Edinburgh’s Canongate – a separate town till 1856

Rich in history, folklore and hidden ‘nooks and crannies’

An ideal tour for those who would like a short tour in the less crowded and less visited bottom part of the Royal Mile.

Discover why:

•  Canongate got its name
• better off people preferred to live here than in Edinburgh’s medieval old town
•  Mary Clark was drowned
• Gibb’s Close is associated with dastardly deeds
• Mary Paterson, while dead and naked, was painted by a local artist
• The Treaty of Union had to be signed secretly at night
• Huntly House, now a museum, is known as ‘the speaking house’
• Students often visit Canongate Kirkyard
• The ‘Cock and Trumpet’ was popular
• You should enrol for a National Library of Scotland library card and read the ‘Ranger’s Impartial List of Ladies’
• Secret sculptures are unique and special
• A certain correspondence had to be secret
• A golf game was so successful
• The 10-year-old son of the Marquis of Queensberry was spirited away to the family estate in West Yorkshire
• The brass letters S are embedded in the cobblestones at the entrance to Abbey Strand
• The Scottish Parliament building is controversial

The main highlights include

Holyrood Park, Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags

Characterful closes like Bakehouse Close and Whitehorse Close

The decoration of closes

Moray House (part of Edinburgh University)

Canongate Kirk (church) and kirkyard

Dunbar’s Close Garden

The Poetry Library (interior when open)

Holyrood Abbey (ruins)

The Palace of Holyrood House

The Scottish Parliament building