Each year, on a weekend in June, a gaggle of runners/masochists run a (roughly) 25KM tour of each of the seven hills in Edinburgh, with 2200 feet of ascent/descent. The route they take is up to them but they must hit each of the hills in a certain order. Starting and ending at Calton hill.
Last year's winner ran a time of 99 minutes. There's a race race and a challenge.
Further information here if any #fitness Hippo's fancy it!
Extinct volcano with a loch and some deer on it. Rumour has it there's a pair of otters around somewhere.
Home to the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh and once home to an ancient hill fort. Not that there's much to be seen of that.
Named after 12th Century sherrif of Edinburgh, Henri de Brad. Home to a hermitage designed by Robert Burn.
Calton hill hosts a bunch of monuments. Including the National Memorial, an intended replica of the Parthenon that ran out of money and was never finished and the Nelson monument (also designed by Robert Burn). Both commemorating events from the Napoleonic wars.
Edinburgh Castle sits atop the Castle Rock, some sort of volcanic plug. The outcrop is one of the oldest continually inhabited settlements in Scotland and the second most popular tourist attraction in the UK.
Home to Edinburgh zoo, which used to have a couple of pandas.
...Our hippo only made it to six of the seven hills of Edinburgh (sorry Craiglockhart) due to certain slide constraints.
Craiglockhart hill is split into two (easter and wester)...that's about all there is to say about it
...We've gathered distances between each of the seven hills (as measured by Google Maps directions on foot). If anyone can be rumped, we've knocked up a couple of challenges using the data.
We used the following Google Maps locations to calculate distances:
- Arthur's Seat
- Calton hill
- Edinburgh Castle
- Blackford hill
- Hermitage of Braid
- Wester hill (Craiglockhart)
- Corstophine hill
They took the following route:
- Braid hill (Start)
- Blackford hill (0.75KM)
- Castle hill (4.35KM)
- Calton hill (5.55KM)
- Arthur's Seat (8.55KM)
- Corstophine hill (17.85KM)
Can you find a route that takes them to the same 6 hills without quite so much trotting?
Our Hippo is currently staying at the Bayes centre and starts and ends each day there. Can you plan a day out which takes our Hippo to each of the seven hills and starts and ends at the Bayes centre and minimises the amount of plodding?
Our Hippo would also like to visit the following:
- Royal Yacht Britannia
- Crammond island
- Portobello beach
- Botanic Gardens
Reckon they could get it all done in 1 day? should they extend their trip?
Seven hills runners take the following route, beginning and ending at the top of Calton hill.
- Calton hill (Start)
- Castle hill (1.2KM)
- Corstophine hill (7.4KM)
- Craiglockhart hill East (14.5KM)
- Braid hill (16.8KM)
- Blackford hill (17.55KM)
- Arthur's Seat (22.15KM)
- Calton hill (25.15KM)