Edinburgh

Edinburgh's New Town – Two Galleries and Calton Hill at Dusk

A day on foot, from Waverley station to Broughton Street.

The route

After the steep closes of the Old Town, the New Town is Edinburgh's grand, ordered half.

Its streets fall steeply away to the north, but this day keeps to its first ridge, walking from Waverley and finishing with dinner on Leith Walk or Broughton Street. It starts under Robert Adam's dome at Register House, climbs the Scott Monument and gives late morning and lunch to the Scottish National Gallery on the Mound. The gardens lead west to the Ross Fountain under the Castle rock and up to Charlotte Square, then George Street brings you back east to Dundas House's banking hall and the Portrait Gallery. The evening belongs to Calton Hill and the sunset. It's about 3.5 miles on foot from Waverley to Broughton Street, and mostly level, with a 15-minute walk back to the station after dinner. The steps are the Scott Monument's stair, a flight up into the Old Calton Burial Ground and about a hundred up Calton Hill, which also has a step-free road up from Regent Road. In August the Mound is full of Fringe performers and the sun sets at about 9pm. From the hill you can watch the Tattoo's fireworks over the Castle at the end of each night's show, at about 10.30pm, Monday to Saturday.

Before you go

Book a bed near the centre
Stay anywhere near Waverley and the whole day, dinner included, is a walk from your door.
Close byOld Town ChambersA place to stay Close byMoment George IV BridgeSleeps 2 Close byWest End MuseSleeps 4 A mile awayThe Scott HotelA hotel
Book lunch at the Scottish Cafe
The Scottish Cafe, at the National Gallery's garden entrance, serves lunch from noon and takes walk-ins; on a Friday a table for about 1pm is worth booking.
Book dinner at Spry Wines
Spry Wines, a natural wine bar and kitchen at 1 Haddington Place on Leith Walk, 10 minutes down from Calton Hill, advises booking: ask for about 7.30pm, as its kitchen closes at 8.30pm.

The day

New Town

A day on foot through Edinburgh's New Town, from Robert Adam's dome at Register House to sunset on Calton Hill. The Scott Monument and the National Gallery fill the morning, then the gardens lead west under the Castle rock and George Street brings you back east to the Portrait Gallery. Set off from Waverley at about 9.35am; the day ends with dinner on Leith Walk or Broughton Street.

