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Edinburgh

Edinburgh (Gaelic: Dùn Èideann) is the capital of Scotland, located in the Central Belt of the country. With a population of 526,470 in the urban area in 2021, and 901,455 in the metropolitans, Edinburgh fizzes with a cosmopolitan yet uniquely Scottish atmosphere. Old volcanoes ensure a dramatic natural setting, with the imposing castle atop one. The city combines medieval relics, Georgian grandeur and a powerful layer of modern life with contemporary avant-garde. Medieval palaces, Gothic churches and fascinating historical buildings rub shoulders with the best of modern architecture, such as the Scottish Parliament and the National Museum of Scotland. Variously dubbed "Auld Reekie" or "Athe

See
521
Do
278
Eat
1024
Drink
1132
Buy
250

3,205 places

  1. SeeArt museumNew Town

    National Galleries of Scotland: National

    This holds much of Scotland's fine artwork from Renaissance to 20th century, with changing exhibitions. These rotate seasonally, so an exhibition put on for the Festival typically stays to the end of the year, allowing quieter times to view. Enter from the plaza between gallery and Royal Scottish Academy, and a basement passage connects the two exhibition spaces. The Scottish Galleries on the lowest floor reopened in 2023 after several years of redevelopment, and show a good collection of local work and views which may inspire trips.

    Daily 10AM-5PM · Free, charges for major temporary exhibitions · Free entry

  2. SeeHistoric siteOld Town

    Edinburgh Castle

    Iconic fortress perched magnificently on a volcanic rock above the city. The castle has been continuously used for 1100 years and is kept in excellent condition; it's still the ceremonial headquarters of the army in Scotland. Highlights include the Great Hall, the Honours of Scotland (the Scottish Crown Jewels), the War Museum and the 12th century St Margaret's Chapel. The One O'Clock Gun is fired each day from Mills Mount battery. Audio guides available. It's mobbed with tourists and in summer often sells out, book online well in advance.

    Daily: Apr-Sep 9:30AM-6PM, Oct-Mar 9:30AM-5PM · Adult £19.50, child (7-15) £11.40, conc £15.50, Historic Scotland / English Heritage / Cadw free · Limited wheelchair access

  3. SeeMonumentOld Town

    St Giles

    It's often called a Cathedral, but the Church of Scotland brooks no such episcopal entity, and Charles I dubbing it "cathedral" in 1633 was one reason his head was chopped off. Safer to call it "High Kirk", though they're nowadays lenient with first time offenders. The present building is from 14th century with much Victorian Gothic, notably its crowned spire. Highlight is the Chapel of the Order of the Thistle, Scotland's chivalric company of royal knights. Services are M-F at noon and 9:30AM and 11AM on Sunday, with choral music at 6PM.

    Mon-Fri 10AM-6PM, Sat 9AM-5PM, Sun 1-3PM · Free · Wheelchair accessible

  4. SeeBotanical gardenStockbridge and Canonmills

    Royal Botanic Garden

    Impressive gardens with a large collection. Great place to wander around on a sunny day, or to sit and have a picnic. Highlights include the Rock Garden; the 165-m-long herbaceous border, backed by a huge, century-old beech hedge, and the Palm House, the tallest of its kind in Britain. (However the Palm House and all the glasshouses are closed until 2025 for rebuilding, and a small section of the garden is only open at weekends.) A number of sculptures, including two by Barbara Hepworth, are displayed around the gardens. The east gate has a bus service but the west gate is grander, with the John Hope Gateway building containing the restaurant, shop, and exhibitions. Botanic Cottage is an education centre in a house that was built in 1764-5, designed by John Adam and James Craig and moved to the garden in 2014. They also run the gardens at Benmore near Oban, Dawyck above Peebles, and Logan near Stranraer.

