Riding the Marches of Edinburgh 2019

Oh how I suffered to bring you this little piece of Edinburgh Pageantry. Today it was the Riding the Marches of Edinburgh, a 10 year old revival of the ancient checking of the borders of the town against the marauding English and now another crowd puller for central Edinburgh.

To avoid just that, I stood on the outskirts of the town much earlier to see horses gather in a corn field where a chill wind blew straight off the Pentlands. My phone said it felt like 8° and I agreed. I waited an hour for the spectacle as I had obviously mistaken their intended itinerary, but was well rewarded in the end as the horses and riders galloped across the corn field from Mortonhall and came to a stop next to me and the other frozen spectators. More horses and riders joined them later from Frogston Road which I have put as an extra photo.

They will eventually ride into Holyrood Park and up the Royal Mile in the late afternoon to finish in Parliament Square at the Mercator Cross for the final hurrah.