49 Fun Facts About Edinburgh

Edinburgh is bounded on its seaward side by which body of water?

The Firth of Forth, the estuary of the River Forth, bounds Edinburgh to the north; the city's port of Leith sits on its southern shore.

Edinburgh's nickname 'Auld Reekie' is Scots for what?

'Auld Reekie' means 'Old Smoky': the nickname came from the pall of coal smoke that hung over the Old Town, visible from across the Forth in Fife.

For its neoclassical New Town and reputation for learning, Edinburgh has been called the 'Athens of' where?

Edinburgh is the 'Athens of the North': Calton Hill's unfinished National Monument, begun in 1826, directly copies the Parthenon, and the Enlightenment gave the city its scholarly fame.

The 'Edin' in Edinburgh derives from Eidyn, a name from which ancient language?

Eidyn is Cumbric, the Brittonic language of the Gododdin who held Lothian; Old English 'burh' later replaced the Brittonic 'din' (fort), and Gaelic keeps the name as Dùn Èideann.

Which king founded the royal burgh of Edinburgh in the early 12th century?

David I, who reigned 1124–53, made Edinburgh a royal burgh; his charter of about 1124–27 grants land in 'burgo meo de Edenesburg' to Dunfermline Priory.

Edinburgh's 17th-century tenements, hemmed in by the town walls, rose to how many storeys?

Hemmed in by the walls, some Old Town tenements reached eleven storeys or more and have been called forerunners of the skyscraper; most were replaced by the Victorian buildings of today's Old Town.

The High Constables of Edinburgh, created by an act of 1611, are thought to be the world's oldest what?

Created by an act of 1611 to keep order in the crowded burgh, the High Constables of Edinburgh are thought to be the world's oldest statutory police force; they survive as a ceremonial body.

The Acts of Union of 1706–07 merged the Scottish and English legislatures into which new body?

The Acts of Union created the Parliament of Great Britain at Westminster from 1 May 1707; the union provoked riots in Edinburgh, and a devolved Scottish Parliament returned only in 1999.

Which Enlightenment thinkers were familiar figures on Edinburgh's streets in the late 18th century?

David Hume and Adam Smith lived and worked in Edinburgh alongside James Hutton and Joseph Black; Smollett's Humphry Clinker (1771) called the city a 'hotbed of genius'.

The New Town's geometric street plan came from a Town Council competition in which year?

The Town Council launched the New Town design competition in 1766; James Craig's winning plan named streets to flatter the Hanoverians — George, Queen, Hanover, Frederick and Princes — with Rose and Thistle for the union.

Princes Street in the New Town was named in honour of whom?

Princes Street honours George III's two sons, the future George IV and Frederick, Duke of York; the council chose loyal Hanoverian names to proclaim allegiance after the Jacobite rising of 1745.

Edinburgh's Old and New Towns were jointly listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in which year?

UNESCO inscribed the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh in 1995; the site takes in Dean Village and Calton Hill, and Edinburgh World Heritage has managed it since 1999.

Which building is regarded as the oldest in Edinburgh, standing inside the castle?

St Margaret's Chapel, built by David I about 1130 in memory of his mother, is the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh; Queen Margaret had died at the castle in 1093.

The castle's One O'Clock Gun has been fired in anger only once, at what target in 1916?

The gun's only shot in anger was at a German Zeppelin during the raid of 2 April 1916; the daily time signal has been fired from an L118 Light Gun on Mills Mount Battery since 2001.

Which giant 15th-century bombard was delivered to Edinburgh Castle in 1457?

Mons Meg, a bombard cast at Mons in 1449, was a gift from Philip the Good of Burgundy to James II in 1457; the castle's first known gun purchase dates from 1384.

In which year was the Stone of Scone returned to Scotland and placed in Edinburgh Castle's Crown Room?

The Stone of Scone returned on 30 November 1996, seven centuries after Edward I took it, and was placed beside the Honours of Scotland in the Crown Room; it moved to Perth Museum in 2024.

Who was permitted in 1818 to search the castle for the Crown of Scotland, lost since 1707?

Walter Scott obtained the Prince Regent's warrant in 1818, had the sealed Crown Room opened and found the Honours of Scotland in a locked chest; they went on show for a shilling a head.

The Royal Mile runs downhill from Edinburgh Castle to which building?

The Royal Mile ends at Holyrood Palace, the Palace of Holyroodhouse; roughly a Scots mile long, it is made up of the Esplanade, Castlehill, the Lawnmarket, the High Street, the Canongate and Abbey Strand.

Arthur's Seat, the peak of Holyrood Park, is the remains of what?

Arthur's Seat is an extinct volcano, active about 340 million years ago in the Carboniferous; Stevenson called it 'a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design'.

How high does Arthur's Seat rise above the city?

Arthur's Seat's summit stands about 250 metres (251 m, 822 ft) above sea level; the easiest ascent is from the east above Dunsapie Loch, and rock climbing on Salisbury Crags was banned in 2019.

The Edinburgh Fringe began in 1947 as what?

Eight uninvited companies turned up alongside the official festival, giving the world the term 'fringe theatre'.

Which principle governs entry to the Fringe?

In 2025 it sold more than 2.6 million tickets across 53,942 performances of 3,893 shows in 301 venues.

The Fringe is described as the world's largest what?

The Fringe is the world's largest performing arts festival; combined with the International Festival it has been called the third-largest ticketed event in the world, after the Olympics and the World Cup.

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is staged each August on what?

The Tattoo is staged on the Castle Esplanade, where massed pipe bands and military bands from around the world perform; it began in 1950 and has been televised worldwide.

The Scott Monument is the world's second-largest memorial to a writer after one honouring whom?

