Edinburgh guide — Hidden Scotland

The four parts of Edinburgh

A map of Edinburgh in relief, with its towns and villages and its six parts

History hangs on Edinburgh like a cloak. Even on a gloomy day, Scotland’s national capital can feel like something from a gilt-edged storybook. It’s a city of taverns and tenements, of steep cobbled streets and ancient hills, of grand townhouses and age-old churches. The whole destination is at once real and unreal: tour guides patrol the pavements just as ghosts flitter in the shadows. That the whole urban scene is topped by a mighty, cliff-perched castle – complete with endless tales of its own – seems only fitting.

The Royal Mile, the Grassmarket, the Canongate and Holyrood

The Old Town

For what is essentially a jumble of buildings on an extinct volcano, the Old Town packs in an astonishing amount. Its lanes, cobbles and tenements hold history and eccentricity at every turn, and the Royal Mile runs down the middle, with the castle at the top and the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the bottom.

A curving street lined with colourful shopfronts and tall tenement buildings, a bicycle chained to railings above.

A cobbled courtyard leads to a cluster of harled Scots-Baronial houses with turrets, crow-stepped gables and outdoor stone stairs.

Stone steps descend a narrow street lined with old buildings, a castle crowning the rocky hill above.

Princes Street, George Street, St Andrew Square and Calton Hill

The New Town

The New Town was built between the 1760s and the 1850s to give wealthier residents somewhere grander than the cramped Old Town. It was laid out on a big scale, and its tall townhouses, open squares and wide streets are all still here, with Calton Hill and its monuments at the east end.

A clock tower and cathedral spires rise above a busy shopping street, a hilltop castle visible in the distance beyond the rooftops.

A pedimented sandstone building with a flagpole stands behind an equestrian statue on a plinth, flower beds and lawn in front.

A castle crowns a rocky hill seen beyond a park with bare winter trees and a stone balustrade, low sun casting long shadows.

Stockbridge, Circus Lane, Inverleith and the Botanics

Stockbridge

Just north of the New Town, Stockbridge is a pretty quarter of terraced townhouses with the Water of Leith running right through it. The Royal Botanic Garden is its biggest draw, and there are plenty of good places to eat and drink, with a market on a Sunday.

A row of colourful gabled buildings lines the Water of Leith, their reflections mirrored in the still water beneath overhanging trees.

A cobbled mews lane lined with terraced stone houses and climbing plants, a church tower rising at the far end against a grey sky.

A grove of giant redwood trees with deeply furrowed reddish bark stands around a small interpretive sign on a bark-chip path.

Haymarket, Dean Village and the Georgian West End

The West End

Lying directly west of the New Town, the West End is full of arty venues, independent shops and Georgian terraces. It is one of the smartest parts of the city, with lovely places to shop and stay, and Dean Village tucked into its gorge below.

A large red brick Victorian warehouse with tall chimneys stands on a street corner, arched loading bays set into its ground floor.

Colourful tenement and cottage buildings with turrets and chimneys line a slow river reflecting the sky, railings and greenery along the bank.

An ornate sandstone clock tower with a domed cupola and a flag flying from its top rises above a hotel building.

The Meadows, Bruntsfield, Morningside and Duddingston

The Southside

The greener, more relaxed side of the city spreads out south of the Old Town. It has strong university links and no shortage of places to eat and unwind, and the Meadows, one of the best open spaces in Edinburgh, bloom with cherry blossom in April.

Duddingston Loch's shoreline curves beneath a wooded hillside, the water calm and still.

A rocky, gorse-covered hill rises above a city of rooftops and chimneys, a large white tented pavilion building standing at its foot.

An ornate red sandstone theatre building rises on a street corner, a red awning and poster boards marking its entrance.

The Shore, Newhaven and the Water of Leith

Leith

Leith was once a great trading port and then a run-down dockland, and is now a neighbourhood people cross the city for. Head for the Shore, with its cobbled quays and old maritime buildings, and give yourself plenty of time to eat and drink.

Tenement buildings and a bay-windowed corner shop line a waterside street, their reflections mirrored in the still canal below.

A black and red hulled ship named Fingal is moored at a dock, an ornate Victorian building and street lamp standing on the quay behind.

Signal flags flutter from the rigging above a ship's deck, a white funnel housing and coiled ropes standing beside polished brass fittings.

