Edinburgh Festival
Fireworks 2011.
(Image courtesy of edinburgh-inspiringcapital.com)
The Royal Mile is world
famous - and with good reason. Where else on the
Planet could you take a stroll down the tail of a
long-extinct volcano, from the Country's most famous
Castle, past the highest Courts in the land, the
seat of Local Government, down by the National
Parliament to a Royal Palace?
So, I'm
going to visit the Royal Mile, - What do I want to
know?
The Royal Mile
is, as it suggests, a mile long (although this
is an old Scot's mile) and is actually made up
of four distinct streets; Castlehill,
Lawnmarket, the High Street and Canongate.
Castlehill
This is the small stretch which runs down from
the Castle Esplanade to the top of Lawnmarket where
it joins Johnstone Terrace. Here you can see see
Cannon-ball House, which has a cannon ball
alledgedly fired during the second Jacobite
rebellion still lodged in the gable wall.
Lawnmarket
Lawnmarket carries on down the hill to the
junction with George IV bridge and is now the home
of the 'Tartan Tourist shop' For the history buffs,
David Hume and James Boswell both lived in a
tenement (now long gone) at James's Court.
High Street
This is the main section of the Royal Mile and
stretches from George IV Bridge to the World's End -
the site of the Netherbow Gate which was the
boundary of the City walls. (the location of the
gate is marked by a series of brass cobbles in the
street. The High Street is home to the Courts, St.
Giles Cathedral, the City Chambers and John Knox's
house. The top section has been partially
pedestianised and in August becomes the centre of
the Fringe street performances, where you'll see
anything from juggling chainsaws to Japanese Kabuki.
Canongate
Canongate runs down to Holyroodhouse and the
Scottish Parliament and is the forgotten part of the
Mile. Many of the orginal buildings are gone and
have been replaced by post-war 'brutalist'
tenements. The area was historically a more
industrial part of the city with a number of
breweries. Canongate was where Burke and Hare
picked up Mary Patterson and Janet Brown, the former
ending up as one of the 17 victims of the
bodysnatchers. Canongate Kirk was the venue of the
'other' Royal wedding in 2011.
