Three Brilliant Days in Edinburgh
Leaving the highlands of Skye and Fort William behind us, we made our way to the beautiful city of Edinburgh. This trip took about 7 hours, so we decided to break it up by stopping at two distilleries along the way. There wasn’t a particular method to our choices. We picked Glen Ord because we had never tried their whisky, and then we picked Tomatin because we needed another break to stretch our legs. (Gabriel had tried Tomatin before, so we knew it would be good.) Although we didn’t get to tour either distillery due to maintenance and long lines, we did get to taste three expressions of the Glen Ord Singleton single malt and bought a small bottle of their 18-year Tomatin single malt to enjoy at the hotel.
The rest of the drive to Edinburgh was simply spectacular. The countrysides in the U.K. have been some of our favorite views of the entire trip, so we were thankful for every moment we got to enjoy them!
We made it to Edinburgh just as the rain began, so we dropped our things at the hotel and decided to find a restaurant for dinner. If you remember from our last post, we had attempted homemade Tex-Mex at our hostel. It was pretty good, but it definitely didn’t satisfy our craving. So, we were stoked to find Topolabamba just a short walk from the Sheraton in Festival Square. This place was as close to Tex-Mex as we could hope to find in Europe…queso and all!
The next day, we took a day trip to two more whisky distilleries for tours and tastings. We started off at Edradour because this was the first whisky I had ever bought Gabriel, and the one that ignited his passion for whisky. Currently, this is the smallest distillery in Scotland — rolling out only 15 casks per week — and the only one still producing farmhouse whisky made by just three master distillers. The property itself is incredibly charming, which made the entire experience even more special. From the moment we got onto the property, we knew Edradour was going to be our favorite distillery in every category!
Next up was the Aberfeldy distillery, which was at the opposite end of the spectrums in both scale and quality. It was cool to see both a tiny and a huge distillery on the same day, but going from farmhouse artistry to mass-produced blends was quite a leap. We did get to taste a 20-year-old whisky straight from the cask, which was pretty cool.
Day two began with an early-morning excursion to the Royal Yacht Britannia. This is the former yacht of Queen Elizabeth II. It served as a royal residence for 40 years, until it was decommissioned in 1997, and now is open to the public for tours. Yes, I do participate in the weird obsession the world has with the royal family, so this was really neat to see!
After dropping our rental car at the airport, we caught the train back into the city and immediately made our way up the Royal Mile to meet a group of 30 equally nerdy tourists for a guided Harry Potter tour. Now that we had seen some of the film locations and the studio, it was awesome to see the places where J.K. wrote and drew a lot of her inspiration. Our guide was l.e.g.i.t. He wore a handmade cape, rocked the HP glasses at one point, and had even made wands for everyone on the tour. Keep in mind, this was a free tour, which made his effort even more impressive.
We ended the day with a stop at St. Giles’ Cathedral to marvel at the brilliant blue ceiling before heading back to the hotel.
Day three was much slower than the previous two days. We visited the National Museum of Scotland, the Writer’s Museum, popped in and out of stores up and down the Royal Mile, and basically just spent the day wandering with no agenda. When we did finally settle down in the early evening, it was at the Amber Whisky Bar inside the Whisky Experience building.
This was a neat bar with an entire wall of whiskys from every region of Scotland. It was the perfect place to kill a couple of hours before meeting an old high school friend, Stefanie, and her boyfriend, Duncan, for dinner at OX184. Although we don’t have the photo evidence to show you, this place had delicious food and a cool, almost Austin-like vibe. It was so great to see a familiar face and so much fun to experience part of the city through the eyes of locals!
To make up for the slower pace of the previous day, our last full day in Edinburgh was a whirlwind! We started with a tour of Edinburgh Castle. This is probably the most famous attraction in the city, and for good reason. It’s set on the hill overlooking the entire city (at one end of the Royal Mile), so you have a spectacular view of everything from within its walls. It has an incredible memorial to the fallen soldiers from WWI to present that took our breaths away. It also has an impressive mini museum dedicated to the Scottish military, and the prisons where POWs were kept dating back to the 1758.
We then made our way to Mary King’s Close. This was actually a recommendation we got from our tour guide at the Lake’s Distillery in England, and it did not disappoint. A “close” is essentially an alleyway…they’re all over the city. This one is particularly famous because it and the cluster of closes surrounding it have been preserved underground ever since the City Council Chambers were built on top of it. It was remarkable (and, admittedly, a bit disturbing) to walk through the underground passageways and learn how they lived back then in such limited, overcrowded, and unsanitary spaces. We couldn’t take pictures here either (for safety reasons), but we highly recommend this attraction!
After we resurfaced onto the Royal Mile, we decided a mid-day treat was in order and headed to The Elephant House cafe. This was where J.K. Rowling wrote books 2-4, so it was quite poetic to end our unofficial Harry Potter tour through the U.K. drinking coffee and writing postcards. We could totally understand why she was inspired to write there. It was cute and cozy, and the coffee was really good. (I’m sure the ambiance was even better before she made it a tourist destination.)
Now that we were properly caffeinated, we walked down to the other end of the Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace (the residence in Scotland of Queen Elizabeth II). It was late in the day, so we just admired it from the outside.
We then walked up the nearby hill called Arthur’s Seat for a final panoramic view of the city. We only made it halfway up, but the view was spectacular from every angle!
All-in-all, Edinburgh was one of our favorite big cities of the entire trip. It had everything we love — history, good food, great coffee, lively streets, music — plus it was easily walkable and had easy access to some of the best distilleries in the world! We couldn’t have asked for a better place to wrap up our time in the U.K.
Up next: The Emerald Isle!
Big hugs,
Juliette