Arriving at Edinburgh

Jose at Deacon Brodie´s Tavern

After our second plane of the day (we had a stop at Gatwick´s airport), we finally arrived at Edinburgh!!

Our youth hostel, Castle Rock, was just at the very heart of the city, right beside Edinburgh Castle. So we left our luggage and began to meet the city!

We had a walk up and down the Royal Mile, stopping at St. Giles´ Cathedral, at The Hub (Tolbooth Kirk), at Deacon Brodie´s Tavern, etc.

We could see the Castle from Princes Street, passed in front of the National Gallery and contemplated the Scott Monument.

At the end of the day, before having at last a rest, we went to Greyfriars´ Bobby´s tomb.

At the Royal Mile, Hume and St. Gile´s Cathedral

John Gray a gardener, together with his wife Jess and son John arrived in Edinburgh around 1850. Unable to find work as a gardener he avoided the workhouse by joining the Edinburgh Police Force as a night watchman.

To keep him company through the long winter nights John took on a partner, a diminutive Skye Terrier, his ‘watchdog’ called Bobby. Together John and Bobby became a familiar sight trudging through the old cobbled streets of Edinburgh. Through thick and thin, winter and summer, they were faithful friends.

The years on the streets appear to have taken their toll on John, as he was treated by the Police Surgeon for tuberculosis.

John eventually died of the disease on the 15th February 1858 and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard.

Royal Mile

The gardener and keeper of Greyfriars tried on many occasions to evict Bobby from the Kirkyard. In the end he gave up and provided a shelter for Bobby by placing sacking beneath two tablestones at the side of John Gray’s grave.

Bobby’s fame spread throughout Edinburgh. It is reported that almost on a daily basis the crowds would gather at the entrance of the Kirkyard waiting for the one o'clock gun that would signal the appearance of Bobby leaving the grave for his midday meal.

Bobby would follow William Dow, a local joiner and cabinet maker to the same Coffee House that he had frequented with his now dead master, where he was given a meal.

In 1867 a new bye-law was passed that required all dogs to be licensed in the city or they would be destroyed.

Edinburgh Castle from Prices Street

The kind folk of Edinburgh took good care of Bobby, but still he remained loyal to his master. For fourteen years the dead man's faithful dog kept constant watch and guard over the grave until his own death in 1872.

Baroness Angelia Georgina Burdett-Coutts, President of the Ladies Committee of the RSPCA, was so deeply moved by his story that she asked the City Council for permission to erect a granite fountain with a statue of Bobby placed on top.

William Brody sculptured the statue from life, and it was unveiled without ceremony in November 1873, opposite Greyfriars Kirkyard. And it is with that, that Scotland’s Capital city will always remember its most famous and faithful dog

Bobby's headstone reads "Greyfriars Bobby - died 14th January 1872 - aged 16 years - Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all"