Edinburgh Royal Mile: Skip the Tartan Traps
The Royal Mile is closer to 1.1 miles than exactly one, running downhill from Edinburgh Castle to the gates of Holyrood Palace and changing its name four times along the way (Castlehill, Lawnmarket, High Street, Canongate). It’s also the single most tourist-menu’d street in Scotland: tartan shops, whisky shops with a grinning mannequin outside, haggis-and-chips signage on every block. Walking it costs nothing. Verdict: treat the Mile itself as a corridor, not a destination, and spend your actual time and money in the closes running off it, or a level below in Mary King’s Close, not on the street frontage.
Key facts before you walk it
| Detail | What to know |
|---|---|
| Price | Free to walk; St Giles’ free/donation; Real Mary King’s Close about GBP 24-25 |
| Length | About 1.1 miles (1.8km), Castle to Holyrood, roughly 75m downhill |
| Time needed | 20-25 minutes end to end; half a day with the closes and St Giles' |
| Booking lead | Mary King’s Close: a few days ahead in July-August |
| Getting there | Starts at the Castle esplanade; ends at Holyrood Park |
Check Old Town rates on Booking.com if you want to sleep within stumbling distance of the Mile, and see edinburghcastle.scot for the ticket you’ll need at the top end of it.
The Royal Mile’s closes, not the shopfronts
The real reason to walk the Mile is what runs off it: narrow closes and wynds, some barely wide enough for two people, connecting the main street to hidden courtyards and stairways down to Victorian-era streets below. The Real Mary King’s Close is the best-known example turned into a proper visitor site: 17th-century buildings buried rather than demolished when the city redeveloped above them, sealed for generations, and reopened as a guided tour in the 1990s.
Is St Giles’ Cathedral worth stopping for?
Yes, and it costs nothing beyond a donation. John Knox preached from this pulpit from 1559, and the Thistle Chapel in the southeast corner, finished in 1911, is a small, dense piece of Gothic revival craftsmanship with a carved stall for every knight of the Order of the Thistle. Ten minutes is enough to appreciate it; twenty is better.
Is the Real Mary King’s Close a tourist trap?
No, it’s one of the Mile’s few genuinely non-touristy paid stops. Guided-only tours run through the buried 17th-century closes, sealed for generations and reopened in the 1990s. Adult entry runs about GBP 24-25, tours run roughly every 20 minutes and last about 75 minutes; book a few days ahead if you’re visiting in summer.
What should you actually skip on the Mile?
Anything with a kilted greeter standing outside trying to walk you in, and the clan-tartan finder stalls; both are commission-driven and priced for one-time tourists, not locals. The same goes for whisky shops directly on the street frontage. A proper tasting flight in an Old Town bar off the Mile costs less and pours more.
Walk it top to bottom starting from Edinburgh Castle , and if your visit lands in festival season, check the Edinburgh Festival breakdown before the crowds catch you off guard.
Duck into any close whose entrance isn’t selling something. Most run through to a courtyard or a viewpoint you won’t find on a map, and they’re emptiest before 10am, before the tour groups fill the main drag.