Walking Edinburgh — Up the Royal Mile to the Castle

Edinburgh is built on a dead volcano, and once you know that the whole city makes sense. The castle sits on a plug of solid volcanic rock. When the glaciers came through, the ice split around it and dumped a long ramp of debris behind — and that ramp is the Royal Mile. Castle at the top, one street running down from it, closes branching off the sides. So I walked it. All the way up, finishing at the castle. AT THE TOP Edinburgh Castle has been attacked 26 times in about 1,100 years — the most besieged place in Britain. The Honours of Scotland are up there: the oldest crown jewels in Britain, hidden from Cromwell, then walled up and forgotten for over a century until Walter Scott had the chest broken open in 1818 and found them still inside. And the One O'Clock Gun has fired six days a week since 1861, so ships in the Firth of Forth could set their clocks. It's been fired in anger exactly once — at German Zeppelins in 1916. It missed. IF YOU GO It's uphill the whole way. Go early or late; the castle is Scotland's busiest paid attraction. And the Stone of Destiny isn't there any more — it moved to Perth Museum in March 2024. MORE WOCKINGTOCKING EP.06 — Gamescom 2026 EP.05 — Bacharach and the Rhine Gorge EP.04 — Warwick Castle #Edinburgh #Scotland #WalkingTour