Closed

I decided to walk over to Holyrood Park this afternoon. There are lots of road closures in the Old Town in preparation for the Queen's coffin to arrive in Edinburgh tomorrow, and I was curious to see what was going on. So I made my way there. There were quite a number of people walking in the same direction, some holding flowers. I walked over the hill at Abbeyhill and as I made my way towards Holyrood Palace the atmosphere changed and I can only describe it as a tangible feeling of sadness.

I walked through the park and around St Margaret's Loch and decided to walk back around the front of the Palace. There were lots of people milling about, barriers lining the road, TV vans everywhere and squads (quite literally) of police around. I'm assuming all of the extra police were arriving and being sent to their duties. It was also an odd mixture of tourists having photos taken in front of the palace and the parliament and people coming to pay their respects, many with flowers. As I walked back up towards Abbeyhill, the atmosphere lightened and that sense of sadness lifted. How interesting that the sorrow of many people can be felt, that it can be tangible and that it can change the feeling of a place, even a place like the centre of Edinburgh.