….. And all your kin! We’ve made it to 2021, woohoo, and I made it to the top of Arthur’s Seat and back down again without any serious mishaps. Never have I known it so treacherous before, a friend on Facebook joked that she’d like a helicopter to take her back down – if ever there was gonna be a serious accident requiring an airlift, then today was definitely in the running.

The snowfall from a few days ago wasn’t much but freezing temperatures and lots of feet compacting it down, then drizzly weather and more freezing! The pavements around Holyrood Park are like ice rinks, the road through looks deceptively fine in comparison, but as I and plenty of others know, its just out to give us a false sense of security, then, BAM!! All the well-trodden paths up the hillsides are now ice or compacted snow. The best way to get up to the top was definitely off piste……

So I went into the Park a much longer way round (but less icy), I totally avoided the scene of my fall, by walking through rough tussocky grass that I had to check didn’t conceal any deep holes. I avoided all the main routes upwards, instead heading up Nether Hill and veering to the right just before the final rocky climb up to the Seat, that was a scary part, it wasnt so much up as, up a bit, left, left, down a bit, left, up, up, right, no left, up, you get the picture! The last wee bit and the top were actually the easiest, least slippy bits. God, I was knackered, as is rather obvious here……

I spent a while just sitting near the top, sipping ginger liqueur from my hip flask and munching on a large slice of Yorkshire parkin (a bit like gingerbread but way better), enjoying the spectacle of all the jackdaws and crows having a fine time soaring above. Alas, I had to head down at some point. At least in our mutual terror folk were chatting to strangers as we’d pause, pondering where to put our feet next. Yes, there were definitely more smiles and encouraging “Happy New Year”s than usual. Staying off the main routes as much as I could, I realised how much more I know about the Park now thanks to all my summertime wanderings. I really am a lucky moose to have such amazing parkland close by, sometimes I forget.

I leave you with a pic of me having a wee rest in a pine tree on the way back down. Yes, in a pine tree! I can just let my legs hang and relax a while that way.

Toodle pip! And Happy New Year!