This cache is the first in a series relating to Scottish
authors.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859 to Irish immigrant
parents, near to this cache site. Between 1876 and 1882 he studied
medicine at Edinburgh Univeristy, gaining a doctorate in 1885.
However his medical practice proved fairly unsucessful and while
waiting for patients he began to write.
After Doyle moved to Southsea he began writing more intensively.
In 1887 Sherlock Holmes first appeared in "A Study in Scarlet" in
"Beeton's Christmas Annual". The character was largely based on a
former University professor, Joesph Bell. While living in Southsea
Doyle also helped to form Portsmouth Football Club and was the
club's first goalkeeper!
In 1893 Doyle decided it was time to kill off Holmes, in order
to dedicate more time to "important" works. In "The Final Problem"
Holmes appears to plunge to his death alongside arch-nemesis
Professor Moriarty. Due to a huge outcry by the public he then
decided to bring Holmes back in "The Adventure of the Empty House"
with the explanation that Holmes had arranged to be temporarily
"dead".
Sir Arthur twice ran for Parliament as a Liberal Unionist, once
in Edinburgh and once in the Border Burghs, but although he
received a respectable vote he was not elected. He died with heart
problems in 1930 and is buried in Hampshire. A full biography of
his life can be found on the official
website of his estate.
This cache is a nano so please bring your own pen and be very
careful retrieving and replacing the cache as it is in a busy
public area. It is positioned near the birth place of Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle. There is no plaque inidicating the original address,
but a statue of Sherlock Holmes has been placed nearby. Sherlock is
looking at something, which you cannot see unless you look from
above (from a bus perhaps). There is also a pub named after him
near the cache site.