Jen Cresswell

31/07/2024

Took me a while to realise this was a display of lots of saltire magnets. Getting new bathroom tile design ideas.

30/07/2024

We are having an amazing sunset at the moment. I took a picture of the sunset with Craigmillar Castle and Arthur’s Seat. And then it got better but I was already home so forgive it being out of my kitchen window but the colours are too amazing not to share.

29/07/2024

When you say you’re going to Perth and everyone thinks you’re off to Australia but actually you’re going to the OG Perth in Central Scotland.

And yes, Australia’s Perth is named after Scotland’s Perth. The name of the settlement in the Noongat language of the aboriginal community is Boorloo.

28/07/2024

I was at a reenactment event this weekend at Grantown-on-Speyside (hence the weird clothing in the photo, a mix of Pict with modern glasses) and discovered in their museum another replica of the Monymusk Reliquary. I swear this year it seems to be following me. But it was lovely to see the beautiful artwork again, and a reminder how local Scottish museums around the country are worth a visit as they house such amazing treasures.

26/07/2024

The kilted pilgrim on the sand of Mull making his way to Iona Abbey.

25/07/2024

No offence but this poster really confuses me. I get the message of bringing the Highlands to Edinburgh city, but the dot on the map is in neither the Highlands or Edinburgh. If anything it’s in Peebles. This might be me being overly autistic but if you name two geographical locations in your slogan, please make the map reflect this cos I will notice and I will get unnecessarily annoyed by it.

24/07/2024

The is starting soon as you can tell cos the posters are going up. So it’s time for the annual Jen-selfie-with-the-Korean-season-poster post. I have my tickets for some of this year’s as well as many other shows. I always see quite a few things every year so I can recommend things to customers on tours, and because it’s an amazing opportunity as the world and it’s best performers visit my home city; it’s an amazing privilege that I love to explore.

23/07/2024

On my recent visit to Iona I walked with a replica of the Monymusk reliquary. The original is in the and once held relics. Made around 750AD likely in Iona, one of the reasons why travelling there with the replica was quite special, it is a wooden casket covered in a silver/copper alloy and beautifully decorated with a mixture of Pictish and Irish decorations and Anglo-Saxon metalwork, thus beautifully decorated encapsulating the mixed heritage of the Scottish people and nation.

22/07/2024

The face you make when they gave out rain all day but there wasn’t a drop and the sun came out so much that you have to put sun cream on.

Behind me is the pub - named after Maggie who survived her hanging in the eighteenth century, and cheated the law in the process. One of the greatest honours you can get in Edinburgh is a pub named after you. Do you think they’ll name a pub after me one day?

21/07/2024

Did you know the used to be a school? You can still seen the name of Castle Hill School at the top of the building. The school closed in 1951 and had various uses before becoming the experience in 1988. I do like the joke that they didn’t need to bring any whisky in as they used the supply left behind by the teachers.

I maintain it’s also the best place in the city to buy whisky.

19/07/2024

My inbetween tour hiding place - the National Library. I love to come here inbetween tours to grab a bite to eat, freshen up, refill water, and, if time, sit with a good book. It’s a great place to visit for a recharge, be you local or tourist, and its gift shop has some good books too! Plus I feel very smart being around all the people using the collection.

The National Library of Scotland is a copyright library, which means they have the right to obtain a copy of any book published in the UK. There are only 5 in the UK and this is the only one in Scotland. It is also the only one in the North as the next closest is Aberystwyth.

19/07/2024

Edinburgh Castle’s dark history is not a thing of the distant past, and its role as an army base also means surprising events can happen there. This is the horrifying tale of a gay military person who was arrested and imprisoned at the Castle only a few decades ago. Luckily a lot had changed and LGBTQ+ military personnel can now serve openly and proudly, but it is still quite a recent thing.

Paul Wilson’s military band career was abruptly ended in 1988 when officers discovered he was gay.

18/07/2024

I have been inside so many times, and I know of most St Margaret images out there, but today I found a new one. I did not know this window existed in the cathedral, but it’s over the entrance to the Thistle Chapel and depicts 4 Scottish-associated saints; St Columba, St Andrew, St Margaret and St Mund (who, I’ll be honest, I had never heard of). I do love how these are four saints associated to, linked with, and comforted Saints of Scotland, but only St Mund is Scottish, and even then he might be Irish. Columba was from Ireland, St Andrew was from Judaea, and my girl Margaret was considered English (although with some other European in the mix and born in Hungary). I feel this depicts Scotland so well, that birth or ethnicity isn’t what’s makes someone Scottish, but their connection, association, and calling the place home. Not only is this Scotland today, but it’s the Scotland of the past 1,500 years.

It’s also why I, very unprofessionally, feel a bit annoyed where people ask where I’m from, or where I’m from originally, because - not only is it a hard question to answer - but Scotland is my home and has been for 20 years. I’m from Scotland now. Just as many of these saints became Scottish through coming to the land, so did I; and I love this land and call it home just as they did (except maybe Andrew, but that’s a long and different story).

17/07/2024

Lovely warm, almost-sunny day today - and I had the perfect tshirt for the occasion.

16/07/2024

O flower of Scotland!

The national flower of Scotland, the thistle, can be seen growing throughout Edinburgh. I love how prevalent it is. Many would call it a w**d, but I was once taught that any flower or plant is a w**d is it grows in the wrong place, and so if the flower or plant is growing where it is wanted then it is not a w**d … and what person would not want flowers. These thistles of Edinburgh are definitely therefore not w**ds.

