Where to Stay in Edinburgh

The Old Town is the Edinburgh of the postcards. The Royal Mile runs downhill along its spine from Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, with narrow closes dropping away on both sides. St Giles’ Cathedral, the National Museum of Scotland, which is free, and the curve of Victoria Street are all here. If it’s your first visit and you have two nights, stay in the Old Town and walk everywhere. It is busy, though, and it can be noisy late at night.

Moment George IV Bridge is an aparthotel right on the bridge, two minutes from Victoria Street, and from its best apartments the castle fills the window. Each has a small kitchen and a round table for breakfast. Old Town Chambers has apartments tucked down a lane just off the Royal Mile, so you step out of the door straight into the oldest streets in the city.

The West End begins where Princes Street ends. It’s a quieter quarter of grand crescents and cobbled lanes, with small shops and pubs on William Street and Stafford Street. Haymarket station is at its far edge, the tram runs through it, and Murrayfield is one stop beyond, which makes it the place to stay for the rugby. A few minutes’ walk down the hill brings you to Dean Village, an old milling village on the Water of Leith that feels miles from the city.

West End Muse is our pick here: a first-floor flat for four in a converted 19th-century stable block, in a mews a short walk from Princes Street. Its owners hung it with their own paintings, and there’s a red velvet sofa against an old brick wall, a log burner and a hamper of local food waiting when you arrive.

Leith is Edinburgh’s port, and for most of its history it was a separate town. The Shore, the old quayside at the mouth of the Water of Leith, is lined with restaurants and bars, and this is where a lot of the city’s best cooking is done. The Royal Yacht Britannia is berthed close by, and the old fishing harbour of Newhaven is a walk along the front.

It used to feel a long way out. It doesn’t now, because the tram runs from the city centre down Leith Walk to the Shore, Ocean Terminal and Newhaven. Stay in Leith if eating and drinking well matters more to you than being next to the castle.

You don’t have to sleep in the city to see it. The Pentland Hills rise just to the south, and you can stay among heather and hill farms and still drive in for the day. It’s the best of both, especially in August, when the city is full.

At Eastside, the Cowan family’s hill farm, the old buildings have been turned into some of the most beautiful small places to stay in Scotland. The Cartshed and the Wash House are for two, and so is the Woodshed, a cabin with a wood-fired hot tub. The Steading and The Byre each take a family of four, and there’s a wood-fired sauna on the farm. Close by, on the Penicuik Estate, Clermount Cottage is the gamekeeper’s cottage of 1874, restored for two, with a cedar hot tub among old trees.