the walks are free, but please book via e-mail as numbers are limited: kencockburn@blueyonder.co.uk
On the day please bring waterproofs and a notebook, and wear footwear suitable for rough underfoot conditions.
At the end of each walk we will spend some time discussing the walk, and reading what we’ve written; on Thursday and Friday at the Scottish Poetry Library, and on Saturday at the Education Room in Edinburgh Castle.
Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat, seen from Blackford Hill
A bit of background:
‘Seven Hills’ is part of Shadows of our Ancestors, supported by Historic Scotland and UNESCO, which promotes and celebrates Scotland’s five World Heritage sites – Edinburgh Old and New Towns, New Lanark, the Antonine Wall, St Kilda and The Heart of Neolithic Orkney. A group of five artists – a poet, a sculptor, a performance artist, a photographer and a composer – will each work at one of these sites, developing work for the public celebration of World Heritage Day on Wednesday 18 April, which will take place at Croy Miners’ Welfare, North Lanarkshire, next to the line of the Antonine Wall.
Brigid Collins's artwork for Shadows of our Ancestors 2012
All the artists are working loosely to the theme of ‘AD 142’, the year the Antonine Wall was begun. ‘Seven Hills’ will link to the theme by considering aspects of the land that broadly haven’t changed since Roman times – uplands and lowlands, coast and sea, the Scottish weather – as well as referring to the history of the Roman presence in the area, and considering the changes over time.
I’ll blog the walks to Calton Hill, Arthur’s Seat and Castlehill (as well as further walks I’ll make to Edinburgh’s other hills) and gather texts for the April event. All those coming on the walks will be also invited to contribute work they make up on the hills – poems, photos, recordings – to the project blog, and to the event at Croy.
Poems on the page and in the world 