Regent Terrace: The Balcony Over Holyrood
Why is it significant?
On Regent Terrace every house looks the same way: south, over a long drop. Step to the railings opposite the doors and the whole valley opens below you: the roofs of the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the ruined abbey, the modern Parliament, and behind them the great lion-shaped bulk of Arthur's Seat and…
Key Facts
| Place | Regent Terrace: The Balcony Over Holyrood |
|---|---|
| Address | Regent Terrace, Edinburgh EH7 5BS, UK |
| Geo Coordinates | 55.95530, -3.17360 |
| Part of Walk | Calton Hill, Edinburgh: Monuments, Martyrs and the Athens of the North |
| Generated | Generated |
On Regent Terrace every house looks the same way: south, over a long drop. Step to the railings opposite the doors and the whole valley opens below you: the roofs of the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the ruined abbey, the modern Parliament, and behind them the great lion-shaped bulk of Arthur's Seat and the cliff of Salisbury Crags.
Playfair designed this terrace in the 1820s, the southern ring of his scheme around the hill. Notice the long run of cast-iron balconies on the first floor. They were not decoration: in a Georgian house the drawing room was on the first floor, and the balcony turned it into a theatre box facing one of the most dramatic views in Europe.
One of these houses flies a foreign flag. Number 3 is the Consulate General of the United States, which has looked out over this view for many years. So on a hill that already has a statue of Abraham Lincoln in its graveyard, America keeps a front-row seat.
Look down into that valley and think about what this walk has been. Down there, in Holyrood, is the old seat of Scottish kings, where Mary Queen of Scots saw her secretary murdered, and the new seat of Scottish democracy, opened in 2004. Up here on the hill are the monuments to ideas: philosophers, a poet, an argument about who should be allowed to vote. Edinburgh likes to keep its power in the valley and its conscience on the hill, and they have been looking at each other ever since.
Arthur's Seat, by the way, is the remains of an ancient volcano, and the rocks of Calton Hill belong to the same volcanic past. You are standing, quite literally, on a fragment of a long-dead fire. Now walk west along Regent Terrace, back toward Regent Road, until a round Greek temple appears on the slope to your left.