Few capitals pack so much drama into such a compact space as Edinburgh: a fortress perched on an old volcanic plug, a medieval spine of tall stone tenements, a Georgian grid of elegant terraces and, a short stroll from the shops, a wild hill where you can lose the crowds entirely. Is Edinburgh worth visiting? For most travellers the answer comes on the first walk up the Royal Mile. The Scottish capital looks out over the Firth of Forth, while its Old and New Towns share a single UNESCO listing. Thanks to the columns on its hilltops and a long tradition of science and letters, Edinburgh is often called the "Athens of the North". Every August the city hosts the Fringe, the largest arts festival on the planet, and on the last night of the year it throws one of the liveliest street parties in Europe, Hogmanay. For a first visit, here is a shortlist of what to see in Edinburgh: twenty places to build your days around.
What to see in Edinburgh first
Most of the headline sights are walkable from one another. The Royal Mile runs downhill from the castle to Holyrood, while the green valley of Princes Street Gardens separates the Old Town from the New Town. For the first couple of days you will barely need public transport; just bring comfortable shoes and a waterproof jacket, because Scottish weather likes to change its mind several times before lunch.
1. Edinburgh Castle
The castle crowns Castle Rock, the hardened core of an ancient volcano that towers over the city centre. People had already settled on this crag in the Iron Age, and the defences you see now grew in layers over roughly nine hundred years. The oldest building not only in the fortress but in the whole of Edinburgh is tiny St Margaret's Chapel, dating from around 1130. Inside the Royal Palace you can see the Honours of Scotland, a crown, a sceptre and a sword that rank as the oldest crown jewels anywhere in Britain and Ireland.
Every day except Sunday, at precisely one o'clock, a cannon known as the One O'Clock Gun booms out from Mills Mount Battery. The custom goes back more than a century and a half, to the days when ships down in Leith harbour set their clocks by the bang. Look out too for Mons Meg, a colossal fifteenth-century siege gun, and book your castle tickets online in advance. On the way out, the Scotch Whisky Experience on Castlehill shows off a collection of more than three thousand bottles.
2. The Royal Mile
Edinburgh's oldest thoroughfare is really four streets joined end to end: it starts as Castlehill, then becomes Lawnmarket, High Street and finally Canongate. Together they measure one old Scots mile, around 1.8 km, a little longer than the English version. Stone tenements six to eight storeys high line both sides, and between them open the closes, narrow passages and courtyards that drop steeply downhill like the bones of a fish branching off its spine.
Step into Gladstone's Land, a merchant's house from the 1600s with painted ceilings, then John Knox House and the free Writers' Museum, devoted to Burns, Scott and Stevenson. The Mile is also the handiest spot for buying souvenirs: tartan blankets, cashmere scarves, a bottle of single malt and a tin of buttery shortbread. During the August Fringe the High Street turns into one long open-air stage, with jugglers, musicians and actors performing on the cobbles.
3. St Giles' Cathedral
The city's principal church is easy to spot thanks to its unusual tower, topped by a stone "crown" from the late fifteenth century. Strictly speaking it has had no bishop for centuries, since it belongs to the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, yet everyone still calls it a cathedral. John Knox, the firebrand of the Scottish Reformation, preached here in the 1500s, and today organ recitals echo under the Gothic vaults.
Do not miss the Thistle Chapel, fitted out in the early twentieth century: among its carved wooden angels, try to find the one playing the bagpipes. Outside the west door, a heart shape set into the cobbles, the Heart of Midlothian, marks where the old town jail once stood. Locals spit on it for luck, so mind where you step. Entry to the cathedral is free, with donations welcome on the way out.
4. Palace of Holyroodhouse
Where the Royal Mile runs out, you reach the gates of Holyroodhouse, where British kings and queens stay when they are in Scotland. Its story begins with an abbey that King David I established in 1128, now a romantic shell whose empty Gothic windows frame the sky. The palace itself went up from the early sixteenth century and was largely rebuilt for Charles II.
Most visitors head straight for the rooms of Mary, Queen of Scots, where in 1566 her secretary David Rizzio was stabbed to death in front of her. Afterwards, wander through the palace gardens and look into the King's Gallery, which stages exhibitions drawn from the Royal Collection. Across the road rises the modern Scottish Parliament building, which features further down this list.
