Part 3. Edinburgh grid contd.

The light blue line in these images is the original line from Pilrig House, through Pilrig Church, Calton Terrace, Holyrood Palace/Abbey, the Crags Face, south to the West Edge point at Gilmerton Dykes at Lang Loan. From my notes the bearing is 163.28degrees, which is exact to the hundredth of a degree to the grid established in the previous posts.  Also I have somewhat resolved the issue regarding the discrepancies found making lines in Google Earth.  There is an 'absolute' option available, which seems to resolve the matter, but even that has issues with altitude and viewpoint, in that if not perfectly centred on the image, the line moves in correspondence to angle of view!  I will stick to 'clamped to ground' in the meantime!  At least I am content for now!

The third image above is a close-up of the central area.

This image has both lines plus the town grid alignments, and all are exact to one-hundredth of one degree!

Part 2 Edinburgh grid geometry continued

continuing with the exploration of the Edinburgh grid:

In the previous post the basic orientation of the street plan of Edinburgh New Town was shown.  My interest was drawn to this originally when it w, as noticed that the line from the pentagram maze at Old Scone was on the line that had started this research over twenty years ago, and that the Craig plan for Edinburgh appeared to be linked closely to it!  When starting from the grid plan orientation it was found that the exact(to the one-hundredth of one degree using Google Earth) bearing (plus 90degrees) from the pentagon at Old Scone passed over Calton Hill, through the Observatory there and is shown in the last image in the previous post, and again below:

Now this line has some interesting points on it, but it is some two-three hundred yards west of my original, and needs some investigation!

The astonishing thing is that this orientation runs straight to Mavisbank eart works which features so strongly in the previous investigation!  This line also includes a hill fort or whatever near Perth, unmarked on GE, and also the main road junction in the village of Scotlandwell on at the foot of Bishop Hill near the edge of Loch Leven, and also Liberton Kirk which is a good sighting point to the south of Calton Hill!

Using Calton Hill to Liberton kirk as a test of what happens more locally in GE a slight discrepancy appears:

so my guess is, its perhaps an artefact of GE, and whether its best to have the lines 'clamped to ground' or relative to ground' which are options in GE.  Relative hights may also be a factor, although Calton Hill and Liberton kirk are roughly equal in altitude, but Old Scone is lower and at a distance of some 45miles or so, the earth's curvature may start to be a factor!?  Something I have wondered about when working at large scale. Straight single lines are not an issue but geometry on the sphere angles become distorted somewhat, and my math skills don't stretch to that!

Another look at the Edinburgh grid - Part One

(After my old computer 'packed-in' and problems with Google Earth on my old laptop, I again have GE to work with!)

So, starting again from scratch I shall have another look at the Edinburgh grid introduced back in August/November 2012.

This time I started with the streets of central Edinburgh, using George Street as datum, using West Register House dome at the West end of Charlotte Square along George Street, through the statues at the junctions with Castle, Frederick and Hanover Streets and  the Melville Monument in St Andrews Square at the East end.  This also includes the recent erection of the James Clerk Maxwell statue at the east end of George Street.  (My understanding is the Clerk part relates to the Clerks of Penicuik!  More on that later when I'm more sure of the details!)

To the east of St Andrews Square the Bank of Scotland Headquarters (may be the Royal Bank, but I think that is at the top of the Mound!) dome sits on this alignment also.  Calton Hill, where the road bends on the north side, but a good enough sight-line and finishes at the spire of the church at the top of Easter Road at the London Road junction.  The same church I had on my original line which included Holyrood Palace/Abbey, Pilrig church and Pilrig House.

The orientation/azimuth from West Register House being: 73.28 degrees.

The line at ninety degrees is from the Tolbooth Church, the highest point in Edinburgh City(Arthurs Seat being outwith the city proper) down Dundas Street to Tanfield, and includes Assembly Hall(Church of Scotland), the statue atop the RSA(Royal Scottish Academy), and the line of the National Gallery, the statue at the junction of Hanover and George Streets, where lines intersect, azimuth:343.28 degrees.

Same with labels:

This third image shows the James Craig plan as is today:

I'll add an original image of the plan later!

The image below has an exact ninety degree line to the main axis, hence parallel to the other perpendicular, using Calton Hill Observatory, which needs investigation...

....later!

grid overview

In case the previous series of images was all too complex in terms of grid and units used I include simplified form with the red rectilinear grid centred on St. Mary's chapel and using North Berwick Law as orientation.  The line from St Mary's chapel extends through NBL to the same distance, the 27.7+ miles derived from the Bornholm work, which was found to be the exact same distance as the St Mary's chapel to the Bass Rock(St Baldred's chapel) which was used as the radius of the outer green circle.  The Bass Rock orientation is one degree aprox. east of the shown NBL diagonal, and perhaps could be used in addition to the 'Tavhara'/Roseline(Rosslyn) as described by Bill Buehler, which forms the nearly north/south axis of his 'Reshel' grid, and is shown here (perversely! - ed) in light blue.
When the 45 degrees is subtracted from the NBL line it can be seen to be close to the light blue roseline, both extended as far as Markinch(!) on the outer circumference, and both, plus the Bass Rock line minus 45degrees all cross over Arthurs Seat area, a spread of some two degrees.  Bill allows some three degrees for a 'Selah' spoke,

The grid unit I used in this excercise is one-half of the full 27.7+mile and can be seen to derive naturally from the internal construct of squares and circles.  This unit was originally chosen so I could work on maps back when Google Earth was not available, and was more suitable to the area of geometry I was concentrating on.

