The philosopher's room, Edinburgh

I've been reading Kathleen Jamie's book "Findings", and I returned this morning to a chapter which has been resonating with me since I first read it while on holiday in France. It's called "Skylines"

In the chapter, Kathleen sets off up Calton Hill on a mission to discover the things which have been raised up above Edinburgh's rooftops, having been prompted to her voyage of discovery by the sighting of a golden comet on one of the roofs of Charlotte Square.

This photograph is an attempt to draw your attention to the room above the clock on the top of the Balmoral Hotel.

Here's the paragraph from the book:

"Everyone looks at the clock, but who sees above it, at the very top of its square tower, a secret little room. Trapped within a wrought-iron affair like a birdcage, is a tiny room. I could even see inside: wood-panelled, painted white, with just space enough for a table and chair. Of all the rooms in that grand hotel this is surely the best. Perhaps they could keep a philosopher there, like one of those picturesque hermits great lords kept in their policies. A philosopher to tell us about time and identity; how this hotel was for long the North British, but now it's the Balmoral, even as it stays the same; how the site where it stands was once a marsh, the station once a physic garden; how city ever rises into being, even as it falls away. Above the caged room, a saltire hung limp about its pole.

I love to read. And I've had a whole photography project emerge from the reading of this one chapter.