Time-keeping is at the centre of Calton Hill and the City Observatory’s history. Our Tick Tock Trail, part of Collective PLAY, is an active way for families to explore these histories as you navigate the hill.
The engaging map, illustrated by Charlotte Henderson, imagines Calton Hill as a giant clockface with a series of stops to introduce different time-keeping methods found on the hill. Before watches and mobile phones, people looked to public clocks to tell the time, two of which can be discovered on the map alongside the historic Nelson Monument; a vital way of keeping these clocks accurate. The Tick Tock Trail also highlights nature and geology as a resource for seasonal time-keeping and a way of telling the age of our surroundings.
Based on Make Time, a workshop delivered by artist Katie Orton for Collective in 2014, each of the six stops found on the trail offers a new time-keeping activity prompt, as well as an invitation to ‘collect’ actions from each stop to perform your time-keeping story at the end of the trail.
Download the Tick Tock Trail here.
Share your Tick Tock Trail discoveries on social media using the hashtag #collectiveplay