Cities of the Underworld: Edinburgh

[Lambda]

I've seen the series "Cities of the Underworld" a few times in passing on the History channel, and it has always proved fairly interesting. It is very neat to see what has been buried and often forgotten for many years.

One of the recent episodes was on Edinburgh entitled "Scotland's Sin City" It was very interesting, including a nice background on the city and how it was constructed. It is possible that some of our Edinburgh natives might not know everything about the underground there. There are some kilts spread in there (some historical artwork and the like), and a piper briefly during the montage leading into and out of commercials, but mostly it was just very interesting to learn some of the history surrounding Edinburgh. Well worth the watch if you can catch it.

[Phil]

This is known as "Mary King's close" the remains of original buildings beneath the present-day City Chambers on the Royal Mile across from St. Giles' cathedral. Until recently it could only be seen if you got a party together and got permission from the City Council to access the site but it is now firmly part of the tourist trail and lots of suitably enticing myths have grown up as a result. It is, however, an interesting survival and is worth seeing for that alone. What they haven't mentioned is the rumoured tunnel supposed to run under the Royal Mile from Holyrood Palace to the Castle so the King (or Queen) could escape in time of danger. Whether it is true or not is another matter but these tales help to boost the tourist trade.
Here is a link if you want to find out a little more - http://www.edinburgh.org.uk/MaryKing/history.htm
What I do think is true is that the prople who live in a place take their surroundings for granted and don't bother finding out about them.
Here is a link about the tunnel - http://www.ghostclub.org.uk/edinburgh.htm

[Colin]

I loved the tour under the current city. Kind of creepy, but a ton of fun and very interesting.

[auld argonian]

There was this documentary from a couple of years ago:

http://www.shoppbs.org/sm-pbs-great-...i-1406006.html

I remember it as having been pretty good...not available through Netflix, though, dammit. Possible that local libraries may have it since it's a PBS thang.

Best

AA