Only the José Martí memorial in Havana's Plaza de la Revolución is larger; the Scott Monument, completed in 1844, has a 61-metre Gothic spire climbed by 287 steps.

What happened to Scott Monument architect George Meikle Kemp before it was finished?

Kemp drowned in the Union Canal after falling in while walking home on a foggy night in March 1844; his son Thomas placed the monument's finial that August.

Greyfriars Bobby, whose statue draws visitors, reputedly spent 14 years doing what?

The Skye Terrier's owner, nightwatchman John Gray, was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard; the Lord Provost paid for the dog's licence in 1867.

Which Edinburgh councillor, respectable by day and burglar by night, inspired Jekyll and Hyde?

Deacon William Brodie, a cabinet-maker and councillor hanged in 1788 for burglary, inspired Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; Burke and Hare, who sold corpses to the anatomist Robert Knox, are the city's other notorious criminals.

Which author moved to Edinburgh in 1993 and wrote much of her first book in the city's coffee shops?

J. K. Rowling moved to Edinburgh in December 1993 and wrote much of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the city's cafés, including Nicolson's; the book was published in 1997.

Which Edinburgh-born actor was the first cinematic James Bond?

Sean Connery, born in Fountainbridge in 1930, first played Bond in Dr. No (1962); Alastair Sim, Ronnie Corbett and Rory Bremner were also born in the city.

Edinburgh's two big football clubs are known locally as Hearts and what?

Hibs is Hibernian, founded in 1875 by Irish immigrants in the Cowgate; Heart of Midlothian dates from 1874, and the two contest the Edinburgh derby.

Murrayfield Stadium, home of Scottish rugby, seats roughly how many, making it Scotland's largest?

Murrayfield holds about 67,000 (67,144), making it the largest stadium in Scotland; it has also hosted rugby league's Magic Weekend, NFL Europe's Scottish Claymores and major concerts.

Edinburgh Trams began operating on 31 May of which year, restoring a service the city had lost in 1956?

Trams returned on 31 May 2014, running from the airport to York Place; the original network had closed in November 1956, and Transport for Edinburgh oversees both the trams and Lothian Buses.

Edinburgh Waverley station is named after what?

Waverley takes its name from Walter Scott's Waverley novels and stands beside the Scott Monument; rebuilt in 1892–1902, it is the terminus for most trains from London King's Cross.

The Forth Bridge, opened in 1890 nine miles west of the city, is what type of bridge?

The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge, designed by John Fowler and Benjamin Baker and opened in 1890; it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015.

Which Spanish architect designed the Scottish Parliament but died before it opened?

Enric Miralles of Barcelona won the design competition in 1998 but died in July 2000, four years before the Queen opened the building in October 2004; he worked with the Edinburgh firm RMJM.

The Scottish Parliament Building's final cost was estimated at roughly what?

The Fraser Inquiry put the final cost at about £414 million, against initial estimates of £10–40 million; the building opened in October 2004, more than three years late.

Which decommissioned vessel is permanently berthed at Ocean Terminal in Leith as a visitor attraction?

It was decommissioned in 1997; Leith's waterfront has been redeveloped from Granton to the docks.

Which famous animal's stuffed body is displayed in the National Museum of Scotland?

Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, was born at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh in 1996; her preserved body has been displayed at the National Museum of Scotland since 2003.

Edinburgh is traditionally said to be built on how many hills?

Edinburgh's seven hills are Calton, Corstorphine, Craiglockhart, Braid, Blackford, Arthur's Seat and the Castle Rock; the Seven Hills of Edinburgh race has linked them every June since 1980.

The persistent coastal fog that easterly winds bring to Edinburgh is called what?

The haar is a cold sea fog that easterly winds push in from the North Sea, most often in spring and early summer; easterlies are drier but much colder than the prevailing westerlies.

Which river flows from the Pentland Hills through Dean Village to the Firth of Forth?

The Water of Leith is Edinburgh's main river, rising in the Pentlands and reaching the Forth at Leith docks; its deep gorge at Dean Village is spanned by Thomas Telford's Dean Bridge of the early 1830s.

The University of Edinburgh, founded as the Tounis College, received its royal charter in which year?

James VI granted the charter in 1582 and the Tounis College opened in 1583; Heriot-Watt, Napier and Queen Margaret later joined it as the city's universities.

Whose New Model Army occupied Edinburgh in 1650?

Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army took Edinburgh after routing the Scots at Dunbar on 3 September 1650; Scotland's proclamation of Charles II as king had provoked the invasion.

Which force briefly occupied Edinburgh in 1745 before marching into England?

Charles Edward Stuart's Jacobite Highland Army entered Edinburgh in September 1745 and held it for six weeks, though the castle never fell; the prince held court at Holyrood before marching into England.

The Palace of Holyroodhouse serves as what?

Edinburgh has been recognised as Scotland's capital since at least the 15th century and hosts the Church of Scotland's General Assembly each year.

Where was the earliest known human habitation in the Edinburgh area, a Mesolithic camp of about 8500 BC?

A Mesolithic camp at Cramond, excavated in 2001 and dated to about 8500 BC, is the earliest known settlement in the Edinburgh area; Bronze and Iron Age traces have also been found on Castle Rock and Arthur's Seat.

Edinburgh Zoo was previously home to two giant pandas named what?

Tian Tian and Yang Guang arrived on loan from China in December 2011 and returned in December 2023; the 82-acre zoo on Corstorphine Hill opened in 1913.

Which naturalist in 1818 called Edinburgh 'a very correct model of a Grecian city'?

Painter Hugh William Williams then exhibited views of Athens beside views of Edinburgh in 1822, and the parallel caught on.