Rather interesting Edinburgh facts
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Did you know that the Royal Botanical Garden in Edinburgh has the largest collection of Rhododendrons in Britain? The Edinburgh site dates back to 1670: it and the three gardens it owns around Scotland contain half of the plant’s known species.
Did you know that in 1958 the UK’s first traffic cones were manufactured at Castle Mills Edinburgh by The North British Rubber Company, replacing paraffin lamps? Student pub crawls would never be the same again.
Did you know that Edinburgh has the only working time-ball mechanism in Britain other than the original at Greenwich Observatory? It is on the Nelson Monument on Calton Hill, and was installed in 1853 by James Ritchie and Son. That firm still retains the contract to maintain the device which drops a ≤ tonne wood and zinc ball down a pole daily to signal 1pm, originally to allow ships in Leith to set their chronometers.
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Famous Edinburgh people:
A A Gill
Agnes Maclehose
Alan Ogilvie
Alan Swinton
Alastair Sim
Alexander Campbell Mackenzie
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Laing
Alexander Nasmyth
Alexander Runciman
Alexander Todd
Alison Kinnaird
Allan Ramsay
Andy Irvine
Archibald Geikie
Archibald Pitcairne
Archibald Tait
Arthur Conan Doyle
Cecile Walton
Charles Bell
Charles Wilson
Chris Hoy
Chrystal MacMillan
Dame Muriel Spark
David Hume
David Roberts
David Scott
Douglas Haig
Dugald Stewart
Elizabeth Haldane
Eric Liddell
Ethel Walker
Fred Urquhart
Gail Porter
Gavin Hastings
George Aberdeen
George Beilby
Gilbert Burnet
Graeme Souness
Hannah Gordon
Harry Lauder
Henry MacKenzie
Henry Raeburn
Iain Duncan Smith
Ian Charleson
Ian Richardson
Isaac Bayley
J I M Stewart
James Boswell
James Hamilton
James Hutton
James I
James II
James Keir
James Lind
James Maxwell
James Pryde
James VI
Jean Redpath
Jemima Blackburn
John Balfour
John Greig
John Haldane
John Law
John Leslie
John Menzies
John Napier
John Runciman
John Smith
John Thomson
Joseph Hislop
Katharine Atholl
Kenneth Alexander
Kenneth Grahame
Kirsty Gallacher
Malcolm Rifkind
Marie Stopes
Michael Ballantyne
Naomi Mitchison
Nicky Campbell
Nigel Gresley
Norman MacCaig
Patrick Nasmyth
Philip Christison
Richard Haldane
Richard Shaw
Robert Anderson
Robert Boothby
Robert Garioch
Robert Knox
Robert Lauder
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Mylne
Robert Reid
Robert Sibbald
Ronnie Corbett
Rory Bremner
Samuel Peploe
Scott Brash
Sean Connery
Sir Ludovic Kennedy
Sir Robert Lorimer
Sir William Allan
Sophie Hosking
Stephen Hendry
Stephen Neill
Theodore Martin
Thomas Hope
Tom Kitchin
Tony Blair
Walter Geikie
Walter Scott
William Aytoun
William Brodie
William Calder Marshall
William Nicol
William Orchardson
William Rankine
William Scott
William Smellie
Willie Whitelaw
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