From The Best of Edinburgh, a Hidden Scotland guide

An Introduction to Edinburgh

Taverns, tenements, cobbled streets and ancient hills: an introduction to the capital.

Printed in The Best of Edinburgh, a Hidden Scotland guidebook.

History hangs on Edinburgh like a cloak. Even on a gloomy day, Scotland’s national capital can feel like something from a gilt-edged storybook. It’s a city of taverns and tenements, of steep cobbled streets and ancient hills, of grand townhouses and age-old churches. The whole destination is at once real and unreal: tour guides patrol the pavements just as ghosts flitter in the shadows. That the whole urban scene is topped by a mighty, cliff-perched castle – complete with endless tales of its own – seems only fitting.

Best-selling local author Alexander McCall Smith called it “a city of shifting light, of changing skies, of sudden vistas – a city so beautiful it breaks the heart again and again”. But Edinburgh is no mere museum piece. To the half a million or so people who call it home, this is a place of energy and hard graft, a living, sleepless metropolis with a thousand-sided personality and serious culinary and creative pedigree.

The sloping Royal Mile – with the castle at its top and the Palace of Holyroodhouse at its bottom – is the most obvious focal point, but be sure to spread your gaze elsewhere. The city as a whole is almost brimming over with quality galleries, restaurants, pubs, museums and other diversions. For many visitors, of course, the city is also synonymous with its extraordinary summer festivals – most notably the all-conquering Fringe – when the streets and theatres fizz with crowds and performers.