Edinburgh [antikvár]

The City and the People On New Year's Eve a huge bonfire burns on the summit of Calton Hill as the people of Edinburgh celebrate the end of the old year and the start of the new. Hogmanay is a traditional Scottish festival, a time to look back on past achievements whilst turning a shrewd eye towards the year ahead, and Edinburgh, a city steeped in history, is a fitting place to mark the turning of the year. The past hangs heavy in the narrow streets and alleyways of the Old Town, but nowhere is its presence so strongly felt as within the walls of the castle. The castle is the reason for the city's existence, the focus for the settlement which grew up on the Castle Rock from the 11th century onward. And today the castle is usually the first place that visitors head for when they arrive - it is the city's (and indeed Scotland's) top tourist attraction, drawing over a million visitors a year. Its distinctive silhouette is a symbol of Edinburgh, dominating the city-centre skyline and featuring in countless pictures and postcards. From the old battlements of the castle's Half-Moon Battery you can look out over five centuries of Edinburgh's history. The 15th-century crown spire of St Giles' rises high among the 16th- and 17th-century Old Town tenements that crowd the Royal Mile. The North Bridge joins the Old Town to the 18th-century Georgian terraces of the New, while the 19th century is represented by the railway lines in the valley of the Nor'Loch, and the two grand railway hotels - the Caledonian and the Balmoral (formerly the North British) -that stand at either end of Princes Street. To the north and south sprawl the 19th- and 20th-century suburbs that lie between the Firth of Forth and the Pentland Hills. There is even history beneath your feet: the Half-Moon Battery stands on the ruins of David's Tower, built for the Scottish king in the 14th century.