Gothic spires and pinnacled towers rise above a rooftop of skylights, the city and firth spreading beyond.

In their words

“Edinburgh belongs to the world.”

Richard Demarco
Artist and champion of the arts, born in Edinburgh

Read it in An Introduction to Edinburgh

Best known for.

More about Edinburgh

Best-selling local author Alexander McCall Smith called it “a city of shifting light, of changing skies, of sudden vistas – a city so beautiful it breaks the heart again and again”. But Edinburgh is no mere museum piece. To the half a million or so people who call it home, this is a place of energy and hard graft, a living, sleepless metropolis with a thousand-sided personality and serious culinary and creative pedigree.

The sloping Royal Mile – with the castle at its top and the Palace of Holyroodhouse at its bottom – is the main focal point from a visitor point of view, but the city as a whole is almost brimming over with quality galleries, restaurants, pubs, museums and other diversions. For many visitors, of course, the city is also synonymous with its extraordinary summer festivals – most notably the all-conquering Fringe – when the streets and theatres fizz with crowds and performers.

This pairing of the historic and the dynamic – medieval bulwarks on one hand, cutting-edge arts on the other – is one of the main reasons why the population can at times treble with the influx of visitors. Other cities might have big-name sights, hard-held traditions and world-famous events, but nowhere packages them up in quite the same way as Edinburgh. The pull is perhaps best summed up by a quote from city-born artist Richard DeMarco, a tireless champion of the visual and performing arts. “The Scots think of it as their capital,” he has said. “They’re too possessive. Edinburgh belongs to the world.”

What would you like to look at?

Edinburgh's Old Town skyline with the castle and a domed bank building rising above rooftops and spires.

See and doThe castle, the palace, galleries and closes

A narrow gap between buildings frames a view of Old Town spires and rooftops at dusk.

Eat, drink and shopOld pubs, Leith's restaurants and good coffee

A rooftop terrace with a bistro table and chairs among potted plants, overlooking the city.

Where to stayRooms on the Royal Mile and beyond

Dog Cemetery plaque on railings overlooking Edinburgh's rooftops from the castle wall

History and storiesCastle Rock, the Old Town and the New

Timber-fronted houses line the Water of Leith at Dean Village, with the Old Town skyline rising behind.

ItinerariesDays we have walked, stop by stop

The Balmoral clock tower rising above Princes Street's buildings, Edinburgh Castle visible on the skyline.

Getting hereTrains, the airport, trams and buses

The National Monument's unfinished columns stand on Calton Hill beside a lone tree.

What is on in EdinburghSomething new from the city every day

What is on in Edinburgh

Friday the 16th of October.

Sunrise 07:46, sunset 18:10.

Things you might not know.

A green artillery gun stands on a snow-dusted castle battlement beside a round watch turret, a city and firth spreading out in the haze below.

The One O'Clock Gun is fired from Edinburgh Castle every day except Sunday, Good Friday and Christmas Day. It began as a time signal for the ships in Leith to set their clocks.

From A Guide to Edinburgh’s Historic Sites and Museums

When Robert the Bruce destroyed Edinburgh Castle, he left St Margaret's Chapel standing out of respect for her. It is now the oldest intact building in the city.

From A Guide to Edinburgh’s Historic Sites and Museums

An ornate bronze and stone fountain sprays water below a castle crowning a rocky hill, trees framing the garden around it.

Princes Street Gardens lie where the Nor' Loch used to be. It was made in 1460 to defend the city and later turned foul with the sewage running down from the Royal Mile.

From Unusual & Interesting Things in Edinburgh

A bronze statue of a small shaggy dog sits on a plinth, a sandstone tenement with pub signage standing behind it on the street.

Potter, McGonagall, Scrimgeour and Thomas Riddell are all names on the graves in Greyfriars Kirkyard, and JK Rowling is thought to have borrowed some of them for her characters.

From Unusual & Interesting Things in Edinburgh

The first municipal fire brigade in the world was formed in Edinburgh, after the Great Fire of 1824.

From Unusual & Interesting Things in Edinburgh

In 1705 an Edinburgh baker complained to the town council about the elephant his upstairs neighbour was keeping in the flat.

From Unusual & Interesting Things in Edinburgh