Edinburgh, Scotland 

In June of 2022, my family and I went on a two week trip to Scotland. We rented a car and stayed in several different towns, the fourth of which being Edinburgh.

Edinburgh Itinerary

Day 9: (drive from Isle of Skye to Edinburgh, overnight in Edinburgh)

-Glenfinnan Visitor Center and Viaduct

-Mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral 

-Picardy Place 

Day 10: (overnight in Edinburgh)

-The Chocolatarium, chocolate tour

-Edinburgh Castle 

-Greyfriar’s Kirkyard 

-Murder/ghost tour of Edinburgh

Day 11: (overnight in Edinburgh)

-Rosslyn Chapel 

-Melrose Abbey 

Day 12: (overnight in Edinburgh)

-Mary King’s Close

-Magic Potions Tavern

-The Royal Mile & Victoria Street

Day 13: (drive from Edinburgh to Glasgow, overnight in Glasgow and fly out the next morning)

-walk to Palace of Holyroodhouse, in Edinburgh 

-we flew from Glasgow to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania

As you probably know, there are many different pronunciations of “Edinburgh”. The most common are “Edin-burg” and “Edin-burrow”. However the people that live in Edinburgh, tend to pronounce it as “Edin-bura”.

Glenfinnan Visitor Center and Viaduct

On our drive from Isle of Skye to Edinburgh, we stopped at the Glenfinnan Visitor Center and Viaduct. In case you don’t know, a viaduct is a long bridge with arches. What is so special about the Glenfinnan Viaduct you may ask? Well, it is where the flying car and Hogwarts Express scenes from the Harry Potter movies 1, 2, 3, & 4 were filmed. Most notably, the flying car and train scene in the second movie. 

We had to wake up pretty early, as the drive took us about 2 hours from Isle of Skye. The train leaves Fort Augustus at 10:15 and takes about 30 minutes to get to the viaduct. We got there at around 10 o’clock and made the 15 minute walk up the hill on the left side of the viaduct. Even though it was raining, there were still a good amount of people there, but plenty of space for everyone to spread out. 

As a huge Harry Potter fan, I thoroughly enjoyed this experience!  

St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral

This Roman Catholic church was first opened in 1814, and has a beautiful organ with around 4,000 pipes. It was a gorgeous church with all it’s magnificent painted walls and ceilings.

Picardy Place

This was not part of our original itinerary, but was in fact something we saw on our way to Mass at St. Mary’s. Picardy Place is the place where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes, was born. There wasn’t much to see except a street sign and a small restaurant, but it was still neat. Usually, there is a statue of Sir Arthur, but it has been removed temporarily for construction.

 

The Chocolatarium

During our stay in Edinburgh, we went on a tour at The Chocolatarium. It was a 90 minute tour during which we created our own chocolate bar, watched how chocolate is made, and learned its history. We also tried many different kinds of chocolate in the tasting room. even though I do not like chocolate, I still enjoyed it. When it came to the tasting room, they had a whole section devoted to white chocolate, so I was pretty happy about that.

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle was built in the 12th century, making it over 900 years old!

We spent a good amount of time just wandering around this enormous castle. The castle, which is and was used as military barracks, is built on top of a hill. The views from the top of the walls that surround the castle are absolutely beautiful.

Jewelry from an Ancient Greek burial, dating from sometime between 800-600 B.C., was found there when British troops were digging trenches during the 1st World War.

Some neat things we saw at the castle include:

• The Honours of Scotland, the oldest Crown jewels in Britain, which include a crown, a sword and a scepter all made of precious stones and metals.

• Saint Margaret’s Chapel

Greyfriar’s Kirkyard & The Elephant House Cafe

Greyfriar’s Kirkyard is a cemetery that is rumored to be where the author J.K. Rowling may have gotten some of the names for the Harry Potter books. The names we were able to find while wandering around the cemetery were McGonagall, Moodie, Thomas Riddell, and Potter. Some of the names are definitely spelled differently than those of the characters in the books, but it is still an interesting theory.

The Elephant House Cafe is a red colored cafe that claims to be the “birthplace” of Harry Potter. While J.K. Rowling did admit that she did do a bit of writing at the cafe, she had already started writing when she came there. Due to the fact that the cafe had been the victim of a recent fire, it was closed.

Murder/ghost tour of Edinburgh

During the evening of one of our days in Edinburgh, we went on a murder/ghost tour. The tour took us around different parts of Edinburgh in the evening, including a couple of cemeteries/graveyards. We learned about a fairly recent vampire wannabe murder case.

