Everyone walks the Royal Mile. Most people walk straight down the middle of it and miss the point. The street is the spine. The life was always in the closes that run off it like ribs.
A close is a narrow passage between tenements, running off the main street. Around eighty survive off the Royal Mile. Some open onto hidden courtyards. Others drop in long stone stairs to the lower city. They were once among the most crowded places in Europe.
Here are five worth going down, in order from the castle to the palace.
Lady Stair's Close
Through the low passage on the left as you come down the Lawnmarket. The Writers' Museum is free and covers Burns, Scott and Stevenson. The paving in Makars' Court carries lines from Scottish writers, so read as you go. In 2024 Guillermo del Toro built his gallows here for Frankenstein.
Advocate's Close
Opposite St Giles' and down a few steps. The Scott Monument sits framed at the bottom as if someone planned it. Nobody did. It's the best photograph on the Mile, and it's at its best in the morning.
Bakehouse Close
On the Canongate, through the arch beside the Museum of Edinburgh. One of the best kept closes in the city, which is why Outlander and Frankenstein both filmed in it.
Dunbar's Close
Just past Canongate Kirk, where Adam Smith is buried. A plain close opens into a walled garden laid out the way a seventeenth century town garden would have been. Sit for five minutes.
White Horse Close
Nearly at the bottom, on the left. A courtyard that looks too pretty to be real, and partly is not. It was heavily restored in the 1960s. Still lovely.
How to do it
Go before 9am, or after 6pm in summer. At midday in August the Mile is a slow shuffle. Wear shoes with grip, because many closes have steps and the stone is slippery when wet. Rain is no reason to stay away. Wet cobbles catch every bit of light.
The closes are public rights of way, but people live in them. Go in, look, keep your voice down.
The full route, castle to palace with a sketch map, is walk one in Ten Walks Around Edinburgh.
Walk it with StoryLed
Or go with a guide. The StoryLed Old Town walk goes into the closes and courtyards most people walk past, with the stories of the people who lived in them. Six guests at most, three hours, led by a resident of twelve years.
