Never  Forget
I’m Zoe, a 19 year old student living in Edinburgh. I’ve lived here for over a year now and I think that it is such a beautiful city. I decided to make this webzine to highlight some of the city’s places that are important to me. I came here last September to study Physics, but I transfered this time around.
I decided to capture an image of the castle from the view point in Princes Street Gardens. This was to show a different side to the urban city. In places I believe that it is very picturesque and old fashioned. The scenery is beautiful and void of modern structures and can often be overlooked by the residents here. A lot of Edinburgh with it’s Victorian type architecture can look very traditional, but I believe the modern urban shops overshadow them. Especially on Princes street. It’s easy to go through the city of Edinburgh, maybe on your way to work or to the shops, without seeing any nature. Nobody really stops to think how lucky they actually are to have such a unique place on their doorstep. The beautiful autumn coloured leaves against the hillside and the castle really are breath taking. If I had taken the same picture looking behind me, I would have seen a busy urban high street above, where everyone would be too busy to care what was happening below.
It really is an  unforgettable image of life in Edinburgh.
The Royal mile is probably the most visited road in Edinburgh by tourists. It is rich in history, running all the way from Holyrood Palace to the Castle. Pictured here is St Giles’ Cathedral, or the High Kirk of Edinburgh, which is situated
about a third of the way down the mile. On the floor outside is the Heart of Midlothian, a mosaic that marks the historic point of public execution. This very square originally was a prison in the 15th century.
I find the history of Edinburgh to be fascinating. Underneath the very road I was stood on when I captured this picture, there used to be an underground city. To think of all the horrible things that took place there, it makes for such an eerie place, even now.
Across the road from the Kirk, is a statue of the great philosopher David Hume. Whom for all of his life, resided in Edinburgh. During college, I studied philosophy, specialising in epistemology, the theory of knowledge. David Hume was a
leader in that field, and it was his work in empiricism that inspired me the most. I like to think of myself as an empiricist, a person who believes that knowledge is gained from experiences and that you are born with no prior beliefs. This statue is
compromised of him holding a ‘tabula rasa’, which literally means ‘blank slate’ in Latin. The tabula rasa was one of his main theories that I studied. It is the idea that everyone is born a blank slate, and that all knowledge is gained from experiences. This was one of the many reasons why I am proud to live in Edinburgh, and walk the same streets he walked down all those years ago. As you can see one of his big toes has been worn away and turned to gold. It is believed that if you rub this toe for luck you will gain eternal wisdom. I believe that it is rather ironic. A man famed for his scepticism, is now a symbol of luck for the superstitious.
I wanted to include a picture of the castle, but I didn’t want the typical shot from the lawn market, or of the skyline from Carlton Hill. I wanted to show the castle from a different, more natural, perspective.
This is a view from the rooftop of the National Museum of Scotland. The weather was more typical of an autumn day in Edinburgh; there were many clouds in the sky and it was dull and cold. The Museum is a lovely place to spend an afternoon
exploring. Up on the roof they have a small selection of Scottish flowers, and an unusual 360° view of the city. In my mind this view is defintitely a more accurate view of what the city is really like.
I often wonder what it would look like to see the city from a bird’s perspective. Up here you can see out for miles on a clear day. These pigeons looked as if they too, were sitting in awe of the beautiful view: standing on a rooftop, taking in all the sights with the rest of us. Usually when people photograph Edinburgh, I’ve noticed that a lot of things become irrelevant in comparison to the city’s old architecture. Just like these pigeons, but they’re as much a part of the city as we are, and they shouldn’t be forgotten.
Not a lot of people are aware of the Union Canal, reaching from Falkirk to Edinburgh. I walk across the canal every morning to reach university; it’s such a stunning place. Pictured here is one of the many narrow boats that are docked here and its friendly driver giving me
a thumbs up as I took a picture from the road bridge above. The path beside the canal is one of my favourite cycle routes into the city from my flat; it’s quite a hotspot for runners too. I cycle down it at least once a week to go to a local health food shop in Tollcross.
I always find it such a relaxing place to visit when I have a spare afternoon. Even if the weather isn’t too good, it is still a nice place to get away from the traffic and the tourists the mob the city centre.
Before I transferred to Napier, I studied at the University of Edinburgh. This was one of its student unions, Teviot Row House. Teviot is the oldest purpose built student union in the world, opening in 1889. This place has a lot of memories for me; it’s where I always hung out with my friends, met people for a drink after class, and where many special events were held. I think it’s such an amazing building, inside and out. It always reminds me of a tiny castle, which I believe is iconic of Edinburgh. I had to include this in my magazine, as it is one of my absolute favourite places to go in the city.