One of my blips from last month was a view from North Bridge, Edinburgh. Well this is the view from the other side. Yet again more of the Waverley station glass roof, but on the hill in the background are 2 very famous buildings, The Old Royal High School and the Royal Observatory on Calton Hill.Here is a little bit about both.
The Royal High School in Regent Road, the Royal Entrance to Edinburgh, was designed by Thomas Hamilton. It was built in 1829 and continued to be used as a school until 1968. The school then moved to Barnton in the western suburbs of Edinburgh.
After the pupils moved out, this building was one of three sites considered as a home for the new Scottish Parliament - the others being Leith Docks and Holyrood. The decision was to build a new Parliament building at Holyrood, Edinburgh.
More recently [early 2002], it has been suggested that the building would be a suitable site to house and display a permanent Photographic Collection for Scotland. This idea is being pursued.
Royal Observatory Edinburgh
The ROE story began when the first Chair of Astronomy within the University was established in 1786, astronomy having been taught in Edinburgh since the opening of the town?s college in 1583. Astronomy in Edinburgh flourished at the Playfair Observatory on Calton Hill ? the brainchild of the Astronomical Institution of Edinburgh. Calton Hill became the Royal Observatory during the visit of George IV to Scotland in 1822. The first Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Regius Professor Thomas Henderson, was appointed in 1834. Henderson was the first astronomer to measure parallax and determine the distance to the stars ? an achievement that has made him one of Britain?s most famous astronomers.

The next fifty years saw major research advances leading to the futuristic vision of mountain-top observing developed by Charles Piazzi Smyth, second Astronomer Royal for Scotland. However, political times changed and by 1888 the fortunes of the Royal Observatory were at a very low ebb with inadequate buildings, outmoded instruments, an unsuitable site and a paltry budget. A Royal Commission recommended that the Edinburgh Observatory should cease to be a national Scottish institution and that its buildings should be handed over to the University.

This fate was averted by the generosity of the Earl of Crawford. In return for the gift to the nation of the contents of his splendidly equipped observatory in Aberdeenshire and of his magnificent library, the government agreed to build and maintain a new Royal Observatory on the Blackford Hill site. This new Observatory, designed and equipped under the supervision of the new Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Ralph Copeland, came into being in 1896. The site included the new residence of the Astronomer Royal. Site, materials, buildings and embellishments were all carefully selected to provide an altogether superb public monument to astronomy as well as a state-of-the-art research centre. The gift of the Crawford Collection, one of the greatest collections of astronomical books in the world, was, and continues to be, the historical heart of an institution at the leading edge of science and technology.