23 We are back at the car park now. This picture was taken at 2.56 pm with the sunlight running almost horizontally up Moffat Dale and a nightmare to drive back straight into very low in the sky on the way home to Dumfries - sunset being at 3.39 pm.
Referring to "timeanddate.com" again we see that the sunset was at 227° on 10th December in Edinburgh. Now west is at 270° and south west at 225° . So much for the sun setting in the west - it was only 2° off south west at the latitude of Edinburgh on 10th December. (Latitude: 55° 57' North, Longitude: 3° 13' West).
At these latitudes the sun sets due west only two days in the whole year of course (18th March and 24th September) - the equinoxes. On mid summer's day the sun rose at 43° (NE is 45°) and set at 317° (NW is 270°) and the day was 17h 36m 33s long. At the winter solstice the length of day between sunrise and sunset lasts just 6h 57m 29s. Fascinating figures.
If you do find this interesting have a look at what timeanddate.com has to say about 3 different stages of Twilight (Astronomical, Nautical and Civil) and if that bambouzles you have a look at this in Wikipedia
In the final picture I have zoomed in so that you can see the two figures coming down the path.