Edinburgh

Edinburgh's Gardens – The Botanics and the Archivists' Garden

A day by bus and on foot, from the Mound to Duddingston.

The route

Edinburgh is a city of gardens as much as of castles, and plenty of them are tucked out of sight.

Some are grand, with glasshouses and tall trees; others sit behind a railing, a public building or a narrow close, or alley, and you'd never find them without being told where to look. This is a day among them, by two short bus rides and on foot, each garden made for a different reason. It's about 5 miles on foot if you walk out to Duddingston at the end, or about 2.5 if you finish on the Canongate.

Before you go

Book a timed ticket for the Palm Houses
Book a timed ticket for the Palm Houses on the Royal Botanic Garden's site, for the 10.15am slot or the nearest, and come on a weekday, because the Archivists' Garden later in the day is open only in office hours; the garden itself is free.

The day

Edinburgh

The day starts on the Mound and takes a bus north for a morning in the city's botanic garden. The afternoon is back in the centre and the Old Town, among small gardens that are easy to walk past. It can end there, or carry on under Arthur's Seat to a last garden beside a loch.

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
An attraction
It's about 10 minutes by bus on the 23 or 27 from the Mound, on the West Princes Street Gardens side, to the Royal Botanic Garden stop at the East Gate: check the times. Be on the bus half an hour before your Palm Houses slot. The garden is free and opens at 10am. See the Palm Houses first, by booked ticket, then the Rock Garden and the Chinese Hillside. Lunch is at the Terrace Café. From November to January it shuts by 4pm, so expect three gardens, not four.
More about Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
10 min by bus
West Princes Street Gardens and the Floral Clock
It's about 10 minutes by bus back to the Mound on the 23 or 27, from the stop across Inverleith Row: check the times. The Floral Clock is a minute away, in the corner of West Princes Street Gardens, by the Mound steps and the statue of the poet Allan Ramsay. First made in 1903, it's a working clock of plants, which the council calls the oldest of its kind. It's planted afresh each year and the council says it blooms until October; in other months there may be little to see.
9 min on foot
The Archivists' Garden
Walk 9 minutes east along Princes Street, past the Scott Monument, to General Register House, the domed building at the street's east end. The Archivists' Garden is behind it: walk up West Register Street, on the building's left as you face it. National Records of Scotland opened it in 2010, with 59 kinds of plant, each tied to Scotland's story through myth, heraldry or a famous Scot. It's free. Its keeper gives its opening only as office hours, so come on a weekday and expect it shut at weekends.
15 min on foot
Dunbar's Close Garden
An attraction
It's a 15-minute walk: back to Princes Street, east to North Bridge and south, taking the Scotsman Steps, on the right, to Market Street. From there, Sibbald Walk and Old Tolbooth Wynd lead to the Canongate, and the close is a minute along, at number 137. To miss the 104 steps, go by North Bridge and the High Street. Inside is a garden of clipped box and gravel, made in 1976. The gate shuts at 3.30pm from late October to late March.
More about Dunbar's Close Garden
50 min on foot
Dr Neil’s Garden
An attraction
Dr Neil's Garden is a 50-minute walk on: down the Canongate, into Holyrood Park by Horse Wynd, along Queen's Drive and Duddingston Low Road. Check Historic Environment Scotland's park notices; or take Lothian's 12 from Potterrow, and the 12 back to Bristo Square: check the times. Two GPs, Nancy and Andrew Neil, began it in 1963 beside Duddingston Kirk, on a steep slope by Duddingston Loch. It has a physic garden and Thomson's Tower on the shore. It's free, open daily from 10am to dusk, so leave it out from November to early February.
More about Dr Neil’s Garden

If it rains

Every stop but the Palm Houses is out of doors, so a wet day is a shorter one. Give the Palm Houses and lunch longer, and see the Rock Garden between showers. If the garden is drenched, come back to the Mound early. The National, the gallery a couple of minutes from the Floral Clock, is free and open every day from 10am to 5pm. The Scottish Cafe and Restaurant at its garden entrance serves lunch from noon to 4pm. The Archivists' Garden and Dunbar's Close are small enough to see under an umbrella; between them, take the way by the High Street if you'd rather not go down 104 wet steps. Leave out Dr Neil's Garden, which is steep, with steps and open water, and end the day on the Canongate. In very bad weather the Botanic Garden can close, so look at its site that morning.

Worth a detour

Inverleith Park
Leave the garden by the West Gate and cross Arboretum Place to Inverleith Park. The pond is 8 minutes from the gate, and the view across it takes in the Castle and the Old Town's skyline. Allow about 20 minutes from the pond back through the garden to the East Gate for the bus. In all it adds about half an hour to the day.
Ross Fountain
The Ross Fountain is 6 minutes west of the clock, along the path through West Princes Street Gardens: a tall cast-iron fountain from a French foundry, here since 1872, with the Castle on its rock straight above. From the fountain the walk on to the Archivists' Garden is 15 minutes, not 9.
Saughton Park
Saughton Park, in the west of the city, has a walled garden with a rose garden, a physic garden, a sunken Italian garden and what the council calls Edinburgh's largest herbaceous border, and a glasshouse, the Winter Garden. The council gives the walled garden's hours as 9am to 9pm from April to September and 9am to 4pm from October to March, and the glasshouse's as 9am to 3.15pm on weekdays and 9am to 1.45pm at weekends. It's a little over half an hour's walk from Haymarket, or a short ride by tram or bus: check the times.
Lauriston Castle's Japanese garden
Lauriston Castle stands in its own grounds on Cramond Road South, on the north-west edge of the city and about four miles from the Mound, so go by bus: Lothian's journey planner gives the way, and check the times. The grounds are free, with a Japanese garden and an Italian garden. The council gives their hours as 7.30am to 8pm from April to October and 7.30am to 5pm from November to March. The castle itself is seen only on a guided tour.

Where to eat