Watch out for falling rocks

Watch out for falling rocks

The Ross Fountain in West Princes Street gardens with part of Edinburgh Castle (the Hospital block) in the background.

Cast near Paris, France in the Durenne ironworks in the early 1860’s. It was an exhibit in the Great Exhibition in London in 1862 and was purchased for Edinburgh by Daniel Ross a local gun maker and philanthropist. After much deliberation as to what to do with it, it was finally assembled in West Princes Street Gardens in 1872.

The gold coloured iron structure shows a standing naked woman at the top surrounded by four more seated naked nymphettes representing the arts, science, poetry and industry. Below the first tier are a collection of mermaids.

The celebration of the naked female is typical of classical French design, but it wasn’t appreciated by everyone, Dean Ramsay (1793 – 1872) whose church, St. John’s was nearby called the fountain “grossly indecent and disgusting”.

The Ross fountain is now a Category B listed structure of historic importance (HB Number 27911) under the care of Historic Scotland.

Edinburgh Castle dominates the city of Edinburgh like no other castle in Scotland, and Edinburgh Castle is unequalled in the whole of the British Isles. Over one thousand years of history sit on top of the famous Edinburgh rock. In recent years there have been concerns about rocks falling from the cliffs onto the gardens below, so the rather ugly netting has been draped on the rock face. Hopefully, over time, it will weather enough to be less noticeable.

Princes Street Gardens at the heart of Edinburgh’s City Centre were once a lake called Nor’ Loch. The Loch, which had been the trash dump of Edinburgh for centuries was drained in order to improve access from the New Town to the Old Town. Later, the Nor’ Loch was transformed into the beautiful Princes Street Gardens we see today.

Camera: Canon EOS 450D (Digital Rebel XSi in the USA)
Canon 18-55mm IS lens
Exif data from the JPG
F-stop f/4.5
ISO 200
Focal length 37 mm

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Three bracketed JPGs converted to HDR in Photomatix.

Related shots can be found at: Edinburgh or you can look at all my HDR shots.

Featured in : HDR Photography : 1 Aug 09

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