15/07/2024

Did I finally make it to Hogwarts? Well no, cos I’ve always been in Hogwarts by both living in Edinburgh, and living in my nerdy geek mind. But the Tattoo stand at the Castle hosted a screening of the first Harry Potter film with a live orchestra last night and today the banners still flew high and proudly. It was cool to see and made this Hufflepuff very happy.

14/07/2024

I got a Charles!

Many of our bank notes, the Bank of England ones, have the monarch on. Since we have a new (ish) king, new notes with Charles III are being introduced into circulation and the old ones will be phased out. Outside of a change of monarch our notes change every few years to prevent fraud. Many people who pay me on tours do so in notes no longer valid (usually the old paper currency as all ours are now plastic) so always check before you travel!

12/07/2024

We had a rare day of summer today; actual summer - with sun and heat and everything.

11/07/2024

Today is the 750th birthday of Robert the Bruce. Not that he will be celebrating because, well, he dead.

And to prove it, here is his grave in . The church tower literally says around the top in stone ‘King Robert the Bruce’ around the top, which I love in its gaudiness. Although the biased me thinks it should say ‘Queen Margaret of Scotland’ as it was her burial place first. Alas Margaret is no longer there but Robert still is, and, according to the cast of his skull, he was apparently a vampire.

10/07/2024

Nelson and Mal giving each other a good rub - a sign of affection. They have a weird relationship (ie Mal is horrible to Nelson because she is an alpha female, but they can’t be without each other) but recently they have been quite attached to each other. It’s sweet but I can’t help but feel like I should worry because Mal being nice often means she is planning trouble (tbh she has already escaped twice this week into the long grass, which she isn’t allowed cos she’s old and borderline laminitic).

09/07/2024

When you discover a new plaque and research it with great intrigue only to learn it was to the man who set up a Turkish bath on the site. Turkish baths were hugely popular in the Victorian and Edwardian era. Indeed the council supported Edinburgh Leisure still has a Turkish Bath at its Portobello Swim Centre.

08/07/2024

You can’t tell me what to do!

Actually you can cos you run the place, and given the temporary nature of the request and the narrow location, and cos you have asked nicely, I promise I won’t guide in this area.

But elsewhere I will spout history facts like there is no tomorrow! MWAH HA HA HA HA.

07/07/2024

The rural in the city.

49.5% of Edinburgh is green space and parks and come, like Hunters Park, honestly feel like the countryside. Even if you travel just a little bit outside the city centre you often find pockets of rural atmosphere despite being in a capital city.

06/07/2024

I don’t know what it is, but recently in my life, both through work and hobbies, I keep finding myself back in my old home town of St Andrews. No complaints from me though as it will always be a home for me and somewhere I love returning to. I especially love bringing tourists and guests here and showing them the uniqueness of life in this wee Fife town.

Pictured is St Rules tower, the oldest part of St Andrews cathedral and the only remaining bit of the earlier church, dating to the twelfth century. It’s currently closed to those wishing to go to the top but I have climbed it a few times and it’s not for the faint hearted, but luckily there is a friendly ghost of a monk (who was possibly murdered) to help you if you struggle. Maybe seeing a ghost gives you the cardio boost you need to make it!

04/07/2024

Today is election day in the U.K. and many people went to the polls to vote. I often say how people live in the city centre and that’s what makes Edinburgh an amazing city, the fact that it is lived in and alive and that people therefore see the real Edinburgh. Proof of this is how the Royal Mile housed a polling station today for residents of the Old Town.

03/07/2024

This week is (albeit a truncated) Holyrood week and so with the King in town there are barricades up around St Giles for the parade and induction into the Order of the Thistle, our highest chivalric order in Scotland. Charles and William are members and joined now by Camilla and Edward, as well as one of my fave people ever, Sir Geoff Palmer. But the railings block half the pavement so Jesús and I had to get creative with the umbrellas at our startpoint, and employ the railings as brolly holders. They did alright.

02/07/2024

St Andrews West Port sits at the end of South Street in the town and is an amazing (though heavily refurbished) relic from the sixteenth century when many towns in Edinburgh had ports (the Scots word for a town gate) that acted as defensive barriers and tax posts to charge and control goods and movement in and out of the town. Edinburgh’s have all disappeared but luckily the 1589 West port in St Andrews was based on Edinburgh’s famous Netherbow port that sat on the Royal Mile (and whose outline can be seen in the street). So while our Netherbow port is gone, the West port of St Andrews gives an idea of what it would have been like.

01/07/2024

Edinburgh is full of churches and while many remain as such, others have found new purposes as a way of keeping the buildings standing and used and maintaining Edinburgh’s unique aesthetic. While many churches have become pubs, others are theatres, community centres and even apartments. This one remains a place of worship as it is now the home of the Edinburgh Guru Nanak Gurdwara. It is an amazing building that I was privileged to visit as part of walk around many different religious sites in the city.

30/06/2024

The reality of Auld Reekie. The smoke from the chimneys and trains over the centuries dyed the sandstone of Edinburgh to a darker hue. This doesn’t damage the buildings, and the cleaning process is expensive and abrasive, so most structures are left as they now are. But some are occasionally cleaned and here you can see the difference where one terraced house has been cleaned but its neighbour hasn’t. This gives an indication of the air quality in the past and what people were breathing in.

29/06/2024

Nelson was having a wee sit down in the sun. This month was his birthday and he’s now 29! That’s about 80 in human years. He is going very grey around his eyes now. Poor old man definitely deserved a wee rest in the warm sand.