To Explore Edinburgh, Plan to Hike Up, Down

We were huffing and puffing our way up one of Edinburgh’s streets when somebody summed up the Old Town.

“This place isn’t on the level,” he said.

He was right. The place is all hills, so ingeniously designed that only the Royal Mile seems to go downhill.

Every time we reached the top we would pause for breath, look around and find yet another winding street, its stone steps leading up to another undiscovered summit.

Old Town is really only one hill, a slope of volcanic rock that broods like a Sphinx over the Scottish plain, with Edinburgh Castle at its head and the Palace of Holyrood House at its tail.

Countless alleys and wyndes spill down its flanks. Stone stairways descend to hidden pubs and tearooms. Sun-splashed courtyards gleam at the bottom of dank closes.

From the castle ramparts other hills loom into view. To the west, behind Holyrood House, are Salisbury Crags and Arthur’s Seat, with Firth of Forth in the distance.

Balancing Arthur’s Seat to the northwest is Calton Hill, topped by strange monoliths and colonnades. To the north is the hill of Inverlieth, home of the Royal Botanic Garden. And to the south is Blackford Hill, site of the Royal Observatory and gateway to the Borders beyond.

Touring Old Town

A tour of Old Town begins at the castle, which is easily reached by climbing one of the winding trails from Princes Street Gardens or by marching directly up High Street.

Try to arrive for the firing of the 1 o’clock gun. Why a 1 o’clock gun? “We Scots are very frugal,” the guide says. “A noonday gun would cost us 12 shots a day.”

Once in the castle you’ll find that the climb isn’t over. The path winds farther up, through seven gates, until it reaches the oldest part of the castle.

Crown Square, the heart of the castle complex, is flanked by the National War Memorial, the Crown Room, Queen Mary’s Apartments, the Banqueting Hall and the United Services Museum.

Here are memorials to Scottish regiments and soldiers who have died in various wars. Here too is the tiny alcove where in 1566 Mary gave birth to James VI, later to become James I of England.

The Banqueting Hall, with beamed and vaulted ceiling, was long the setting for state banquets, not all of which were cakes and ale and merriment.

Black Dinner of 1440

Consider the Black Dinner of 1440. The evening’s entree was a black bull’s head--the sign of death--a signal for the young Earl of Douglas to be slain with axes in the presence of the king.

(Dining in Edinburgh has always been an iffy proposition. At Holyrood House you can visit the room where Mary Queen of Scots’ secretary, David Rizzio, was slaughtered while supping with the queen.)

Just after leaving the castle esplanade, look at the house on the right. This is Cannonball House. The cannonball, which lodged near an upper window, was lobbed from the castle in 1745 and was intended for Bonnie Prince Charlie at Holyrood House. It fell short.

Now you are on the Royal Mile, named for the procession of royals who trod its stones in their passages between the castle and Holyrood House.

On the right is Boswell’s Court, named for the Edinburgh lawyer and biographer of Dr. Samuel Johnson. It houses the Witchery, a good restaurant for lunch or tea, though your digestion may be hindered by remembering that this is the site of the infamous Hell-Fire Club, whose cabalistic emblems adorn the walls.

Order the haggis we’ neeps ‘n’ tatties. Neeps are turnips, tatties are potatoes, and haggis is a sheep’s stomach stuffed with innards and oatmeal.

Brodie the Burglar

Below, the alleys branching off are Mylne’s Court, Riddle’s Close, Macmorran’s Close and James’s Court, all named for upstanding Scots citizens. When you reach Brodie’s Close, however, you encounter a different sort of character.

Brodie’s Close is named for Deacon William Brodie, a town councilor and cabinet maker by day and a cat burglar by night.

On March 5, 1788, he was arrested while robbing the excise office, and later hanged on a gallows he had designed. Ironically, his design failed him, and it took three “drops” for Brodie to die.

Brodie survives in three ways. First, there is Brodie’s Close. Second, across the way, is Deacon Brodie’s Tavern, a popular spot. And third, he became the model for Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

Across from Deacon Brodie’s Tavern is a brass H set in the pavement, where the gallows once stood and where the last public execution was held in 1829.

The guest of honor was William Burke, the body-snatcher who gave us the verb burke: “to murder a person in such a way as to produce no incriminating marks, usually by suffocation, and with the intention of selling the body for dissection.”

Cobblestone Heart

Down the street in front of St. Giles Cathedral is a cobblestone heart marking the entrance to the Old Tolbooth, the town prison that was demolished in 1817 and immortalized by Sir Walter Scott in his novel “The Heart of Midlothian.” Scott salvaged its great wooden door for display at his house at Abbotsford.

An early custom persists here. Prisoners released from the jail would spit on the door to ensure that they’d never return. Today even brisk women executives, clicking along with Gucci bags on their shoulders, spit on the cobbled heart as they pass.

Don’t stick to High Street, though. The closes (closed alleys) and wyndes (through alleys) seem forbidding at first, but pluck up your courage and enter.

A plaque in the entryway to James’s Court says it was once the residence of philosopher David Hume, who entertained Boswell and Johnson in his lodgings.

At the end of the alley is a bagpipe shop where you can buy pipes and songbooks and take lessons.

