Mike Brown's Scotland

Edinburgh Castle sits high on a volcanic plug on the western end of the Royal Mile. It's clear from the view from the roof of the Museum of Scotland why the Castle was never taken by force.
The Royal Mile
The Flower Clock in Waverly Park Gardens Each year, the clock is decorated on a theme. The 2023 Flower Clock theme was the Flying Scotsman's centennial	Andy Scott's sculpture of an elephant in Waverly Park Gardens is a hit with kids.
St. Andrews Square in the New Town, looking downhill to the Scott Monument on Princes Street	Edinburgh's new tram system opened in 2014, running from Edinburgh Airport to St. Andrews Square in the New Town near Waverly Station. In 2023 it was extended to Leith.
The Ross Fountain in Waverly Park Gardens was renovated in 2018	George Street in the New Town
Edinburgh Castle from Princes Street with the Royal Scots Greys monument in the foreground	Waverly Gardens and the National Gallery
Grassmarket view of the Castle	The iconic view of Edinburgh Castle from The Vennel, a walkway to the south of Grassmarket
Grassmarket is a pedestrianized area of shops and eating places, parallel to and below the Royal Mile to the south.	Scott Memorial with Balmoral Hotel in the background
The road through Foog's Gate to the upper castle area.	Edinburgh Castle esplanade and gatehouse The gates are used as a giant projector screen for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
View from Argyle Battery northwestward to the three bridges crossing the Forth - the 1879 truss of the Rail Bridge, the 1960's Road Bridge suspension bridge, and the 2000's Queensferry Crossing cable-stayed bridge
Inside the Castle's Great Hall...	...where Queen Margaret conscripted some of our Scouts to perform a 13th century dance.
The National War Museum at Edinburgh Castle	The Royal Apartments at Edinburgh Castle
Panoramic view from the battery in front of Mons Meg. Argyle Battery and the Castle Cafe are visible on the left-hand side, within the Castle itself. Waverly Gardens is directly in front, with Princes Street and Edinburgh New Town behind. In the distance you can see the Firth of Forth, with the Kingdom of Fife on the far shore. To the right of Waverly Gardens is Calton Hill, with the National Memorial and Nelson's Column visitble on top of the hill.
The dungeons under Edinburgh Castle were used to house , among others, American sailors captured at sea during the Revolution and the War of 1812.
The Scott Monument and St. James Quarter ("Turd Emoji") from the Castle	View from the Half-Moon Battery
Mons Meg - built in 1449 with a barrel diameter of about 20 inches, this bombard was a gift from Philip, Duke of Burgundy, to King James II.	The One O'Clock Gun. As the name implies, the gun is fired ceremonially once a day, at 13:00. Originally, this was done so that the ships in Leith could synchronize their clocks, especially when the clouds were too low to allow the ships to see the time ball on the Observatory on Calton Hill.
The view from the Castle, overlooking the cemetery for the soldier's dogs.	The National War Memorial - a very moving tribute to the Scottish dead of World War I and later wars
Castle Hill from Waverly Park Gardens - the opposite side of the Castle from the panoramic view above. The Royal Mile stretches to the left of the Castle in this picture, and the stands for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo are on the Castle Esplanade.
The Camera Obscura is Victorian high-tech - a periscope which projects an image on a bowl at the top of the building. Our guide showed the Scouts around Edinburgh by panning the lens and mirror, and performed the ever-popular "swatting tourists with a paper card" trick.	The rest of the Camera Obscura building is filled with a wide mix of optical illusions. This tunnel of lights rotates around a stationary walkway. As you walk along, you're convinced that the walkway is lurching from side to side.
So. we cut off Jack's head and put it on a table...	The Ames Room - forced perspective guarantees that the person on the left is always shorter than the person on the right.
Warren, Joe and a frozen water bottle in thermal imaging.
Shake hands with yourself in the spherical mirror, which projects a real image in 3-D	The Glow Wall - normally, you stand in front of the wall, and when a strobe light flashes your shadow remains on the glowing wall. Our Camera Obscura guide pointed out that the wall works in reverse, too - you can paint with a flashlight. Luckily, I just happened to have one in my camera bag...
	The Royal Mile in a soap bubble...
Fleshmarket Close leads from Waverly Station up to Cockburn Street - interestingly, Fleshmarket Close was the book by Ian Rankin which introduced me to Inspector Rebus, so I was pleased to discover I was on the Close as I carried my bags from the station to the B&B.	The west end of the Royal Mile. The Camera Obscura is the white domed building on the left, the spire is the former Tolbooth Kirk, now the International Festival Hub.
