threeweeks guide to edinburgh

Edinburgh is a small compact city with a lot of steps and is of course at its busiest each August when it plays host to the largest arts festival on the planet, Edinburgh is a great place 365 days a year (though that little bit greater when the sun shines in June than when the wind blows in February).

The area known as the Old Town has the Royal Mile at its heart, and is the area where you will find the most steps in addition to tiny little ginnels and pathways and cobbles. The Royal Mile runs from Holyrood Palace at its base to the castle at the top - which I guess is where the royal bit comes from. Though everyone calls it the Royal Mile it is actually made up of a number of separate streets that all run into one another - Canongate, High Street, Lawnmarket and Castle Hill. When businesses on the Royal Mile give you their addresses they generally use the street name, so don't get confused. The Old Town also incorporates the Grassmarket and Cowgate - the bit of Edinburgh confusingly low down - a road that runs parallel with the Mile but is several stories down. The Cowgate/Grassmarket houses a number of clubs and student friendly pubs and is very busy at 3am on a Saturday morning.

During August the Royal Mile is in many ways the heart of the Festival - there's the Tattoo at the top, the International Festival's year round base The Hub next door, and the Fringe Society's box office half way down. There are numerous venues in this part of town, including the Underbelly and the Gilded Balloon's Caves, and with the High Street shut off in August the sheer number of street performers, flyerers and open air cafes make the whole area something of the unofficial heart of the Festival.

Leith is the area running down to the Docks. It used to be famous as the rough bit of the Scottish capital but like most dockland areas it's become a lot more refined in recent years, and is certainly a lot less rough than some of the other areas on the outskirts of the city. Numerous redevelopments have taken place around Leith meaning that property prices have soared and lots of nice bars and seafood restaurants with lovely menus have appeared (or in the case of the restaurants been rediscovered, because some of the best ones have been here all the time). Although a bit off the beaten track Leith deserves a visit, and is a good place to get away from some of the Festival madness of the town centre during August.

Sitting to the North of Princes Street, the main shopping street of Edinburgh, the New Town is the complete opposite to the Old Town. No rambling here, though still lots of cobbles. All the buildings and streets are set out in an orderly and elegant Georgian fashion. During August you will find the Books Festival and venues such as the Assembly Rooms in the New Town. The rest of the year the plethora of trendy bars and restaurants make the New Town the place to go if you have money to burn on a night out.

The Tollcross area on the West side of town is home to lots of theatres and cinemas, and outside the Festival is where you will find a lot of Edinburgh's artsy crowd. Tollcross is home to the Traverse and Royal Lyceum theatres, the Usher Hall, the Filmhouse, and a little further up the Cameo Cinema and the Kings Theatre. Once a bit of a dive its amazing what a few nice flats and office blocks can do to an area.

Meanwhile the Southside on, well, the southside of the Old Town, is theatre central during the Fringe - what with both of the Pleasance's venues, the Gilded Balloon's Teviot HQ, both the main C venue and C electric, and a whole plethora of other venues. Although Southside is home to some year round venues like the Festival Theatre and Queens Hall I tend to think of this part of town as, well, plainly just the Southside outside August. The central complex of Edinburgh University (based around George Square) is in the Southside making this a very studenty part of town - it may be just a coincidence but there are many pubs and charity shops in this part of town too.

Below Southside is Newington, home to Minto Street and half the hotels in Edinburgh. The main halls of residence of the University of Edinburgh are here (Pollock Halls) so again a studenty feel. Further West you will find Bruntsfield and Morningside - a little further out of the city and traditionally very genteel in character. And inbetween the two are Marchmont and Sciennes - a suburban-ish haven for families and students, a very quiet area the other side of the Meadows from the central district.

And what are the Meadows? The Meadows is a large section of green, criss-crossed with little walkways stretching from Bruntsfield Links and Tollcross on the West over to The Southside. It plays host to Fringe Sunday as well as host to every ball game you can imagine when the sun comes out at the weekend (which fortunately doesn't happen too often ...).