Once upon a time the best way to travel from one centre of power to another was by boat.  Of course this was before there was such a thing as Scotland or England but rather smaller kingdoms, in this case the Kingdom of Northumbria.  (For all you Game of Thrones fans this is The North.   The wall that George R Martin must have been thinking about was the Antonine Wall rather than Hadrian’s.   If this is the case then that makes Edinburgh must have been Mole Town – not sure the good burghers of Edinburgh would be happy about that!)  Funny how times change but the sea still sits there and now is part of the Brexit conundrum.