    Daily Nov-Jan 10AM-4PM, Feb-Oct 10AM-5PM, last entry 15 min before closure · Free · Free entry · Built 1670

  5. SeeHistoric siteNew Town

    Calton Hill

    This is the stubby crag just east of Princes Street: a short stroll up it commands great views. The "National Monument", a memorial to Scots killed in the Napoleonic Wars, was an attempt to out-do the Parthenon in Athens but the money ran out with only the west facade built. Nelson's Tower was built 1807-16 in the shape of an upturned telescope in honour of the naval hero. A Time Ball on the mast drops at 1PM every day just as the One O'Clock Gun is fired from the castle - this gives a time signal to ships in the Firth before the sound rolls out to them, or it would if not obscured by drizzle and the ships in possession of reliable watches. It was operated by the adjacent City Observatory, superseded in 1896 by the Royal Observatory in the south of the city. City Observatory remained active until 2009 then was refurbished as the Collective Gallery exhibition space for modern art.

    103 m high

  6. SeeMuseumOld Town

    National Museum of Scotland

    Superb museum of Scotland's heritage. You enter into the lofty Victorian Grand Gallery, where the millennium clock chimes on the hour. Exhibition halls cover Scottish and world history and culture, science, technology, art and design, and natural history. Dolly the sheep, the 12th-century Lewis chess pieces, and dinosaurs are some of the highlights. NMS also run the War Museum in the castle, the Museum of Flight near Gullane, and the Museum of Rural Life in East Kilbride.

    Daily 10AM-5PM · Free · Wi-Fi · Free entry · Wheelchair accessible

  7. SeeMonumentNew Town

    Scott Monument

    Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) re-invented Scotland. In the late Georgian era, he popularised tales of its medieval and Jacobean tumults, and created the clan tartans you buy on Princes St. This grand Gothic memorial, part cathedral part moon rocket, was completed in 1846 to dominate the east end of Princes St. It's 200 ft 6 in / 61.1 m tall, and guided tours take you up 287 steps (no lift) to the top platform, for a closer look at many of the statuettes of characters from Scott's works. The man himself and his dog sit in state at the base. In the 1990s the curators considered cleaning the monument but realised that the Victorian grime was holding it together, so replacement stonework is prominently white.

    Daily 10-12:30AM, 2-4PM · Adult £8, child £6 · Built 1844

  8. DoLive music venueOld Town

    Usher Hall

    The city's main concert hall, capacity 2200, and home to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. It was completed in 1914, funded by Andrew Usher the whisky distiller and blender.

    Box Office Mon-Sat 10AM-5:30PM, Sun 1-2PM · Wheelchair accessible

  9. SeeLibraryOld Town

    National Library of Scotland

    A venerable reference library, which you need membership to access, but it has public exhibitions about literature. "Treasures" is its permanent exhibition. But don't stumble in here mistaking it for Central Library across the street.

    Mon-Sat 9:30AM-5PM · Free

  10. SeeAttractionNew Town

    St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral

    This stonking great neo-Gothic church was completed in 1879, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, with the towers added in 1917. It's the senior Episcopal church in Scotland, within the Anglican tradition of bishops (and much else) that the Presbyterians rejected. It has daily choral services: the song school (open occasionally) has stunning murals by Phoebe Anna Traquair.

    Mon-Sat 8-8:30AM, Sun 8AM-4PM · Heritage listed · Wheelchair accessible

  11. DoOld Town

    The Scotch Whisky Experience

    Tour of the history and craft of whisky distilling, with expert guides - the basic or "silver" tour works well for beginners. They have a huge selection; the core of it is the 3384 bottles collected by Brazilian whisky enthusiast Claive Vidiz.

    Daily 10AM-5PM · Basic tour £23 adult, £21 conc, £10 child · Wheelchair accessible

  12. SeePlanetariumOld Town

    Dynamic Earth

    Interactive natural history museum exhibiting the forces and features of our planet: volcanoes, polar ice, rainforests and so on. Opened in 1999, it's a tent-like structure on the former site of a gasworks and brewery.

