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When Waterloo Place was constructed in 1819, it bisected Calton Burying Ground leaving a rump cemetery on the uphill northern side of the road. 

Less well-known than the currently closed section overlooking Waverley which contains the grave of David Hume, it’s accessible via a short set of steps leading up from Calton Hill beside the Parliament House Hotel. 

Despite its relative obscurity and meagre size, there is much of interest here, including this simple stone right at the centre:

An alternative guidebook to Edinburgh that aims to be as surprising and insightful for locals as it is for visitors will be launched on 1 June. 

Researched and written by local Hannah Robinson, it’s the latest in the ‘Secret and Unusual Guide’ series by Jonglez Publishing, which already covers cities including Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Geneva, Lisbon, New York, Prague and Venice.

Last week we launched the first of our Edinburgh safaris by inviting readers to search for four or more owls (see foot of page). 

Since then we've been inundated by one entry, which correctly identified the location of our photograph as the small courtyard next to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Unfortunately, Lizzie Rynne supplied no photos of her alleged sightings of other owls on Cockburn Street. Chessels Court and Muir Wood, Currie. Congratulations all the same.

THE VIEWS FROM THE TOP 

Given that one can see New St Andrew’s House from just about everywhere in Edinburgh, it should come as no surprise that one can also see just about everwhere in Edinburgh from the top of New St Andrew’s House. 

DEEP DOWN AND DIRTY IN NEW St ANDREW’S HOUSE 

Today we examine the tripes of the beastie: pipes, ducts, plant and cabling. 

Spurtle claims no special knowledge of these matters. Depending upon your point of view, what follows will be a mutual voyage of discovery or a hapless lurch in the dark. 

(1) We begin our display of ignorance with a machine designed possibly for heating something up or for cooling it down. (Feel free to chip in with better suggestions at any point.)

SIGNS OF THE TIMES IN NEW St ANDREW’S HOUSE 

Today we continue our exploration of New St Andrew’s House with a look at words – not civil service documents and memos but words printed, etched, and scrawled on the fabric of the building. 

There were remarkably few left on the floors we investigated. Perhaps the most redolent of times past are the corridor directions, styled in resolute lower-case Helvetica. 

EXPLORING NEW St ANDREW’S HOUSE 

Demolition of the doomed St James Centre comes closer day by day.

Boots moved out yesterday, leaving another empty socket in a retail smile now almost devoid of teeth. 

If Edinburgh Council gets its way, colourful scenes like this could soon be gone forever.

The City Centre and Leith Neighbourhood Office seeks volunteers for a community clean-up on Friday, marking the end of a week-long anti-graffiti drive by officials.

Those taking part (10am–12.30pm) will meet under the Calton Road rail bridge. They’ll receive protective equipment, anti-graffiti solutions (no shotguns), and guidance.

They’ll also get a free lunch, courtesy of ‘local eateries’.

Such is the safety of modern international air travel that we tend to respond with shock – not just horror – when something goes terribly wrong. 

In the 19th century, these catastrophes were all too common for those who travelled by sea, but descriptions of their loved ones’ unresolved hope, distress and eventual resignation are painfully familiar. 

A catalogue of such loss and grief stretches across every cemetery in Edinburgh, not least Rosebank. Here we find a monument erected to the memory of Allan McLean, a Leith mariner who died, aged 25, in 1867.

MARTIN McKENZIE: LA MER DU SUD 

Welcome back to The Sutton Gallery, which this month returns with its first exhibition of the year – and what a wonderful show it is. 

Martyn McKenzie was first mentioned in my review of the gallery’s Winter Show in December, and this exhibition was already being mooted back then.