After a nice nine-night stay in Stornoway, I had a shorter visit to Edinburgh. I arrived around 4pm on Saturday afternoon and left after lunch on Monday. I spent Sunday at church etc with Esther Semmens and family so that meant I had two half days for sketching.

Esther met me at my Airbnb apartment and we headed to the Grassmarket. We found the best table in the place (sadly the food was terrible) and I did two sketches. The first was a direct watercolour sketch and initially I thought I would have to add lines. However I had plenty of time so I was able to take it slowly and stick with paint.

This is the second one – alternating between line and colour. Ah! it was so nice to be with Esther again and to have a nice relaxed time to sketch.

The weather in Edinburgh was beautiful and I was staying in an amazing location – an apartment on The Mound.

I had a great view…

… but sadly this was all that I got time to do on Saturday evening.

On Monday I got up early and sketched the Royal Bank of Scotland from a cafe just below my apartment.

And then a quick sketch of The Mound from Princes St Gardens.

I then joined Esther and a group from Urban Sketchers Edinburgh. Pam (originally from Australia) is doing a great job forming a local group here. It was lovely to meet Susan, Hilary Sandy and Andrew, and I had a fantastic morning sketching the Scott Monument (x2). Sadly we all forgot to take a photo of the group.

My final sketch was this slightly out of control sketch of the Jenners department store.

All in all, a great (brief) visit to Edinburgh.