General Register House
Come up the Waverley Steps and General Register House is straight across Princes Street, 5 minutes from the platforms, with the Duke of Wellington at its door. Robert Adam designed it to keep Scotland's records, and building began in 1774. Walk in, free on weekdays from 9am to 4pm, and stand under the Adam Dome, inspired by the Pantheon and the largest of his rooms to survive. Be here by about 9.40am: forty minutes under the dome brings you to the Scott Monument for its first tour at 10.30am.
5 min on foot
Scott Monument
It's a 5-minute walk west along Princes Street to the Scott Monument, George Meikle Kemp's Gothic spire for Sir Walter Scott, finished in 1844 and opened in 1846, with Scott and his dog Maida in white marble beneath it. It's climbed only on a guided tour, every half hour from 10.30am. Tickets are £9 at the kiosk on the day, card only. Take the 10.30am tour, before the stair gets busy. It's 287 steps to the top, the spiral narrowing as it climbs, and under-fives aren't allowed up.
4 min on foot
Scottish National Gallery
An attraction
Walk 4 minutes along the gardens to the Scottish National Gallery at the foot of the Mound, free and open until 5pm. Give it an hour and a half. The Scottish galleries, opened in 2023 on the garden side, look out over East Princes Street Gardens to the Scott Monument you've just climbed, and Raeburn's minister skating on Duddingston Loch is the one everyone looks for. Lunch is at the Scottish Cafe inside, by the garden door: it takes walk-ins, but book for about 1pm on a Friday.
More about Scottish National Gallery
9 min on foot
Ross Fountain
An attraction
It's a 9-minute walk west through West Princes Street Gardens, past the Floral Clock at the foot of the Mound, first planted in 1903 and given a new design each summer. Look out for the bronze of Wojtek, the bear who went to war with the Polish army and, the story goes, carried shells at Monte Cassino. The Ross Fountain stands under the Castle rock, cast in France and put up here in 1872, its mermaids and cherubs bright again since their restoration in 2018. Twenty minutes is plenty.
More about Ross Fountain
6 min on foot
Charlotte Square
It's a 6-minute walk out of the gardens' west gate and up to Charlotte Square, where James Craig's plan for the New Town ends in the west. Robert Adam drew its north side in 1791 as one long palace front, and it's the square to stand back and look at. Number 6, Bute House, is the First Minister's official home. Next door at number 7, the National Trust for Scotland's Georgian House is closed for conservation work, so see it from outside. The garden in the middle is private.
16 min on foot
Dundas House
An attraction
It's a 16-minute walk east along George Street, the spine of the New Town, past the Assembly Rooms and a statue at every crossing, to St Andrew Square. Dundas House stands back on its east side, built by Sir William Chambers in 1774 and the Royal Bank of Scotland's since 1825. It's still a working branch, so step in quietly in branch hours on a weekday and look up: the 1857 banking hall's blue dome is pierced with gold stars. Please don't photograph the customers.
More about Dundas House
About 3 min on foot
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
An attraction
Round the corner, 3 minutes away on Queen Street, is the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, the red sandstone palace Robert Rowand Anderson designed for it, opened in 1889. It's free, open until 5pm, with last admission at 4.45pm. Go first to the Great Hall, where William Hole's frieze of 155 famous Scots runs round the walls, led by Thomas Carlyle and going back in time to the Stone Age: find Burns among them. Give it an hour, leave by about 4.30pm, and use the toilets before you go.
More about Scottish National Portrait Gallery
10 min on foot
Old Calton Burial Ground
It's a 10-minute walk back past Register House and along Waterloo Place to the Old Calton Burial Ground, up a flight of steps from the street. David Hume lies in the round tomb Robert Adam built for him. Abraham Lincoln stands on the Scottish-American Soldiers' Monument of 1893, for Scots who fought in the American Civil War, and the obelisk remembers the Political Martyrs, reformers transported in the 1790s. No gate times are published and it may lock at 5pm: go in if it's open. Twenty minutes is enough.
More about Old Calton Burial Ground
10 min on foot
Calton Hill
An attraction
The steps up Calton Hill are 4 minutes on, about a hundred and steep. On top stand the unfinished columns of the National Monument, the City Observatory and the Nelson Monument, which shuts at 3.30pm (check on the day). Walk round the top, then have a drink at Cafe Calton, beside the Observatory, open daily until 10pm. Watch the sun go down at 6.51pm from the Dugald Stewart Monument, then walk down for dinner: Spry Wines on Leith Walk is 10 minutes away, Pickles on Broughton Street 13.
More about Calton Hill

If it rains

Most of this day is already under a roof: Register House, both galleries and the banking hall. In rain or low cloud, skip the Scott Monument's climb, as its galleries are open to the weather and the view goes, and walk through the gardens quickly rather than stopping. Give the time to the National Gallery instead, and to the Royal Scottish Academy next door, joined to it underneath, when a show is on. On a wet evening Calton Hill has no sunset to see and its steps turn slippery: finish at the Portrait Gallery, go for a drink under the tiles of the Café Royal's Victorian bar, a 5-minute walk away on West Register Street, and have an early dinner at Pickles on Broughton Street, which opens at 4pm on a Friday.

Worth a detour

The Scottish Gallery
From George Street at the George IV statue, a 5-minute walk down Dundas Street, Hanover Street's continuation, the Scottish Gallery has shown Scottish painting, ceramics and jewellery since 1842, free to walk round. It opens at 10.30am from Tuesday to Friday, until 6pm, and from 11am to 2pm on Saturday, and its two floors are up and down stairs.
New Calton Watchtower
From the top of Calton Hill, a 10-minute walk down to Regent Road, the New Calton Burial Ground, opened in 1820, climbs the slope in terraces, with a round watchtower by the gate built for the men who guarded the new graves from body snatchers. Go before the light fails: the paths are steep.
The Stones of Scotland
A 14-minute walk from the top of the hill along Regent Road, a circle of stones, one from every council area in Scotland, looks out over the Scottish Parliament and Arthur's Seat. Worth the walk on a morning visit to the hill rather than at dusk.