Royal Mile, Edinburgh

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Historically the Mercat Cross was the central meeting place where Royal proclamations and other official announcements were read. Although the current Mercat Cross was built in 1885 there is supposed to still be a portion of the original 14th century cross built into the shaft of this newer one. I find these kinds of things fascinating when I travel.

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Not everything on the Royal Mile is old or historic. The memorial to Adam Smith is very new. I had a new edition of the DK Travel Guide and it is not mentioned in there. I did some Google searching and found that the memorial was dedicated in July 2008. Adam Smith was the auther of "The Wealth of Nations" published in 1776.

While in Edinburgh every visitor will want to walk the Royal Mile. There are shops, restaurants, churches, junky souvineer stores, and other tourists. It will lead you to the Edinburgh Castle. And its great fun to explore the many sights on your way to the cliff top castle. We spent an afternoon walking with our host Sue (Suet). She knew a lot about the city and was a wonderful guide. We walked through the shops, had a drink at a pub, explored some churches and had many laughs. If you don't have a host to guide you, grab a DK Eyewitness Travel Guide and start you walk. The guide has a map for exploring the Royal Mile and then the castle area.

Visit this Fudge kitchen to see how Fudge is made and watch it being made first hand in front of you. There is a really big range of different types of fudge to buy and apparently it can be frozen for a short time if you don't want to eat it straight away.

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It is my fave street with its coblestone and old buildings. A beautiful street which lead us to Edinburgh castle. There are lots of cafes, restaurants, hostels, shops and tour providers along the street.

Whilst this may not be first on your list of sights to tick off in Edinburgh; if you have the time, it may be worth making the effort to see Mary Kings Close if you like your social history.

The whole experience only takes about an hour, I found it interesting to see how people lived centuries ago and how the plague affected the people of Edinburgh. It is billed as the street that time forgot but I didn't really get a sense of this until the tour was coming to an end, and somehow it lacked the "wow" factor for me.

I would advise anyone thinking of going of two things.
The first is not to go if you don't like the dark - it is all underground and rather gloomy and secondly to pre-book tickets because they limit the size of the tour parties - which could mean that you loose out at busy times of the year.

It is a bit on the expensive side for the amount of time you spend there but still interesting and could be the ideal solution on a rainy day.

I am suprised that there are not dozens of postings about this attraction as it is well worth a visit. I went last year and while I found the actual Camera obscura only mildly interesting and a bit of fun, the rest of the attraction more than made up for this. You are encouraged to touch and interact with items on display. I found some of the holograms that they have, really breathtaking. I thought it would only take about an hour to go around, as from the outside it does not look much, but I must have spent at least double that there in the end. I would enourage anyone to visit but I would recommend that they do so on a bright day to get the best from the actual obscura, as the picture clarity will be so much better. Don't be put off by the cost to get in. Be aware though that it might not be the best place for a wheelchair or buggy. I remember there were lots of stairs. Can't recall if there was a lift though - there may have been, you would need to check first.

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The Royal Mile is the popular name for the succession of streets which form the main thoroughfare of Edinburgh's Old Town. As the name suggests, it was equivalent to a Scottish mile between two foci of history in Scotland, from Edinburgh Castle at the top of the Castle Rock down to Holyrood Abbey.

By the West Door of St Giles is the Heart of Midlothian, a heart-shaped mosaic built into the pavement marking the site of the former Tolbooth (prison). Tolbooth prisoners used to spit as they entered the prison, and this tradition is maintained by some people, who spit on the Heart for good luck as they walk past.

There is so much to see and do here.