A life-long fascination with the landscape of Lothian and Edinburgh, and a long time ere!interest in photography, contributed to an investigation of the possible geometry to be found there, after reading Henry Lincoln's; The Holy Place. This little book described the geometry he had found in the landscape of Southern France, centred on the now famous/infamous village of Rennes Le Chateau. Having previously read the two books he co-authored with Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh; The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail and The Messianic Legacy. Just prior to reading THP I also read The Temple And The Lodge by the latter two authors, a continuation of their previous works, and focussed on Scotland and its connections to the main story of the previous two.
I was thus suitably primed to respond to THP by having a 'look-see' at the landscape of Lothian and Edinburgh for the possible presence of something similar.
Geometric patterns eventually appeared from the myriad of single line alignments of natural landscape features and human artefacts, churches, castles, standing stones, stone circles and so on.
A regular pentagon was eventually found, stunning in its incorporation of many interesting points, and including Arthurs Seat summit, Roslin Chapel, Caerketton Hill cairn, an earthworks at Braidwood settlement on an extension of one of the pentagon's sides, the confluence of the two rivers Esk in Dalkeith Estate, the centre Galachlaw cairn mound, and Currie Kirk. The latter three points formed an axis, with the Braidwood line perpendicular to it. From this the pentagon was found. This is an incomplete list of points of interest and more shall be listed as this site progresses.
The graphic included here was hand drawn in 2006, but is not labelled completely. It is a negative image with high contrast for effect, and is in reality black pencil on white paper. I shall describe the points better as I progress with this project.
Photos of penta-points
Arthurs Seat
Arthurs Seat dominates the city of Edinburgh. It contains a whole set of geometry within the boundary of Holyrood Park. It is on a chord of the pentagonal system and has a major long distance line running north-south. Both running through the summit, to the left in this summer morning silhouette.
A section will be devoted to Arthurs Seat, in all its moods and as seen from various places.
Galahlaw - penta centre
Galachlaw cairn is the centre of the pentagonal system. In a mixed woodland plantation on a high point between Buckstone and what used to be the Princess Margaret Rose hospital, and Mount Hooly Loan.
There isn't much to see really, just bracken and a bit of dug ground on the top. Whether just kids or someone looking for something I dont know.
Black Hill penta-corner
Nothing is marked on the map for the penta-corner which lies on the south-east flank of the Black Hill in the Pentlands. On an exploratory excursion there mounds and circles, ditches and stones were indication of activity sometime in the past.
Leith penta-corner
this archaeological dig next to Lamb's House in Leith fascinated me back in 1994(ish) when first setting out on the trail of exploration. Oyster shells by the ton were found in the foundations of these medieval buildings. Activity traced back 5000 years. This is not the exact fixed corner, that comes later.
Meeting of the Waters - Dalkeith
The two Esk rivers converge in Dalkeith Estate. This photo from my first visit in 1994 shows an exposed coal seam there.
Maybury penta-corner
This is an obviously built up area, but the exact corner turns out to be where the railway line crosses the old A8 at Maybury. This shot is from the road bridge, looking towards Corstorphine Hill and Clermiston Tower, which marks the line to the Leith corner.
Shewington penta-corner
It may not seem much but the farmhouse on the left sits at the highest point of a ridge with an old drove road passing by. It is the south east corner with Roslin Chapel being the inner corner on line to the centre Galachlaw. The exact corner is in the trees to the left of the house.
Clermiston Tower on Maybury Leith line
Dedicated to Sir Walter Scott, a superb panorama is seen from the top. Open Sunday afternoons I believe, still, the viewing platform is above tree height. A section shall be devoted to Clermiston Hill.
Rosslyn/Roslin Chapel inner penta-corner
The east window of Roslin Chapel, in the morning sunshine.
At first Roslin did not seem to be a major point in the system, but when the inner nested pentagon was found, Roslin was found to be at the south-east corner of the inner penta.
The Roseline, or Tavhara line runs direcly through this eastern end, north-south, and can be shown in photographs, using the handrail of the gantry of the canopy at present erected over the Chapel to aid in the drying out process. Arthurs' Seat summit to the north and Dundreich to the south in the Moorfoots are seen to be in direct line. This merely confirms what was found to be so on the map.
Inchcolm island and Abbey penta extended plus
Inchcolm being an island in the Firth of Forth, it is on the main axis of the penta system but an extended penta corner falls just short. A compensatory factor was found involving Crichton Castle and Church. More on later.
Mavisbank earthmound - on inner penta and centre of 5000ell circle
This circular earthmound and a snaking path to it, is at the back of Mavisbank House, built by Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, who features in the overall story. Mavisbank House was a finalist in the renovation money competition on television a few years ago.
The hexagonal system centred here gave the first indication of a possible link to the geometry of Henry Lincoln, around Rennes Le Chateau. It also shows the use of the Scots Measure the ell, 37 inches. 5000 ells being equivalent to the radius identified by Lincoln. Lots more to say on Mavisbank and the hex system.
That's a start at least, and amended somewhat 17/03/08
A list of web-links, is to the right, and a list of books appears at the bottom of each page.
Any positive feed-back would be appreciated. Presentation or ideas for improvement generally!
I shall now work on linking web albums through Picasa, and develop links to each page with perhaps more photos.
I shall also introduce some basic geometry and maths and units of measure found to be intrinsic to the overall systems. A demonstration of the accuracy of the geometry will be approached, which will entail a look at the geometry of Bornholm and my findings there.
There is also the hexagonal system centred on Mavisbank to describe.
