The Royal Mile

Walking down Edinburgh's High Street could well be the definitive tourist experience. People have been flocking to do just that for the last 700 years, and it might come as something of a surprise that this major visitor attraction is still very much the living heart of the city. Inevitably there are parts where 'heritage culture' has gone over the top, but the inhabitants and proud possessors of the Royal Mile don't yield too easily to hopeless nostalgia.

The history of what was once the most populous street in Europe is written on its stone face, take it or leave it, and as you walk along the street you can't help but feel closer to what makes Edinburgh tick than anywhere else in the city.

The walk takes you in a straight line from Edinburgh Castle all the way down the hill to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, passing the major sights of St Giles Kirk and Parliament House, and on to Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park.

The main street, which changes its name from Castlehill to Lawnmarket to High Street to Canongate as you head east, is crowded with 'lands' (or tenements) many storeys high, and punctuated by tiny cobbled 'closes' or alleys off to each side.

The walk could easily be done in an hour and a half, but would take more than a whole day if you visited every attraction en route. The best policy is to keep a close eye on the weather: there's little point in trudging up Edinburgh's little mountain in Holyrood Park in the pouring rain, but a look around Holyrood Palace or the new 'Our Dynamic Earth' exhibition would be a rewarding alternative.

The Mile That Made the City

As the ice sheets moved east a few millennia ago, they dumped debris behind the hard volcanic plug of the Castle Rock, leaving the distinctive 'crag and tail' formation, a long ridge gently sloping down from the solid plug. This landscape, with its hollow to the north dammed to create the Nor'Loch, and steep slopes to the south, has defined the growth of the city. It has ensured that the distinctly medieval groundplan has remained unaltered, but the Royal Mile echoes most impressively with the history of the 16th and 17th centuries: the Reformation, the struggles of the Stuarts to hang on to power, and the eventual loss of Scottish independence.

Any melancholy that this last event might have provoked is rapidly being dispelled today as the city becomes the legislative capital of the country once again. The Royal Mile has waited for the day, not always patiently, for over 250 years.

This walk starts on the Esplanade in front of the castle.

Edinburgh Castle

Open daily 1 April - 30 Sept daily 9.30am to 6.00pm; 1 Oct - 31 Mar 9.30am to 5.00pm. Last ticket sold 45 minutes before closing. 
Adult (aged 16-59) £13.00
Child (aged 5-15) £6.50
Concessions £10.30