Step into your time machine (or just your comfiest walking shoes) and get ready to explore the Royal Mile like you’ve never seen it before. This isn’t just any walk—this is a treasure trail through time. From poets and plague doctors to royal palaces and hidden gardens, this self-guided free scavenger hunt will lead you and your curious crew through some of the city’s most fascinating historic spots. Perfect for kids aged 8+ and their grown-ups.
👉 Start at the bottom of the Royal Mile (by the Scottish Parliament and Palace of Holyroodhouse) and work your way up to Edinburgh Castle. Let’s go!
1: Palace of Holyroodhouse – Find the Royal Bathhouse
📍 Start your adventure outside the grand gates of Holyrood Palace, the King’s official home in Scotland.
Walk along the palace fence line (keep the palace on your right), and you’ll spot a small stone building tucked into the corner of the gardens…
Clue: Look for a building with a tiny turret that looks like it belongs in a fairy tale. This is Queen Mary’s Bath—though it probably wasn’t used as a bath at all!
Fun Fact: Historians believe it was a garden pavilion or a private lodge, dating back to the 1500s. It even has a hidden cavity inside—possibly used for storing secret items, or even hiding!
Look out for: The pyramidal roof and rounded turret. It’s easy to miss!
Stop 2: The Site of the Old Girth Cross
Just a short walk west is a circle of cobblestones, easy to step right over unless you know its dark history…
📍 Location: Where Canongate meets Abbeyhill, near the roundabout.
Fun Fact: This was the site of the Girth Cross—once part of the greatest sanctuary in Scotland. People could flee here to avoid arrest. But it was also where executions were held, including that of Lady Warriston in 1600, who was executed by guillotine for plotting to kill her abusive husband.
Clue: Can you spot the cobblestone circle? Imagine the crowds gathered here hundreds of years ago.
Stop 3: White Horse Close
Tucked down a quiet lane off the Canongate, this is one of Edinburgh’s most photogenic little spots.
📍 How to find it: Look for the sign for White Horse Close on the left-hand side of the Canongate.
Fun Fact: These mossy, witchy-looking cottages with their pointy roofs and stone staircases look straight out of a fairy tale. It’s also where William Dick, the founder of Edinburgh’s veterinary college, once lived—look for the plaque!
Clue: Find the plaque for William Dick—what was the year of his birth?
Stop 4: Canongate Poppy Gates
📍 As you head uphill, look out for these intricate gates that mark the entrance to Panmure Close.
Fun Fact: Panmure House, is where the Jacobite Earl of Panmure had his town house and later the Countess of Aberdeen occupied the house before Adam Smith lived and died here from 1772 till 1790. Adam Smith is buried in the Canongate Kirk Graveyard and his statue is in the High Street near to St Giles Cathedral. The poppies on the gates were to show that this was the access to the Lady Haig Poppy factory between 1931– 1965.
Clue: How many poppies can you count on the gate?
Stop 5: Dunbar’s Close Garden
Time for a breather in a real hidden gem. Blink and you’ll miss this one!
📍 Location: Left-hand side of Canongate. Watch for a small sign.
Fun Fact: This secret garden is a peaceful oasis of yew trees and knot gardens, designed to reflect a 17th-century layout. It’s one of the best-kept secrets on the Royal Mile—and perfect for a snack stop.
Clue: Look for a plaque on the wall mentioning “The Mushroom Trust.” What is this magical sounding society do?
🪜 Stop 6: Chessel’s Court – Scene of a Secret Heist
📍 Tucked off the Canongate through a (admittedly fairly ugly archway) situated between Canons’ Gait Pub and The Black Grape.
🕵️♂️ Fun Fact: This peaceful courtyard once witnessed the final heist of Deacon Brodie—a cabinetmaker by day, burglar by night. Brodie used his job to copy keys and sneak into homes… until his luck ran out here in 1788. We’ll see his Tavern towards the top of the mile!
🔎 Clue: Step into the courtyard and find the arched stone doorway—can you spot anything that looks original?
👀 Don’t miss: The contrast between the calm, elegant courtyard and the criminal past it hides!
Stop 7: The World’s End & The Canongate Wall
📍 Just past John Knox House, look out for the World’s End Pub.
Fun Fact: See the metal studs in the cobbles outside the pub? This was the World’s End, the old boundary of Edinburgh. Poorer citizens couldn’t afford to leave the city, so for them, this was literally the edge of the world.
Clue: Can you spot the line of studs in the ground? How many can you count?
Stop 8: Paisley Close
📍 Opposite The Nutcracker Christmas shop that will likely draw your attention! Look at the statue above the entrance to Paisley Close.
