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City in Scotland

Edinburgh

Edinburgh sits on the remains of volcanoes, fires a cannon at 1pm every day except Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day, and gave the world Dolly the sheep and the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Key information

Nation
Scotland
Known for
Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile, the Festival Fringe, Hogmanay, the Scottish Enlightenment
What locals are called
Edinburghers
Famous people
Alexander Graham Bell, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Sean Connery
Football clubs
Heart of Midlothian (Hearts), Hibernian (Hibs)

About Edinburgh

A city built on volcanoes

Edinburgh's skyline is the work of fire and ice. Castle Rock, which carries the castle, is the plug of an ancient volcano. Glaciers moving from west to east then scoured away the softer rock around it, but the hard volcanic plug protected the rock on its eastern side. That sheltered ridge of sedimentary bedrock is where the Royal Mile now runs. A short walk away, Arthur's Seat rises to about 251 metres above sea level within Holyrood Park. It is another extinct volcano, and you can climb it in under an hour from the middle of a capital city. Few capitals offer a summit that close to the shops. The Old Town was squeezed onto that ridge, behind a defensive wall, and it had nowhere to go but up. The result was tenements ('lands') of many storeys, among the tallest homes in Europe at the time. That is why the old streets feel like canyons, and why the closes and wynds drop away steeply on either side of the Mile.

Why they call it Auld Reekie

The nickname means 'Old Smoky', and it came from the haze of coal and wood fires that hung over the crowded Old Town. Edinburgh's other nickname, the Athens of the North, tells a different story. It nods to the hilltop skyline, the Greek-style monuments on Calton Hill, and a golden age of ideas. In the 1700s the city was a powerhouse of the Scottish Enlightenment. The philosopher David Hume and the economist Adam Smith worked here. The first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica was published in Edinburgh in 1768. Across the Nor Loch, the Georgian New Town was laid out from 1767 to a plan by James Craig, a young architect who won a competition for the job. Its wide streets and ordered squares are the neat opposite of the medieval tangle across the valley. Together the two halves earned UNESCO World Heritage status in 1995.

Landmarks, a loyal dog and a daily bang

Edinburgh Castle holds the Honours of Scotland, the country's crown jewels. At 1pm every day except Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day, a gun is fired from the castle, a tradition dating from 1861. It began as a time signal for ships in the Firth of Forth, and you can set your watch by it. The Stone of Destiny, long kept in the castle, has been displayed at Perth Museum since it opened in March 2024. At the foot of the Royal Mile stand the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the Scottish Parliament building, which opened in 2004. Near the top of the street, a small statue of Greyfriars Bobby, the Skye terrier said to have guarded his master's grave, has been a favourite since 1873. The Scott Monument on Princes Street is a 61-metre Gothic spire, built in the 1840s for Sir Walter Scott. It is often described as the largest monument to a writer anywhere in the world. Down at Leith, the Royal Yacht Britannia now rests as a museum. Underneath it all lies a hidden city. Mary King's Close and the South Bridge vaults are streets and rooms that were built over, and they are now a favourite haunt of ghost-tour guides.

The city that never stops performing

In 1947, the first Edinburgh International Festival opened. A handful of uninvited companies turned up anyway and performed on the fringes. That became the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, now the biggest arts festival on the planet, with thousands of shows each August. The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo has filled the castle esplanade since 1950. In 2004 Edinburgh became the world's first UNESCO City of Literature, which suits the hometown of Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson and Arthur Conan Doyle. Another famous resident, J.K. Rowling, wrote part of Harry Potter in the city's cafés. Hogmanay is the Scottish New Year, and Edinburgh throws one of the world's biggest street parties for it. On the last night of April, Calton Hill hosts the Beltane Fire Festival, a theatrical, firelit welcome to summer.

Haggis, salt 'n' sauce and two proud football teams

The classic plate is haggis with neeps and tatties, washed down with whisky or Irn-Bru. Scotch pies, fish suppers and Edinburgh rock, a crumbly sugar sweet, round out the local favourites. Chip shops here will ask whether you want 'salt 'n' sauce', a splash of vinegar-thinned brown sauce that feels very Edinburgh. Football in the city splits two ways. Heart of Midlothian (Hearts) play in Gorgie, while Hibernian (Hibs) are based at Easter Road in Leith. The rivalry between them is among the fiercest in Scottish football, and the Edinburgh derby decides bragging rights for the year. Rugby belongs to Murrayfield, home of the national team. It hosts the Calcutta Cup match against England every other year, alternating with Twickenham. Edinburgh Rugby's regular home is Hive Stadium, which opened in 2021 next to Murrayfield, though the club still plays selected bigger fixtures at Murrayfield itself.

Inventors, doctors and detectives

For its size, Edinburgh has an outsized record of invention. Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone pioneer, was born here in 1847. Conan Doyle based Sherlock Holmes partly on Joseph Bell, one of his lecturers at the university medical school. Stevenson, born in 1850, drew on the city's two faces, respectable above and shady below, for Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Sean Connery, the first James Bond in the Eon film series, grew up in Fountainbridge. Barry Nelson had already played Bond on television in a 1954 adaptation of Casino Royale. In 1996, Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, was born at the Roslin Institute just outside the city. The city's darker science is also remembered. In 1828, the murderers Burke and Hare sold their victims' bodies to an Edinburgh anatomist, a scandal that helped change the law on dissection.

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