Edinburgh’s an old place so it’s no surprise that there plenty of places to see that are a little off the beaten track. Here’s my list of nine Edinburgh must see sights and hidden gems:
Underground Edinburgh
The Fairy Coffins
William Burke’s Skeleton and Notebook
Trinity College Church and Altarpiece
Dean Village
Dunbar’s Close Garden
Panda & Sons
Deacon Brodie’s Cabinet
Jupiter Artland
Underground Edinburgh
Underground Edinburgh is a fascinating place to visit and certainly qualifies as a ‘must see’ when you visit Edinburgh. I covered this in a previous post called Edinburgh Underground Tour but I’ll briefly summarise it here.
There are three places to consider: two under the Old Town of the city itself and the other on the edge of the city:
Mary King’s Close
The vaults of the South Bridge
The Gilmerton Cove
Mary King’s Close: Royal Mile
Mary King was a woman who lived in the close that now bears her name. The close was one of several that were closed and walled up by Edinburgh Council during and after the great plague of 1645.
In the 18th century, Edinburgh Council decided to replace the open markets in the Royal Mile with an exchange building. To make way for the new building, five closes were demolished, including Mary King’s close. The huge exchange building, which is still there today and now forms the headquarters for Edinburgh Council, was simply built on top of them.
But each side of the Royal Mile is built on steep hillsides and so the close itself is still there, only now it’s underground.
But wait though. Many people venturing into the close today for the amazing underground tour sometimes experience weird goings on….you have been warned.
The Vaults Under The South Bridge
The building of a town on a long ridge with deep valleys either side eventually presents problems when the town starts to expand, and the deep valley to the south of the Royal Mile became a huge issue for Edinburgh in the 18th century.
So it was decided to span the valley with a bridge. The valley to the north had already been spanned by a bridge In 1763 (the present North Bridge is the one that crosses Waverley Station) and in 1785, work started on building the South Bridge.
The South Bridge was a monumental engineering project. Over 1,000 feet (305m) long, at least 30 feet (10m) high and strong enough to carry existing and future traffic. It would cost a fortune and no one had any money.
To pay for it , the bridge was lined with shops and houses. The idea was that the rents and sales of these properties would pay for the cost of building the bridge and it was amazingly successful.
But it was what was hidden under the bridge that was of great interest to the shops. The roadway of the bridge rests on 17 great arches which were then sub-divided into vaults to become their workshops.
These vaults are still there and today and it is these vaults that form part of underground Edinburgh.
Mercat Tours’ Historic Underground Tour , City Of Edinburgh Tours’ Old Town Historical Walking Tour and Auld Reekie Tours’ /Vaults Tour/will guide you through the vaults, explain their history and what actually happened under the bridge from its opening in 1788 to the time it was sealed by the Council then miraculously re-opened again in the 1980s.
It’s a fascinating story made all the more realistic by the atmospheric spaces under a bridge that’s over 230 years old and is still a major road carrying traffic into and out of Edinburgh today.
Gilmerton Cove
Unlike the town underground, Gilmerton Cove is a series of utterly mysterious man-made caves. No one knows who carved out the caves but archeologists estimate they were created in the early 18th century.
Located in the little village of Gilmerton, now an Edinburgh suburb, the Cove runs for 45 feet (13m) with rooms or chambers carved out on either side. It’s an amazing place with some amazing carvings.
Visit the cove and one of the first things that you’ll notice is that there are no corners on right angle in the chambers – beautiful curves abound everywhere. The workmanship in the cove is truly remarkable. Some of the walls between the chambers are no more than 12cm thick, while the stone tables and benches, which can seat up to 20 people, are extraordinary.
For a long time it was accepted that the cove was simply carved out by a man called George Paterson, a blacksmith who lived above the cove and used his new underground cave as a drinking den.
But it stretches credulity that a poor blacksmith from a poor 18th century mining village would be able or indeed have the inclination to carve out such an elaborate structure purely to use as a drinking den.
But if Paterson didn’t carve it, then who did? Everyone agrees that the tools used were metal, which means that it must have been carved after the Iron Age.