5. Arthur's Seat
Behind the palace lies Holyrood Park, and above it looms Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano 251 metres high and roughly 350 million years old. It feels astonishing that genuine wilderness, with crags, small lochs and gorse-covered slopes, begins twenty minutes on foot from the centre of a capital city. Nobody is quite sure where the name comes from; it is tied to Arthurian legend, though there is no evidence he ever set foot here.
The easiest path starts near the palace, and the climb takes 40 to 60 minutes with no special fitness required, although the rocks turn slippery after rain. From the summit the view sweeps all the way round: the castle, the rooftops of the Old Town, the firth and the hills of Fife on the far shore. If the top feels like too much, follow the path beneath Salisbury Crags, where the panorama is almost as good.
6. Calton Hill
No spot explains that classical nickname better than this hill. On its summit stands the National Monument, a copy of the Parthenon begun in 1826 to honour Scottish soldiers and sailors lost in the wars against Napoleon. Three years later the money ran out, leaving just twelve columns. For a long time residents called it "Edinburgh's Disgrace", but the half-built temple has since become one of the city's emblems.
Nearby rises the Nelson Monument, shaped like an upturned telescope, with a time ball on its mast that drops at one o'clock in step with the castle gun. The round temple of the Dugald Stewart Monument frames the classic photograph of the Old Town. Come up for sunset: it is a ten-minute climb from Princes Street's east end.
7. National Museum of Scotland
Few free museums in Britain can match this one, which joins a Victorian building, famous for its airy iron-and-glass Grand Gallery, with a modern wing clad in honey-coloured sandstone. The collections roam across geology and dinosaurs, Scottish monarchs, engineering, fashion and pop culture. Here you can meet the stuffed Dolly, the first mammal ever cloned from an adult cell, and several pieces of the celebrated Lewis chessmen, carved mostly from walrus ivory.
When you have seen enough, take the lift to the roof: the terrace frames the castle beautifully, and surprisingly few tourists know it is there. Interactive galleries about science and technology keep children busy, which makes the museum a lifesaver on a wet afternoon. For more free museums, see the itinerary section below.
8. Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
This Victorian Gothic spire, 61 metres tall and looking like a rocket made of stone lace, is among the largest monuments to a writer anywhere in the world. It honours Sir Walter Scott, author of "Ivanhoe" and "Rob Roy", who made Scotland fashionable across Europe. A marble Scott sits beneath the arches with his beloved dog Maida, and 287 tight steps lead up to viewing galleries that overlook the entire centre.
The monument rises from Princes Street Gardens, laid out where the Nor Loch, a lake that once guarded the castle's northern flank, was drained. The green strip runs alongside the New Town's main shopping street and gazes straight up at the castle rock, so on a sunny day the lawns fill up fast. Further west in the gardens, the cast-iron Ross Fountain makes a perfect foreground for castle photos.
9. Victoria Street and the Grassmarket
This curving street of blue, red and yellow shopfronts curls downhill between the Royal Mile and the Grassmarket. People often compare it to Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter books, and with good reason: J.K. Rowling lived in Edinburgh while writing the early novels and finished the final one at the Balmoral Hotel on Princes Street. The raised terrace above the shops is the place to photograph the street from above.
For centuries the Grassmarket served as a cattle market and a place of public executions; today it is a square of pubs and outdoor tables right beneath the castle rock. The name of The Last Drop pub is a dark joke about the gallows that once stood close by. From here the steps of the Vennel climb to one of the best-known angles on the castle, so have your camera ready.
10. Dean Village
Ten minutes' walk from the busy West End, you find yourself in a hamlet that seems lifted from a storybook. For hundreds of years watermills beside the Water of Leith ground grain for the city here. The best-known building is Well Court, a red sandstone block with a clock tower, built in the 1880s as housing for workers.
People come for the calm and the photographs: a stone bridge, houses with balconies over the water, a footpath beside the river. From Dean Village the riverside walkway leads one way to Stockbridge, with its cafés and Sunday farmers' market, and the other way to the city's modern art galleries and their sculpture park.
