Edinburgh, in a day and a half

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 01:10:00 -0400

Trip: Edinburgh, Scotland · Oct 26–27, 2026 · solo · on the way from London to India

I added Edinburgh to the end of a work week in London (that post is here) for one simple reason: I could fly to India from there instead of going back through London. I arrived on Monday evening and flew out on Tuesday night. It wasn’t much time. It was enough to fall a little bit in love with the place.

Edinburgh Castle and the Old Town behind me.

Getting there

I came up by train from Norwich on Monday afternoon and got in that evening, to a cosy little Airbnb room. The host was a guy called Baz, and there was a cat.

The Airbnb cat.

The ghost bus (Monday night)

That first night I did a ghost bus tour. It’s more comedy than history: funny stories told in a spooky voice, on an old black double-decker. The best part was seeing the city lit up at night.

The ghost bus.

The castle lit up at night.

The walking tour (Tuesday morning)

The next morning at 11 I did a “free” walking tour. It isn’t really free: you pay what you think it was worth at the end, and I paid £25 without hesitating. Two hours, and the best thing I did in Edinburgh. The guide talked non-stop about the writers who lived here, and I wish I’d recorded it. Things I learned, or at least what stuck:

It’s a UNESCO City of Literature, the first in the world, and the Old Town and New Town together are a World Heritage Site. J. K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter here. Robert Louis Stevenson was born here, and he wrote Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (I was right about that one). Adam Smith, the economist, lived and is buried here.
The debt story. Scotland lost a fortune on a failed colony scheme and was in serious debt. Joining England in the 1707 Union wiped that out, and money later went into building the elegant New Town, separate from the medieval Old Town.
The dark stuff. The medical school needed bodies, so people stole corpses from graves (the famous body-snatchers). Thousands of people were accused of witchcraft, and there were a lot of executions. The guide said a fair amount of Game of Thrones borrowed from this history.
Harry Potter everywhere. We walked down Victoria Street, which supposedly inspired Diagon Alley, and passed the Elephant House café. According to the guide, several cafés claim to be where Rowling wrote, and only one is the real one. The tour ended at the graveyard where a Thomas Riddell is buried, supposedly where the name Tom Riddle came from, but we never actually found the grave.
We stopped at the Scott Monument (the giant Gothic spire for Sir Walter Scott) and at Robert Burns, and passed a courtyard with the handprints of famous people set into stone.
The castle sits on top of an old volcano. It erupted, went dormant, and then glaciers in the Ice Age carved the rock into the cliff it stands on now. Once you know that, you can’t stop seeing it.

The Elephant House. One of several cafés that claim the title.

Greyfriars Bobby, the loyal dog.

Handprints of famous people set into the stone.

Walking around

After the tour I mostly just walked. I saw the castle from outside (I didn’t go in), went through the National Museum of Scotland, which I enjoyed, and down the Royal Mile, then the cosy little shops and the curve of Victoria Street. I went into St Giles’ Cathedral, which is huge inside, and prayed.

On the street, a performer was balancing and spinning on top of a moving staircase. I still don’t fully understand how. For lunch I had haggis at a place on the Royal Mile. It was a bit soggy, but honestly fine. Coming from Kerala, I’m used to food like that. I bought socks, and a bag to carry some things I was taking home for someone.

At some point I texted home, “I can’t believe I’m in Scotland.” I really couldn’t.

On the castle esplanade.

St Giles’ Cathedral on the Royal Mile.

Inside St Giles’.

The Mercat Cross and the City Chambers on the Royal Mile. The handprints are in that courtyard.

What I made of it

Edinburgh looks like Winterfell, the Stark family’s castle in Game of Thrones. Old stone, dark spires, a castle on a rock above everything. I saw it at night, in the rain and in daylight, and it was beautiful all three ways. I loved the Scottish accent.

It was also the windiest place I’ve ever been. At one point the wind was pushing my legs into each other as I walked.

I only had a day and a half, and I wish I’d had more. Next time I want to climb Calton Hill and Arthur’s Seat, which I didn’t have time for. I took a work call from the airport, got on a plane to Dubai, and felt really grateful that this is a thing I get to do now.

Notes to myself

Thing	Cost
Train from Norwich	£65.84
Ghost bus tour	£21.50
“Free” walking tour	£25 tip to the guide
St Giles’ Cathedral	£12
Lunch at the Filling Station, Royal Mile	£9.33
Luggage storage (Bounce)	£14.57
Edinburgh Castle, inside	next time
Calton Hill, Arthur’s Seat	next time (free)

Everything paid on the Wise card, as with the rest of the trip.