Edinburgh Gets Prickly

Hello Hello Hivers, Hivians and any other wonderful being who has stumbled onto this!

I am back with another another Wednesday Walk.

This one happened on Friday 4 September, when Edinburgh had apparently borrowed somebody else’s weather. Blue sky, sunshine and enough warmth to make walking around the city pleasant rather than an endurance event involving horizontal rain.

I had some business to do in around Princes St and I found myself in St Andrew Square, right in the heart of Edinburgh’s New Town. This is the area where I grew up and to this day I can still sound like a tour guide haha!

Despite the name, the “New” Town is not remotely new. Work on James Craig’s grand plan began in the 1760s, which is the sort of thing Edinburgh does very well... in other words, call somewhere new for more than 250 years and carry on as if that is perfectly normal!

St Andrew Square Garden

The garden makes a rather good escape from the traffic and shops around it. You step through the gate and suddenly there is grass, planting and room to breathe.

Believe it or not, this was not open to the public when I were a lad!

It was originally a private garden for the surrounding property owners. Ordinary people were evidently considered too excitable to be trusted near the shrubbery. It finally opened to the public in 2008, so we only had to wait around 238 years.

The square itself became one of the most fashionable addresses in the new city and later one of Scotland’s great financial districts. That explains the grand stone buildings looking down upon the greenery as though they own it ,,, which, in some cases, they practically did.

The towering thistle

What stopped me, though, was not a bank, a monument or an expensive shop.

It was this fluffing monster.

At first glance it's like Scotland decided an ordinary thistle was far too modest and had built a deluxe version.

Taller stems, enormous flower heads and enough spikes to make touching it a very poor life choice.

Close view of the purple flower heads

These I think are cardoons (Cynara cardunculus), sometimes called artichoke thistles. They are close relatives of the globe artichoke and members of the daisy family.

So yes, they look spectacularly Scottish ... but they are Mediterranean plants rather than our national emblem. Fluffing Typical. Even the thistles in Edinburgh’s New Town have come from somewhere warmer and acquired a fancy address.

The purple parts are masses of tiny florets packed together into one large flower head. The thick overlapping bracts underneath form the spiky armour. They are excellent plants for pollinators, although by early September several heads had already gone over and were turning brown.

Tall stems and finished flower heads

Once the colour fades, the cardoon does not become shy or die gracefully.

Oh fluff no ... it simply changes from bonnie giant purple flower to fluffing weapon on a stick.

They can reach roughly two metres in good conditions. That explains why I spent so much time photographing upwards at them.

I did not suddenly become artistic for Hive lol oh no. Quite simply the plants were simply taller than yours truly the cameraman.

Cardoons against the stone building and flags

I liked the contrast here of unruly, prickly plants in front of Edinburgh’s very controlled Georgian stonework.

The grand building on the east side of the square is Dundas House. It is now associated with the Royal Bank of Scotland. Sir William Chambers designed it for Sir Lawrence Dundas, and it was completed in 1774 as a private town house.

Told you that they were rich bastards who lived here!

The original New Town plan intended a church to occupy this commanding position. Dundas acquired the plot and built his mansion instead, because money has been winning arguments about Edinburgh property since at least the eighteenth century.

The house is Palladian in style, with a rusticated ground floor, Corinthian pilasters and a large central pediment. Inside, the later banking hall has a blue dome dotted with gold stars. From the garden, however, it mainly provides a very grand backdrop for plants that look capable of taking over the building by force.

Flower heads, spire and daytime moon

This was my favourite accidental combination...

Cardoons, the church spire and yes the moon all trying to occupy the same patch of blue sky.

The moon was wisely keeping its distance from the spikes.

Bonnie purple cardoon flower

Up close, the fresh flower is rather bonnie or beautiful. The purple filaments look soft, but the rest of the plant is making it very clear that admiration should be conducted with your hands in your pockets.

That is the cardoon’s personality in a nut shell .... lovely hair but terrible attitude.

Heavy drooping flower heads

These heads had finished flowering and were hanging down under their own weight.

Cardoons are architectural plants even when they are fading.

Apparently gardeners often leave the dried heads standing because they retain their shape and can provide seeds and shelter for wildlife.

They also save anyone from having to attempt deadheading while wearing medieval fliuffing gauntlets.

Leaving the garden towards George Street

Eventually I dragged myself away from the prickly supermodels and headed out towards George Street to attend to my business.

This is one of the three great parallel streets in James Craig’s First New Town plan, running between St Andrew Square and Charlotte Square. Princes Street became the famous shopping street, Queen Street looked north, and George Street took the dignified middle position ... named for King George III, not for some random Edinburgh bloke called George.

The centre of St Andrew Square is dominated by the Melville Monument, a fluted column more than 150 feet high. It was designed by William Burn and erected in the 1820s for Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville. Dundas was enormously powerful in late-eighteenth-century politics, but his legacy is now openly debated, particularly his role in delaying abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. A newer plaque at the monument gives that fuller context.

Edinburgh history is rarely short of a complication or three!

Edinburgh New Town Church

The elegant church with the slender spire is now called Edinburgh - The New Town Church of Scotland. Older readers may know it as St Andrew’s and St George’s West.

It was the first church built in the New Town, opening in 1784. Major Andrew Frazer and Robert Kay designed it, and its unusual interior is elliptical ... effectively oval ... rather than the standard long rectangular church plan.

It has been years since I was in there, I used to sing Christmas carols in there every year with the school.

As mentioned earlier, it was supposed to command the east end of George Street from the site now occupied by Dundas House. When that plan went out of the window, the church was squeezed onto this narrower George Street plot instead. The architects responded with the oval form and that graceful spire, so perhaps being shoved sideways did it a favour.

The flag topped George Hotel frontage

Further along is the historic George Hotel, today the InterContinental Edinburgh The George.

The hotel grew out of a row of late eighteenth century town houses and has operated under the George name since the nineteenth century.

The grand section in the photograph began as the Caledonian Insurance Company’s office. Architect David Bryce designed its imposing façade in 1840.

That is George Street summed up in one frame ... Georgian town planning ... Victorian commercial confidence ... modern luxury branding and flags flapping away because well you know Edinburgh will always find some wind, even on a sunny day.

And that was my walk ... no epic mileage and no mountain climbed. Just a sunny city garden, some wonderfully overgrown cardoons and a street where nearly every building has a story.

Sometimes the best walks are the ones where one strange plant makes you stop, look properly and discover everything sitting behind it.

Sources for the historical and plant details

St Andrew Square Garden — Essential Edinburgh
Dundas House listing — Historic Environment Scotland
Melville Monument listing — Historic Environment Scotland
History of Edinburgh New Town Church
History of InterContinental Edinburgh The George
Cardoon plant profile — Royal Horticultural Society

This post is for #wednesdaywalk which was inspired by @tattoodjay

Thanks for visiting and I hope you managed to get out for a walk this week.

All images and ramblings are from me, the mad Scotsman TengoLoTodo unless otherwise stated. Note images are all snapped by me with my Google Pixel 9 XL Pro smartphone on Friday 4th September 2026. @tengolotodo 23rd September 2026

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