"Old Town, Edinburgh The Old Town () is the name popularly given to the oldest part of Scotland's capital city of Edinburgh. The area has preserved much of its medieval street plan and many Reformation-era buildings. Together with the 18th/19th-century New Town, it forms part of a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site. The ""Royal Mile"" is a name coined in the early 20th century for the main street of the Old Town which runs on a downwards slope from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace and the ruined Holyrood Abbey. Narrow ""closes"" (alleyways), often no more than a few feet wide,"
"Holyrood Park Holyrood Park (also called the Queen's Park or King's Park depending on the reigning monarch's gender) is a royal park in central Edinburgh, Scotland about to the east of Edinburgh Castle. It is open to the public. It has an array of hills, lochs, glens, ridges, basalt cliffs, and patches of gorse, providing a remarkably wild piece of highland landscape within its area. The park is associated with the royal palace of Holyroodhouse and was formerly a 12th-century royal hunting estate. The park was created in 1541 when James V had the ground ""circulit about Arthurs Sett, Salisborie"
"outlaw, George Robertson, at this spot. The site of the so-called Jeanie Deans Cottage can also be seen in Holyrood Park at the south end of St. Leonards Bank. Holyrood Park Holyrood Park (also called the Queen's Park or King's Park depending on the reigning monarch's gender) is a royal park in central Edinburgh, Scotland about to the east of Edinburgh Castle. It is open to the public. It has an array of hills, lochs, glens, ridges, basalt cliffs, and patches of gorse, providing a remarkably wild piece of highland landscape within its area. The park is associated with the"
"the Sheriff Court. On the south side, about one-third of the way down from the Castle toward the Palace is Parliament Square, named after the old Parliament House which housed both the law courts and the old Parliament of Scotland between the 1630s and 1707 (when its existence was ended by the Act of Union) Parliament House now houses the Court of Session, Scotland's supreme civil court. St Giles' Cathedral, the High Kirk of Edinburgh, also stands in Parliament Square. By the West Door of St Giles' is the Heart of Midlothian, a heart-shaped pattern built into the ""setted"" road,"
"Drummond Street, Edinburgh Drummond Street is a street just outside Edinburgh's Old Town, near the famous Royal Mile and Holyrood. The street connects the South Bridge (A7), where it is opposite the Old College, and the Pleasance. The street is paved with granite setts. It is in an area with several University properties and is home to many students as well as pubs and restaurants. Originally called Back Wall as the street was just outside the city wall, it was from the 1850s named after George Drummond. One famous former resident is David Bowie, who shared a small basement flat"
"by Edinburgh Castle, built high on Castle Rock, and the long sweep of the Old Town descending towards Holyrood Palace. To the north lie Princes Street and the New Town. The West End includes the financial district, with insurance and banking offices as well as the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. Edinburgh's Old and New Towns were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995 in recognition of the unique character of the Old Town with its medieval street layout and the planned Georgian New Town, including the adjoining Dean Village and Calton Hill areas. There are over 4,500 listed"
"its name. The streets which make up the Royal Mile are (west to east) Castlehill, the Lawnmarket, the High Street, the Canongate and Abbey Strand. The Royal Mile is the busiest tourist street in the Old Town, rivalled only by Princes Street in the New Town. Retreating ice sheets, many millennia ago, deposited their glacial debris behind the hard volcanic plug of the castle rock on which Edinburgh Castle stands, resulting in a distinctive crag and tail formation. Running eastwards from the crag on which the castle sits, the Royal Mile sits upon the ridge of the tail which slopes"
"but the name of the surrounding burgh, separate from Edinburgh and outside the Flodden Wall. This street is the short approach to Holyrood Palace at the foot of the Canongate. One of the buildings on the north side was the house of Lucky Spence, a notorious brothel madam, remembered in Allan Ramsay's poem, ""Lucky Spence's Last Advice"". On the south side is the Queen's Gallery, used to exhibit items in the Royal collection, in the shell of the former Holyrood Free Church and Duchess of Gordon's School. There are also the remains of the gatehouse of Holyrood Palace built by"