Fun Fact: The story behind this statue is from 1861. A 7 story building collapsed in this Close which killed 35 people. The words inscribed on the statue were heard from the rubble and 12 year old Joseph McIvor was pulled out alive. Arguably, he wouldn’t have said ‘chaps’ – as it’s very English and this is a more recent statue. The tragedy led to the 1867 city improvement act though – silver lining!
Stop 9: City Chambers Courtyard – Walk with Legends
📍 Just off the Royal Mile, next to the entrance of the City Chambers.
Fun Fact: Look down! You’ll see bronze handprints in the pavement. These belong to people who’ve won the Edinburgh Award—including J.K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter.
Clue: Can you find her handprint and compare it to yours?
👀 Also spotted: Ian Rankin, Sir Chris Hoy, and more local legends.
Stop 10: The Heart of Midlothian – Spit for Luck?
📍 Right outside St Giles’ Cathedral on the pavement.
Fun Fact: This heart-shaped mosaic marks the entrance to the Old Tolbooth Prison, once a grim place of trials and executions. People used to spit here in protest at the injustice… and some still do today, for luck.
Clue: Can you find the heart? Would you dare to join in the tradition?
Stop 11: St Giles’ Cathedral & The Thistle Chapel
📍 Right in the heart of the Royal Mile – it’s hard to miss!
⛪ Fun Fact: Step inside St Giles’ Cathedral and find the Thistle Chapel, a hidden gem filled with carved angels, crests, swords, and unicorns! It’s home to Scotland’s Order of the Thistle—sort of like knights with fancy robes and even fancier chairs.
🔎 Clue: How many unicorns can you spot in the Thistle Chapel? (Hint: look up!)
💡 Tip: Entry is free, though donations are welcome.
😈 Stop 12: William “Deacon” Brodie – Double Lives & Dark Secrets
📍 Look out for Deacon Brodie’s Tavern—you can’t miss the sign!
Fun Fact: We visited the scene of one of Brodie’s crimes earlier. But did you know – Brodie lived a double life—cabinetmaker by day, criminal by night. He inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. His crimes eventually caught up with him, and in a poetic twist, he was hanged on a gallows he helped design.
Clue: The sign shows two faces—smiling and scowling. Which side do you think was real?
Stop 13: Through Lady Stair’s Close
📍 Keep walking up the Mile and take one of the closes on the left just past Deacon Brodie’s. Makar’s Court is home to The Writers’ Museum so perhaps it’s time for a story…
True Tale: One of my kid’s favourite stories is that of Margaret Dickson, or “Half-Hanged Maggie.” In the 1720s, she was sentenced to death for hiding the body of her stillborn baby. After her hanging, she was being driven to her grave… when the driver heard a noise from inside the coffin! There’s another version the driver had actually stopped at a pub but must’ve got quite a fright!
She’d survived—and because she’d legally “served her sentence,” she was allowed to live. She went back to her estranged husband and apparently had several more children.
Stop 14: Back over the road to Riddles Court
📍Beyond the narrow alleyway of Riddell’s Close, you’ll find Riddell’s Court,
👑 Fun fact: In 1593 McMorran hosted a grand banquet here that was attended by King James VI. But just two years later, McMorran met a sticky end. He was caught up in a riot at Edinburgh High School and was shot dead by one the schoolboys. The boys were protesting after being refused a holiday!
🪶Other notable residents of Riddell’s Court include David Hume, who lived here before settling at James Court which is just across the other side of the mile!
Final Stop: The Witches’ Well – A Small Fountain with a Big Story
📍 Just as you step on to the Castle Esplanade, take a hard right and look at the wall behind you.
Grim Fact: More than 300 women were accused of witchcraft in Edinburgh and many were executed right here. The Witches’ Well is a small, easy-to-miss fountain set into the wall, created to remember them.
Clue: Look closely—can you spot the snake and fox hidden in the sculpture? What might they symbolise?
Things to note
The Royal Mile is steep but is possible to navigate with a buggy if you’re up for the hill! Some of the Closes and Wynds aren’t as good for a double buggy and a fair few of the routes off the Mile do involve stairs. I generally opted for a sling or toddler backpack when mine were wee!
There’s SO many places you can stop for a drink or meal along the Mile but there’s only two I really visit as a local – The Edinburgh Larder on Blackfriars Street, or The Milkman on Cockburn Street. For a bigger meal then I’d either opt for Loudon’s which is accessed via Sibbald Walk. Or I’d take visit the original Civerinos in Hunter Square – THE best pizza.
I’ve marked all of these places on Google Maps which you can view here.
