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Upper Royal Mile & Castle Walk
There is so much in the Royal Mile and the streets and alleys that come off it that we had to split it into two walks. The Upper Royal Mile walk takes you to from the Castle to the Tron Church, visiting museums and alleys all with interesting stories of the people that have lived here over the centuries which we share with you.
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Miles Covered
Users
Benefits
FREE App with A FREE WALK in Every City
Each walk delivers a unique and fascinating user experience. Through Tourist Walks’ self guided tour application you can explore the hidden gems created by local experts. For people wanting to explore the neighbourhood and experience the local culture, we provide a unique experience of exploring the city using GPS guided audio tours. We provide a free walk to our new users.
Full Audio Visual Commentary
Tourist Walks is an application that can give you the freedom to explore the famous walks at your own discretion. We have created a full audio-visual self-guided experience that gives you the confidence to explore and discover the stories of various cities on your own.
Visit the Best Tourist Sites & Explore Them
Get a list of all the tourist sites you can visit. The Tourist Walks application will guide you to your next destination because every journey starts with a single step.
GPS and Multilingual Audio and Text Guidance
Even if you don’t understand the local language of the city you are visiting, Don’t worry. Audio guided walks have multilingual text assistance that will guide you in your native language.
Start/Stop/Rewind
/Restart Go at Your Own Pace
Tourist Walks’ audios are narrated by professionals who will keep you entertained while you are walking your way to the next destination. We help you discover the city around you in a more impressive way.
Download the Walk App & Use Offline. No Mobile Data Required.
It is always frustrating when you wish to travel somewhere but your mobile phone service is out-of-order. Don’t worry! Tourist Walks comes with an offline version of built-in maps you might need, even without internet access.
FREE App & Walk Summaries
Each walk delivers a unique and fascinating user experience. Through Tourist Walks’ self guided tour application you can explore the hidden gems created by local experts. For people wanting to explore the neighbourhood and experience the local culture, we provide a unique experience of exploring the city using GPS guided audio tours. The App is FREE, and all the walk summaries are FREE, each walk is individually priced and you can buy all the walks for a city at a discounted price.
Full Audio Visual Commentary
Tourist Walks is an application that can give you the freedom to explore the famous walks at your own discretion. We have created a full audio-visual self-guided experience that gives you the confidence to explore and discover the stories of various cities on your own.
Visit the Best Tourist Sites & Explore Them
Get a list of all the tourist sites you can visit. The Tourist Walks application will guide you to your next destination because every journey starts with a single step.
GPS and Multilingual Audio and Text Guidance
Even if you don’t understand the local language of the city you are visiting, Don’t worry. Audio guided walks have multilingual text assistance that will guide you in your native language.
Start/Stop/Rewind
/Restart Go at Your Own Pace
Tourist Walks’ audios are narrated by professionals who will keep you entertained while you are walking your way to the next destination. We help you discover the city around you in a more impressive way.
Download the Walk App & Use Offline. No Mobile Data Required.
It is always frustrating when you wish to travel somewhere but your mobile phone service is out-of-order. Don’t worry! Tourist Walks comes with an offline version of built-in maps you might need, even without internet access.
The Upper Royal Mile & Edinburgh Walk is packed with history and fantastic stories
- Tour Name - Upper Royal Mile & Castle Walk
- Tour Location - Edinburgh
- No. of Attractions - #15
- Tour Starting Point - Edinburgh Castle
- Tour Ending Point - The Whisky Experience
Just some of the highlights of the Upper Royal Mile & Castle Walking Tour
Castle & Esplanade
The Castle is one of the most popular paid for tourist attractions in Scotland. The earliest reference to a castle or stronghold being on the site is in a welsh poem “Y Gododdin” from the early 7th century. A lot of the current castle dates from the 16th Century but there are some parts that are even older especially St Margarets Chapel which dates from the 12th Century, and it is the oldest building in Edinburgh. The famous 15th-century siege gun known as Mons Meg is displayed on a terrace. Inside you will also find the Royal Palace, the 16th Century Queen Anne Building, the Great Hall, Regimental Museums, the National War Museum of Scotland, and the Scottish Crown Jewels known as the Honours of Scotland, and much more. The Esplanade was originally built as a trade ground for the Castle in the 18th Century. It is best known now as a venue for concerts and ceremonial events including the famous Edinburgh Tattoo. We cover all the monuments on the Esplande as well as give you much more information about the Castle on this tour.
The Tartan Museum
The Tartan Weaving Museum was built on the site of the old reservoir which was constructed in the early 18th Century. It held water that was brought five miles from springs at Comiston and could hold two million gallons of water. It was then piped to other places around the Old Town. The musum is over 5 stories and features working tartan weaving looms.
Camera Obscura
The Camera Obscura or Outlook Tower is an interesting paid for attraction, unique to Edinburgh where, from the top of the tower, and with the aid of revolving mirrors and lenses, you can see a moving picture of the city below. It was opened at the end of the 19th Century. It is recommended as a unique attraction in Edinburgh.
The Lawnmarket
The Lawnmarket was a cloth market in the 15th Century, later becoming the “Landmarket” selling the produce of the land. On Wednesdays however it became a linen and cloth market. In the 18th Century wool was also sold here. This was an upmarket place to stay in those times and became the residential area for Ambassadors to Scotland. If you can imagine the Royal Mile in the 18th Century, it was home to some 50,000 people. Most of them lived in appalling conditions with no plumbing as we might expect it today. At 10pm every night the cry went out in French “Gardez L’eau which means watch out for the water. The windows would then be flung open and household waste thrown down into the street. T was best to watch out if you were passing by at that time or you would be covered in filth. Find out more on our tour
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Gladstones Land
A wealthy textile merchant called Sir Thomas Gledstane who lived here in the 17th Century. Sir Thomas lived in two rooms with his wife six children, and a maid, even though he owned the whole building. It is now open to the public. The central part of the building dates from the 16th Century and the wooden ceiling is from the 17th.