There are no Christian carvings in the cove which suggests it was carved before St Columba brought Christianity to Scotland in year 400. This gives a period between 500BC and 400AD – around 900 years – in which the cove could have been carved.
And now more chambers have now been discovered radar. It seems that Gilmerton Cove isn’t quite ready to give up its secrets yet.
The National Museum: The Fairy Coffins Of Arthur’s Seat
The bizarre story of the little coffins found on Arthur’s Seat has never been fully explained and has remained a mystery since they were discovered in 1836.
In that year, five boys, playing on the slopes of the hill found three tiers of rock inside a crevice on the side of the hill. Lying on the tiers were 17 miniature coffins, made from pine.
Inside each coffin was a carved wooden figure, each one about 4in (10cm) long. Why they were made, and who put them there is a mystery that still needs a solution.
Eight of the coffins survive and you can see them today at the National Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street.
Why were they made and who put them there is still the subject of some investigation. In 1994, they were re-examined by Professor Samuel Menefee and Dr Allen Simpson. They concluded that they weren’t that old – hardly older than when the boys found them – as the clothing dressing the figures dated from the 1830s.
Their appearance suggested that they were made by a craftsman – a shoemaker perhaps – using the sharp tools of his trade. Also, some figures’ arms are missing, and this could have been deliberate in order to fit the figures into the coffins.
But the big question of course, is why they were made? And one intriguing reason stems from a series of gruesome events that took place only a few years before the figures were made – the Burke & Hare murders.
In the early years of the 19th century, the famous Edinburgh medical schools were short of bodies for their anatomy classes and so let it be known that they would pay for any dead bodies delivered to them.
William Burke and William Hare were two immigrant Irishmen who ran a small lodging house near the Grassmarket. An old soldier who was lodging with them died and so the pair took his body to the medical school and received £7.50 for the body (around £790 today – almost a year’s wage for a labourer).
They money corrupted the pair and they went on a killing spree, murdering people in their lodging house before taking the body to the renowned anatomist of the day, Dr Knox fro around £10 a body.
In all, they killed 16 people before they were discovered. But 16 plus the old soldier who died of natural causes, equals 17, the number of fairy coffins found in the hillside in 1836. Could the little figures commemorate the poor people so callously treated by Burke & Hare and giving them a ‘proper’ burial?
William Burke’s Skeleton and ‘Pocketbook’
William Burke, one half of the Burke and Hare murdering duo, was hanged for his crimes in 1829 in the Royal Mile. Such was the interest in the crimes of Burke and Hare that a crowd of 25,000 people crammed into the High Street to watch Burke hang.
Burke, the man who, with his accomplice, William Hare, had killed 16 people for the dissection tables of the Edinburgh Medical Schools, in a final piece of irony, was himself dissected after his execution.
His body was taken to the Medical School at Edinburgh University and dissected but his skeleton was kept. And, if you’re curious, you can still see, among many other exhibits, William Burke’s skeleton at the Medical School’s Anatomical Museum.
It’s open at certain times to the public and is free. Check their website for opening times.
The Surgeons’ Hall And Burke’s Pocketbook
William Burke’s pocketbook didn’t actually belong to Burke. It’s one of many sometimes gruesome, sometimes fascinating exhibits at the Surgeons’ Hall Museum on Nicholson Street.
The pocketbook has covered with William Burke’s skin. On the front, an inscription reads, “Burke’s Skin Pocket Book” and on the back, another inscription reads, “Executed 28 Jan 1829”.
Aside from the pocketbook, the museum is a fascinating place and actually consists of three museums: the Pathology Museum, the Surgery Museum and the Dental Collection.
Surgeons’ Hall Museum is on Nicholson Street and is within walking distance of the National Museum. Exit the museum and turn right along Chambers Street to South Bridge. Turn right on South Bridge to pass the magnificent Old College of the University of Edinburgh.
(If you’ve time, walk up the steps of the Old College to see the beautiful college quadrangle)
Cross South Bridge and you will find Surgeons’ Hall around 130 yards (118m) from the Old College.
Trinity College Church And Altar
Trinity College Church and its adjoining Trinity Hospital were founded in 1460 by Mary of Gueldres, the wife and queen of King James II. James had been killed at the seige of Roxburgh Castle and Mary founded both church and almshouse (hospital) in his name.
