The first of our festive walks took us along the Water of Leith through the pretty Dean Village and onto the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens.  Some of us wore something festive to mark the season.  We stopped in the Botanics for some lovely hot drinks and cakes, where a cheeky robin stayed close, hoping for a few crumbs.   

 Interesting sites along our walk included one of Antony Gormley's cast iron statues of a life-sized naked man, partly submerged in the Water of Leith, and the St. Bernard’s Well, capped by a Roman temple-style folly with the statue of Hygeia, Goddess of Health, under the folly.  After the Botanic Gardens, most of the group took advantage of being in Edinburgh for Christmas shopping, and a few went back along the Water of Leith again to Haymarket Station.

JM