"the slope below the castle rock. Merchants were allocated strips of land known as ""tofts"", ranged along both sides of a long market street, on condition that they built a house on their land within a year and a day. Each toft stretched back from the street to a perimeter dyke and formed a private ""close"" (from Old French ""clos""), meaning an enclosed yard. A separate, contiguous burgh of regality held by the Abbey of Holyrood developed to the east as the burgh of Canongate. Edinburgh was largely in English hands from 1291 to 1314 and from 1333 to 1341,"
"Cowgate The Cowgate (Scots: The Cougait) is a street in Edinburgh, Scotland, located about southeast of Edinburgh Castle, within the city's World Heritage Site. The street is part of the lower level of Edinburgh's Old Town, which lies below the elevated streets of South Bridge and George IV Bridge. Consequently, the Cowgate can be quite gloomy and dark in sections. It meets the Grassmarket at its west end and Holyrood Road to the east. The street's name is recorded from 1428, in various spellings, as Cowgate and in 1498 as Via Vaccarum. It is derived from the medieval practice of"
"square. To the north, St Bernard's Row leads out past another little Georgian cul-de-sac, Malta Terrace, to Inverleith and the Botanic Gardens. Between Glenogle Road and the Water of Leith are eleven parallel streets, collectively known as the ""Stockbridge Colonies"", built between 1861 and 1911 by the Edinburgh Co-operative Building Company to provide low-cost housing for the artisan class. The streets are named after the Company's founders, including geologist and writer Hugh Miller (1802–56). The colony houses are now coveted properties, due partly to their location near the Royal Botanic Gardens and Inverleith Park, and ease of access to the"
"Abbeyhill Abbeyhill is an area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. As with many other parts of the city, the area has varying definitions. Generally it may be taken to mean the part of town lying between Holyrood Park (and perhaps The Palace of Holyroodhouse itself) to the south; London Road and adjoining streets to the north; Calton Hill and the yards of Waverley Station to the west; and Meadowbank to the east. It is in the locale of the recently constructed Scottish Parliament building, contains several old churches and other historic sites, and looks onto the Palace of Holyroodhouse."
"gently down to Holyrood Palace. Steep ""closes"" (or alleyways) run between the many tall ""lands"" (or tenement buildings) off the main thoroughfare. The route runs from an elevation of 42 meters above sea level at the palace, to 109 meters at the castle, for an average gradient of 4.1%. The Castle Esplanade was laid out as a parade ground, in 1753, using spoil from the building of the Royal Exchange (now the City Chambers). It was formalised in 1816 when it was widened and provided with decorative railings and walls. The Esplanade with its several monuments has been A-listed by"
"Easter Road, Edinburgh Easter Road is a main road in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is so called as it was known as the 'Easter (eastern) road to Leith'. As maps of Edinburgh in the late 18th century show, it had a counterpart in ""Wester Road"" (now Broughton Road and Bonnington Road). Until the creation of Leith Walk in the middle of the 17th century these were the two main routes from Leith to Edinburgh. Historic personages who have ridden up Easter Road have included Mary, Queen of Scots (1561) and Oliver Cromwell (from Leith Links in 1650). According"
"lead steeply downhill to both north and south of the main spine which runs west to east. Notable buildings in the Old Town include St. Giles' Cathedral, the General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland, the National Museum of Scotland, the Old College of the University of Edinburgh and the Scottish Parliament Building. The area has a number of underground vaults and hidden passages that are relics of previous phases of construction. No part of the street is officially called The Royal Mile in terms of legal addresses. The actual street names (running west to east) are Castlehill, Lawnmarket,"
"Princes Street Princes Street is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland, and the main shopping street in the capital. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, stretching around 1 mile (1.6 km) from Lothian Road in the west, to Leith Street in the east. The street is mostly closed to private cars, with public transport given priority. The street has virtually no buildings on the south side, allowing panoramic views of the Old Town, Edinburgh Castle, and the valley between. Only the east end of the street is open to all traffic. The bulk of"
"Three further streets which ran on a north to south axis completed Craig's grid: these were Hannover Street (named after the royal dynasty), Frederick Street (named after the father of George III) and Castle Street, for the views of Edinburgh Castle which the streets position affords. The New Town was built from St Andrew's Square in the east and continued west. Critics of the development began to complain that the streets were too plain and regimented and that there was a general lack of architectural merit. In response to this, Scotland's foremost architect of the day Robert Adam was asked"