We also learned about the body snatching that used to go on in Edinburgh. One story was of a lady that was buried alive, (they thought she was dead, but in reality she was just in a coma). Then when the body snatchers came and dug her up, cutting off her fingers, (it was illegal to take any of the persons possessions, so they had to cut off the fingers to leave the rings behind), immediately the lady woke up, scared the body snatchers half to death and ended up living for many more years.

Rosslyn Chapel

Rosslyn Chapel, less than a 30 minute drive from Edinburgh, was built in 1456. The chapel, which took 14 years to build was originally supposed to be a crossed shaped church, but was never finished due to the original ______- dying.

This chapel is most famous for its reference in the book and the movie, “The Da Vinci Code”.

There is currently only one statue in the entire chapel, but it is believed that there once may have been several hundred. One theory as to how they disappeared is that when the family who owned the chapel got wind that Cromwell’s soldiers were headed their way, the statues were hidden in the vault. Another theory is that Cromwell and his soldiers, who ended up stabling their horses in the chapel, destroyed the statues, (this took place in 1650).

When Queen Victoria visited in the 1800s, she suggested it be cleaned and that is when the statue and the stained glass windows were added.

The most fascinating thing about this chapel, in my opinion at least, is the aforementioned vault. The vault has no known entrance and its existence is sometimes questioned. The vault was sealed in 1690 and hasn’t been opened since. There are a great many theories as to what might be in the vault.

Unfortunately, photo taking is not allowed inside the chapel.

Melrose Abbey

Melrose Abbey is well known for two reasons. The first of which is the legend that Robert Bruce’s heart is buried on the property. The second is the bagpipe playing pig gargoyle attached to the side of the church. The Abbey is quite old and in ruins, so the inside was closed while they work on restorations.

Mary King’s Close

Mary King’s Close is a street that was covered and a new building built on top. The new building covered several other “closes” as well when it was finished in 1760. While Mary Queen of Scots did spend a night in the close, it is named after a woman named Mary who lived in the close for 9 years with four kids. During the time of the Bubonic Plague or “The Black Death” this close was riddled with cases of this deadly disease. It is said to be haunted by a little girl who died from “The Black Death”.

The Royal Mile & Victoria Street

The Royal Mile is a mile of paved street that is closed to automobile traffic. Either side of the road is clustered with shops and restaurants. The Royal Mile runs between Edinburgh Castle and The Palace of Holyroodhouse. The oldest building on the royal mile dates back to the 1500s.

Victoria Street was mostly built in the 1800s, but some of the buildings date back to the 1600s and 1700s. The street was named after Queen Victoria in 1837. This street is mainly known for its possible role in inspiring Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. The resemblance between these two can definitely be seen in the photo below.

Palace of Holyroodhouse

The Palace of Holyroodhouse is the Queen of England’s official residence whenever she visits Edinburgh. While we were in Edinburgh, the queen was as well. We walked to the palace and looked at it through the gates where we saw private cars for VIPs and their drivers/security hanging out in the parking lot. We also got to see people driving in cars with blacked out windows arriving to see the Queen.

Restaurants

While in Edinburgh we ate at Stack & Still and Cafe Andaluz (both of which I mentioned in the Glasgow post) We also ate at an Indian restaurant named “Passage to India”, which was very good as well. We had a lunch. at Makars Gourmet Mash Bar (a restaurant that specialized in mashed potatoes with different kinds of meat) which proved to be a tasty meal.

All the restaurants we went to had some sort of GF option. In the UK it is required to have the allergen information listed on the menu. It was really nice that we didn’t have to ask someone about an item being GF and then have them not understand what gluten free is. This is probably the most GF friendly place I have ever visited, which was nice for my dad and I, who are GF.

One afternoon we went to get drinks at the “Magic Potions Tavern”. The tavern is Harry Potter themed and serves interesting drinks. You would order off the menu, then they would bring you your drink deconstructed and you would have to follow a recipe to mix your drink.

Transportation

We did not do much driving while we were in Edinburgh as most of the time we walked. One day we even walked a total of 9 miles. Parking is definitely very difficult to find in the city, so I would strongly recommend walking.

All in all I really enjoyed this trip and had a lot of fun with my family! After we were done in Edinburgh, we started the second half of our trip by flying to Tanzania to go on a safari.