Day 01
Walk Through Edinburgh's Medieval Old Town
- We will start our tour at the Mercat Cross, which used to be the centre of a vibrant open-air market and was also the place for public punishment in earlier days.
- See the City Chambers, which sits literally on top of an old medieval street called Mary King's Close that was used to house plague victims.
- Head to the Law Courts to admire its stunning neo-classical architecture and hear about the different laws and traditions Scotland still keeps. In front stands an old statue of King Charles II, one of our great Stuart kings with a turbulent past.
- Continue to the front of St. Giles Cathedral, where we will discover a heart on the pavement marking where the old tolbooth once stood. It is now called the Heart of Midlothian.
- Admire the architecture of St. Giles Cathedral and hear the history of this 900-year-old church.
- On the next leg of our tour, we will walk from the Royal Mile to the Lawnmarket and discover a 17th-century tenement building called Gladstone's Land. Looking up to Castlehill, we can also see an impressive neo-gothic building that was once the Highland Kirk.
- Then, we will go through one of the eerie tunnel lanes. These tiny streets and back courtyards run along either side of the Royal Mile from top to bottom, and you will learn how they shaped the layout of Edinburgh's Old Town.
- Finally, we will end our tour with spectacular views of the New Town and the famous Princes Street. Throughout the tour, we will learn about Scotland's historic capital and famous characters such as Mary Queen of Scots, Deacon Brodie, Robert the Bruce, and our well-known writers Robert Louis Stevenson, Walter Scott, and Robert Burns.