    Wed-Fri 10AM-5PM, Sat Sun 10AM-6PM · Adult £19.50 adults, conc £16.70, child £12 · Wi-Fi · Wheelchair accessible

  13. SeeCathedralNew Town

    St Mary's Metropolitan Cathedral

    The Roman Catholic Cathedral was established as a chapel in 1814 and became a cathedral in 1886 for the archdiocese of Edinburgh and St Andrews. It was designed by James Gillespie Graham in neo-perpendicular style and has undergone several alterations and extensions - in the 1970s the tenements that hemmed it in were demolished. There are services twice daily in English and daily in Polish.

    Mon-Fri 8:30AM-6:30PM, Sat Sun 8:30AM-7:30PM · Heritage listed

  14. SeeHistory museumOld Town

    Museum on the Mound

    Museum about money and coins, in the basement of the Palladian pile of the former Bank of Scotland headquarters. Scotland developed a banking sector in the 18th century to support long-distance trade, and still prints its own banknotes.

    Tue-Fri 10AM-5PM, Sat 1-5PM · Free · Free entry · Wheelchair accessible

  15. DoLive music venueNew Town

    Edinburgh Playhouse

    Built as a cinema in 1929 and refurbished in 1980, this is now Scotland's largest performance space, with a capacity of 3059. That's about 1000 more than can comfortably be seated and 2000 more than they have toilet provision for. It's run by ATG, Ambassador Theatre Group.

    Wheelchair accessible

  16. SeeChildrens museumOld Town

    Museum of Childhood

    Concepts and imagery of childhood are ever-changing. See if you can find your (or your grandparents') old toys in the collection, and your place in history.

    Daily 10AM-5PM · Free · Free entry · Wheelchair accessible

  17. SeeHistoric siteOld Town

    Museum of Edinburgh

    Museum of city history in a mustard-hued mansion built in 1570.

    Daily 10AM-5PM · Free

  18. SeeArt galleryOld Town

    Fruitmarket

    Gallery of contemporary art, refurbished in 2018. From 1936 to the 1970s this was where soft fruit and veg were traded, handy for the trains and delivery vans.

    Daily 11AM-6PM · Free · Free entry · Wheelchair accessible

  19. SeeArt galleryOld Town

    Talbot Rice Gallery

    David Talbot Rice (1903-72) was in the louche crowd at Oxford that inspired Brideshead Revisited and became a distinguished scholar of East Mediterranean and Russian art, with extensive contacts in those parts - how come this fellow was never implicated in a spy ring? His spell as University Vice Principal is commemorated in this gallery with changing exhibitions of contemporary art. It's housed within Old College of Edinburgh University, a fine building built between 1789 and 1827 by Robert Adam and Henry Playfair. The Georgian Gallery has a Playfair interior and a mixture of Old Masters and modern installations.

    Tue-Sat 10AM-5PM during exhibitions · Free · Free entry · Wheelchair accessible

  20. EatRestaurantNew Town

    The Dome

    Bar and grill in a former bank headquarters with grand exterior and impressive interior.

    Daily 10AM-midnight · Heritage listed · Wheelchair accessible

  21. SeeHistoric siteOld Town

    Gladstone's Land

    Thomas Gladstone was a wealthy merchant, and in 1617 he had this house refashioned to accommodate his family and to partly rent out. A "Land" means a tall narrow townhouse from the period when Old Town was cramped and the only space for development was upwards. Typically along the Royal Mile the ground floor was shops and trade, genteel folk lived on the first and second floors, and lower-income residents had to lump up many steps to the upper floors. It's now a museum run by the National Trust for Scotland exhibiting 17th century elite city life, richly furnished and decorated but with no running water. In the 18th century prosperous folk relocated to New Town, where the NTS property at 7 Charlotte Square continues the story.

