Must-see attractions in Edinburgh

  • Outside Out of the Blue Drill Hall in Leith

    Out of the Blue Drill Hall

    Leith

    A multi-purpose, family-friendly arts hub, Out of the Blue occupies a magnificent old drill hall dating back to 1901 and hosts events, exhibitions,…

  • Inside the Biscuit Factory in Leith

    Biscuit Factory

    Leith

    This recent addition to Leith’s hipster scene is a creative arts hub housed in an old biscuit factory, also home to Edinburgh Gin’s second distillery…

  • 1930s style St Andrew's House.

    St Andrew's House

    New Town

    On the southern side of Calton Hill stands the modernist facade of St Andrew's House, built between 1936 and 1939 and housing the civil servants of the…

  • Heart of Midlothian

    Old Town

    Outside the western door of St Giles Cathedral is a cobblestone heart set into the paving that marks the site of the 15th-century Tolbooth. The Tolbooth…

  • Edinburgh Dungeon

    New Town

    This manufactured attraction combines gruesome tableaux of torture and degradation with live actors who perform scary little sketches along the way. There…

  • Mercat Cross

    Old Town

    Outside the eastern end of St Giles Cathedral stands the Mercat Cross, a 19th-century copy of the 1365 original, where merchants and traders met to…

  • St Cuthbert's Parish Church

    New Town

    St Cuthbert's Parish Church was built in the 1890s on a site of great antiquity – there has been a church here since at least the 12th century, and…

  • Talbot Rice Gallery

    Old Town

    This small art gallery has three exhibition spaces: the neoclassical Georgian Gallery, designed by William Playfair, houses a permanent collection of…

  • Highland Tolbooth Kirk

    Old Town

    Edinburgh's tallest spire (71.7m) is at the foot of Castlehill and is a prominent feature of the Old Town's skyline. The interior has been refurbished,…

  • Dean Bridge

    Edinburgh

    Designed by Thomas Telford and built between 1829 and 1832 to allow the New Town to expand to the northwest, the Dean Bridge vaults gracefully over the…

  • Newhaven Harbour

    Edinburgh

    Newhaven was once a distinctive fishing community whose fishwives tramped the streets of Edinburgh’s New Town selling caller herrin (fresh herring) from…

  • Flodden Wall

    Old Town

    At the western end of the Grassmarket, a narrow close called the Vennel leads steeply up to one of the few surviving fragments of the city wall that was…

  • Melville Monument

    New Town

    St Andrew Sq is dominated by the fluted column of the Melville Monument, commemorating Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville (1742–1811). Dundas was the…

  • Burns Monument

    Holyrood & Arthur’s Seat

    The neoclassical Burns Monument (1830), a Greek-style memorial to Scotland's national poet Robert Burns, stands on the southern flank of Calton Hill. It…

  • Old College

    Old Town

    Edinburgh University’s Old College is a neoclassical masterpiece designed by Robert Adam in 1789; today it is home to the university’s law faculty. At the…

  • Church of St Andrew & St George

    New Town

    The Church of St Andrew & St George, built in 1784 with an unusual oval nave, was the scene of the Disruption of 1843, when 451 dissenting ministers left…

  • Hermitage House

    Edinburgh

    The visitor centre in Hermitage of Braid nature reserve explains the history and wildlife of the glen, and has details of nearby nature trails.

  • Maltings

    Edinburgh

    Alongside the River Almond in Cramond, opposite the cottage on the far bank, is the Maltings, which hosts an interesting exhibition on Cramond’s history.

  • St John's Church

    New Town

    The western end of Princes St is dominated by the tower of St John's Church; the church is worth visiting for its fine Gothic Revival interior.

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