The Best of Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle sits atop a jagged, three hundred and fifty million year old volcanic plug known as Castle Rock. This massive dark outcrop, which rises sharply above the city, has been a fortress since the Iron Age and remains the most…

Victoria Street is defined by its elegant, sweeping curve and the bright, multi-colored facades of its shops. Built between eighteen twenty-nine and eighteen thirty-four, it was designed by architect Thomas Hamilton to replace the steep,…

Greyfriars Kirkyard occupies a space where the ground level sits several feet higher than the surrounding streets. This elevation results from more than four centuries of intensive burials in an area of only a few acres. Established in…

The National Museum of Scotland is defined by its two contrasting buildings that stand side-by-side on Chambers Street. One is a Victorian structure featuring a grand central hall of cast iron and a Venetian Renaissance facade, while the…

The Scott Monument is a massive, dark Victorian Gothic spire rising over two hundred feet above Princes Street Gardens. Its intricate, needle-like silhouette is unmistakable against the skyline, covered in sixty-eight sculpted figures that…

Calton Hill rises abruptly from the eastern end of Princes Street, distinguished by a collection of unfinished and neoclassical monuments that crown its summit. Standing one hundred and three meters above sea level, the hill serves as a…

Arthur’s Seat is a craggy, extinct volcano rising two hundred and fifty-one meters above the city of Edinburgh. From several angles, the mountain’s rounded contours and rocky outcrops resemble a lion couchant, with the Lion's Head and…

The Royal Yacht Britannia is distinguished by its remarkably smooth, riveted hull and its towering presence at the Leith docks in Edinburgh. Launched in nineteen fifty-three from the John Brown and Company shipyard in Clydebank, this…