Lady Stairs Close
In the courtyard you will see the 17th Century Lady Stairs House. Built by Sir William Gray. The close was originally named Lady Grays’ close after his wife Geida Smith. You can see their initials WG & GS carved into the lintel above the doorway. This is called a marriage lintel and here comes with the motto “Feare the Lord and Depart from evil”. If you look around on another wall you will see a sign with two clasped hands. This is a Fire Mark and shows the building was certified in the event of a fire. In the 18th Century each insurer had their own fire brigade for their insured buildings. If you weren’t insured the fire would be put out but for a fee to be paid later. The house is now open to the public as a writers-museum and displays elements of the works of three great Scottish writers, Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott. Find out more on our tour
Deacon Brodies Tavern
This is one of Edinburgh’s most famous pubs named after William Brody, born in 1741 and died in 1788. By day he was a wealthy and respected citizen, a cabinet maker by trade. By night he was a thief and a gambler who kept two mistresses, and had a family by both of them, which was probably why he needed plenty of money. When he delivered an item of furniture to a customer he also made impressions of the keys to their house using a wax pad. He then made the keys in his workshop and went back to commit the burglaries. Find out more on our tour.
City Chambers / Mary Kings Close
The City Chambers houses various parts of the City Council. In the courtyard you will see an enormous statue of Alexander the Great and his famous horse Bucephalus, whose name literally means “bull headed”. The statue represents the use of mind over brute force and was cast in the late 19th Century. The City Chambers also holds one of the city’s most famous closes called Mary King’s Close, which is actually underground. You can visit it on a pre booked tour. Find out more on our tour.
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Tron Church
This Church is known locally as “Tron Kirk”. Kirk is the Scottish name for a church. The Tron was the Salt Iron or the old public salt weighing beam that one stood outside the church. If salt merchants sold underweight measures they were nailed to the weighing beam by the ears, then they had their legs kicked away so the fell and tore their ears. This meant that people buying salt could see whether the salt seller was reputable or not. The church first opened for worship in 1641 and one of their minister was the famous Scottish preacher John Knox. Traditionally New Year Celebrations were held here until more recently when they moved to the Princes Street area.
Mercat Cross
The original Mercat Cross dated from the middle of the 14th Century. The one you can see has a central shaft that dates from the 15th Century with later additions around it. This whole area was a market for hundreds of years. Merchants used to bring their produce in, often from the nearby port of Leith, and set them up here for sale to the local residents and businesses. This is also where Royal Proclamations were announced, and they still are. Even in the modern era of instant mass communication the proclamations are made three days after they are made in London as it used to take three days for a messenger on horseback to make the journey between the two cities, so the tradition is continued.
St Giles Cathedral
If you go inside the Cathedral, there are guided, rooftop tours, which give amazing views over the city and beyond. You also get a close up look at medieval masonry, as well as some bronze bells, and the mechanism which tells them when to chime. You could also see the medieval vault and the Thistle Chapel, with its wonderful stained-glass windows, and interesting tombs. There is also a huge statue of John Knox, the main figure of the Scottish Church Reformation, whose grave is at the south side of the church under the car park. Find out more on our tour.
Brodies Close
Outside the entrance to Deacons Coffee House is a statue of Deacon William Brodie. This is a great photo opportunity to link arms with the man who inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Brodie was a cabinet maker by day and a burglar by night. The Café was the original cabinet workshop of William Brodie and there are murals depicting his life and work. It’s not a bad place for a coffee or light lunch either if you are feeling the need for refreshment.
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Tollbooth Church
Tollbooth Kirk originally a Church built in the Gothic Revival style in the mid 19th Century and as a meeting hall for the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. It was used as a church until the mid 1980’s. It is now The Hub, a public arts and events building.
The Scottish Whisky Experience
The Scottish Whisky Experience tells the story of Scotland’s best-known export. It is also offers guided tours around the exhibits, a whisky shop and even a barrel ride. So, if you are interested in whisky, this is the place to look around.
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SELF GUIDED WALKS
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Frequently Asked Questions
No. After the walks have been downloaded, for which you need an internet connection, no mobile data is required to do the walks.
No you can pause and resume at any point within the walk. Whether you need a coffee or a comfort break the walks are entirely flexible.
Yes you will receive both verbal guidance and a GPS enabled map to take you around each of the points of interest on the walks.
No the walks are circular so you will receive multiple options of where to start each walk.
Yes there are providing you buy them as a bundle, not one at a time. You can even buy all the walks in one package at a very generous price.
For each point of interest you will get information both verbally and in text and sometimes video form together with helpful images to get the most from each one.
You can pay by all manner of credit and debit cards as well as Paypal.
In the walk summary we point out if the walk is suitable for wheelchairs and pets, and there is also an indication of the distance of the walk, and how long it will take.
Yes we would love to hear from you through our website: www.touristwalks.co.uk
Happy Tourists
I absolutely enjoyed using the Tourist Walk app! The guided walking tours are very informative and interesting. I was able to find the tour I wanted quickly and easily, and the app was very easy to navigate. The walking tour itself was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about the city. Overall, I would highly recommend this.
Carla Mathew
Tourist Walk is an excellent walking guide app. It is extremely user-friendly and provides great information on the various tours available. I would highly recommend this app to anyone visiting a new city!
Shaun Miles
Tourist Walk is an amazing app that provides guided tours of various cities. The app is extremely user-friendly and easy to navigate. I was able to find the tour I was looking for quickly and easily. The tour itself was very informative and interesting. I would highly recommend this app to anyone visiting a new city!
