Breaking news

For our next Edinburgh safari, we’re leaving the realms of everyday beasties and going all mythological. 

Not for us, though, your run-of-the-mill dragons and workaday phoenixes. We want hybrids joining two or more distinct creatures together in a kind of alternative capital coalition. 

If you can identify where the beasties below were found, let us know. If you can find further instances – send us the photos for your chance to win lasting fame. 

Warriston Post Office in Brandon Terrace has closed. 

But locals still mourning the loss of the London Street and Newhaven Road POs, the loss of the handily late posting box at Brunswick Road sorting office and the removal of the St James PO to the distant reaches of Princes Mall can breathe a sigh of relief. 

Warriston will only remain closed for a week during refurbishment, and will have longer opening hours when it reopens.

Scottish Government reporters have today granted a sist (a legal delay) to the appeals by Duddingston House Properties (DHP) and the Urbanist Group against refusal of planning permission/listed building consent for their hotel scheme at the old Royal High School. 

One doesn’t expect happy news from a cemetery, so none of what follows should come as a particular surprise. 

These researches are not intended to be intrusively morbid. They have been made in reaction to gravestone inscriptions in Rosebank Cemetery which were surely intended by relatives to trigger memory or spark interest among future generations.

In that sense, these short and melancholy stories constitute polite responses to long-standing invitations.

Look at the spray-painted image adjacent and reproduced at greater magnification below. 

It appears about halfway along the Rodney Street Tunnel, on the right as you approach King George V Park. 

What do you see? 

Some locals find a rather wild, unsentimentalised head and shoulder of a unicorn – nostril-snorting, teeth-baring and tongue-lolling – facing left to right. 

Last Thursday we repeated on Facebook and Twitter the question raised in September’s printed version of the Spurtle: Has Edinburgh reached saturation point? 

Overwhelmingly, readers said: Yes. 

Below, we’ve cut and pasted their replies to either us or to the Cockburn Association, which repeated our enquiry. If you’d like to add your tuppence-worth …

If you’re in any doubt about whether we are now enjoying the end of summer or the beginning of autumn, you have two ways to settle the question. 

Either you can go to the BBC website here and choose between three contrasting definitions: meteorological, astronomical and phenological.  

Or you can go for a wander up Broughton Street and look at the A-board outside the Basement Café. 

The north-facing side is now advertising a morbid three-day celebration of Halloween.

Local resident Pam Neilson (left) was joined by Deidre Brock MP in the run-up to this evening’s special illumination of St Andrew Square. 

Golden ‘Luminations of Love’ around the Melville Monument will draw attention to the ‘Glow Gold’ campaign to help families dealing with childhood cancer. 

Pam Neilson’s three-year-old son Kai died recently after a two-year struggle against infant acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, an aggressive form of blood cancer.

There's been a major twist in the battle for the old Royal High School’s future shape and use. 

Duddingston House Properties (DHP) has requested a delay to its appeal while it submits a new proposal (see pdf at foot of page). 

Recent inspections of the North Bridge have revealed that sections of its decorative panels are in poor condition and need attention. 

City of Edinburgh Council has drafted in specialist contractors for the job, and work began last night to wrap the structure’s southern span. Completion of the wrapping here is expected to take another 3 weeks. 

Netting is to be installed under the bridge to allow engineers to safely access other areas. Market Street is likely to be closed briefly during this period, and the taxi rank has been moved accordingly.