My wife and I went for a nice walk today around the grounds of Heriot Watt University, which is just on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
I actually did my degree here back in the early 90s. I loved my time at Uni, and have always felt a connection with the place, and as such quite enjoy returning to have a walk around and see how things are.
The university has a nice campus setup, where everything is together. Its on quite a large site - maybe a couple of KMs across. When I was there in the 90s, it was only the main campus and teaching area that was developed, along with some sports facilities and halls of residences, but it really has changed a lot over the years.
In particular the research park has really grown - there was very little there in the 90s, and now there are quite a lot of impressive new buildings - with lots of space for many more.
The one above is the Whisky research building - I'd like to spend some time in there !!!
I've no idea what the one above is, but it looks like a lovely building and shows you the type of investment that is being made.
I spent most of my time in the building above - its where they taught Physics !
And the lovely new building above, called the GRID, has been built on the spot where I stayed in halls of residence in 4th year. They pulled that building down and put this one up instead ! I've actually been in for a tour, and its quite impressive. They focus on robotics, artificial intelligence, immersive experience, etc. It really is a cutting edge tech facility !
The site is so busy that they even have a hotel on site now (above) ! I have to say that its great to see the site flourishing !
Its also quite a well landscaped site, which was one of the things I always liked about it. There are trees planted all over, with lovely walks all around the site - thats also why we go back for a nice walk on occasion - its such a pretty campus.
The view above looks back from the empty part of the research park towards the main campus. Its hard to tell, but they are putting up yet another building there (the one closest to us).
Well it was really nice to go back for a wander around. I often think back to my days there, which I really enjoyed ! And we had a nice walk and some exercise as well - bonus !
I hope you are having a great saturday wherever you are ! All the best from Scotland.
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