Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile are the historic heart of the Scottish capital: in little more than a mile and a half you cross a thousand years of history, from the medieval fortress on its rock to the royal palace of Holyrood.
The castle
Perched on a basalt crag, the remains of an ancient volcano, the castle dominates the city from every angle. The site has been occupied for some three thousand years, and from the Middle Ages it was a residence of Scottish kings, a fortress fought over in the wars with England, a prison and a barracks. It still houses a military garrison today.
- The Honours of Scotland: the crown, sceptre and sword of state, the oldest crown jewels in the British Isles, used at the coronation of Mary Queen of Scots in 1543. The sceptre was a gift from Pope Alexander VI, the sword from Pope Julius II. During the 17th-century wars they were hidden to stop Cromwell destroying them, and in 1707 they were locked in a chest and forgotten for more than a century, until Walter Scott found them in 1818. The Stone of Destiny, on which Scottish kings were crowned, was moved in 2024 to the new museum in Perth.
- St Margaret's Chapel, from the 12th century, Edinburgh's oldest building.
- The Great Hall and the Royal Palace, where James VI was born, the king who united the crowns of Scotland and England in 1603.
- Mons Meg, a huge medieval cannon, and the One O'Clock Gun, fired every day except Sunday.
- The Scottish National War Memorial, dedicated to Scotland's war dead.
Tickets are bought online with an entry time; allow two or three hours. The esplanade in front of the castle hosts the Military Tattoo in August.
The Royal Mile
From the castle the street runs down the ridge for about a Scots mile, a little longer than an English mile, changing name along the way: Castlehill, Lawnmarket, High Street, Canongate.
- St Giles' Cathedral: the mother church of Presbyterianism, where the reformer John Knox preached, with its stone crown on the tower and the Thistle Chapel.
- Gladstone's Land: a 17th-century tenement showing how merchants lived at the time.
- The closes: more than sixty narrow alleys dropping steeply off the street, each with its own name, such as Advocate's Close or Lady Stair's Close, home to the Writers' Museum dedicated to Burns, Scott and Stevenson.
- John Knox House and the Museum of Edinburgh, in the Canongate.
- Mary King's Close, beneath the City Chambers, with tours of the buried streets.
- The Scottish Parliament and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, at the bottom of the Mile.
Holyroodhouse
The sovereign's official residence in Scotland, the palace grew up beside the abbey founded by David I in 1128. It is linked above all to Mary Queen of Scots, who lived there between 1561 and 1567: in her apartments her Italian secretary David Rizzio was murdered before her eyes in 1566. You can visit the State Apartments, the historic chambers and the abbey ruins, with the crags of Arthur's Seat behind. The palace closes when the sovereign is in residence, especially in early summer.
See also what to see in Edinburgh, history of Scotland and the Edinburgh guide.