The (3 by 1) diagonal the 'reshel' sytem was based is shown in yellow at the bottom and the ninety degree axis from the mid-point of the base is shown in green running nor nor west.  The two (2by1) diagonals to the extremities of the (3by1) set of squares is fron the centre St Mary's chapel are also shown in green.

The Great Pyramid construct with Hillend Fort at the apex is shown in dark blue.  The equilateral triangle lines with apex just short of Inchcolm island are shown  in mauve.  The centre of the pentagonal system used in this excercise is defined by two red lines between these two sets.  (Same as the grid!  I should have changed the colour! TG) This pentagonal system is constructed on the full (3by1) baseline, which is a comparitively recent addition to the system as notified by Bill a while back.  The original used a shorter base and the pentagonal system using that baseline reached Loch Leven in Fife, but was not included in this excercise, but was discussed back in a 2007/8 post when I was just using Ordnance Survey grid references and doing the calculations with a calculator.  Neither pentagonal system is shown here, omitted to allow a clearer view of the grid structure.

This grid has intrigued me since first discovered back in 1999/2000 and re-inforced after the Bornholm work in 2003/4.

How far this grid extends is uncertain, but extensions to Ben Lawers for example and other connections hint that it may extend beoynd the area shown here.  Line of sight points, moutain tops especially, could be used as surveying trig points, and used more locally as centres of construction but that is for an other time!

Also, this grid system is merely one layer of what is altogether too complex (for me, at any rate!), there is still a large backlog of stuff to cover.  My hope was to find that this grid would lead to a simplification of the whole plan, but it hasn't as yet!

St Mary's grid conclusion(for now)!

happy 2014 y'all!

I want to conclude this set of posts for now so a final bunch of images of the St Mary grid stuff!  I'm having a bit of difficulty with this 'blogger' system but I.ve clicked on a few things which hopefully clears the way a bit.

I have to admit to a general lack of insentive and basic laziness, having become a youtube junky somewhat over the past months!

A few weeks back a post from Bill Buehler in which he asks for responses regarding grid developments generally and Scotland in particular, so I shall complete what I think may be relevant and pass it on.

This set of images may be considered a summation of what I have discovered further to what I had already but using Google Earth, which allows projection over a greater scale than was practicable using maps and grid references, and national boundaries no longer an obstacle, even!

The frist image is an overview of what became apparent once the 3 by1 diagonal 'reshel' system was complete, on the North Berwick Law alignment version, relevant to St Mary's chapel as centre.  It should be borne in mind that the NBL alignment is roughly in the middle option of three, the Cardinal directions due north/south, and the Bass Rock version, giving a tolerance of two degrees roughly:

The main point here is the finding Ben Lawers, just north of Loch Tay, and south of Glen Lyon, and its connection to the grid, with Snowdon due south!

As can be seen the penta-system has a north/south - east/west aspect, within the same tolerance, the vertical chord and side for instance most obvious to the eye, the second image below showing this clearly:



It should also be remembered that the verticals from The Ness of Brodgar pass through the centre of the pentagonal system, although not shown here.

 

I'm just taking the images in the order they were saved as I cleared stuff off, so this image shows the relevant section of grid in red, St Mary's chapel centre and North Berwick Law marked, with the 3by1 diagonal in yellow:

In green are shown the two (2by1) diagonals from St Mary's chapel to the two end points of the (3by1) diagonal, forming a ninety degree angle at St Mary's chapel, quite naturally!

The two mauve lines from the two (3by1) ends form an equilateral triangle at Inchcolm island.

The two red lines(shoulda used another color- Ed!) from the two (3by1) ends meet at Hillend fort (which I have emphasized for many a year now) using the Great Pyramid angle of 51.8+ degrees.

the last image here is a closer look at the main construction area of the (3by1) system, with the relevant elements of the grid.

Points of Note:

1. This grid construct is of the exact same dimensions as the grid on Bornholm, the island in the Baltic Sea described by Haagensen and Lincoln, i.e. 16*square root three standard Imperial Miles, or miles(E) as I use.  For the (3by1) diagonal a unit of one half of this measure is used.
2. The elements of the construct are taken from the Basic Reshel system described by Bill Buehler who considers them as consciousness grids as used in his group work.  I am using them purely geometrically in the context of the landscape and the (3by1)diagonal of this particular grid.
3. The Reshel system as described by Bill has two halves to it, the other mirroring what is shown and would extend to the south south-west.  Perhaps some day!
4. The pentagonal element used here is in fact a recent amendment suggested by Bill as being more pertinent now.  Previously the pentagon was a bit smaller but still on the same bas-line.
5. The projections which found Ben Lawers and hence Snowdon , and the Ness of Brodgar line which includes the Lomond Hills in Fife and Lochnagar near Balmoral only serve to reinforce the validity of the whole sytem.

OK Pub time! T