Recently primary 6 and 7 pupils from the Glenkens visited Edinburgh for a three day residential experience.

On the first day the pupils from Carsphairn, Dalry and Kells stopped off en route to Edinburgh to visit the Falkirk Wheel. After the boat trip and picnic lunch the next stop was the National Museum of Scotland. The pupils enjoyed visiting all the exhibitions in the recently refurbished museum. The first day was rounded off with a ‘Ghost Tour’ around the old part of the city. The pupils found it hilarious when Mr McKenna and Mr Gray were chosen to be whipped at the ‘mercat cross’ when our guide was telling stories of everyday life in Edinburgh hundreds of years ago. The tour ended with a visit to some of the underground vaults.

Day two began with a walk up Arthur’s Seat in glorious sunny weather. After some super views of the city of Edinburgh we walked to the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. The group was fortunate to be given a guided tour around the Parliament from Mr Fergusson our local MSP. It was fascinating to see the conference rooms, the many offices plus the debating chamber. Mr Fergusson also managed to obtain enough passes for our whole group to witness First Minister’s Question Time from the public viewing gallery. Quite a number of the pupils were surprised by the noise created by the MSP’s during the debate.   After lunch at the Parliament we walked across the road to visit the galleries in Dynamic Earth which explained how our planet was created, how it has changed over millions of years as well as giving the pupils the chance to find out about the Polar Regions and rainforests.  The pupils then enjoyed burger and chips and a couple of games of ten pin bowling at the Fountainbridge Complex.

On the last day of the residential we visited Edinburgh Castle. It was rather cloudy that day so we could not see much further than Princes Street. The pupils especially enjoyed seeing the Scottish crown, Stone of Destiny and the one o’clock gun. We then walked from the castle to the Camera Obscura on the Royal Mile. The pupils were shown how the camera obscura worked plus they had the opportunity to walk through the rooms and galleries to experience the many optical illusions. After lunch in Princes Street Gardens we all headed back home. The bus journey home gave quite a few people the opportunity to have a much needed forty winks!