    Daily 10AM-5PM · Adult £10, conc £8.50, child £6, NTS / NT free

  22. SeeAttractionOld Town

    Greyfriars Kirk

    This church was built in 1620 on the grounds of an abandoned Franciscan Friary, but seriously damaged by later calamities or Acts of God so the present structure is mostly Victorian. It remains active, as other Presbyterian churches have closed and their congregations moved here. The main visitor interest is the ancient graveyard: notable denizens include the architects William and John Adam, the notorious hell-rake Colonel Charteris, Captain Porteous lynched after he fired on rioters, William McGonagall the worst poet in Scotland, and Greyfriars Bobby plus his owner. The mortsafe kept coffins locked until burial, else the body-snatchers would make off with them.

    Mon-Sat 11AM-4PM, Sun 11:30AM-2PM · Free · Wheelchair accessible

  23. SeeMuseumOld Town

    The Peoples' Story Museum

    This is housed in Canongate Tolbooth, the medieval centre for governance and justice (preferably gruesome) as Canongate was a separate jurisdiction until 1856. The museum covers the story of working class life, and of organised labour, from the late 18th century to the present.

    Daily 10AM-5PM · Free · Free entry

  24. SeeArt galleryNew Town

    Royal Scottish Academy

    An august neo-classical building on The Mound, fronting onto Princes St, and its main function is to be confused with the National Gallery behind. The RSA is a separate organisation promoting contemporary Scottish art. The building hosts temporary exhibitions but doesn't have a permanent display - the Academy's extensive collection is dispersed across many galleries. That might include your own home, as they run an art rental scheme.

    Free entry

  25. SeeMuseumLeith

    Trinity House

    Stately neo-classical building of 1818 which is now a maritime museum, but only open for special events. It's built over its predecessor of 1560, which in turn was built over a medieval monastic site. The organisation dates back to 1380, when Leith mariners gained the right to levy duty on goods landed at the port; the funds supported sick or aged mariners or their families. They went on to fund lighthouses and to develop training for mariners, which became Leith Nautical College. They invested in real estate and the neighbourhood of Trinity was originally theirs. Other medieval ports copied these arrangements, such as Trinity House in London Deptford from 1514 which became the governing body for English lighthouses, but the Leith version was senior and distinct. A separate body for Scottish lighthouses was established in 1786, now called the Northern Lighthouse Board.

    Built 1818

  26. SeeArt galleryNew Town

    Modern Two

    Opposite side of Belford Rd has a slightly smaller collection, but enough to infuriate about one-in-five reviewers, who rage that their kids' drawings stuck on the fridge door are better. A neon sign in the garden reassures all and sundry that "There will be no miracles".

    Mo-Su 10:00-17:00

  27. DoLive music venueSouth

    The Queen's Hall

    Performance space for musical events across all genres. The neo-classical building was a chapel from 1824 and converted to a concert hall in 1979, with a capacity of 900.

    Wi-Fi · Wheelchair accessible

  28. SeeLibraryOld Town

    Central Library

    See Edinburgh for how to access. The internet stations are in the Learning Centre, and the building houses Central Lending Library, Central Reference Library, Central Children's Library, Edinburgh and Scottish Collections, Art & Design Library and Music Library. It has a wealth of material for research such as old newspapers and maps, but births, marriages and deaths are filed at East Register House by the bus station in New Town.

    Mon-Wed 8AM-10PM, Thu-Sat 10AM-5PM · Wi-Fi

  29. DrinkPubOld Town

    Sandy Bells

    Likewise frequented by medical students, this has live folk music every night.

    Mon-Sat noon–1AM, Sun 12:30PM–midnight · Wheelchair accessible

  30. SeeMuseumOld Town

    St Cecilia's Hall

    Scotland's oldest purpose-built concert hall, opened in 1763 and still in regular use. It hosts the University of Edinburgh collection of historic musical instruments, crafted 16th to 20th century, many of which (such as the Trompette Demilune) are no longer played.

    Tue-Sat 10AM-6:30PM · Historic instruments free · Heritage listed