WHY Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags as my wonder of Scotland? Let's get the declaration of interest upfront and out of the way, shall we?
||19||||18||
||17||Nearest Holiday Inn hotels:||16||
||15||
||14||
||13||
href="http://www.scotsman.com/partners.cfm?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eichotelsgroup%2Ecom%2Fh%2Fd%2Fhi%2F925%2Fen%2Fhd%2FEDB
CR" target="_blank">Edinburgh||12||||11||
||10||
href="http://www.scotsman.com/partners.cfm?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eichotelsgroup%2Ecom%2Fh%2Fd%2Fhi%2F925%2Fen%2Fhd%2FEDB
UK" target="_blank">Edinburgh - North||9||||8||
||7||
href="http://www.scotsman.com/partners.cfm?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eichotelsgroup%2Ecom%2Fh%2Fd%2Fhi%2F925%2Fen%2Fhd%2FEDB
LH" target="_blank">Edinburgh - Waterfront||6||||5||
||4||
href="http://www.scotsman.com/partners.cfm?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eichotelsgroup%2Ecom%2Fh%2Fd%2Fhi%2F925%2Fen%2Fhd%2FEDB
PP" target="_blank">Edinburgh City Centre||3||||2|| ||1||||0||I love Edinburgh. More than any other part of my beloved country, I love the city that has been my home for nearly three decades. I truly believe that, notwithstanding the concrete eyesore at first-floor level on Princes Street, there is no more beautiful small city in Europe.
I associate the city with personal happiness and fulfilment. When elected to serve Lothians, I took great pride in representing the people with whom I share the sheer pleasure of living here. It could be said I'm a bit biased.
Yet, I defy any Scot to feel anything other than a sense of wonder when standing on the balcony of the Observatory, on Braid Hills Drive or, even better, on the tenth tee of Craigmillar Park golf course.
On a clear day, the view extends way past Fife and the Ochils right up to Schiehallion. Some will say nature has been kind to us, others that God has been good to the people who inherited this corner of the earth.
The fusion of natural and man-made structures demonstrate the unique topography of Edinburgh. Crowning the middle-distance skyline is the unconquered castle. Built on a volcanic plug, long since rendered safe, the city clustered, expanded and prospered around it. But, for me, the view is dominated by the extinct volcanic eruptions and dolerite still of igneous rock that have given us a wilderness within the city boundaries ... Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags. Does any other city have such a treasure? More than anything else, Edinburgh's character is proclaimed by the natural, towering face of the Crags. The eternal impression is of solidity and strength, that serves to emphasise the contrived attempt to achieve iconic status of the concrete confection lying between Queen's Drive and the Canongate.
Geologists can get quite excited about the history of the planet to be gleaned from teschenite, their name for the hard rock that forms the Crags. It's doubtful if the quarrymen of Edinburgh in times past experienced the same joy at the wealth of information about what had gone before as they went about the back-breaking task of quarrying the whin, their name for the Crags rock used to cobble the streets of Edinburgh.
The grass- and gorse-covered slopes of Arthur's Seat aren't as dramatic, even though they're the best-preserved bits of Edinburgh's volcanic structures.
But it is wondrous that such a space should exist in a lowland city. Once you walk, run or drive up past St Margaret's Loch, you could be in the Highlands.
When our very young grandchildren chose their favourite place to visit, "Lion Mountain" - their name for Arthur's Seat - it always was.
Even on bitterly cold days, the rituals had to be observed. First, a slow drive past the swans and assorted water fowl on St Margaret's Loch, all of them overdosed on white bread well past its sell-by date.
Next, a visit to the Dunsapie Loch, where the mess deposited on the grass by the geese made this my least-favourite bit of grandparenting.
Then, back into the car and on to the real excitement of Lion Mountain ... climbing it.
This was the point at which debate broke out and a vote had to be taken: would this week's assault be on the softer south-west high-level walk, up past the kite-fliers and fit-looking walkers, some sandal-shod and others in quite serious gear? Or would it be a tacking trek to the north-east, following a path that might have been trodden for hundreds of years?
All four strode right to the top, pausing only to place superstitious hands on the big magic rock, before climbing the last few feet to marvel at the view of the Bass Rock and the East Lothian coastline.
Every week, there was a near-unanimous vote for the second option. But what an adventure, and only ten minutes away from tea at grandma's house.
As I write this, I can see, without moving from the PC, Arthur's Seat from my window - the icon of my enduring Scotland.
• Margo MacDonald is an independent list MSP representing the Lothians in the Scottish Parliament, and a former MP and MSP for the Scottish National Party.
