South Queensferry
Ben’s Place of the Week

South Queensferry
Coordinates: 55° 59 N | 3° 23 W
Population: 9, 370 (2001 est.)

Mad dogs and Englishmen may be unable to resist the midday sun, but it’s the Scottish who will venture into the heat covered head to toe in 10,000 prickly seed pods from the burdock plant. For centuries now, August in Scotland has marked the reappearance of a strange creature known as the Burryman, a somewhat masochistic, yet tradition-bound resident of South Queensferry, who spends a day wandering the streets (assisted by two attendants) petitioning neighbors for whisky and money. In the words of John Nicol, this year’s lucky honoree: “It is agony to wear the suit as it is as uncomfortable as it looks.” Once a flourishing port just northwest of Edinburgh, the small town of South Queensferry is also the site of the Forth Rail Bridge, an 8,296-foot engineering marvel spanning the Firth of Forth that was the largest such structure on the planet upon its completion in March of 1890.

Ben Keene is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.