Arthur's Seat at Dawn

In Gaelic its called Àrd-thir Suidhe... try saying that one. It's the main and central hill (more like gigantic mountain) of Edinburgh and rises above the city to a height of 251 m... that's like 900 feet. One legend connects it to King Arthur and another suggests it got its name from the phrase "Archer's Seat," as the rock was a crucial point of defense in the Middle Ages. Like most of the "hills" in Edinburgh it is an extinct volcano, approximately 350 million years old. Or so they thought... On the 6th of August 2006, the hill caught fire and burned for nearly 24 hours, scorching a lot of the land and trapping hikers at the top. And then this past September another mysterious fire broke out. Still no one knows how the fires started. Extinct you say?
I obviously googled all of this after I climbed it or I wouldn't have been so eager to hike up there at 6am after getting only 2 hours of sleep. But since I wasn't tainted by the mysteries yet, hiking at 6am after getting only 2 hours of sleep seemed like a fantastic idea! I went with three girlfriends and it took us about 30 minutes to actually find the rocks that point to the mountain it was so dark. After feeling something that felt like rocks, we began the trek forward. We sort of cross crossed across the face of the mountain until we reached the first level. It was extraordinary. Not a sign of light yet and Edinburgh was still fast asleep. I took that first picture around 7:30am. We then began the hike to the second level and as we slowly inched up the peak, the wind got stronger and stronger. We made it to the very top, but had to hold on to the marker to prevent from blowing away... I'm serious.
The sun would rise at 8:21 according to our calculations, so we had about 20 minutes to kill at the top of a fatally windy mountain peak. We found a crevice and protected ourselves from death for those very long 20 minutes. The sky became lighter as the sun gradually lit the sky and all of Edinburgh and beyond was illuminated. It was truly beautiful. I took this second picture around 8:20am.

I fell on the way down. And then slept for 8 hours after.

Amanda