Edinburgh

Holyrood Park – Arthur's Seat, a Loch Garden and a Castle

A day on foot, from Waverley station and back.

The route

There's a volcano in the middle of Edinburgh, and this day climbs it.

From Waverley it walks down the Canongate into Holyrood Park, where the ruin of St Anthony's Chapel stands on its knoll above St Margaret's Loch. The path climbs on to the top of Arthur's Seat, 251 metres up, with the whole city below you. The back of the hill drops by Dunsapie Loch and a long flight of steps into Duddingston, a village with a twelfth-century kirk, a garden on the loch shore and an old inn for lunch. The afternoon belongs to Craigmillar Castle, where Mary, Queen of Scots stayed in 1566. It's a 35-minute walk on, the last of it up through the castle's park, and the bus brings you back into town. It's about 5.5 miles on foot, with one steep, rocky climb.

Before you go

Book a bed near the Old Town or the park
Stay near the Old Town, the foot of the Canongate or the park's south side, and the park is a walk from your door. Book once your dates are set. Edinburgh's visitor levy adds 5% to the first five nights of a paid stay.
Close byOld Town ChambersA place to stay Close byMoment George IV BridgeSleeps 2 A mile awayThe Scott HotelA hotel
Book a table at the Sheep Heid Inn
Book a table at the Sheep Heid Inn on The Causeway in Duddingston for lunch at about 12.45pm: it's a popular inn and often full at weekends.
Book Craigmillar Castle
Book online for the day, and if the booking asks for a time, choose about 2.30pm, after lunch and the 35-minute walk.

The day

Holyrood

A day of hill, village and castle without leaving the city, from Waverley and back by bus. It climbs past a ruined chapel to the top of Arthur's Seat, then drops down the back of the hill to Duddingston's old kirk and its garden by the loch. It ends in the towers of Craigmillar, where Mary, Queen of Scots once stayed.

St Anthony's Chapel
Leave Waverley at about 9am for the 30-minute walk down the Canongate, past the palace gates and along the edge of the park to St Margaret's Loch. It was made out of an old marsh in 1856, as part of Prince Albert's plans for the park. Above it, on a rocky knoll, stands the ruin of St Anthony's Chapel. It is on record by 1426, when the Pope granted money for its repair, and parts of its north wall still stand.
About 12 min on foot
Arthur’s Seat
An attraction
From the chapel it's about a 30-minute climb by the Dry Dam, a grassy valley under the summit, and the east ridge, with bare rock at the end. The top is 251 metres high, some 200 above the loch. From this old volcano the whole city is at your feet, with the Castle, the Forth and the hills of Fife beyond. There's nothing to buy up here, and the rock is slippery when wet.
More about Arthur’s Seat
25 min on foot
Duddingston Kirk
It's about a 25-minute walk down the back of the hill, by Dunsapie Loch and about 200 steps beside the old park wall into the village. Some call them Jacob's Ladder, though the better-known flight of that name is by Calton Hill. Duddingston Kirk was built in the early 1100s, and round the back its blocked Norman doorway still has its zig-zag carving. By the gate stand the loupin-on stane, for climbing onto a horse, the jougs, an iron collar for wrongdoers, and a watch-house for body snatchers.
About 3 min on foot
Dr Neil’s Garden
An attraction
Three minutes' walk through the Manse gate on Old Church Lane brings you into Dr Neil's Garden, which runs steeply down to the shore of Duddingston Loch. Two doctors began it in 1963. Find Thomson's Tower, built by William Playfair in 1825 for the curling club that played on the frozen loch, the ice Raeburn's Skating Minister is said to glide across. Lunch is round the corner at the Sheep Heid Inn on The Causeway. It claims an inn on the site since 1360, though the building is mostly 18th-century.
More about Dr Neil’s Garden
35 min on foot
Craigmillar Castle
An attraction
It's a 35-minute walk past the Sheep Heid, mostly on suburban roads, the last of it on a grass path through Craigmillar Castle Park, wet after rain, as the castle road has no pavement. The tower house went up in the late 1300s, and Mary, Queen of Scots stayed here in 1566 while nobles plotted against her husband, Darnley. Climb to the top for the view back to Arthur's Seat, then it's about 15 minutes down to Peffermill Road for the 30 or 14 bus into town.
More about Craigmillar Castle

If it rains

In rain or a strong wind, leave out the summit: the rock near the top is polished and slippery when wet, and the top is bare and exposed. From the palace gates, take the level way round instead, along Queen's Drive under Salisbury Crags and the Duddingston Low Road beside the loch: about 49 minutes on tarmac to Duddingston Kirk. The Low Road is closed to cars and fenced where the rocks can fall. Give Craigmillar Castle the long afternoon: it has five levels to explore. With children, Dynamic Earth by the palace is an indoor morning on its own, by timed ticket.

Worth a detour

The top of Salisbury Crags
The path along the top of Salisbury Crags has the best view over the Old Town to the Castle. This way runs along the top of the Crags and across the hill to join the main climb to the summit. It's still one climb, and about half an hour more than the Dry Dam alone. Keep well back from the edge: the drops are sheer and unfenced. The Radical Road below the Crags has been shut since a rockfall in 2018.
Duddingston Loch
From the foot of the steps a path runs a few minutes west along the north shore of Duddingston Loch, a Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve with herons in spring and great crested grebes on the water. Only the north shore is open; the south shore is by arrangement with the Trust.