Edinburgh Attractions: What Else to Visit While in the City
- Royal Yacht Britannia — the floating home of the royal family, which covered more than a million miles between 1954 and 1997. Now moored in Leith, it lets you peek into the Queen's bedroom, the royal dining room and even the engine room.
- Scottish National Gallery — a free gallery on the Mound, the slope linking the medieval Old Town and the Georgian New Town, with works by Raphael, Titian and Rembrandt alongside a local favourite, Henry Raeburn's "Skating Minister".
- The Real Mary King's Close — seventeenth-century streets that ended up buried beneath the City Chambers. Guides in the character of former residents tell stories of plague, poverty and ghosts.
- Camera Obscura and World of Illusions — the camera obscura has projected a live panorama of the city onto a white viewing table since 1853, and five floors of optical tricks entertain kids and adults alike.
- Greyfriars Kirkyard and Greyfriars Bobby — an old graveyard where, the story goes, Rowling borrowed several names for her characters from the headstones. By the entrance sits a bronze Skye terrier, Bobby, said to have guarded his master's grave for 14 years.
- Scottish Parliament Building — a daring design by the Catalan architect Enric Miralles, with boat-shaped roofs and oddly shaped windows. Admission is free, and from the public gallery you can listen to debates.
- Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh — it began in 1670 as a small plot of medicinal herbs and it now spreads over 28 hectares of lawns, rhododendrons and a Chinese hillside. Entry to the grounds is free, and a rise in the garden gives a view of the castle.
- Leith — the port district, with seafood restaurants and bars in old warehouses along the Shore. It is also where Irvine Welsh set his novel "Trainspotting".
- Portobello Beach — three kilometres of sand and a Victorian promenade, twenty minutes by bus from the centre. In summer only the bravest swim; everyone else settles for a coffee with a sea view.
- Forth Bridge — a red cantilever bridge that has carried trains over the Firth of Forth since 1890 and now appears on UNESCO's list. The best viewpoint is the small town of South Queensferry, about half an hour from Edinburgh.
What to See in Edinburgh in 1, 2 or 3 Days
Is 2 days enough for Edinburgh? You can tick off the highlights in a single day, but two or three let you enjoy them at a gentler pace. With just one day, follow the classic route: the castle in the morning, then the whole Royal Mile with St Giles' Cathedral and Mary King's Close, Holyroodhouse after lunch and Calton Hill for sunset. Begin day two by climbing Arthur's Seat, then spend a few hours in the National Museum of Scotland before Greyfriars, Victoria Street and the Grassmarket, and finish with an evening stroll across Princes Street Gardens towards Dean Village. Spend day three in Leith aboard Britannia, on Portobello Beach or on a trip out to the Forth Bridge. Another option is a day tour to the Highlands and Loch Ness, or a train to Glasgow, which takes less than an hour.
Edinburgh is kind to budget travellers, and most free things to do in Edinburgh revolve around culture. You pay nothing at St Giles', the Scottish Parliament, the Botanic Garden, the National Museum, the National Gallery and its modern art sisters, or at three small museums along the Mile, devoted to childhood, to writers and to the city's own history. The childhood one is a hit with kids, as are the Camera Obscura, the Dynamic Earth science centre and Edinburgh Zoo. In the evening, join a tour of the Old Town's underground vaults or find a pub where folk musicians play live.
From Poland, direct low-cost flights connect Edinburgh with Kraków, Warsaw and Gdańsk in about three hours. From the airport, the tram reaches Princes Street in roughly half an hour. If you are touring Britain, Edinburgh pairs easily with London, about four and a half hours away by train, or with Manchester.
Ready to plan your Scottish trip? TurPoisk online travel agency can help you put it together: reserve a room in the Old Town, steps from the Royal Mile, or in the quieter New Town near Princes Street. And for a holiday by a warm sea, we recommend Greece, whether Crete or Rhodes, or Cyprus, where the beaches of Paphos and Larnaca welcome visitors for most of the year. Use our tour search to match a package to your dates, and check the last-minute deals for bargains in the coming weeks. Our team can also build a route with room for both the Scottish hills and a beach.
