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Edinburgh skyline with the Balmoral clock tower and castle on the ridge
A collection · Things to do

Quiet Corners of Edinburgh

A few minutes' walk from the crowds, Edinburgh has gardens, closes and stretches of river it keeps to itself. These are the quiet corners worth finding when the Royal Mile gets too much.

Curated and written by Hidden Scotland

Updated 22 September 2026. Across Edinburgh.

A few minutes' walk from the crowds, Edinburgh has a whole other city it keeps to itself. A physic garden beside a loch, a seventeenth-century garden hidden off the Canongate, a village of old mills in a river gorge, and a river path that runs for miles through the middle of it all without a car in sight.

We've gathered our favourite quiet corners of the city. Every one of them is somewhere to catch your breath.

Where these are

More of Edinburgh

Castle, closes and a festival every August

Our guide to EdinburghThings to do on EdinburghOn the map

Days out on Edinburgh

Ready-made days, stop by stop, with somewhere to eat
More infoA morningCoffee at Steampunk and the Coastal Communities MuseumNo car neededMore infoA walkA walk round Blackness Castle by the foreshoreBy carMore infoA walkA walk down the Royal Mile by its closesNo car neededMore infoA walkA walk through Princes Street Gardens, east to westNo car needed

Stay on Edinburgh

Places to stay we know, near these
A man walks past Bucken Booths entrance flanked by black lamp postsMore infoEdinburghOld Town ChambersPlace to stayA round table and chairs stand before tall curtained windows looking onto stone buildings, a sofa and mounted television to the right.More infoEdinburghMoment George IV BridgeSleeps 2A black kitchen counter with flowers on the worktop stands before a curved timber slatted screen opening onto a bedroom.More infoEdinburghCartshedSleeps 2More infoEdinburghWoodshedSleeps 2
The Best of Edinburgh

The Best of Edinburgh

Everything on this page, on paper. The closes, the corners and the tables worth booking, in a book that fits a coat pocket and needs no signal.

Buy the guide, £15.00Read it here

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Hidden Scotland, issue 13

Hidden Scotland, in print.

Every photograph commissioned, every word written by somebody who went. A magazine about Scotland, made in Scotland, twice a year.

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