Introduction

EDINBURGH is the jewel in Scotland's crown. The jewel has many facets: classical architecture piled on hills, tree-filled valleys, sweeping Georgian crescents, medieval closes, graceful bridges soaring across chasms, green parks, sudden views of the sea from street corners. And the castle. That supreme castle, which looks so right that it might have grown out of the rock by some natural process.

Ramsay Gardens & the Castle

The castle, older than Edinburgh itself, occupies a special corner of the Scottish folk memory. The fortress on the rock, the palladium of the city, remains a compelling symbol. It is a perpetual, very public reminder to Scots of their roots.

It has been said that Edinburgh often looks less like a modern city than a theatrical backdrop. This is true. On the visual level, Edinburgh is pure theatre. The basic reason, of course, is that Scotland's capital has the good fortune to be built upon hills.

The local topography is the result of the fact that Arthur's Seat was the principal volcano in this region millions of years ago. Much later, glacial action gouged a number of dramatic valleys in the landscape and shaped the high ridge on which the Old Town stands today.

Arthur's Seat & Salisbury Craggs

The pedestrian in Edinburgh seldom walks on level ground: his day, like life itself, is a series of ups and downs. The gradients, however, are seldom steep, and the ideal way to see Edinburgh is on foot.

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?

Few cities offer more to those with a discerning eye. (For photographers it is a paradise.) Edinburgh's other great blessing is its architecture, whether Georgian, Victorian, Scots Baronial, medieval or whatever. Edinburgh has several thousand buildings that are officially protected because of their architectural or historic importance -- more than any other city outwith London. A quarter of Scotland's A-listed buildings are in Edinburgh.

Royal Circus

The eighteenth-century New Town is the largest area of Georgian architecture in Europe, and probably in the world: it has been officially recognised by the European Community as a valuable part of the European heritage. Edinburgh's blessing, then, has been the manner in which distinguished architects, particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, endowed Edinburgh with a wealth of meritorious buildings - both public and private - and skilfully used Edinburgh's hills and valleys as a dramatic setting. Sir Walter Scott caught Edinburgh's magic on paper when he wrote:

Where the huge Castle holds its state,
And all the steep slope down,
Whose ridgy back heaves to the sky,
Piled deep and massy, close and high,
Mine own romantic town!

Edinburgh people are very proud of their city and take the closest interest in their local environment. That is why so much that is worth while has survived, while other cities have bulldozed much of their heritage in pursuit of elusive improvement.

The intention behind this book is to introduce the visitor to the many attractions which Edinburgh people know and appreciate. Edinburgh people enjoy helping the stranger in their midst. Just ask.