The Royal Oak pub is one of the few which still feature live traditional music.	Inside the Royal Oak
Waverly Park Gardens from North Bridge	Deacon Brodie's Tavern - the good Deacon was the prototype for Robert Louis Stevenson's book Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. A deacon of the church and locksmith by day, at night he used extra copies of the keys to locks he'd installed in the New Town to burgle his customers' houses.
Our Dynamic Earth, just off the Royal Mile, is a hands-on museum about the environment, from ice (a glacier)...	... to fire (volcanos).
Victoria Street and West Bow lead from the Royal Mile area down to Grassmarket, with the pedestrian Victoria Terrace above	Victoria Street from the other direction - it's called West Bow where it meets Grassmarket, but changes names somewhere along the block-long winding path.
The Scottish Parliament Building stands at the bottom of the Royal Mile, just across from Holyroodhouse Palace. Its modern design, by a Spanish architect, is controversial, to put it mildly, and the Scots were not amused when it was completed in 2004 at a cost something over ten times what was originally estimated.	Each of the oddly shaped protrusions from the wall is a study for a Scottish Member of Parliament.
The Royal Mile at dusk - which can be pretty late in summertime	The clock on the Balmoral Hotel is kept two minutes fast, so that people running for their trains at the adjoining Waverly Station won't be late.
Narrow lanes, called "Closes" or "Wynds", lead down from the Royal Mile	Warriston Close
View down the Royal Mile from Castle Hill	This is Advocate's Close. The pointed structure which looks like a grounded spaceship is the Sir Walter Scott Monument on Princes Street.
North Bridge leads from the Royal Mile to Princes Street, crossing over Waverly Station on the way.	The sculpture over the doorway to Paisley Close shows a young boy's head with the inscription, "Heave awa' chaps, I'm no' dead yet". This commemorates an incident in 1861, when a baker on the close decided to expand his basement ovens, casuing the collapse of the seven-story building above. The 12-year-old Joseph MacIvor was buried in the rubble. When rescuers were about to give up, they heard him calling out the phrase which is today carved in stone... You can find the full story on the Mercat Tours website.
Looking up the Royal Mile in the evening light, past the Camera Obscura to the Castle. With the Festival Fringe in full swing, the Royal Mile is packed all day and well into the night.	The spire of St. Giles Cathedral is said to represent either the Crown of Thorns or a traditional Scottish crown. Either way, it's a distinctive landmark on the Royal Mile
St. Giles Cathedral in the early evening	The Supreme Court buildings -the car park here is distinguished primarily by parking spot 23, where you can find the grave of John Knox (1514-1572), leader of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland.
Holyrood Palace, at the bottom of the Royal Mile, is the official Scottish residence for the Royal Family.	Holyrood Palace yard
Holyrood Abbey adjoins the Palace. It was founded in 1128 by Scottish King David I. David was confronted by a stag after he was thrown by his horse while hunting. A holy cross ("rood") descended from heaven to save him, and he founded the abbey in gratitude (or so the story goes...)	A sarcophagus in Holyrood Abbey, occupied by an anachronistic Scout.
Greyfriars Kirkyard in the Covenanters' Prison, reputed to be the most haunted place in Scotland.	A mortsafe in Greyfriars Kirkyard, which protected a grave from "resurrection men" (graverobbers).
Greyfriars Kirk and its surrounding cemetery. It is estimated that about 400,000 bodies are buried at Greyfriars - many times the number of monuments, because graves were reused over and over - so many that the ground surface is nearly ten feet higher than the surrounding streets.The cemetery is also home to at least nine known plague pits with thousands of victims of the Black Death.
A visit to Greyfriars Bobby's grave is a "must". Bobby was the terrier who slept on his master's grave for 14 years. Strictly speaking, this isn't Bobby's grave - it wouldn't have been permitted to bury a dog in consecrated ground. His unmarked actual burial place was probably near the gateway to the cemetery.	Bobby himself sits just outside the cemetery (and his pub) - the most visited statue in Edinburgh. No, it's not an old tradition to rub his nose for luck. A modern tour guide invented the "tradition" in about 2010 - and as a result the poor dog's nose is being rubbed away. Please don't do it.
