Arthur's Seat
The Arthur 's Seat is the 251 m high mountain in the Scottish capital Edinburgh.
Location
Arthur 's Seat is about 1.5 km east of the actual city center, however, is entirely surrounded by the settlement area of the city of Edinburgh and its suburbs. It is part of Holyrood Park with the royal residence Holyrood Palace. From its summit to offer impressive views over Edinburgh offering up to the bridge over the Firth of Forth to the Southern Uplands, the District of East Lothian and the Southern Highlands.
Geology
The Arthur 's Seat is of volcanic origin. He is very similar to the neighboring rocks, perched on the Edinburgh Castle, from a solidified lava dome, which dates back to the Carboniferous age. In some parts of the mountain that is visible through exposed rock layers of basalt, especially at an upstream toward the city Rock Formation, the Salisbury Crags and the so-called Samson 's Ribs, the " ribs of Samson ," on the east side of the mountain - here pile up partly meter high basalt columns. between the summit of Arthur 's Seat and Salisbury Crags runs a small valley, which was around ground by a glacier during the Quaternary, so that today runs through some of the rather simple normal route to the summit of Arthur 's Seat. Another adjacent lava dome is about 30 km to the east North Berwick Law, which is clearly visible in clear weather from the summit.
Naming
The origin of the name Arthur 's Seat can not be known with certainty. There was never an official Gaelic name for the mountain, but suspected the writer William Maitland, that the name is a Anglifizierung of the Gaelic Ard -na -Said, which can be roughly translated as "Summit of arrows". An interpretation of the name in reference to the mountain is not found, however, just as little more evidence. Another variant of the historian John Milne is Ard- thir Suidhe, which is to " place on high ground " translated by resorting to the usual after Gaelic grammar word order. The shape of the mountain, this would make more sense, other historical sources that support this interpretation, however, not to be found also.
Pictures: The rock formations of the " Salisbury Crags "
Holyrood Park under the Salisbury Rock
Views of Edinburgh 25 December 2007