Leith
Built on Clydeside, the former Royal Yacht Britannia was the British Royal Family's floating holiday home during their foreign travels from the time of…
Must-see attractions in Edinburgh
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
Edinburgh
Edinburgh's gallery of modern art is split between two impressive neoclassical buildings surrounded by landscaped grounds some 500m west of Dean Village…
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Holyrood & Arthur’s Seat
The Scottish Parliament Building, on the site of a former brewery and designed by Catalan architect Enric Miralles (1955–2000), was opened by the Queen in…
Edinburgh
Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Garden is the second-oldest institution of its kind in Britain (after Oxford), and one of the most respected in the world…
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Holyrood & Arthur’s Seat
This palace is the royal family's official residence in Scotland but is more famous as the 16th-century home of the ill-fated Mary, Queen of Scots. The…
Holyrood & Arthur’s Seat
The rocky peak of Arthur’s Seat (251m), carved by ice sheets from the deeply eroded stump of a long-extinct volcano, is a distinctive feature of Edinburgh…
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Edinburgh
Housed in a grand Ionic temple designed by William Playfair in 1832, these three fascinating museums were originally established as teaching collections…
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Scottish National Portrait Gallery
New Town
The Venetian Gothic palace of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery is one of the city's top attractions. Its galleries illustrate Scottish history…
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New Town
These beautiful gardens lie in a valley that was once occupied by the Nor’ Loch (North Loch), a boggy depression that was drained in the early 19th…
Holyrood & Arthur’s Seat
Edinburgh’s quintessential secret garden, in the shadow of a 12th-century kirk, is one of the most peaceful green spaces in Scotland. Cultivated in the…
Edinburgh
Lauriston Castle has one of the most remarkable Edwardian interiors in Scotland, with elements dating back to the 16th century. Gifted to the nation in…
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Edinburgh
Opened in 1913, Edinburgh Zoo is one of the world's leading conservation zoos. Edinburgh's captive breeding program has helped save many endangered…
New Town
Designed by William Playfair, this imposing classical building with its Ionic porticoes dates from 1850. Its octagonal rooms, lit by skylights, have been…
Edinburgh
With its moored yachts, stately swans and whitewashed houses spilling down the hillside at the mouth of the River Almond, Cramond is the most picturesque…
New Town
Calton Hill (100m), which rises dramatically above the eastern end of Princes St, is Edinburgh's acropolis, its summit scattered with grandiose memorials…
Edinburgh
A working community smallholding with a range of farm animals (including woolly pigs!), a wildlife garden, a play park, a mini farm shop, and a pet lodge…
Leith
This state-of-the-art building located on an old railway siding is the first purpose-built centre dedicated to sculpture in the UK. There are regular…
Edinburgh
A patch of countryside enclosed by the city’s southern suburbs, craggy Blackford Hill (164m) offers pleasant walking and splendid views. The panorama to…
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New Town
This Greek Doric temple, with its northern pediment crowned by a seated figure of Queen Victoria, is the home of the Royal Scottish Academy. Designed by…
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New Town
One of Edinburgh’s many atmospheric old cemeteries, Old Calton is dominated by the tall black obelisk of the Political Martyrs’ Monument, which…
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Edinburgh
If you want to explore a Scottish fortress away from the crowds that throng Edinburgh Castle, try Craigmillar. Dating from the 15th century, the tower…
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New Town
Though not as architecturally distinguished as its sister Charlotte Sq, at the opposite end of George St, St Andrew Sq is dominated by the fluted column…
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Holyrood & Arthur’s Seat
Poised on a promontory overlooking Duddingston Loch, this church is one of the oldest buildings in Edinburgh, with some interesting medieval relics at the…
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Holyrood & Arthur’s Seat
David I founded this abbey in the shadow of Salisbury Crags in 1128. It was probably named after a fragment of the True Cross (rood is an old Scots word…
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Holyrood & Arthur’s Seat
Housed in a modernistic white marquee, Our Dynamic Earth is an interactive, multimedia journey of discovery through Earth's history from the Big Bang to…
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New Town
The design of the City Observatory, built in 1818, was based on the Temple of the Winds in Athens. Its original function was to provide a precise,…
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Leith
This public park was originally common grazing land but is more famous as the birthplace of modern golf. Although St Andrews has the oldest golf course in…
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Edinburgh
Rising on the southern edge of Edinburgh, the Pentland Hills stretch 16 miles southwest to near Carnwath in Lanarkshire. The hills rise to 579m at their…
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Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art - Modern Two
Edinburgh
Directly across Belford Rd from Modern One, another neoclassical mansion (formerly an orphanage) houses its annexe, Modern Two, which is home to a large…
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Edinburgh
The Hermitage of Braid is a wooded valley criss-crossed with walking trails to the south of Blackford Hill – with sunlight filtering through the leaves…
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New Town
At the western end of George St is Charlotte Sq, the architectural jewel of the New Town, which was designed by Robert Adam shortly before his death in…
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Edinburgh
Set in the valley that runs beneath the Dean Bridge ('dene' is a Scots word for valley), Dean Village was founded as a milling community by the canons of…
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Leith
The most attractive part of Leith is this cobbled waterfront street alongside the Water of Leith, lined with pubs and restaurants. Before the docks were…
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Edinburgh
While ghost tours of Edinburgh's underground vaults and haunted graveyards have become a mainstream attraction, Gilmerton Cove remains an off-the-beaten…
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Edinburgh Printmakers’ Workshop & Gallery
New Town
Founded in 1967, this was the UK’s first ‘open-access’ printmaking studio, providing studio space and equipment for professional artists and beginners…
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New Town
The largest structure on the summit of Calton Hill, the National Monument was a rather over-ambitious attempt to replicate the Parthenon in Athens, and…
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New Town
The eastern half of Princes Street Gardens is dominated by the massive Gothic spire of the Scott Monument, built by public subscription in memory of…
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New Town
In complete contrast to the austerity of most of Edinburgh's religious buildings, this 19th-century, neo-Romanesque church at the foot of Broughton St…
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Holyrood & Arthur’s Seat
In Holyrood Park Edinburgh is blessed with a little bit of wilderness in the heart of the city. The former hunting ground of Scottish monarchs, the park…
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New Town
The National Trust for Scotland's Georgian House has been beautifully restored and furnished to show how Edinburgh's wealthy elite lived at the end of the…
