Princes Street Gardens
A drained medieval sewage loch that became Edinburgh's front lawn — with an 1846 railway cutting buried in the valley below your feet.
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The ground here was the Nor Loch, an artificial loch created as part of the city's medieval defences, then left to collect Old Town sewage until it was drained in the 1820s. Thirty-seven and a half acres of park now sit below Edinburgh Castle, split into east and west halves by The Mound. The east section (8.5 acres) runs to Waverley Bridge; the west (29 acres) stretches to Lothian Road.
What to look for
- The Mound dividing the gardens in two, carrying the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy on top
- The 1846 railway cutting along the southern edge — dug by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway company to connect Haymarket to what became Waverley Station
- St. John's and St. Cuthbert's churches marking the far western boundary near Lothian Road
Enter from Princes Street at any point along the south side; the East Gardens sit closest to Waverley Station.
Princes Street Gardens is one of 28 sights worth the detour in Edinburgh, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Edinburgh pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Edinburgh
- Edinburgh CastleAttacked 26 times over 1,100 years — research calls it the most besieged place in Great Britain.
- Holyrood PalaceScotland's working royal residence since the 1500s — the actual rooms where Mary, Queen of Scots lived are open to walk through.
- The National (Scottish National Gallery)Since 1912, two near-identical neoclassical buildings have stood side by side on The Mound — visitors have been walking into the wrong one ever since.
- National Museum of ScotlandDolly the sheep, one of Elton John's extravagant suits, and a Victorian cast-iron hall — all under one free roof on Chambers Street.
- Murrayfield StadiumScotland's largest stadium opened in 1925 with a Grand Slam win — 70,000 people watched it happen.
- St Giles' CathedralA prayer book read here in 1637 caused a riot that sparked a rebellion pulling three kingdoms into war.