Arthur's Seat
Holyrood Road, The Royal Mile, Edinburgh, EH8, United Kingdom
You can climb an extinct volcano without leaving the city centre.
Calton Hill
Calton Hill, Holyrood, Edinburgh, EH7 5AA, United Kingdom
Edinburgh's most embarrassing monument sits on this hill, and the city has spent nearly two centuries trying to decide whether to be proud of it or pretend it doesn't exist.
Cramond Island
Almond, Edinburgh, EH4, United Kingdom
Twice a day, the sea parts and you can walk to an island.
National Museum of Scotland
Chambers Street, Portsburgh, Edinburgh, EH1, United Kingdom
Dolly the Sheep stands in a glass case on the first floor, looking remarkably calm for an animal who changed the course of biological science.
Portobello Beach
60 Promenade, Portobello/Craigmillar Ward, Edinburgh, EH15 2BS, United Kingdom
Edinburgh has a beach, and it was named after a battle in Panama.
Princes Street Gardens
Princes Street, Princes Street, Edinburgh, EH1, United Kingdom
Edinburgh's most beautiful park sits on top of a lake of corpses.
Scottish National Gallery
The Mound, Edinburgh EH2 2EL
William Henry Playfair designed this building in the form of a Greek temple, and Prince Albert laid the foundation stone in 1850.
The Meadows
Melville Drive, Edinburgh EH9 1ND
Like Princes Street Gardens to the north, the Meadows was once a loch.
The Writers' Museum
Lady Stair's Close, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh EH1 2PA
Tucked down a narrow close off the Lawnmarket, a seventeenth-century townhouse holds one of literature's strangest collections: a plaster cast of Robert Burns's skull, Sir Walter Scott's rocking horse, and the ring a Samoan chief gave Robert Louis Stevenson.
Explore free in Edinburgh
GPS-guided narration at every landmark. Tap a spot on the map, hear the story. Every fact verified.