Capital hills

Catch up with the past on memory lane in Edinburgh... and see history in the making

As she handed us our fish and chips, the woman in the chippy swore she remembered me from when I was an undergraduate at Edinburgh University.

It was an impressive feat of recall to recognise me from the time I frequented her shop in search of hassle-free calories.

That was 20 years ago and I’m now a haggard middle-aged dad.

But hers wasn’t the only memory working overtime in the Scottish capital. Whenever I turned a corner, more things came back to me from student days. It helped that not much had changed. Edinburgh must have more listed buildings per square mile than pretty much anywhere in the UK.

And just strolling around the centre, it’s not hard to understand why it’s one of Britain’s most popular tourist destinations, after London.

There are gorgeous perspectives from every vantage point – and it’s perhaps the city’s dramatic peaks and troughs that make it uniquely striking.

At the bottom there’s Cowgate – a street which oddly has other roads crossing over the top of it. Then, at the summit, there’s Edinburgh Castle, atop an extinct volcano.

And there’s an even higher backdrop, the alluring Arthur’s Seat, described by author Robert Louis Stevenson – one of Auld Reekie’s many famous sons – as “a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design”.

If you have a spare couple of hours and the weather is playing ball, the walk to the top via Salisbury Crags is rewarded with views of the Pentland Hills and Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth.

If the weather’s not so good, many of the architectural wonders allow you to shelter within as well as admire from without.

We took refuge in the National Museum of Scotland – which has recently had a €53million refurb to combine the old Royal Museum dating from the 1860s with next door’s 2006 addition.

A notable exhibit is the stuffed body of Dolly the sheep, the first successful clone of a mammal from an adult cell.

The appeal for us though was the diversions the museum provides for little ones. It’s full of interactive exhibits, including a mock dinosaur bone excavation and dress-up zones where you can become a Viking, Roman or Tudor courtier.

There’s an equally impressive cultural mix when it comes to eating options. The city is awash with restaurants and, even more so, pubs.

We dined at the child-friendly Rigatoni’s in Clerk Street. The family-run Italian does classic pizza and pasta dishes, as well as lighter bites and ice creams. It was also a short walk from our base for the three-night trip, a part of south Edinburgh called Marchmont.

You know it’s Edinburgh when somewhere known

Rick Lyons for being a student area is still exclusively period buildings. In this case, it’s the slightly austere yet ornate 19th century terraces known as tenements. We stayed in a wonderfully appointed Airbnb flat on the first floor. The newly renovated two-bed was warm, cosy and luxurious – located away from the hubbub but within walking distance of everything – and with a lovely bay window for people watching. Oh! And a great nearby fish and chip shop. I can testify that Marchmont Fish and Chips has both a member of staff with an exceptional memory and lovely fresh fish... View of Arthur’s Seat above crags