Portobello – The Bottle Kilns, the Promenade and the Pillars
About 1.4 miles on foot.
Portobello is Edinburgh's seaside, a Victorian promenade along a wide sandy beach three miles east of the city centre.
This walk begins at the brick bottle kilns left from the town's potteries and goes along the front to three carved pillars in a garden by the sand. It's flat and paved, about a mile and a half there and back, with the rocks at Joppa further on for anyone who wants more. Allow an hour and a half.
- Time
- Allow an hour and a half: about a mile and a half there and back, flat.
- The path
- The promenade is flat and paved. Joppa Rocks, further on, are a rough scramble.
- When to go
- All year in daylight. Joppa Rocks can be reached only when the tide is well out. In December the sun sets at about 3.40pm.
- Children
- A sandy beach beside the whole walk; no lifeguard.
- Toilets
- At Pipe Lane, 10am to 7.30pm, and at the foot of Bath Street, 10am to 8pm.
The walk
Start on Portobello High Street. Lothian's 26 bus runs there from Princes Street, and there's no car park by the beach. The bottle kilns stand a few minutes from the High Street towards the sea, tall brick kilns left from the potteries and brickworks that were here before the resort. From them the promenade, laid out in the 1870s, runs east beside a wide sandy beach, flat and paved all the way.
About three quarters of a mile along, where John Street meets the promenade, three carved pillars of Coade stone stand in a community garden on the site of the old paddling pool. They were restored and set up there in 2008. Come back the same way for a walk of about a mile and a half. For a longer one, keep on to Joppa: Portobello's community walks leaflet puts it at a mile each way from the Town Hall on the High Street to Joppa Rocks.
The rocks can be reached only when the tide is well out and are a rough scramble, so wear sturdy waterproof shoes for them. There are public toilets at Pipe Lane, open from 10am to 7.30pm, and at the foot of Bath Street, from 10am to 8pm. The front is open to the wind off the Forth.
If it rains
The promenade is paved and flat, so rain does no harm underfoot, but there's no shelter from wind off the sea. Leave Joppa Rocks alone when they're wet.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
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For further reading, before you go.