Today, we’re going to explore a few other parts of Edinburgh’s Old Town! If you haven’t
watched our previous video on Edinburgh’s Old Town featuring the Royal Mile, the link
is in the description below.
We’re going to start off near Edinburgh Castle and move along from there.
First up is the Edinburgh Farmers’ Market, which takes place every Saturday at Castle
Terrace. It’s a nice opportunity to come to the city to take a nosy and purchase goods
from local producers.
Next, we’re going to wander on to West Port, which is where Armchair Books is located. It's a second-hand
bookshop offering a huge variety of titles and is an Instagrammer’s dream!
Further along West Port is Maison de Moggy, a cat cafe! They have 12 resident cats
and they are all so cute! You can enjoy some coffee or tea and cake while visiting with
the furry animals.
And if we go up these steps here, there is another Instagrammer’s dream, which is The Vennel Viewpoint.
Here, you get just a stunning view of Edinburgh Castle towering over the city.
And just behind The Vennel Viewpoint is the Flodden Wall. The Flodden Wall is one of the
walls that was built in the 16th century to protect Edinburgh from the possibility of invasions.
Most of the city walls have since been destroyed, but this is one small part
that remains, and we’ll see another part a little bit later.
Now, heading back onto the main street, West Port eventually turns into Grassmarket.
Sitting directly below the castle, Grassmarket was historically a marketplace as well as a place
of public executions. If you look closely at the pavement here in front of The White
Hart Inn, you can see on this stone that during World War I, in April 1916, a Zeppelin, which
is a type of airship, dropped a bomb on the Grassmarket. These days, the Grassmarket is
a vibrant area with pubs, clubs, hotels, and local shops.
At the end of the Grassmarket, when you hang a left, that is West Bow, which turns
into Victoria Street. Victoria Street was built in the early 1800s as part of improvements
to the Old Town and to improve access around the city. Previously, if someone wanted to
go from the Grassmarket up to the Royal Mile, they’d have to go up the West Bow, which
then was a very steep and narrow lane. Now, Victoria Street is one of the most photographed
streets in Edinburgh, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s also claimed that Victoria
Street was the inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter series.
Speaking of Harry Potter, this is The Elephant House on George IV Bridge. This
is where JK Rowling wrote some of the first Harry Potter books.
Further along the George IV Bridge, we come across the Greyfriars Bobby Statue.
The story is that back in the 19th century, a Skye terrier named Bobby spent 14 years guarding his owner’s
grave until he himself passed away. His owner was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, which is
right behind. He became known as Greyfriars Bobby and this is the statue to commemorate him.
Now, remember the Flodden Wall that we mentioned earlier? Another part of the wall that is
still standing today can be found at Greyfriars Kirkyard.
Nearby to Greyfriars Bobby is the National Museum of Scotland. Free to visit,
though donations are encouraged, the museum features collections relating to Scottish
history, science and technology, natural history, and more.
Now, we’ve circled back to where the Grassmarket ends, and that turns into
Cowgate. Like the Grassmarket, Cowgate sits on the lower part of Edinburgh’s Old Town,
so here, George IV Bridge, which is where we were before, and South Bridge, which is further at the end,
they sit on top of the Cowgate.
You can see that buildings were built onto the sides of the bridges, leaving only small
parts of the bridges exposed.
If you’d like to find out more about any of the places we mentioned in this video,
you can find our accompanying blog post in the description below.
We hope you enjoyed this video! Please give it a like, subscribe to our channel, and comment
below on what your favourite place in Edinburgh’s Old Town is! We’ll see you in the next video!