We took a trip to see the innocent tunnel here in Edinburgh. Its part of an old dis-used railway line, but today is a pedestrian route and is filled with graffiti.
The first time we went to the tunnel it took us a few mins to find the entrance, its well hidden, and we hadnt expected to see all the graffiti.
Its actually the oldest rail tunnel in Scotland, having been built in the first half of the 19th century (so close to 200 years old). Its completely straight and goes under part of Holyrood Park, next to Arthurs Seat (a hill in the east of Edinburgh).
The graffiti was the main attraction, and went the whole way through. It was well organised, and split into sections, and it looked like the various artists were sticking to their allotted sections, such that it wasn't just a jumble of paint the whole way through.
I quite liked the Simpsons themed stretches.
These guys certainly have some talent !
It was quite nice walking through the tunnel, apart from the bicycles. There is a slope at the city centre end, and so people on bikes were speeding through fairly fast. The problem was that the acoustics in the tunnel was really exaggerating the sound from the bikes, so it sounded like they were right on top of you when they were still quite far away, which was a bit disorientating when they were behind us.
I quite liked the pic above - these chaps certainly look rather happy !
And how about the guy above - stoned yeti maybe ?
There was some alien action too.
I was also quite impressed with the design above - it looks like a nest of snakes with skeltal heads.
The above was also quite cool - by the same artist as the one above it I think.
We'd heard about the tunnel before, but its not quite obvious as to where it is. As such we quite enjoyed seeing it, and its pretty cool that its still in daily use after all these years. I'd certainly class it as something to see here in Edinburgh - not quite what you'd expect, but well worth the visit.
