Calton Hill From the Road

If you don’t set foot in this part of Edinburgh for any other reason then do at least one thing. Go to the east end of Princes Street and take the short walk up Calton Hill, easily identifiable by the faux-classical National Monument, Nelson’s Monument and the Old City Observatory on top. It may not be the biggest hill in the world but it stands above everything between the city centre and the coast giving remarkable views towards Leith, the north of Edinburgh, the Firth of Forth and over the water to Fife. Turn round and you’re looking at Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags in Holyrood Park. The single most photographed view however, and certainly one of Edinburgh’s classics, is back towards Princes Street taking in the colonnaded Dugald Stewart Monument on Calton Hill itself – erected for a professor of moral philosophy who died in 1828 – the distinguished clock tower of the Balmoral Hotel, the spire of the Scott Monument and finally Edinburgh Castle just over 1km away as the crow flies. If walking up Calton Hill was all you did around here that would be a pity though as there is lots to explore – all those monuments and an art gallery on the hilltop for starters. Immediately north-west at Greenside you find the Omni Edinburgh with its Vue cinema, populist bars and eateries, and the Playhouse Theatre nearby. Across the street are the pubs, bars and restaurants of Picardy Place and Union Place with lots more around the corner down Broughton Street. Calton Hill and Broughton also serves as a focus for Edinburgh’s gay scene with a selection of gay and gay-friendly bars and cafés, plus it has a surprising number of the city’s contemporary art galleries.