"historical name, Parliament Close, a change he attributed to the silliness of fashion (""foppery"") when he wrote his memoir of life in Edinburgh in the 1820s. Parliament Square, Edinburgh Parliament Square, Edinburgh, is located off the High Street, part of the Royal Mile. The square is not a formal square, but consists of two sections surrounding St Giles Kirk on three sides: an L-shaped area to the east and south and another area on the west side of the church called West Parliament Square. The Edinburgh Mercat Cross is located on the east side of the square while an equestrian"
"between his residence in Holyrood Palace and the Catholic cathedral of St Mary's in Picardy Place at the top of Leith Walk. The gardens were, and are, owned by the George Heriot's Hospital. They are leased to the City of Edinburgh Council for public use on condition that they are maintained in good order, to be used only as ""pleasure grounds with walks"". No trees may be removed without consent. The lease is renewed at 25 year intervals. Playfair also designed a gardeners cottage for the west end of the gardens which was built in 1836 when it was known"
"closeness to the centre of Edinburgh and the Scottish Parliament. Dumbiedykes Dumbiedykes is a residential area in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is bounded in the north by Holyrood Road, the west by the Pleasance and St Leonard's Street and the east by Holyrood Park. The area was originally densely populated and poverty-stricken, but since the 1960s the majority of the tenement buildings and council flats have been completely demolished and the tenants moved to the new estates in Craigmillar, The Inch and Liberton with only Dumbiedykes Road, Viewcraig Street and Viewcraig Gardens still containing council-owned buildings. Ian Rankin"
"and eventually developing into the current Edinburgh Castle. The rest of the city grew slowly down the tail of land from the Castle Rock. This was an easily defended spot with marshland on the south and a man-made loch, the Nor Loch, on the north. Access to the town was restricted by means of various gates (called ports) in the city walls, of which only fragmentary sections remain. The original strong linear spine of the Royal Mile only had narrow closes and wynds leading off its sides. These began to be supplemented from the late 18th century with wide new"
"Carlton Terrace, Edinburgh Carlton Terrace (known as Carlton Place from around 1830 until 1842) is a residential street in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located on the east side of Calton Hill, at the eastern extremity of the New Town, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1995. The street is in the form of an inverted crescent, a long, hairpin curved terrace of 19 classical town houses, linking together with Regent Terrace and Royal Terrace in a 'necklace' around the hill. Built on the west side of a setted street, the terrace faces sloping gardens descending down to"
"being the world's largest annual international arts festival. Historic sites in Edinburgh include Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the churches of St. Giles, Greyfriars and the Canongate, and the extensive Georgian New Town, built in the 18th/19th centuries. Edinburgh's Old Town and New Town together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, which has been managed by Edinburgh World Heritage since 1999. ""Edin"", the root of the city's name, is most likely of Brittonic Celtic origin, from the Cumbric language or a variation of it that would have been spoken by the earliest known people of the area,"
"Palace in Edinburgh, the Queen's official residence in Scotland, with the ceremonial Guard of honour formed by the Royal Regiment of Scotland, the Royal Company of Archers and the High Constables of Holyroodhouse. In his speech at Holyrood Palace, the Pope associated atheist extremism with Nazism, thereby causing considerable controversy. The Pope said: A parade for Saint Ninian's day was held at 11am, the route beginning on Regent Road, Edinburgh, and proceeding along Princes Street. Attendance was open to all, with a parade of school children and figures from Scotland's Christian history, in honour of St Ninian of Galloway, who"
"""field with the gallows"", where several infamous executions took place, perhaps most famously that of Major Weir, the self-confessed witch, in 1670. Bodies were buried at the base of the gallows or their ashes scattered if burnt. Leith Walk Leith Walk is one of the longest streets in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the main road connecting the port area of Leith to the centre of the city. Forming the majority of the A900 road, it slopes upward from 'the Foot of the Walk' at the north-eastern end of the street, where Great Junction, Duke and Constitution streets meet, to the"