Merchant Street at Candlemakers Row, viewed from Greyfriars Kirkyard	The 15th century Flodden Wall runs through Greyfriars. That's Heriot School through the archway.
The National Gallery on the Mound has a huge collection of art - Scottish and from many other countries.	The Scott Memorial and Balmoral Hotel
Often mis-called "Arthur's Seat", the Salisbury Crags can be seen from all over Edinburgh. Arthur's Seat is actually the pointed mountain a few miles further away.	Deaconess Gardens, in the University District, just across the street from the Kenneth MacKenzie B&B I stayed at. The Kirk o' Field church and Salisbury Crags form the background for the tiny park.
Although it looks just like a normal street, South Bridge is just that - a stone arched bridge leading from the volcanic ridge of the Royal Mile southward to the city below. Buildings were built up on each side of the bridge, and most of the arches eventually became walled-up vaults.	Once businesses, goods storage and housing for the poorest filled the vaults. Eventually, they were filled in and forgotten. The vaults under South Bridge were re-opened within the last thirty years for candlelight ghost tours.
	Makars Court (left) houses the Edinburgh Writers' Museum The court is paved with stones carved with quotes by the city's many writers.
The Royal Museum of Scotland, renovated in 2012, is well worth a few hours' visit.	The large central atrium is lined with all manner of exhibits, called "Window on the World" - a little of everything from the museum's collections.
Type something into a keyboard, and this robot selects cubes to spell it out. Of course, I had to try it.	The recently refurbished atrium of the Museum of Scotland
The Natural History hall has a display of aquatic animals, from dolphins to hippos.	The Royal College of Surgeons Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a student here, taught by the eminent Dr. Bell - the prototype for Conan Doyle's best known character, Sherlock Holmes.
Wojtek the Bear was a mascot of the Polish Second Army Corps in WWII. He was enlisted as a private, then promoted to corporal, so that he could be transported on British ships and draw rations with the other soldiers. During the Battle of Monte Casino in Italy he carried ammunition to the troops. After the war he retired to a comfortable life at Edinburgh Zoo and died in 1963. This statue was unveiled in 2015.	Sir Walter Scott in his memorial on Princes Street, with the clock tower of the Waverly Hotel in the background. The clock is fast - it always is, so that people won't miss their trains at Waverly Station next door. The clock is on time only once a year, at midnight on New Year's Eve, when it's set to time the Hogmany celebration at the beginning of the new year - and then it's immediately set ahead three minutes.
Perhaps my favorite shop name in Edinburgh...	Rainbow over the Old Town
Calton Hill Calton Hill overlooks New Town and the south end of the Royal Mile, providing spectacular panoramic views over Edinburgh and across the Forth to the Kingdom of Fife.. The National Monument and the inverted-telescope of Nelson's Column on Calton Hill are visible from most of central Edinburgh.
View of Edinburgh Castle from Calton Hill	Trig Point on Calton Hill
The National Monument on Calton Hill	Princes Street in New Town from Calton Hill
There are 143 steps in the circular stairway to the top of the Nelson Monument, but when you get there, the view makes it all worthwhile. In this panoramic view, Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat are on the left, Old Town in the middle with the Castle to the right of center, Princes Street leads straight into the distance below the Castle, and New Town is off to the right.
The Observatory complex on Calton Hill
The Royal Yacht Britannia The Royal Yacht Britannia was in service from 1954 to 1997, carrying Queen Elizabeth II more than a million miles around the earth. As she was built in Clydeside (the yacht, not the Queen), it's appropriate that she's spending her retirement in Scotland.
The Britannia is moored in Leith Docks, just outside the Ocean Terminal shopping centre. You enter through an exhibit area in the shopping centre, and loop back and forth from the centre to the ship and back again over a series of bridges as you tour.	The bridge of the Britannia
In memory of the late Queen's pets, stuffed corgis are scattered throughout the yacht.	The Queen's Bedroom
The Dining Room	The Engine Room
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh International Festival runs through most of August each year. The Festival Fringe started out as an informal collection of acts scattered around the fringes of the "real" festival, but over the years it has grown into a festival of its own. In 2014, when I visited, there were over 3,000 performances at more than 300 venues throughout the city of Edinburgh.
