If you’ve been on the hunt for Edinburgh facts to impress those around you, look no further.
An Edinburgh YouTuber has uploaded a video to his account, with eight facts he says are sure to ‘impress your mates’. Clan Broonford, who has almost 15,000 subscribers on YouTube, posted the video on Sunday - and it already has almost 2,000 views.
He starts off at the bottom of the Royal Mile, before heading up to Edinburgh Castle and then going for a stroll in Princes Street Gardens. Along the way we’re told various facts, some we’ve heard before, others we’ll be keeping up our sleeves for the next trip to the pub.
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The Royal Mile isn’t a mile long
This one, we’ll admit, we have heard before. Clan tells viewers: “The Royal Mile, named so because it’s a mile long.
“But it’s not. Well it is, but it’s not.
“It’s not what we all know as a standardised mile, it’s a standard Scots mile which is 200 yards bigger than your standard mile.”
Edinburgh was the birthplace of the first municipal fire brigade
As we’re told, fire brigades existed thousands of years ago - the Greeks and Romans even had them. Before municipal fire brigades, we had insurance ones in Edinburgh where people would pay to make sure they could have fires put out.
Clan tells us: “The first municipal fire brigade, as we know them today, was created by James Braidwood.
“Born in 1800, died in 1861, he started the first fire brigade in 1824. It went on to take on the Great Fire of Edinburgh, which was all the way down the Royal Mile and right to the Tron Kirk.
“He then went down to London and set up the fire brigade there, where they then had the Great Fire of London.”
Edinburgh wasn’t always the capital of Scotland
As Clan tells us, Edinburgh only became the capital of Scotland in 1437. Before that, it was over in Scone.
Edinburgh Castle is an extinct volcano
Any Edinburgh local worth their salt knows this one, though this may be news to some.
Clan also points out Arthurs Seat, which is also an extinct volcano. He tells us Castle Rock last erupted 340 million years ago.
Don’t think we need to worry about that happening anytime soon.
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Edinburgh Castle used to be the home of an elephant
We’ll be honest, this one came as a shock.
Clan tells us: “This magnificent splendour of a building was the home of an elephant in 1836.
“After a posting in Sri Lanka, the soldiers came back and brought an elephant. It lived in the castle, and became the head of the infantry marching band.
“Nowadays, I would hope that nowhere would bring an animal back with them.”
The Mound is a ‘fake’ hill with an ‘electric blanket’ underneath
As we’re told, the Mound was manufactured.
It was created by the ground excavated when they were creating the New Town. Supposedly, in 1959 they built what is essentially a ‘giant electric blanket’ underneath it.
With harsh winters, it was created to help melt ice so that people could get up the hill. They don’t switch it on anymore, and apparently rarely did after it was built as it was ‘too expensive’ to run.
Jacobites attempted to take Edinburgh castle with ladders ‘too short’
Back in 1715, Jacobites attempted a siege on Edinburgh Castle.
They arrived with ladders, hoping to scale the rock. They soon realised the ladders were too short, they failed.
Edinburgh is the ‘greenest’ city in the world
Clan tells us the capital has 112 parks in it, making it the ‘greenest’ city in the world.
We have more trees per head than any other city in the country, which is also pretty good going.
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