Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the Medical School. To the left (west) on Lauriston Place is the Royal Infirmary
of Edinburgh. George Watson's Hospital on the grounds dates to the 1740s, but
Scots baronial buildings superseded it in the 19th century, adopting the open-
plan dictates of Florence Nightingale.
Walk west on Lauriston Place to:
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George Heriot's School
Heriot was nicknamed the Jinglin' Geordie, and as jeweler to James VI, he
exemplified the courtiers and royal hangers-on who left Scotland and made
their fortunes in London after the unification of the crowns. Heriot, at least,
decided to pay something back by bequeathing several thousand pounds to
build this facility for disadvantaged boys. Of the 200-odd windows in the Neo-
Renaissance pile, only two are exactly alike. Today, it is a private school for
young men and women.
Continue on Lauriston Place to the edge of the campus, turn right on Heriot Place,
and continue down the steps and path called the Vennel to the:
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Grassmarket
On your way to the Grassmarket just at the top of the steep steps of the foot-
path called the Vennel, is another identified piece of the Flodden Wall. It was
part of the southwest bastion, indicating how the Grassmarket, a small district
and short street with a tree-lined median strip, was enclosed within the forti-
fied city by the 16th century. Now home to loads of bars and restaurants in the
shadow of the castle, the Grassmarket held a weekly market for more than 400
years. It also was the site of public gallows until the 1780s, where zealous
Protestants—known as the Covenanters—were hanged. So was Maggie Dick-
son, who according to legend, came back to life. There is a pub named after
her today in the Grassmarket. At the nearby White Hart Inn, both Burns and
William Wordsworth are said to have lodged.
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WALKING TOUR 3:
NEW TOWN
START:
Royal Scottish Academy.
FINISH:
East Princes Street Gardens.
TIME:
About 2 to 3 hours.
BEST TIME:
Daytime.
WORST TIME:
Late at night.
In 1767, the city fathers realized that the best way to relieve the increasingly
cramped and unhygienic Old Town was to create a New Town. It is a definitive
example of rational Georgian town planning. Major expansion well outside the walls
of the fortified city became possible as hostilities with England (or between rebel-
lious groups within Scotland) had ended. The loch north of Old Town was drained
(becoming Princes Street Gardens), and the new roads on the other side were laid
out in a strict grid. Subsequent additions to the original New Town created a new
city center with fine housing, offices, and commercial space. Along with Edinburgh's
Old Town, today it is a U.N. World Heritage site.
