Edinburgh’s airy, Georgian New Town is a great place to visit, but if you want your Scottish history dark, grim and thoroughly medieval, the city’s Old Town is where it’s at. Home to hulking Edinburgh castle, its cobbled streets and twisting wynds (alleys) feature museums, galleries, walled-off plague streets and pubs galore.
Edinburgh Castle (Photo: Mike McBey via Flickr / CC BY 2.0)
It’s also very hilly, dropping down from Castle Rock to Holyrood Park, with bridges and steep slopes opening up different views at every turn. During the Edinburgh Festival (August) and at Hogmanay (December 31) it’s packed with locals and visitors, which can be invigorating or annoying depending on your tastes – come in spring or autumn for quieter streets and (relatively) decent weather.
Edinburgh Castle
Mounted on rocky slopes, its battlements pointing to the heavens, Edinburgh Castle is the Old Town’s epic pinnacle. It’s been besieged 26 times in its 1100-year history and houses one of the heaviest cannons in the world. The Scottish crown jewels, the Royal Apartments (where Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to James the IV, who later became James I of England) and the National War Museum of Scotland are all included in the £17.50 entry fee.
Castle Esplanade
The Royal Mile (Photo: Mike McBey via Flickr / CC BY 2.0)
The Royal Mile
The Royal Mile stretches from Edinburgh Castle down to Holyrood Palace, and is the Old Town’s cobbled backbone. There’s plenty of history here, including 15th-century St Giles Cathedral, the 19th-century Camera Obscura and Gladstone’s Land, where you can tour a rich merchant’s apartments. But the towering tenements that line the street also brim with shops selling colourful tourist tat, from ‘See You, Jimmy’ wigs to Highland Cow postcards. If it gets a bit much, duck down one of the narrow wynds in search of pubs like the atmospheric Jolly Judge.
Castlehill, Lawnmarket, High St and Canongate make up the Royal Mile
Real Mary King’s Close
Edinburgh’s modern city is built, quite literally, upon its past. The 18th-century City Chambers (used by Edinburgh Council) were constructed over an alley called Mary King’s Close. You’ll be shown around the closed-off street’s subterranean houses by costumed actors, and regaled with tales of plague deaths and ghostly happenings. It’s an atmospheric place, whether you’re here for gruesome tales or a more serious look at the life of old Edinburgh.
2 Warriston’s Close
Looking from Arthur’s Seat to Castle Rock and central Edinburgh (Photo: Marco Verch Professional Photographer / CC BY 2.0)
Palace of Holyrood House
The Queen’s official residence in Scotland (she spends a week here every year) holds a top-class art gallery, an ancient abbey and tales of intrigue and betrayal – as well as a secret staircase. It’s in Holyrood Park, at the bottom of the Royal Mile, an unexpectedly wild place that features 250m-tall Arthur’s Seat and rugged Salisbury Crags, both of which have stunning views of the city.
Holyrood Park
The Grassmarket
Much of the Old Town is tightly packed, but things open up on the Grassmarket, a broad street in a hollow below the castle. Formerly a cattle market and place of execution, it’s now packed with pubs (including the suitably named Last Drop) and restaurants that roar with life on Friday and Saturday nights – or when the Six Nations rugby tournament is on. Further east is the Cowgate, an urban ravine overhung by bridges and lined with more nightspots.
The main hall of the National Museum of Scotland (Photo: David Phan via Flickr / CC BY 2.0)
National Museum of Scotland
To the south, between the Old Town and Edinburgh University, the Museum of Scotland is a hugely popular attraction with something for everyone. Geological displays and Viking chessmen rub shoulders with postmodern sculptures and the stuffed Dolly the Sheep – the first ever cloned mammal. Around the corner is the much-Instagrammed statue of Greyfriars Bobby, a Skye terrier who famously spent much of his life sitting on his former master’s grave.
Chambers St
By James Smart