Europe’s First High-Rises

Here the alley opens into a courtyard with apartment buildings on four sides. These tenements give a fair picture of what Edinburgh has always been like.

Built on slopes and confined by city walls, Edinburgh grew up rather than out, creating Europe’s first high-rises.

So quickly does the slope drop off that a building five stories high on the hillside may be 10 stories high at the back.

Within James’s Court are a pub and restaurant, with outdoor tables protected from High Street’s traffic. Here too is Lady Stair’s House (1622), restored as a museum to Scotland’s three literary greats, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Along with more conventional memorabilia the museum houses some homely touches, such as a lock of Burns’ hair and the rocking horse Scott rode as a child.

Outside Lady Stair’s House steep steps descend to The Mound at the outer edge of the Old Town. Suddenly you are no longer confined by walls and alleys. In front of you is the panorama of Princes Street Gardens, with the geometric pattern of the New Town beyond.

To regain Royal Mile, simply turn right and follow The Mound up to its intersection with High Street.

Toward the bottom of Royal Mile, as High Street becomes Canongate, the slope levels off, ending at the broad plain of Holyrood.

A Royal Residence

Holyrood is a royal residence, but when the queen and her family are not there (most of the time) it is open to visitors who can view the rooms and also some older apartments that resonate with the history of the House of Stuart.

There are tiny Historic Apartments, scene of Mary Queen of Scots’ stormy interview with John Knox in 1561. Beyond (and up the winding stairs) is the tiny dining room where Rizzio was murdered in 1566. The ever-precise Scots aver that his stab wounds numbered 56--no more, no less.

Here too is the long picture gallery containing portraits of 89 Scottish kings, commissioned by Charles II and executed by Jacob de Wet in a burst of creativity and efficiency. Look closely: Though the kings’ costumes differ, their faces are all the same.

Trekking from the castle to Holyrood House and exploring all the hidden alleys in between is plenty for one day. On another day, walk up Arthur’s Seat, behind Holyrood Park, and see from its summit how insignificant Castle Hill really is. From Arthur’s Seat it seems a mere bump in the earth.

Ascend the narrow path that hugs the face of Salisbury Crag, viewing the Old Town in the distance.

Descend again to Holyrood Park and walk away from town, passing the swans in St. Margaret’s Loch, until you reach a cairn at the entrance to the park.

The cairn marks the spot where Nicol Muschet murdered his wife on the night of Oct. 17, 1720. No plaque explains the story; the Scots don’t trumpet their bloody history.

As with the brass H where the gallows stood and the cobbled “Heart of Midlothian,” you must discover the gory details for yourself.

Wilderness in Close

From the Muschet cairn you can see the monuments of Calton Hill in the distance. Calton Hill rises in the center of town, but is charmingly wild.

At the top is the National Monument, begun in 1822 as a complete reproduction of the Parthenon but falling far short. Only the front portico was completed before funds (and perhaps memories) ran dry.

But the Nelson Memorial is complete and can be climbed (by now you’ve realized that climbing is the order of the day), rewarding you with grand views of towers and steeples, the Firth of Forth and the Kingdom of Fife across the water.

Blackford Hill (to the south) and Inverlieth Hill (to the north) complete the circuit of Edinburgh’s hills. From Blackford Hill you see the grand sweep of Edinburgh: a view of Old Town sloping down from Castle Hill, with the unforested heights of Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags looming above.

On Inverlieth Hill you’ll spend more time enjoying the Royal Botanic Garden than gazing at the distant views. But look up now and then: There is Old Town, brooding in the distance.

The Scots say that Edinburgh is built on seven hills, like Rome. I counted only six, but that was plenty for one week.

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Four big Victorian establishments dominate the Edinburgh hotel scene. All prices are per person per night, for room and breakfast.

The Caledonian Hotel (Princes Street, Edinburgh EH1 2AB, $60 to $90 U.S.) anchors the west end of Princes Street, while the North British Hotel (Princes Street, Edinburgh EH2 2EQ, $60-$90) holds down the east end. The Old Waverley Hotel (43 Princes St., Edinburgh EH2 2BY, $45-$60) is in between. Across North Bridge from the North British Hotel and handier to the Old Town is the Carlton Highland Hotel (North Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1SD, $60-$90).

Edinburgh swarms with small guest houses and inns, with prices starting as low as $15 a night. A list can be obtained from the British Tourist Authority, 350 S. Figueroa St., Suite 450, Los Angeles, 90071, phone (213) 628-3525.

If you arrive in Edinburgh without a reservation, the Tourist Information Center at Waverley Market, next to the train station, will book a room for you. When the Edinburgh Festival is on (the last three weeks of August), it’s best to book in advance.

The Pompadour in the Caledonian Hotel is arguably the best restaurant in town, with formal French service available nightly at about $30 per person. Smaller is the Witchery (Castle Hill, Royal Mile), which serves excellent Scotch beef and salmon (about $15 per person) in a spooky subterranean setting.

At the Gilded Balloon (Cowgate) you can dine on lamb chops and cockaleekie soup under a cavernous vaulted ceiling ($15).

The Doric Tavern (upstairs at 15 Market St.) features daily specials, a huge selection of wine by the glass and an arty crowd ($10-$15).