I’m going to Scotland, specifically Edinburgh. Any suggestions on what to do there? I’m attending a conference, so I can’t travel much out of the city and won’t have a huge amount of spare time, but I’d like to see some of the sights and maybe find some interesting food and drink. (Spare me your haggis jokes, please.)
It will be in November (so don’t bother telling me about the wonderful arts festival).
Any ideas?
Sadly, I have no haggis jokes to spare. I am currently using them all.
Wrap up warm. It doesn’t often snow in Edinburgh (I think it has something to do with being on the coast) but it does get bitterly, bitterly cold, and Edinburgh is famous for being a windtrap of gales of icy sleet. Of course, depending on when in November you go, it could actually be quite nice; the worst sunburn I’ve ever had was in Edinburgh.
Suggestions:
Catch a train from Edinburgh Waverley (the main station) to Aberdour, a village on the other side of the Firth of Forth. You’ll get to travel over the Forth Rail Bridge (scary), and Aberdour is the first “proper” stop you can catch a return back from. It’s a pretty little coastal village, but I don’t know how it’ll look in November.
If you get bored in the city, Glasgow is a 40-minute train journey away. Unforunately St Andrews is not particularly easy to get to (it doesn’t have a railway station, so you have to go via one at the RAF base at Leuchars), unless you have an entire day free.
Walk up Arthur’s Seat. It’s a large hill (well, almost a mountain) in the centre of town. It’s about an hour to the summit if you take the road that winds around it, or about 30-45 minutes if you don’t mind a bit of gentle rock-climbing. The views are very, very good.
Go visit the castle, or at least climb up to the car park before it. Again, lovely views. A nice (though strenuous) walk is along Princes Street, then up the Royal Mile to the High Street, which is a cobbled street leading up to the castle with more than its fair share of tourist-bait tartan shops and souvenir stalls.
Princes Street, the main shopping street, is fairly normal but has great views as it runs along one side of a small “valley” that the railway runs down. The castle is on the other side of the “valley”, and there’s also some nice gardens in the middle (Princes Street Gardens). There’s plenty of nice monuments and buildings around; the Scott Monument on Princes Street is particularly imposing.
Edinburgh’s food and drinking establishments have definitely gone upmarket over the last few years, so there’ll be no shortage of choice. I was at university there from 1993 to 1997, so I’m afraid I don’t know what the best places are at the moment.
The nightlife is thriving, especially as Edinburgh has three large universities (Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt and Napier) and a number of affiliated colleges (e.g. the Royal Dick Veterinary College). Edinburgh University alone has 20,000+ students, so expect full bars and pubs everywhere all week. It’s generally safe but avoid The Meadows (a large park) after dark to be on the safe side, and anything more than three or four streets north of the centre can get dodgy (the outer north and outer south sides have large council estates and large heroin problems).
[The city is basically split along Princes Street; the immediate north is New Town, which is home to many of the wealthier students and yuppies (think flats like the one in Shallow Grave); the inner southern areas like Morningside, Tollcross and Newington are less well-off and generally infested with students.]
Have a great time!
Show us wit’s under yer kilt, lassie! Aye, she’s a beauty.