The Canongate – Edinburgh's Own Story and Oysters for Lunch
A few hours.
The route
On the Canongate, the stretch of the Royal Mile running down towards Holyrood, museums face each other across the street, both about Edinburgh and the people who lived in it.
Lunch is oysters and seafood at the White Horse, a little further up the street.
The day
The Canongate
An unhurried morning indoors among the belongings and remembered voices of old Edinburgh, ending at a table up the street.
About three and a half hours
The People’s Story
An attraction
The People's Story is in the Canongate Tolbooth, built in 1591: look for the clock hanging out over the pavement. It's free, and in its winter hours it opens Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm, with last entry at 4.30pm. It tells of working life in the city from the 1700s to recent years, built on people's own words from recorded memories and written accounts. Its rooms are dressed as scenes from those lives: a bookbinder's workshop, a kitchen in wartime and a tea room.
More about The People’s StoryMuseum of Edinburgh
Directly across the street, the Museum of Edinburgh fills a 16th-century house once known as Huntly House. It's free too, and is currently open the same days and hours. Inside, the old rooms wind about like a maze, and among the city's keepsakes are the National Covenant of 1638, original plans for the New Town, and Greyfriars Bobby's collar and bowl. At the back, its courtyard opens off Bakehouse Close. It holds carved stonework from lost buildings such as the Netherbow Port, a free-standing sundial, and a garden of herbs and flowers that volunteers look after.
About 4 min on foot
The White Horse
Lunch
For lunch, walk up the Canongate to the White Horse Oyster & Seafood Bar at number 266, open every day from noon. Oysters are its speciality, alongside small plates of fish and shellfish from suppliers round Britain, and the bar pours wine, champagne and cocktails. Tables can be booked on its website, which takes card details and charges £20 a head for a booking not cancelled at least 24 hours ahead.
More about The White Horse
If it rains
All of it is indoors apart from the museum's courtyard and the street between.
EdinburghThe White HorseA restaurant
EdinburghWedgwoodSeasonal cooking, Royal Mile
EdinburghThe World’s EndPub at the old city wall
EdinburghThe Tolbooth TavernPub in the old tolbooth
EdinburghLoudons New WaverleyA café
EdinburghClarinda's TearoomA café
EdinburghEdinburgh LarderHearty local breakfasts
EdinburghAngels with BagpipesRoyal Mile family restaurant
EdinburghCafe CaltonA café
EdinburghSignet LibraryAfternoon tea in a library
EdinburghKungfu BakeryA caféMake it a weekend
More days out in Edinburgh.
Photographs by TRAVEL plus NOSTALGIA TRIPS and Jamie LaFevers via Google