After the Reformation, the church became the property of the Edinburgh Council. The church continued as a place of worship but three centuries later, the graceful old mediaeval church was demolished.
The instigator of its demise was the North British Railway. The church, by the 1830s, stood in the way of the engagement of the NBR’s railway station (now Waverley Station) . The ground and the church was purchased by the railway company in 1848 under an agreement with the Council and the minister.
But an outcry against the ‘destruction of the only Gothic structure left in Edinburgh’ led to the church being demolished stone by stone for rebuilding at some other site. The numbered stones were deposited, in the open, on Calton Hill.
Unfortunately, a legal case delayed its rebuilding and by the time it was rebuilt, many of the stones had been taken by Edinburgh citizens and builders simply helping themselves.
However, enough were left for the Apse (the domed front of the church) and the Choir (seating area) to be reconstructed and you can still see the church today, in Chalmer’s Close, off the Royal Mile, close to John Knox House.
Trinity College Church Altarpiece
The beautiful Altarpiece was commissioned by the provost of Edinburgh, Edward Bonkil in 1479 and created by Hugo van den Goes, one of the most significant Flemish painters of the 15th century.
It’s a stunning work of art, consisting of four panels (originally five but the centre one is lost) and shows the king, James III flanked by St Andrew, James’s queen, Margaret of Denmark, and their son, the future James IV.
How it survived the reformation is a miracle in itself but survive it did and is now on display in the National Gallery on the Mound (admission free).
Dean Village
In the middle of the city, nestling by a river, under the mighty Dean Bridge, lies the Dean Village. It’s an extraordinary place, a quiet historical haven in the middle of a busy city.
Dean Village is a collection of houses and buildings from different centuries clustered around a river called the Water of Leith in central Edinburgh. It is the middle point of a riverside walk that runs through the centre of Edinburgh and is the site where many mills once worked, powered by the river.
Although Dean Village is smack bang in the middle of Edinburgh city centre, when you get there it is perfectly peaceful and a lovely place to start a walk along the river. The little bridge across the river at the bottom of Bells Brae was once the only bridge across the river on the north-western exit from the town centre.
From Dean Village, take a leisurely walk eastwards along the bank of the river to Stockbridge, one of Edinburgh’s lovely suburbs, where you’ll find cafes, pubs, little independent shops, Inverleith Park and the Botanic Gardens.
How To Get There
From Princes Street in the centre of Edinburgh, make your way to the West End and take a right along Queensferry Street until you get to the great bridge over the Water of Leith. Before crossing the bridge, take a left down the steep Bells Brae to the Dean Village.
Dunbar’s Close Garden
At the bottom of the Royal Mile, near the Palace of Holyrood Palace, is a little close called Dunbar’s Close. As with the names of many old closes in the Royal Mile that were named after a famous or important person who lived there, this close was named after the solicitor and writer, David Dunbar, who owned property on the close.
The entrance to the close is like any other Royal Mile close: a tight little alley under or between tenements. But it’s when you get through the close you’ll be transported back to when the Canongate was occupied by Edinburgh’s gentry.
For at the back of the tenement the close widens out into a beautiful formal garden with views of Calton Hill and the Burns Monument.
It’s a little haven of peace at the back of the busy Canongate, a place where you sit quietly, perhaps with your lunch, and sit and read for a bit until it’s time to move on.
The garden itself is 20th century, however. The years of the 18th and 19th centuries were not kind to Edinburgh and its many inhabitants, many of whom lived in slum tenements. These were cleared in the late 19th century and in the 20th century too, but Dunbar’s Close survived.
In the 1970’s the land was acquired by a charity called The Mushroom Trust, which cleared the buildings occupying the garden and retained landscape architect, Seamus Filor to design the garden.
Local residents were consulted about the design and it was agreed to have a garden to suggest the spirit and layout of a seventeenth century garden rather than aiming for an exact historical reconstruction. The gently sloping site was formed into shallow terraces, leading to the creation of garden rooms separated by yew hedges and trellises.
