Explore Edinburgh

The Scott Monument is a Victorian Gothic tower in Princes Street Gardens honouring the writer Sir Walter Scott. Designed by George Meikle Kemp and inaugurated in 1846, it is 61 metres high and shelters John Steell's marble statue of Scott with his dog Maida. Guided tours climb narrow spiral stairs to a museum room and viewing platforms.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery on Queen Street holds Scotland's national collection of portraits, all of Scots though not necessarily by them, and the Scottish National Photography Collection. Its red sandstone Gothic Revival building was designed by Robert Rowand Anderson and built between 1885 and 1890.

The Royal Mile is the chain of streets running downhill through Edinburgh's Old Town from Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, almost exactly one mile long. It is made up of Castlehill, the Lawnmarket, the High Street and the Canongate, lined with tall stone tenements, narrow closes, churches and shops.

John Knox House on the Royal Mile dates from about 1470 and, with the adjoining Moubray House, is one of the oldest buildings on the street. Tradition links it to the reformer John Knox, who stayed here briefly before his death in 1572; it was home to the goldsmith James Mosman. Its rooms are now a museum run with the Scottish Storytelling Centre.

St Giles' Cathedral, also called the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is a Church of Scotland parish church on the Royal Mile. The present building dates mainly from the 14th and 15th centuries and is topped by a crown spire; John Knox was its minister after the Reformation. Inside is the Thistle Chapel, completed in 1911.

The Blair Street Underground Vaults are chambers in the arches of the South Bridge, completed in 1788 in Edinburgh's Old Town. They first housed taverns, workshops and stores, and were later occupied by the city's poorest residents until about 1860. Mercat Tours runs guided history and ghost tours through them, starting from the Mercat Cross.

Calton Hill rises at the east end of Princes Street and is part of Edinburgh's UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its grassy summit holds a group of monuments, among them the unfinished National Monument, the Nelson Monument, the Dugald Stewart Monument and the City Observatory, with views over the Old Town, Arthur's Seat and the Firth of Forth.

The Scottish National Gallery is Scotland's national gallery of fine art, on The Mound between the two halves of Princes Street Gardens. Its neoclassical building by William Henry Playfair opened in 1859 and shows Scottish and European painting and sculpture from the Renaissance to the start of the 20th century.

Camera Obscura and World of Illusions occupies the Outlook Tower on Castlehill, at the top of the Royal Mile near Edinburgh Castle. Maria Theresa Short opened her observatory here in 1853, with a camera obscura in the top room that still projects a live image of the city; below it are floors of optical illusions, a mirror maze and a vortex tunnel.

The Scotch Whisky Experience is a visitor attraction on Castlehill, at the top of the Royal Mile beside the Edinburgh Castle esplanade. It opened in 1988 in the former Castlehill School, a red sandstone building of 1888–89 by Robert Wilson. Guided tours explain how Scotch whisky is made and pass the Diageo Claive Vidiz collection of sealed bottles.

The National Museum of Scotland on Chambers Street covers Scottish history, natural history, science and world cultures. It joins the Victorian Royal Museum of 1866, with its cast-iron Grand Gallery, to the sandstone Museum of Scotland building of 1998. Exhibits include the Lewis chessmen and Dolly the sheep, and a roof terrace looks over the Old Town.

Greyfriars Kirk is a Church of Scotland parish church in Edinburgh's Old Town, built between 1602 and 1620 on the grounds of a former Franciscan friary. The National Covenant was signed here in 1638, and a small museum shows an original copy. The church stands in Greyfriars Kirkyard, laid out as a burial ground after the Reformation.

The Grassmarket is a long open market place in Edinburgh's Old Town, lying in a hollow below the south side of the Castle Rock. A market from 1477 and for centuries a place of public executions, it is lined with tall tenements, inns and pubs, and a memorial to the Covenanters marks where the gallows stood.

Edinburgh Castle stands on Castle Rock above the Old Town, the site of a royal castle since the 11th century. Within its walls are St Margaret's Chapel from the early 12th century, the Royal Palace with the Honours of Scotland, the early 16th-century Great Hall, the Scottish National War Memorial and the National War Museum.

The Scottish Parliament Building at Holyrood, at the foot of the Royal Mile, has housed the Scottish Parliament since 2004. It was designed by the Catalan architect Enric Miralles, who died before its completion, and mixes concrete, oak and granite in leaf-like forms. Visitors can see an exhibition, watch debates from the public gallery and join guided tours.

Princes Street Gardens are two public parks along the south side of Princes Street, below Edinburgh Castle. Laid out in the 1820s on the drained bed of the Nor Loch and divided by The Mound, they hold the Scott Monument, the Ross Fountain, a floral clock from 1903 and many statues, with the railway running through the valley.

Dynamic Earth is a science centre at the foot of Salisbury Crags in Holyrood, next to the Scottish Parliament. It opened in 1999 in a tent-like building by Michael Hopkins and Partners, with a fabric roof stretched between steel masts. Interactive galleries trace the history of the planet, with an iceberg, a simulated earthquake and a 360° planetarium.

The Palace of Holyroodhouse, at the foot of the Royal Mile, is the monarch's official residence in Scotland. Largely rebuilt from 1671 to plans by Sir William Bruce around a palace begun by James IV, it shows the 16th-century apartments of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the State Apartments, next to the ruins of Holyrood Abbey.

Holyrood Distillery opened in 2019 in the former goods shed of St Leonards railway station, as the first new distillery in Edinburgh in nearly a hundred years. Founded by Rob and Kelly Carpenter and David Robertson, it makes single malt Scotch whisky and Height of Arrows gin and runs guided tours with tastings.

Dean Village is a former milling village in the steep valley of the Water of Leith, just northwest of Edinburgh's city centre, where as many as eleven water mills once worked. Restored mill buildings and houses line the river along the Water of Leith Walkway, and Thomas Telford's Dean Bridge of 1831–33 crosses the gorge high above.