Grassmarket & the Southside
The Old Town's other half — the ground that falls away south and west of the Royal Mile. A wide market square under the castle rock where they used to hang people, a curved candy-coloured street climbing out of it, a world-class museum that costs nothing, and beyond that the university Southside: cheap, multi-ethnic, student-fed, and where Edinburgh does its best eating under fifteen pounds.
Who it's for: Anyone on a budget — this is where the cheap food is, and it's genuinely good rather than merely cheap. Museum-goers, since the National Museum of Scotland is free and world-class. Whisky and real ale drinkers. Vintage shoppers and second-hand book people. Harry Potter pilgrims, who will find most of the sites they're looking for within four hundred metres of each other here.
Things to know
- The National Museum of Scotland is free, enormous and has a rooftop terrace almost nobody finds — Level 7, up the spiral stairs from Industry and Empire on Level 5, or by the Terrace Lift.
- Greyfriars Kirkyard is free and open, and the tourists cluster entirely around Bobby's grave near the gate. Walk to the back for the Covenanters' Prison and the genuinely atmospheric part.
- Victoria Street is photographed constantly and is at its best before 9am. Any later and you are in someone else's picture.
- This is the cheap-eats district. Ting Thai, the Mosque Kitchen, Alby's and Tanjore all feed you properly for well under £15, and they're the reason locals come here rather than the Royal Mile.
- Grassmarket transforms after 9pm on weekends into a pub circuit. Fine if that's what you want; plan around it if it isn't.
- Rubbing Greyfriars Bobby's nose is a tourist invention that has worn the bronze down to bare metal — the Kirk and the council both ask people to stop.
- The West Port stretch beyond the Grassmarket has six second-hand bookshops in a few hundred metres, plus Edinburgh's best vintage clothing. It's the least touristed part of the Old Town.
- Getting from here up to the Royal Mile means Victoria Street, Candlemaker Row or the Castle Wynd steps — all steep. There is no flat route.