Reach the garden by walking down the Royal Mile to the Canongate. Pass the Canongate Kirk on your left and look out for Dunbar’s Close just past the kirk.
Panda & Sons
If you should happen to be walking along the west end of Queen Street you’ll pass what looks like a barber’s shop. But if you’re in need of a haircut you’ll not get one here. For Panda & Sons is a brilliant speakeasy cocktail bar.
Enter the shop and descend the stairs to find a large book case barring your way. But fear not, because the book case is a hidden door into the bar.
Pull open the bookcase bar and be transported into a 1920s-styled Prohibition-themed bar with music, waiters and the most delicious cocktails.
The barber’s shop is located at 79 Queen Street.
Deacon Brodie’s Cabinet
William Brodie was a cabinet maker and man about town in 18th century Edinburgh. As a cabinet maker he was also the head of Cabinet Makers Guild, which gave him the title of Deacon. And as a Deacon of a guild, he was also a member of Edinburgh Town Council.
Brodie was well known around Edinburgh. He socialised with the gentry, attended balls and met famous people, like Robert Burns when he visited Edinburgh in 1786, and Henry Raeburn the artist.
So far, so good. But Brodie also had a dark side. For Brodie was a burglar.
As a cabinet maker, Brodie made some very fine cabinets. But when in his customers’ houses making their new cabinets, he would also make a very fine copy of their house keys. And at night, he and his gang would return and rob them!
He was caught eventually and hanged in the Royal Mile in 1788, before a massive crowd that some estimated at 40,000.
And that might have been that, except for one Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson, the great Edinburgh writer responsible for classics like Kidnapped and Treasure Island, was fascinated by Brodie’s story and the whole idea of living two lives in one: the good person during the day and the crook by night.
He eventually created an idea from Brodie’s life and turned it into his worldwide famous novella, The Strange Case Of Doctor Jekyll And Mr Hyde.
And the cabinet? Stevenson’s father had purchased one of Brodie’s cabinet and it was part of the young Robert’s bedroom furniture when he was growing up in Heriot Row.
You can still see the cabinet today in the Robert Louis Stevenson section of the excellent Writers’ Museum in Lady Stair’s House, Lawnmarket.
The Writers’ Museum
The museum celebrates three of Scotland’s greatest writers: Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns and is a wonderful place housed in an exceptional building that dates from 1622.
To find it, head to the top of the Royal Mile, to the part called Lawnmarket, just down the street from Edinburgh Castle. Lady Stair’s House can be accessed through any of the little closes off Lawnmarket.
Deacon Brodie’s Tavern
To round off the story of Deacon Brodie, I should mention the pub that bears his name. You can’t miss it on the corner of Lawnmarket and Bank Street. It has a wonderful selection of whiskies and a fine selection of beers. Stop in after you’ve been to the Writers’ Museum and chat about Brodie and Stevenson.
Jupiter Artland
This last on this list isn’t actually in Edinburgh itself (sorry) but if you feel like travelling outside the city to find something different, you’d be hard-pushed to find something as different as Jupiter Artland.
Jupiter Artland is a huge natural canvas of outside sculpture and art, founded, in 2009, by philanthropist art collectors Robert and Nicky Wilson. It’s grown into one of Scotland’s most significant arts organisations, set in 100 acres of meadow, woodland and indoor gallery spaces, and home to over 30 permanent and unique site-specific sculptures from artists Phyllida Barlow, Christian Boltanski, Charles Jencks, Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley.
If you happen to visit during the Edinburgh Festival Month of August, Jupiter Artland runs its own festival, called Jupiter Rising, a festival of art, music and experimental performance.
Admission fees are charged for adults and children, but there are various concessions.
Getting To Jupiter Artland
Jupiter Artland is around 11 miles (18km) from Edinburgh. If you’re driving, take the A71 out of the city and as you get closer, watch out for the brown tourist signs directing you to Jupiter Artland.
By Bus
Take the Lothian Country X27 or the First Bus X23 and ask the driver to let you off at the Jupiter Artland bus stop.
By Bike
You can avoid many busy roads on the way, following the Union Canal towpath and also picking up Sustrans route 75. There is a bike rack at the disabled car park.