Jen the Tour Guide

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Jen the Tour Guide

Professional tour guide based in Edinburgh
History, stories, anecdotes - funny and factual

09/11/2026

Reasons to love the Dutch. I made a (possibly offensive) joke about the Dutch always having stroopwafels; and low-and-behold, the Dutch in my group pull out a packet of Stroopwafels! As I say, it’s not offensive if it’s true. And then, cos the Dutch are lovely, they gave them to me at the end of the tour. I am now the waffle queen, and I love the Dutch.

08/11/2026

As I mention on tours, I am an early medieval reenactor. As such, I visited London to see the Bayeux Tapestry in the in full Anglo-Saxon kit. It was quite the experience. While there, I also saw some Scottish history with the rest of the Lewis Chessmen. The NMS only has a small sample, one of each piece, but the entire set is 94 pieces large.

06/11/2026

Forgive my sporadic posting over the coming days but I am in London for some reenactment related fun. Although Edinburgh is never far away as I’m staying near Baker Street and so was greeted by a statue of Sherlock Holmes. Edinburgh has a similar statue in Picardy Place in the New Town, on the spot where Holmes’ creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, was born.

04/11/2026

The last days of autumn in .

02/11/2026

Edinburgh’ famous setts (not cobbles) are all laid by hand even to this day. When any road needs work, they all have to be lifted, and then laid again by hand. It’s very mesmerising to watch and takes a lot of time and precision, but is such a key part of Edinburgh’s identity that it’s important to keep them going. Also they are much bigger than many people realise.

01/11/2026

Today is All Saints Day, so time to remind people of my favourite Saint, St Margaret of Scotland. A woman of principle, intellect and humility, who always put kindness and charity first, and yet helped rule a country with strength and stability through example and reason. Her chapel in , is the oldest building still standing in the whole of Edinburgh. While it is considered to date from 1130 and built by her youngest son, David I, but some argue it might have been Margaret’s own private chapel.

31/10/2026

Today is Halloween, but it is also the anniversary of the death of the final victim of Burke and Hare - Margaret Docherty, or Margery or Campbell. Her death on Halloween in 1828, and discover of her body is the case that lead to the capture and trial of the serial killers.

30/10/2026

I always feel this view of the Old Town from Princes Street Garden East really shows the complexity and overcrowding of the the Old Town as it was - beautiful illustration of how it must have been.

29/10/2026

Look who was spotted in Edinburgh Castletoday by fellow tour guide . The fox is a known inhabitant of the Castle and can be spotted on the esplanade at nights, but today was a wee day venture.

28/10/2026

Same cemetery, same conditions, totally different weathering. Edinburgh’s local stone is sandstone, and sandstone varies a lot and can weather very differently. These graves in Rosebank cemetery show this, as the wording on one grave has completely disappeared. This is why you can often find one bright sandstone in a building while others around are blackened, and it’s because one stone weathered differently and needed replacing.

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