Whinny Hill: Lava Ridge and the Fairy Coffins
Why is it significant?
Pause on the broad back of Whinny Hill and look at the ground under your boots. Thin soil, outcrops of dark rock, and everywhere clumps of spiky gorse, which in Scots is called whin... hence the name. In spring the gorse blazes yellow, and on a warm day it smells faintly of coconut.
Key Facts
| Place | Whinny Hill: Lava Ridge and the Fairy Coffins |
|---|---|
| Address | Whinny Hill, Holyrood Park, Edinburgh EH8, UK |
| Geo Coordinates | 55.94810, -3.15760 |
| Part of Walk | Climbing a Volcano: Arthur's Seat & Holyrood Park, Edinburgh |
| Generated | Generated |
Pause on the broad back of Whinny Hill and look at the ground under your boots. Thin soil, outcrops of dark rock, and everywhere clumps of spiky gorse, which in Scots is called whin... hence the name. In spring the gorse blazes yellow, and on a warm day it smells faintly of coconut.
The ridge you are walking on is made of lava. Around 350 million years ago, when this part of the world lay close to the equator, the volcano here erupted again and again. Thick flows of lava spread across the land and cooled one on top of another, and you can sometimes make out the steps between them as low terraces running along the hillside. You are climbing the stacked pages of an eruption diary.
Somewhere on these north-eastern slopes, in 1836, a group of boys hunting rabbits found a small opening hidden behind slabs of rock. Inside were seventeen tiny wooden coffins, each about the length of a finger, each holding a carved wooden figure dressed in cloth. Nobody has ever explained them. Witchcraft, sailors' charms, a secret memorial to the victims of Burke and Hare... every theory has its fans. Eight of the coffins survive, and you can see them in the National Museum of Scotland.
The volcano that built these hills had several vents, and the summit ahead of you sits on the main one, choked with shattered rock and solidified lava. Since then, hundreds of millions of years of erosion have cut the old volcano down to its roots, and the glaciers finished the sculpture. What remains is less a mountain than an X-ray of one.
The final slope to the summit is the steepest part of the walk, with bare rock polished smooth by countless boots. In wet or windy weather it can be treacherous, so watch your footing, use your hands where you need to, and keep children close. Up you go.