Budget · 3-hour walk · Edinburgh
The New Town and Dean Village in three hours
Georgian squares off Princes Street, then down into the old mill village and the Water of Leith.
The Royal Mile gets the crowds and the New Town gets the architecture. This is the other half of the World Heritage Site: a planned Georgian grid from the 1760s laid out in straight lines specifically because the Old Town was not. It ends by dropping into Dean Village, which is a genuine surprise — a silent mill hamlet in a gorge, ten minutes from the shops.
The route, stop by stop
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Princes Street Gardens
The valley was a loch until they drained it, which is why the castle looks the way it does from here. The Scott Monument at the east end is climbable and very narrow.
25 min here Walk here → -
Charlotte Square
Robert Adam's last major work and the best single side of Georgian Edinburgh, the north one. The Bute House at number six is the First Minister's official residence.
20 min here Walk here → -
Dean Village
A grain-milling hamlet for 800 years, now improbably quiet and entirely residential. Be aware that people live here; it is not an attraction and there is nothing to buy.
40 min here Walk here → -
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
Twenty minutes along the Water of Leith from the village, free, and the lawn out front is a Charles Jencks landform you are allowed to walk on.
45 min here Walk here →
More in Edinburgh
Every walking route in Edinburgh, or the full Edinburgh guide for where to stay and what a day costs.