"George Street, Edinburgh George Street is the central thoroughfare of the First New Town of Edinburgh, planned in the 18th century by James Craig. The street takes its name from King George III and connects St Andrew Square in the east with Charlotte Square in the west. It is located on the north side of the Old Town of Edinburgh, to the north of the Princes Street and to the south of Queen Street, running straight along the high point of a ridge. George Street, as first proposed in 1767 and initially built, was a residential area. However in the"
"The Canongate The Canongate is a district of Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The name is inherited from the burgh of the Canongate founded by David I of Scotland c.1143. It was bought by the adjacent city of Edinburgh in 1636 but it remained a semi-autonomous burgh under its own administration of bailies chosen by Edinburgh magistrates, until its formal incorporation into the city in 1856. The burgh gained its name from the route that the canons of Holyrood Abbey took to Edinburgh - the canons' way or the canons' gait, from the Scots word ""gait"" meaning ""way"". In"
"the city centre. Abbeyhill is to the north, and Duddingston village to the east. The University of Edinburgh's Pollock Halls of Residence are to the south-west, and Dumbiedykes is to the west. Arthur's Seat is the main peak of the group of hills which form most of Holyrood Park. The hill rises above the city to a height of , provides excellent views, is quite easy to climb, and is a popular walk. Though it can be climbed from almost any direction, the easiest and simplest ascent is from the East, where a grassy slope rises above Dunsapie Loch, a"
"include Holyrood Park and Corstorphine Hill. Edinburgh includes former towns and villages that retain much of their original character as settlements in existence before they were absorbed into the expanding city of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Many areas, such as Dalry contain residences that are multi-occupancy buildings known as tenements, although the more southern and western parts of the city have traditionally been more affluent with a greater number of detached and semi-detached villas. The historic centre of Edinburgh is divided in two by the broad green swathe of Princes Street Gardens. To the south the view is dominated"
"Haymarket, Edinburgh Haymarket (, ) is an area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is in the west of the city and is a focal point for several main roads, notably Dalry Road (which leads south-west to Gorgie Road and the M8 motorway to Glasgow), Corstorphine Road (leading west to the M9 for Stirling and the north), and Shandwick Place (leading east to Princes Street and the city centre). Haymarket contains a number of popular pubs, cafés and restaurants. In the centre of the crossroads at the heart of Haymarket is a war memorial in the form of a clock tower, for"
"James IV, with a copy of the royal coat-of-arms of James V set in the wall. Today, the Royal Mile is an eclectic mix of shops, restaurants, pubs and visitor attractions. During the annual Edinburgh Festival, the High Street becomes crowded with tourists, entertainers and buskers. Parliament Square is at the heart of Scotland's legal system, being the home of both the High Court of Justiciary and the Court of Session. Royal Mile The Royal Mile is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The term was first"
"Mikhail Gorbachev, Chairman for the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Soviet Union, stays at Holyrood Palace during his visit to Scotland 1985: The population of the city is 440,000; Edinburgh University institutes a Chair of Parapsychology; Portobello Open Air Bathing Pool closes 1986: City hosts the 13th Commonwealth Games 1988: Eleanor McLaughlin becomes Edinburgh's first female Lord Provost 1989: National Gallery of Scotland renovated 1990: Edinburgh Castle is first, and Holyrood Palace eighth, in ranking of paid Scottish tourist attractions 1993: First Edinburgh Hogmanay Street Party held as an organised event 1994: Murrayfield Stadium rebuilt 1995: Cutty Sark Tall Ships"
"site the new legislature in a purpose-built structure in the Holyrood area of the Canongate. A number of uses have been suggested for the building, including a home for a Scottish National Photography Centre. As of 2015, Edinburgh City Council - the building's current owners - have initiated a project to lease the building to be used as a luxury hotel. Edinburgh's original Parliament House is in the Old Town just off the Royal Mile and currently houses the Court of Session. These were the buildings of the former Parliament of Scotland which existed before the formation of the Kingdom"