Duddingston

This guide to Duddingston in Edinburgh opens with a puzzle: why one of Scotland's most famous paintings shows a churchman skating across a loch that today almost never freezes. It traces the story of the Reverend Robert Walker, the Dutch canals where he learned to skate, and the world's earliest figure-skating club that once met right here on the ice. You'll also hear how curling took hold on the same loch, and why a small stone tower still stands to watch it.