TOUR DIARIES | Essence of Edinburgh its delightful eeriness as SA flavour takes over streets

Edinburgh. - At its quietest, darkest and gloomiest - and there are many of those moments at this time of year - Edinburgh can be an eerie place.

You don't need to be a scholar of architecture or design to appreciate the stunning buildings in and around the city centre that offer a unique slice of history around every corner.

From the stone-built castles and cathedrals that leave you staring for longer than you probably should, to the statues and monuments that tell stories from an age past, Edinburgh and all its oddities provide the traveller with a trip to the medieval. It is almost gothic.

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Indeed, it took a moment after landing to remember that - in fact - there was a rugby match to cover. It's a good thing, too, because without that purpose one could so easily spend days getting lost in the maze of tiny, inviting side alleys and winding roads that inevitably lead to another site worth seeing.

On Wednesday, as the Springboks stretched their legs on the glorious Merchiston University fields - their training base for the week - the sun baked down on Edinburgh.

It was a thing of beauty. The shadows were long, the air was warm - the temperature got up to 15 degrees Celsius - and the sunglasses were out for the first, and final, time this week.

Sunglasses, I can confirm, are not an item of priority for anyone travelling to Edinburgh in winter.

It wasn't long before the darkness descended once more and, this time, it was here to stay.

As the demands of the rugby week took over, and speculation started building over who Rassie Erasmus would pick for his first matchday 23 of the tour, I started getting a sense of how much the Scots love