Arthur's Seat is the main peak of the group of hills which form most of Holyrood Park, a remarkably wild piece of highland landscape in the centre of the city of Edinburgh, about a mile to the east of Edinburgh Castle. The hill rises above the city to a height of , provides excellent panoramic views of the city, is quite easy to climb, and is a popular walk. Though it can be climbed from almost any direction, the easiest and simplest ascent is from the East, where a grassy slope rises above Dunsapie Loch.

Many claim that its name is a derivation of a myriad of legends pertaining to King Arthur, such as the reference in Y Gododdin. However it has also been claimed that the name is a corruption of the phrase "Archer's Seat".

There is no traditional Scottish Gaelic name for Arthur's Seat. The etymology of Àrd-thir Suidhe proposed by Milne is very clumsy, translating as 'high-land of seat'. The modern Gael would name the feature by a straightforward translation of the English: Suidh' Artair (Arthur's seat). Milne likewise proposed a spurious etymology for the name 'Auld Reekie' of 'high slope', from 'alt ruighe', thinking that 'alt' meant 'high' whereas 'allt' is the Gaelic for a stream.

Geology

Like the castle rock on which Edinburgh Castle is built, it was formed by an extinct volcano system of Carboniferous age (approximately 350 million years old), which was eroded by a glacier moving from west to east during the Quaternary (approximately the last two million years), exposing rocky crags to the west and leaving a tail of material swept to the east . This is how the Salisbury Crags formed and became basalt cliffs between Arthur's Seat and the city centre. From some angles, Arthur's Seat resembles a lion couchant. Two of the several extinct vents make up the 'Lion's Head' and the 'Lion's Haunch'.

Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags adjoining it helped form the ideas of modern geology as it is currently understood. It was in these areas that James Hutton observed that the deposition of the sedimentary and formation of the igneous rocks must have occurred at different ages and in different ways than the thinking of that time said they did. It is possible to see particular area known as Hutton’s Section in the Salisbury Crags where the magma forced its way through the sedimentary rocks above it to form the dolerite sills that can be seen in the Section.

The hill bears a strong resemblance to the Cavehill in Belfast in terms of its geology and proximity to a major urban site.

Human History

Hill fort defences are visible round the main massif of Arthur's Seat at Dunsapie Hill and above Samson's Ribs, in the latter cases certainly of prehistoric date. These forts are likely to have been centres of power of the Votadini, who were the subject of the poem Y Gododdin which is thought to have been written about 600 AD in their hillfort on Edinburgh castle crag. The poem includes a simile comparing a warrior to King Arthur which (if not a later addition) may be one of the earliest references to Arthur, and hints at a possibility that his fame might have led to one of the hillforts and hence the hill being named after him.

Two stony banks on the east side of the hill represent the remains of an Iron Age hill-fort and a series of cultivation terraces are obvious above the road just beyond. In 1836, just below the summit, seventeen small wooden coffins, each containing a carved figure, were found in a small cave. Their existence has never been satisfactorily explained. Associations with witchcraft have been suggested. Alternatively, they may be a memorial to the seventeen victims of the infamous William Burke (1792–1829) and William Hare (died c. 1860).

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See also

• Arthurs Seat, Victoria, hill in Australia named for its resemblance to the Edinburgh Arthur's Seat.
• James Hutton, "Father of modern geology" theorised important geological concepts from what he had observed on Arthur's Seat.
• Cavehill

References

1. http://www.us.archive.org/GnuBook/?id=gaelicplacenames00milnuoft#6

External links

• Computer generated summit panoramas Arthur's Seat index
• University of Edinburgh Undergraduate Geology Notes, explains the Formation of Arthur's Seat very well