The Royal Mile is filled with street performers - here, a group of acrobats.	A juggler tosses flaming torches on the Royal Mile
	This young juggler was performing on the plaza outside the National Gallery on the Mound.
Many street performances are promoting plays or musical acts at other venues.	A magician from Vancouver, Canada, of all places.
A bagpiper entertaining the crowd opposite Deacon Brodie's Tavern	One of the many Living Statues
Sand Sculptor and his dog	Another Living Statue - the little boy appears to be more interested in the money than the performer...
	This little girl seems a bit perplexed by the dancers from Taiwan.
The New Town and nearby
The New Town, which was built in the Georgian Period - 18th century - to allow the rich to escape the crowding of the Old Town along the Royal Mile and within the Flodden Wall.	Long rows of nearly identical terraces (we'd call them "row houses") characterize Georgian cities.
The Forth River Crossings from the Air The cantilever Forth Bridge, at left, is the oldest of the three crossings, carrying railway trains over the Forth since 1890. The suspension Forth Road Bridge, in the center, has crossed the Forth at Queensferry since 1964 - it is currently used only for buses on one or two lanes due to deterioration of the cables. The new cable-stayed Queensferry Crossing at right opened in 2017.
The Photography Centre is on Great King Street.	The Walter Scott memorial on Princes Street - the world's largest monument to a writer.
Leith The Shore in Leith Leith is the former port area of Edinburgh. In recent years it has become very trendy and picturesque, after years of neglect. The tram system was extended through Leith to Newhaven in 2023, making access easy and quick.
Merchant Marine Monument in Leith	The Signal Tower in Leith
The Water of Leith runs from the Pentland Hills through Edinburgh, flowing into the Firth of Forth at Leith. The Water of Leith Walkway is a walking path which follows the Water for 12.8 miles from Balaerno to Leith.	The Shore in Leith
The Foot of the Walk tram stop in Leith. Get off the tram here and walk down Leith Walk to the waterfront, or turn left and walk a couple of blocks to pick up the Water of Leith Walkway.	The pigeons seem to have adopted this rest area on the Walkway as their own.
Barnton Nuclear Bunker The Barnton Bunker was originally built during World War Two as part of the RAF Fighter Command's defenses of Britain from German attack. After the war it continued in RAF service as a Sector Operations Command and Early Warning facility, until in 1961 it transitioned into a refuge for Scottish Government workers and Regional Seat of Government in the aftermath of a nuclear attack. It was concealed in a disused quarry on Corstorphine Hill in the suburbs west of Edinburgh. The bunker was sold to property developers in 1987, who failed to develop it. The bunker suffered breakins and vandalism over the following years, with major fires in the early 1990's. Restoration efforts began in 2011, and the first tours were offered in 2018. Today, the restoration effort continues, and guided tours are offered on weekends most of the year (daily in August 2026).
Entrance tunnel to the Barnton Bunker	Aircraft tracking and dispatch area. When the bunker was repurposed as Regional Seat of Government, this well was filled in with floors and divided into rooms. These were removed during the restoration process since 2011.
The BBC Broadcasting Studio	Communications Center - in the process of restoration as of our visit in 2026
Staircase to the lower levels	Generators and Air Blowers
Rest area and offices for the RAF Workers
Queensferry
The Deep Sea World aquarium is located in North Queensferry, just across the Forth from Edinburgh. One of its attractions is a tunnel through a huge tank formed from a flooded quarry.	The Forth Bridge is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a great example of Victorian overbuilding.
The Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo
The Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo has been held on the Castle Esplanade every year since the end of World War Two. Military bands come from all around the world to perform at the Tattoo. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Tattoo in 2014 at the end of our Blair Atholl Jamborette trip in that year. See here for our web page with pictures from the 2014 Tattoo.

City of Edinburgh

The Royal Mile

Calton Hill

The Royal Yacht Britannia

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe

The New Town and nearby

Leith

Barnton Nuclear Bunker

Queensferry

The Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo