I met up with the East Linton children’s book group, seven members in all, librarian Carol Hastie, her two daughters and we set off with great excitement, catching the train to Edinburgh from Drem railway station.

Having read various books mentioned in Reading Round Edinburgh we were keen find the streets and some of the objects described in stories such as The Sign of the Black Dagger by Joan Lingard, Fleshmarket by Nicola Morgan, The Chaos Clock by Jill Arbuthnot and my own retelling of Greyfriars Bobby.

We began by walking down the Royal Mile to the palace of Holyrood where we saw the three bronze letters, – S -for sanctuary, embedded in the road. I read a short passage from The Black Dagger and we imagined what it would have been like for someone running to cross the line to safety. We crossed over to look at the Parliament building that Hamish McHaggis and friends pass in the tour bus, as they look for Angus in The Edinburgh Adventure.

Here we are reading the poetry and famous sayings carved into the stone of the parliament building.

We walked up the Royal Mile and our next stop was the Storytelling Centre where we looked at the story wall and then sat in the amazing large carved wooden chairs. while I read part of the Greyfriars Bobby story. Next we went to find Fleshmarket close and standing at the top of the narrow close we all imagined what it would have been like years ago as I read out the description from Nicola Morgan’s book Fleshmarket.

There was a freezing cold wind blowing and we were glad to move on to find Advocat’s Close where the children from the Sign of the Black Dagger lived.

Coming out opposite St Giles Cathedral we looked for the heart shape made of cobbles that is the Heart of Midlothian before going for some well earned refreshments. Duly fortified with hot chocolate and cakes we arrived at the statue to Greyfriars Bobby

It was still light enough for a quick look in Greyfriars Kirkyard to find wee Bobby’s gravestone and also the graves of his master John Gray and Bobby’s good friend James Brown.

It was getting late by the time we finally arrived at the Museum in Chamber Street and unfortunately we only had a few minutes there before it closed. We had a quick look at the Millenium clock which was the inspiration for the Chaos Clock.

There was just time to walk back to the station to catch our train home and to think about the other things we would like to come and see the next time we are in Edinburgh. It had been a great day all round!