The Royal Mile

If you happen to be in the castle at one o'clock, it's worth making your way to the Mill's Mount Battery to see another reminder of the army's presence in the castle, the firing of the One O'Clock Gun. It's been fired almost every day since 1861.

Leave the esplanade and enter Castlehill at the top of the Royal Mile itself. On your left is Goose Pie House.

This is the house the 18th-century poet Allan Ramsay built for himself, known as Goose Pie House because of its peculiar octagonal shape, now much altered. Some of the extensions and alterations were undertaken by Patrick Geddes-the man responsible for preserving much of the Royal Mile, and a pioneer of town planning-who lived here towards the end of the last century.

On the other side of the street is Cannonball House. This is the starting point for very good volunteer-guided walks down the Royal Mile during the Festival.

On the door of the house, notice the 'tirling pin' on its sounding bracket, as in the rhyme:

Wee Willie Winkie rins thro the toun
Upstairs and downstairs in his nicht goun
Tirlin ' at the window, crying at the lock:
Are the weans in bed noo, for its nigh on ten o'clock?

It's a rare survival of the polite form of door knocker from the days when people scratched at each other's doors instead of banging on them.

The house gets its name from a cannonball lodged above the first-floor window facing the castle. Legend has it that the ball was part of the barrage fired by government troops from the castle aiming to dent Bonnie Prince Charlie's bonnet at Holyrood. Unfortunately it's more likely that it marks the gravitational height of the water supply for the old reservoir over the road, a 19th-century tank for the water first pumped into the city in 1681, serving the wells all the way down the Royal Mile.

Opposite Cannonball House is the Tartan Weaving Mill situated in the Edinburgh Old Town Weaving Company, right next door to Edinburgh Castle Esplanade.

You can feel and touch the threads that are prepared for weaving, see and hear the amazing high speed powerlooms in action. At the weaver's cottage you can meet a real craftsman and then have a go at making some tartan cloth yourself - a great photo opportunity for your friends and family!

Take your time to enjoy the full exhibition which shows how tartan is woven, from the moment when the sheep is sheared right upto the making of a kilt and the history of Highland Dress through the ages.

The next stop down the hill on the tourist trail, given over to the Scots' favourite tipple, is the Scotch Whisky Experience (open 7 days).