The Abandoned Road...

The weather was quite sunny yesterday so Ed and I decided to trek out to the Peak District and have an adventure. Castleton is one of our favourite places, the drive up there is pretty awesome, there are some wonderful pubs to have a pint in and there is the abandoned road! Ed and I accidentally found this road when we bought one of the walking maps, a few years ago, from the tourist information centre in Castleton. I was pretty amazed at how much the road has slipped down the Mam Tor, it really reminds you of how powerful nature is at stripping the human additions away. 

The original road was built around 1819, but due to the natural formation of the rock beneath it meant that it was vulnerable to landslides in wet weather. Because of this major road works were required in 1912, 1933, 1946, 1952, 1966 & 1974. In 1979 the road was abandoned and the traffic was rerouted. When it is quiet here it feels like the apocalypse has hit, I imagine it is even more eerie here at night.   

Ed and I had a really good time, we managed to get to the top of the road eventually (we stopped a lot to take pictures). Then we realised we had to start making tracks back down into the village because we had a tabled booked for dinner at one of the local pubs.  Hope you have had a fabulous Autumnal weekend <3 Much LoveKirst x   

Honeymoon in Edinburgh.

Ed and I decided to honeymoon in Edinburgh, Scotland. We wanted to visit somewhere that neither of us had been before, so we could adventure and discover somewhere together. I am so happy that we chose Edinburgh because it really is an amazing place, full of atmosphere and history. 

These were all snaps that I took when we were on an open top bus tour of Edinburgh, it took us all around the old town and the new town. 

We love going on ghost tours, we try to hunt one out in the larger places that we go to. So we decided to go on this one which is run by Auld Reekie Tours. Oh my, I have never been so terrified in all my life! This was by far the scariest, spookiest tour that I have ever been on. It takes you are a few places in Old town and then the tour guides leads you into the vaults. They were originally built for storage space for tradesmen but it was so damp down there that it spoilt most of the stock. The tradesmen moved their stock out and this was when a lot of the homeless moved in, then the criminals proceeded so there are a lot of bad things that have gone on down there. If you are ever in Edinburgh and you want to be chilled to the bone I would definitely go on this tour!

Ed headed back to the hotel to have an afternoon nap so I decided to go and visit the Blackfriars graveyard because I wanted to try and find the monument to Greyfriars Bobby. This is a really beautiful graveyard (or Kirkyard), burials have been taken place here since the late 16th Century. 

Edinburgh has a rather gruesome history of bodysnatching (as made infamous by Burke and Hare). This iron mortsafe was placed over the grave to prevent grave robbers digging up the body to sell to the autonomy classes in the medical school. 

This was a rather morbidly beautiful carving of a Memento Mori. It refers to a genre of artwork that was created to remind people of their mortality.

AND FINALLY... I found him! The monument to Greyfriars Bobby. It took me quite a while as the map in the graveyard was a little confusing. Greyfriars Bobby was a Skye Terrier who guarded his master's grave for 14 years, until he died himself. I think it is such a touching story and this monument to him is really lovely.